The first bunch of documents!

Here's where you can find copies of the first week handouts.

Here are the Key Questions for Block I.

Here is the Week I Syllabus.

Here's the explanation of the grading system.

Here are the grading rubrics for the first two assignments

Welcome Back, Me (and you)

Greetings, oh students! (And parents!)

The new year is almost upon us, and so I'm blowing the dust of this blog, clearing out the cobwebs, and shooing away the summer spiders. Please, 8th graders, do your best to let your 7th-grade friends, associates, and mentees know about the existence of this blog, since, just like last year, I'll be posting links to notes and info up here.

Rather than have this come incompletely through the grapevine, I thought I'd go ahead and let you know some very sad personal news from me. My father, Edward Twining, died very suddenly and unexpectedly this summer. I've spent most of the summer in Denver, trying to be as much of a comfort and help to my mom as I can. I'm doing OK, but this is obviously a very hard thing to go through; I loved my dad a lot, and we kept in close touch. So I may get a little weepy from time to time this fall.

I am very much looking forward to seeing all of you people, though; you are, as I have had opportunity to say to a lot of friends this summer, an amazing bunch of students, and I mean that in a good way. Just being around you-all is going to cheer me up. Especially if you do your homework ;)

See you soon!

--Matthew

Completely Frivolous Post

Some former students have posted a dramatized documentary about what I do in my spare time.

Block VI project

Block VI project information.

Some sources:

A good site on animal feed. (Not unbiased, but basically accurate.)

An interesting article on some of the ingredients in cattle feed.

Good information from Consumer Reports.

W35D2 Notes are here.

Click here for Tuesday's notes.

Parasitic goodness!

Great article about behavior-controlling parasites, including some familiar faces and some amazing new ones, in Mental Floss.

Read 'n' enjoy. Would make some good quiz. questions, wouldn't it?

(There's also this photo-essay from Discover, on the same topic.)

W35

W35 Syllabus, with rubric for the final poster.

Notes from Monday.

Portfolio peer checklist

Portfolio peer checklist is here.

W34 Stuff

Week 34 Syllabus

Monday's notes.

Assignment X: Evolution articles

Directions for Assignment X, plus grading rubric, in case you lose your copy.

If you're still confused

By some of the main ideas so far this block, this may be of help; it's a very nice pamphlet discussing some of the major issues. A big download, but worth it.

W33 Syllabus. Includes directions for assignment W.

Links for assignment W:

Natural selection.

Survival of the sneakiest.

Notes for W32D5

Friday's notes. Enjoy. Don't forget to check the speaker's notes!

The online natural selection blog.

Directions here.

Simulation website here.

Lab "U"

The bead lab is here.

W32 Stuff

Notes for W32D1 - Darwin and Wallace.

Syllabus and grading rubrics for W32.

By popular demand

A quick way to get to the links for assignment R.

A good place to get started for the land biomes.

Other sites:

For the deep ocean - read down a bit for adaptations.

Good info for coral reef organisms.

How oysters survive in the changing conditions in estuaries. (Also look at the general estuaries page)

More good coral reef info.

But wait, there's more!

Here's a copy of Assignment R.

And here's the biome info sheet - remember you'll need one for each biome (you can also just write this info on note paper; just be sure to include everything from this sheet.)

And here's a blank world map to put the biomes on.

Welcome to Block VI!

Monday's notes can be found here. (Don't forget to read the "speaker's notes!")

Syllabus for this week can be found here.

Checklist for Science portfolio.

If you didn't get a copy of the Science portfolio checklist, you can pick one up from my desk tomorrow (Tuesday). If you can't wait to get started organizing your work, you can also get it here. Enjoy.

I'll be checking portfolios through Thursday, and possibly Friday morning, but the sooner you can get your portfolio to me the better.

Peer Review

Here's what we're going to be doing with the rough drafts on Friday (4/3). If you're out tomorrow, please do this at home, using a parent or sibling as the "reviewer." It should make your finished product that much better.

Stuff for W29

W29 Syllabus

Assignment P, including the checklist for evaluating web pages.

Rubric for Assignment Q, the genetics articles summary.

A bunch of good places to look for genetics news articles

Greetings!

As you know, on Tuesday, you'll be turning in Assignment O, where you pick a topic having to do with genes, genetics, DNA, genetic engineering, genetic research, genomes, genomics etc. (Hey look! I just gave you a good list of search terms!). For assignment O, you'll turn in an explanation of the topic, why you think it's interesting, and citations for two news articles about that topic. (You'll be finding even more articles on the topic next week.)

To help you find articles, here are some good places to look:

• Search Google News or Yahoo News for any of the search terms above
• Science News, the weekly science magazine.
• Articles collected by the NPR science news show Science Friday.
• Biology news from Scientific American.
• Science Daily.
• Science stories from the New York Times. (Try the "browse topics" menu on the right - the "genetic engineering" topic has lots of good stuff!)
• Articles from the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

This week's stuff

Syllabus for this week.

Assignment N.

Notes for Monday - Protein synthesis.

A good animation showing protein synthesis

Here's a good video of protein synthesis. Make sure you listen to the narration.

Another one, with more realistic molecule shapes and showing the process in real time, can be seen here.

If you lost this week's syllabus, here's a copy.

The extra credit song...

...is called "That Spells DNA" by Jonathan Coulton and you can stream it for free (and it looks like you can download it for free, at least for now on his home page. Just look for DNA on the page.

Look ye here for notes

W27D2 notes, reprising yesterday's research. Enjoy, and don't forget to check the speaker notes for extra info.

Web Pages to Use for W27D1

Overview of Avery's work and the Hershey-Chase experiment.

Good quick overview of the discovery of the structure of DNA.

Another overview of the same material.

Info on Miescher.

A biography of Rosalind Franklin.

If you look at Dec. 11 and 12th in this blog, you'll find a nice overview of Chargaff's discoveries.

An extremely detailed online timeline can be found here.

And, last but not least, a summary timeline from PBS. This is a good one to look at if you're confused!

Meiosis handout

Can be found here.

Possible help for the cartoon?

Fun, at any rate:

Tuesday's notes

W26D2 notes on the stages of mitosis are available here.

Mitosis movies!

No, not movies of the digits at the end of my feet - movies of cell division. All of them are speeded up: mitosis takes many minutes.

This one shows the spindle (green) that pulls the chromosomes (red) apart.

The fifth movie on this page is a movie showing multiple cells undergoing mitosis as a sea urchin embryo grows. The spindles show up as white.

Rat kidney cells undergoing mitosis are visible if you look for the heading "Chromosomes and the spindle" on this page, and then open the movie.

ANIMATIONS

A good animation of mitosis, with explanations, is here.

Here's a nice 3D animation, with a "zoom in" to the nucleus at the start (and ridiculous music).

A simplified, step-by-step animation (with a quiz afterwords) can be found here. Great if you're having trouble following the other animations.

W26 Syllabus and D1 assignment.

Welcome to Week 26.

The syllabus for this week is here, and the graphic organizer for today is here.

W25D5 Notes

Notes are here.

Punnet Square Worksheet

Punnet Square Worksheet available here.

A good site to explore

The University of Utah has a great site to reinforce your genetics learning. If you were confused by the lessons today or yesterday, you should check out the first two presentations on this page.

W25 Notes

Notes from the first two days of this week are to be found here. Enjoy.

Due date change

Also sent out via snapgrades:

Greetings. In order to stay consistent with the handout, I'm changing the date of the cell analogy assignment from tomorrow (Friday) to Monday. Cell analogies - complete, and typed, are due at the start of the day on Monday, W24D1. Let me know if you have any questions. Thanks!

W23 and W24

Only two assignments to focus on this week (syllabus for the week is here.)

The Cell Analogy (Assignment "Archibald") is due at the end of the day Friday. Students will have all day Thursday and Friday to work on their analogies and get help from me.

The directions for assignment Archibald were passed out to students, and are also available here.

The cell model, assignment B, is due at the end of next week. Students will work on this assignment in class next week, and should have all the materials they need to work on the model by Monday. Directions for this assignment are here. (Students also have this as a handout.)

For W22D4 - in-class Webquest.

To start with: use this web page to learn about cell membranes and answer the questions on your handout. I'll be coming around to help you out.

(Notice that there's some good basic information about other organelles on this page.)

After you've answered the questions on the handout, watch the animation that I'll show you. (It's from this web page.) Take notes, and be prepared to answer: what is endocytosis? What is exocytosis?

Another good site, if you're having trouble visualizing the membrane. Click through the animations!

Good animations of protein transport through a membrane can be found on this page.

After that, you can start researching - and taking notes - on what the different cell organelles do.

Some sites to try include this one from the University of Cincinnati 

This site (which has some good analogies to get you thinking) from a junior high in Utah. (Notice how I'm linking to sites that are from schools and universities? This is a good way to find reliable information - though it's not foolproof.)

There's an interactive animation of a cell here with some good explanations.

Using these sites, write out your own explanation of what each organelle's function in the cell is. Then, talk to me about what kinds of analogies might work for your analogy project.

Notes for W22D3 are here.

Information for the Cell Analogy project is here.

Petunia

Information for Imaginary Animal Final Project.

Assignment Q

The pig dissection guide, if you want a sneak preview of Monday and Tuesday's activity.

Today's notes

Today's notes on reproductive systems.

Group presentation notes

I've only received three groups' notes so far (see below). 

I need the remaining three ASAP!

The brain.

Another brain.

Kidneys.

Liver 1 should be available here.

Study Guide for Test

Study Guide for W21D1 Science Test - Open-Note Test

Be able to:

• Explain and define diffusion and osmosis.
  
• Explain which animal phyla can get oxygen to their cells using only diffusion/osmosis and why.
  
• List the major phyla of animals, and be able to give two examples of animals (common names OK) from: annelids, mollusks, arthropods, and chordates. 
  
• Know which of the following animals have a hydrostatic, external, or internal body skeleton: arthropoda, cnidarians, platyhelminthes, nematoda, annelida, chordata, and mollusca.
  
• Define each type of skeleton above, and explain the advantages and disadvantages of each.
  
• Be able to explain the primary differences between the digestive systems of cnidarians as opposed to nematodes, chordates, arthropods and annelids.
  
• Explain the different ways that different animal groups get oxygen: focus on the platyhelminths, cnidarians (coelenterates), mollusks, arthropods (remembering that insects have their own, distinctive system - know this system!), and different chordates - fish, amphibians, and mammals. (Know which of these groups have circulatory systems!)
  
• Define nematocysts, and explain their importance to the feeding strategies of cnidarians such as hydra.
• Compare sexual and asexual reproduction, and explain the advantages and disadvantages of each. Explain how and why the hydra uses both systems.
  
• Compare internal and external fertilization, and explain the advantages and disadvantages of each.
  
• Define the amniotic egg and explain its importance.
  
• Explain the special features of mammalian reproduction, and their advantages and disadvantages.
  

• Trace the blood flow through the human body, including the chambers of the heart, in the correct order. 
  
• Label the chambers of the heart correctly on a diagram
  
• Explain the major parts of the human digestive tract in order, giving the primary function or importance of each, from esophagus to rectum.
  
• Label the major parts of the human digestive system on a diagram.
  
• Label the liver, kidneys, brain and spinal cord correctly on diagrams
  
• Label the three major regions of the brain correctly on a diagram, and explain the major function of each
  
• Explain the difference between afferent, efferent, and intraneurons
  
• Explain the difference between the Central Nervous System, the Peripheral Nervous System, and the Autonomic nervous system, and explain the major function of each
  
• Explain some of the most important functions of the liver. 
  
• Define one major disease of the liver, including its causes and treatment.
• Define one major disease of the kidneys, including its causes and treatment.
  
• Define nephrons and explain their importance.
• Explain why urea forms in the body, and how it is removed.
• Explain what a nerve synapse is, and how signals cross a nerve synapse. (For extra credit, how do anti-depressants drugs relate to this?)
• Explain some of the most important functions of the kidneys
  
• Be able to explain the structure of the human respiratory system; define and explain the function/importance of the trachea, bronchi, bronchia, and alveoli.
  

Computer Class Information

UPDATE: Due to illness, computer class will begin next week (W21). Thanks.

I'll also be using this blog to post information for the upcoming computer classes (once a week) for the 7th graders.

Some good starting places that we'll be looking at:

http://www.geekycomputerteacher.com/

http://www.wmms.net/walters/student/computer_skills_vocabulary.htm

W20

Syllabus for W20.

W19 Work links

The syllabus for W19 Science.

"Natasha," group project - research and prepare a computer presentation.

The grading rubric I'll be using for Natasha; use this for reference while you're preparing the project - one copy must be turned in to me by each group on Monday.

(NOTE - Grading rubric changed as of 1:00 p.m. Thursday!)

The revision sheet each group will use to note any changes needed after the teacher review.