Monday, March 2, 2015

GENIUS HOUR!

Today we participated in Genius Hour Speed Dating! Students were asked to sit in a seat facing another student in order allow them to get one-on-one feedback about their project topic and question.

Students sitting on the outside of the room were the first ones to move around and get feedback on their questions. Students sitting in the seats within the interior stayed seated and provided feedback. They used this worksheet as they rotated.

Thursday/Friday, February 26/27, 2015

Guest Blogger: William Period 3

Today in class our punnet square extra practice (pgs. 25-26) was stamped. After that we did our first vocab quiz of the semester and reviewed as well as corrected pgs. 25-26. Next we completed an index card to make sure we understand punnet squares. Finally we had our break and completed Chromosome Mix-up. :)

Tuesday/Wednesday, February 24-25, 2015

Today we wrapped up GATTACA which we viewed last week in class. We discussed what aspects of the film were true to current science, which were fictitious, as well as cleared up any plot points that confused kids. We also discussed how science is changing, in particular, how parents can now screen for genetic disorders prior to birth using a new technology called PGD.

Next we worked on Activity 61 and Punnett Square Practice. Students who understood after watching the previous night's homework video were allowed to work on their Punnett Square Practice homework individually or in group's, while students who still needed clarification were asked to sit with the teacher for 1 on 1 instruction.

Monday, February 23, 2015

GENIUS HOUR!

First we watched two videos to introduce the idea of a Rube Goldberg Machine.

Next we discussed “What is a Rube Goldberg?” (Answer: A machine that does a simple task in a complicated way. Students are challenged with a task and given a set of materials, they work in groups for approximately 30 minutes.

Many groups succeeded!

Finally, we watched Jimmy Kimmel spot of Purdue 2014 Rube Goldberg Winners as we cleaned up.

Thursday/Friday, February 19/20, 2015

Guest Blogger: William Period 3

Today in class we looked at our seeds that we planted a couple of weeks ago and recorded their data. Then we discussed the national data taken from different schools and recorded that data. Index cards were also passed back. Finally we finished GATTACA and had to write down 6 things that were fact, fiction, or things that you didn't were fact or fiction.

Tuesday/Thursday, February 17/18, 2015

Today in class we finished talking about Gregor Mendel by completing this sheet together in class. We used this time to solidify terms like "genotype", "phenotype", "heterozygous", and "homozygous".

Next we had planned to look at our seeds from Activity 55 when we planted Nicotiana from two green parent plants. Unfortunately, the long four day weekend dried them out so we used Mr. Faist's data instead. (Fingers crossed that our seeds will sprout by the end of the week!). We collected the class data and realized that we got the same 3:1 ratio of dominant to recessive that Mendel got when he did similar experiments.

Finally, we started watching GATTACA. We set up our listening guide to record factual and fictional ways science is portrayed in the film, and we will discuss these in class next session after we watch the entire movie.

Wednesday/Thursday, February 11/12, 2015

Guest Blogger: William, Period 3

Today in class we discussed our data and results from the activity Gene Combo. We discussed how for every 3 blue tailed offspring from Ocean and Lucy there was one orange tailed offspring. In this activity we used T and t to figure out which offspring got which colored tail and this is not allowed. In order to talk scientifically in this subject we have to use the word homozygous dominant/recessive and heterozygous dominant/recessive. Mrs. McCabe will no longer except the letters T and t to speak about this activity. 

We also talked about how genes replicate themselves when a new cell is being formed. 

Finally we learned about Gregor Mendel and how he used pea plants to learn about how genes are passed down from parent to child.

Here is a link of an amoeba in motion captured by myself.

http://youtu.be/JksVI8PREtg