This week the students will work on their packets and finish up their teaching unit on animals.  The teaching time will be Monday and Tuesday after the the Thanksgiving holidays.  There will be no time to finish anything up, the students should be ready to go on Monday.

In preparation for the anatomy unit that we will begin, I would like for each student to make a batch of home made play dough and keep it stored for use beginning on Monday December 8.  The students will be making a three dimensional model of an organ of the body.  The models will be about the size of two adult fists.  Again, please make these so that they will be available on December 8.  Recipes for making dough are found on the internet.  I'll post some recipes in the links section.

This week we will continue our study of animals.  There will a lecture with notes, a new packet, and an in class project.  The students will prepare a unit on animals that they will then teach to some of their classmates.  The information for the unit is given on the class documents tab in the lower left of my web page.  If the time frame described proves to be unreasonable, the dates described in the assignment will be modified. 

Monday is a day at the Zoo reviewing classification and looking at animals.  This week we begin our unit on animals.  The students will be doing research on groups of animals and then teaching their classmates.  Finish date will be announced later, but I anticipate that it will be in the first week of December.

This trimester's warmups will be collected and graded this week, probably on Wednesday.  Also, the end of the first trimester is this Friday.  PLEASE check your child's grades on Powerschool.  If you believe that there are errors or problems, this is the week to get them ironed out.

The students need to finish the classification packet, about two pages worth.  It is due November 17.

This week we will begin studying classification (taxonomy).  The students will have a test on Thursday on cells.  Last week I gave them the four questions that will be on the test.  The test is an essay test.  Next week on Monday we visit the zoo.  Warmups will be due sometime next week.

This week we will do two labs and the students will write them up.  Their packets on cells are due on Wednesday, and the projects are due on election day!  We will begin the next unit on Thursday.  Friday is a bit open to see how much time we need to polish up some other odds and ends.  There is a good possibility of a quiz this week.

I have a test over cells scheduled for November 6.  This will be a short essay test with two major questions and a very few objective questions.  The students were given the two questions at the beginning of the unit.

This week the students will choose two labs to do in class on diffusion and osmosis.  They will have a complete write-up that they will need to do.  Thursday they will have the opportunity to work on their packets in class or to work on their write-ups.

The last extra credit for the trimester is on my blog site under the homework tab.  Also check the due dates.  If students wish to correct the tests that were handed back on Friday they need to do so by Friday of this week.  They should write out the complete question and answer for each question they missed for 1/2 credit.

Please note that the date for the projects has been changed to Tuesday, November 4.

This week we begin our study of cells.  Today and tomorrow will be a combination of short lecture, films and discussion.  Most of the rest of the week will spent working with microscopes.  Students will receive their new packets today.  They are due on Wednesday, October 29.  The students also have the following assignment:

Students will do one of the following.  (Due on Friday, October 31)

3-D model of a cell with information about what kind of cell it is, and the various organelles. Cartoons, flip book, or movie of two cell processes.  These would include meiosis, mitosis, respiration, photosynthesis, protein synthesis, active and passive transport, endocytosis, exocytosis and any others that students might find that would fit what we are studying. Please check the links at the bottom right of my blog page.  There are links to cell materials there.  I put them up last week, so they should all work!  I'm working on grading the tests from last week and am a little more than half done. ...

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There are only two days of class this week.  On Monday the second packet is due (genetics).  We will grade it in class and students will be graded on how much of it they did.  On Tuesday there is a cumulative test over safety, characteristics of living things, and genetics.

Next week we will begin the unit on cells.  There will be a packet and a project.  More details will follow on the project, but I am planning on the students doing one of the following.

• 3-D model of a cell with information about what kind of cell it is, and the various organelles.
• Cartoons, flip book, or movie of two cell processes.  These would include meiosis, mitosis, respiration, photosynthesis, protein synthesis, and any others that students might find that would fit what we are studying. 

On Monday we will finish the presentations for the haplogroup reports.  Tuesday the students will give their presentations.  A reminder that the packet on genetics is due on Monday, October 6 and there will be a test on all materials to date the following day.  I hope to see many of you at conferences.

Today we will finish the activity we began on Thursday last week, that is learning how scientists place people into haplogroups based on their mtDNA and their yDNA.  The rest of this week will be spent on developing a presentation around mtDNA or yDNA.  The instructions and links will be on a webpage which will be placed on this blog.  The presentations will be given next week on Monday and Tuesday.  Students will have Tuesday through Friday of this week to work on their presentations.

A reminder that the second packet is due on Monday, October 6.  The first packet has mostly been graded for completeness rather than accuracy.  A key will be placed online in the Homework documents tab on the bottom of my webpage so that students can check the material in the packet for more accuracy.  The first major test will be on Tuesday, October 7.