Back after Some technical difficulties

I have finally fixed the technical difficulties that we have been having with our Blog. My appologies for such a delay!


We are currently in our Vertebrate Unit. We have two major projects running at the same time. We have group projects and individual projects. The protocol for each is listed below. I will add a new entry for our day-to-day assignments after this one.


************Group Project********************

Group Project Grading Components:

Visual Aid (10 Points)
Contains collage (No white spaces) of your vertebrate class
Large Title
Minimum of 10 “WOW” facts
Typed and of high quality
3D Components (optional-but recommended)

Presentation/Activity (Up to 10 Points depending on start value)
Outline complete and on time
All group members participate equally
All required components are present
Is engaging
Is appropriate/pertains to assigned vertebrate class
Shows creativity
Activity must involve all classmates to fully participate.
To earn an “A” starting grade: Activities must show a high level of creativity, professional polish, and could include a wide variety of interactive games.
To earn a “B” starting grade: Activities must show a high level of professional polish and could include activities such as word searches, crossword puzzles, etc.

Peer Rubric (5 Points)
All group members need to work together and hold each other to high standards.
You will have the opportunity to give feedback regarding your participation as a group member
You will have the opportunity to give feedback regarding your group members’ participation as a group member.

Total: 25 Points


******Individual Project************
Vertebrate Portfolio Pages

You will be creating a portfolio page for each of the five vertebrate classes that we will be studying. Each of the pages needs to include the following:

Vertebrate Class Name (Fish, Amphibian, Etc.)
Common Name
Scientific Name (Canis lupis)
Key Characteristics (We provide)
Colored Picture
Physical Description
Habitat/Range (Where it lives/where in the world)
Food Web (What it eats-What eats it)
Sources
Wow’s

Heredity & Genetics

Welcome back after a wonderful Thanksgiving Break!

This week we have been continuing in our studies of genetics and heredity.

Wednesday-Multiple Allele work with blood type and punnett squares, a review sheet will be due for Thurs
Thursday-Karyotyping activity and a bit of notes-shouldn't be any homework
Friday-Genetic Disorders baby lab (Due Mon)
Monday-Share disorders project; short genetics disorders video -mitosis wkst due Tues
Tuesday-Cell division and mitosis (Heredity review due Wed)
Wednesday-Mitosis activity (Meiosis wkst due Thurs)
Thursday-Mendel and Meiosis/Mitosis and Meiosis comparison. Extra Credit is due. (Heredity review pt 2 due for Fri)
Friday Big Heredity/genetics quiz (Can use a 3 X 5 note card) also a binder check today. (Microorganisms worksheet due on Monday)

***We have instituted a new extra credit possibility for all students. Students need to find a current event article (either from the newspaper or online newsource-not a research paper or wikipedia or anything like that...it needs to be a current event). They need to summarize the article, share a personal reaction to the article, share how the article relates to the unit we are studying, and three thought provoking questions related to the article. The students need to attach the article to the sheet and present it the day before the quiz. We will allow this for every unit we have. This is an excellent opportunity for students to polish their grades after a few poor quiz scores.

Labs, labs, labs!

Hello and welcome to the Lab channel...we have quite a few labs this week!

We have just begun our DNA unit. We studied cells, now we will look inside of the nucleus at DNA, genes, and traits. This tends to be a fun unit!

Yesterday we started the unit with a few notes and a video about the human genome.
Today (Tues) we will be participating in a DNA Extraction lab. (Lab will be due on Wed)
Wed. We will complete a DNA Replication lab (Lab will be due on Thurs)
Thursday we will see a video on twins and work on heredity (Heredity wkst due Fri)
Friday and Monday we will continue heredity. There shoulsn't be homework if students use class time those days.
Tues we will be working on a "Baby" lab
Wednesday there will be work time continuing on heredity. There shouldn't be any homework over Thanksgiving Break!!!

Reminder that Wednesday is an early release day and that there is no school on Thursday and Friday. Enjoy all of that turkey!!!

On the Microscope

As mentioned in the previous post, Mr. Drangstveit will be taking paternity leave for all of second quarter. His long-term sub is Mr. Michael Johnson. mr. Johnson has subbed in our district extensively and is extremely knowledgeable and capable. We look forward to working together with him, and also look forward to Mr. Drangstveit's return.

This week we will be starting our microscope unit.
*Monday will be correcting a worksheet, working with total magnification, and participating in a microscope lab. (lab questions and animal cell worksheet will be due Tues)
*Tuesday-Animal cell notes and Cell lab (Cell factory wkst due Wed)
*Wednesday-Check the cell factory, intro cell project, intro incredible egg lab (project due Friday, Plant Cell wkst due Thurs)
*Thursday- Plant cell notes, plant cell microscope lab (lab questions and project due Friday)
*Friday-End of quarter. Animal Cells due, lab due, part two of egg lab, and concept map. (no homework)

This brings us to the end of the quarter.

Monday-Egg lab part 3, flow chart of movement of substances in and out of a cell
Tuesday-Review for quiz
Wednesday-Final part of the egg lab-finish questions of lab, take quiz.
Thursday-WKCE testing-No class
Friday-PTC-No School

Parent Teacher Conferences

Tonight the portal will open at 7:00 pm to sign up for parent-teacher conferences. For those of you that have Mr. Drangstveit for a teacher, he will be on paternity leave beginning on Monday and will be doing conferences in the Spring. Mrs. Blackmore will be available for conferences. Since this is a team-taught class we are trying to combine schedules and ask that if it is at all possible to choose a conference in General Biology on Thursday evening rather than Friday during the day. Mrs. Veroeven will be in meetings most of Friday and would like to participate in General Biology conferences. Hope to see you Thursday night!

Copy/Paste

We are in the process of grading the Endangered Species projects that we finished last week and they are research papers which are taking a bit of time to grade. We did have a group of papers that were plagiarized. We wanted to give you a heads up that if you notice a tage next to your child's grade that says "cheated"-that means that they plagiarized their paper. We are giving those students the ability to redo their paper for partial credit. We also attached the sources to the students' papers so there is no question about the copy and paste method used!

Wise Use of Resources Continued

We completed day two of our pollution lab (water) yesterday and had time to complete our lab write ups which will be due today. We will be watching a pollution video (with Matt Damon-can it get better than that? hehe) in class today. Wednesday we will be in the computer lab computing our ecological footprints and completing a review for our quiz which will be on Thursday. After the quiz students have a worksheet that will be due on Friday that they can work on. Our next unit will be Geologic time/History of Life.

That is this week in a nutshell. have a great week and enjoy the beautiful Autumn colors!!!