I can't believe that we are one week away from winter break! I hope that everyone is excited about a chance to relax and celebrate the holidays!
We have been continuing watching the demo of the day as a celebration of Fremd's 50th birthday. You can find links to all of the videos here:
http://www.fhs.d211.org/events/fhs50/science_videos/
12.5: Today we wrapped up our discussion of cellular respiration. We also took a look at what happens when the body runs low on oxygen and undergoes lactic acid fermentation - which causes the burning sensation in your muscles. We experimented with this by having a contest to see who could open and close a clothespin the most in the course of a minute...and then I added extra time on. All of the students were able to feel the burn and now then we discussed the biology of that was going on!
12.6: Today we took a little bit of time to review all of the material. Photosynthesis and Cellular Respiration are complicated processes but I think processes and cycles are great tools to be able to understand. Even though the students may never utilize the photosynthesis or cellular respiration process in their adult lives, they will at some point in time talk about a process or a cycle and I think that some of the concepts or the step by step process that we discuss will help in the future. We started the cell energy question today by taking the first ten questions.
12.7: We went over any other question that the students had about cell energy and then finished the rest of the quest. With the small amount of time that we had remaining, we started to brainstorm what we already knew about DNA which is what we are going to be discussing in this current unit.
12.8: Today we talked about the cell energy test and went over how the students had done on the mitosis quest. Then we stated to discuss the structure of DNA. The homework tonight was to draw a picture of DNA.
12.9: We finished up our discussion of DNA and then filled out a power note sheet that helped us to transform the information that we had just learned. Then we jumped right into DNA replication. The homework tonight is going to be to finish the power notes on DNA replication and to double check that they have labelled all of the parts of the DNA molecule that they drew. Below is a youtube clip that goes through a lot of the information that we have covered in the last two days of class.
We have been continuing watching the demo of the day as a celebration of Fremd's 50th birthday. You can find links to all of the videos here:
http://www.fhs.d211.org/events/fhs50/science_videos/
12.5: Today we wrapped up our discussion of cellular respiration. We also took a look at what happens when the body runs low on oxygen and undergoes lactic acid fermentation - which causes the burning sensation in your muscles. We experimented with this by having a contest to see who could open and close a clothespin the most in the course of a minute...and then I added extra time on. All of the students were able to feel the burn and now then we discussed the biology of that was going on!
12.6: Today we took a little bit of time to review all of the material. Photosynthesis and Cellular Respiration are complicated processes but I think processes and cycles are great tools to be able to understand. Even though the students may never utilize the photosynthesis or cellular respiration process in their adult lives, they will at some point in time talk about a process or a cycle and I think that some of the concepts or the step by step process that we discuss will help in the future. We started the cell energy question today by taking the first ten questions.
12.7: We went over any other question that the students had about cell energy and then finished the rest of the quest. With the small amount of time that we had remaining, we started to brainstorm what we already knew about DNA which is what we are going to be discussing in this current unit.
12.8: Today we talked about the cell energy test and went over how the students had done on the mitosis quest. Then we stated to discuss the structure of DNA. The homework tonight was to draw a picture of DNA.
12.9: We finished up our discussion of DNA and then filled out a power note sheet that helped us to transform the information that we had just learned. Then we jumped right into DNA replication. The homework tonight is going to be to finish the power notes on DNA replication and to double check that they have labelled all of the parts of the DNA molecule that they drew. Below is a youtube clip that goes through a lot of the information that we have covered in the last two days of class.
12.12: Today we are going to replicate the DNA strand that we drew. We will identify the helicase and the DNA polymerase. We will also make sure that we end up with identical strands of DNA. Then we will start our discussion of DNA vs RNA. RNA is a more simplistic type of genetic material and it is very important for the way in which our bodies get the message that is written in the DNA. We will talk about differences and similarities. Then the students will create a venn diagram with the information. THe homework tonight will be to work on some review pages.
12.13: We will go over the review pages that the students did for homework and then we will take a quiz that will cover DNA structure, DNA replication and DNA vs RNA. After the quiz we will begin a discussion on transcription which is the process used to make RNA from the template of DNA. As I explained to the students my main goal for this week is to get through a lot of information in this unit now before break so that they have their notes and can start taking a look at the finals review packet over break. I also want to get through bunch of the information before break so that we are able to spend some time after break reviewing the information before we take the unit test.
12:14: Today we will finish the information about transcription. We will then transform our notes into a picture. Once we have had a chance to do that, we are going to take the product of transcription (mRNA) and use that to make a protein in translation. We will start our notes on translation today and spend some time dealing with some new vocabulary.
12.15: We will finish up our notes on translation today and turn the notes into a picture. We will practice identifying parts of the process and practice using a codon chart.
12.16: On this the day before break, we will do some type of people activity where we simulate going from DNA all of the way to making a protein. With any additional time we will make sure that the students have the materials they need to start preparing for finals and perhaps watch a little bit of the LIFE series that aired on the Discovery Channel two years ago! http://dsc.discovery.com/tv/life/ I highly recommend checking this website out if you never saw the episodes when they aired! :)
12.13: We will go over the review pages that the students did for homework and then we will take a quiz that will cover DNA structure, DNA replication and DNA vs RNA. After the quiz we will begin a discussion on transcription which is the process used to make RNA from the template of DNA. As I explained to the students my main goal for this week is to get through a lot of information in this unit now before break so that they have their notes and can start taking a look at the finals review packet over break. I also want to get through bunch of the information before break so that we are able to spend some time after break reviewing the information before we take the unit test.
12:14: Today we will finish the information about transcription. We will then transform our notes into a picture. Once we have had a chance to do that, we are going to take the product of transcription (mRNA) and use that to make a protein in translation. We will start our notes on translation today and spend some time dealing with some new vocabulary.
12.15: We will finish up our notes on translation today and turn the notes into a picture. We will practice identifying parts of the process and practice using a codon chart.
12.16: On this the day before break, we will do some type of people activity where we simulate going from DNA all of the way to making a protein. With any additional time we will make sure that the students have the materials they need to start preparing for finals and perhaps watch a little bit of the LIFE series that aired on the Discovery Channel two years ago! http://dsc.discovery.com/tv/life/ I highly recommend checking this website out if you never saw the episodes when they aired! :)