Last Week of Quarter 1

Today I handed back the quiz from Friday.  We completed the Community Tries To Shrink Its Footprint reading activity started on Friday and set up for our Soil Lab tomorrow.

Students used the binder on their tables to prepare the lab as follows:

QOTD- Warm Ups Week Oct 6th

Here are the warm ups from this week, in case you missed one:

QOTD Week Oct 6th

Gathering Evidence

Today after our quiz, we individually read an article on Carbon Footprints found here:NY Times Article

Student then used the gathering evidence sheet:   Gathering Evidence B to come up with two conclusions from the article and two examples for each conclusion.  We did the first conclusion together as a class based on the TITLE of the article.  Students read the article and filled in the two examples.

Each student should have the top half of this sheet done TODAY.  If they didnt finish this in class they were to complete this portion at home for homework.  They will have only ten minutes to complete the bottom half on Monday morning.

REMINDER End of 1st Quarter is FRIDAY.
Warm Up Notebooks will be collected and graded Tuesday!!!   Lab notebooks will be collected and graded Friday!!!

Blogger Continued

Today we continued to work on our blog.  Here is a list of the MINIMUM requirements:

• Your name with wcths
• Description about blog
• About me with photo
• Gaget:  Follow by email link
• Four pages:   Math science English social studies
• Contact you (school email)
• First blog thanking people for reading your blog
• Attributes edited with Name of Country and Year

We will add pictures of the capital city this week as well

Blogger

Today we began the steps in creating a educational blog that will be used throughout the year in English, Science, Social Studies, and Math.  Students used the laptops they are assigned, logged in to Google using the same username with @cincinnatips.org and password.  From the apps on the top right hand side of the page student open up the Blogger site.  Here students created a Blogger named after themselves with WCTHS afterwards and choose a template.

Tomorrow we will add the pages for each subject, the about me section and learn how to take and upload their pictures.

Later this week they will upload their history and math assignments to those pages.

If youd like a tutorial on how to create a Blog  here are a couple of videos:
Tutorial- How to create a Google Blogger
How to create a blog using Google Blogger
Blogger How To

Students will create a blog, upload pictures (math), upload a video (science), upload a written prezi  link (English), and upload a Google docs document (social studies)

Today we completed the Wetlands Fire Ecology activity.  Those who finished earlier then others were given the opportunity to work on their homework as several students stated they did not have the supplies.  Colored pencils were on your supply list and Kroger gave out packages of colored pencils and/or markers the first two days of school!!  You will need these supplies later in the year as well.

Homework due Tomorrow (except bell 1 due Friday)

Abiotic Sampling Outside and HOMEWORK

Today we spent the bell outside on campus collecting abiotic samples for analysis Monday and Tuesday.    Students did a phenomenal job listening to instructions and taking samples.  In each class the best group received arm bands to wear jeans tomorrow in school!   Congrats to each of those groups.
Here are some pictures:

 The homework due Wed 10/8 was handed out today (except bell 1 they will receive it tomorrow)  Be sure to answer the questions at the front AS WELL AS coloring the pictures inside as instructed.
The link is here:
Homework Water, Carbon, and nitrogen cycle

Busy Wed

Today was a busy busy day.  We first went over our lab for tomorrow as  it will be outside collecting abiotic samples for analyzing Friday/Monday.  This includes taking a soil sample.  Students were reminded to wear sensible shoes to walk around in outside.

We then discussed ecological succession.  Student should have completed the definition yesterday in the Ecology Unit book:

We then drew the ecological succession in four phases (an example is on  page 94).

We then started our Wetland Fire Ecology activity by writing it in our table of contents and on a new page writing the title, writing a hypothesis, and gluing our data tables on the next page.  The rest we will finish on Friday

Relationships/Interactions

Today I handed back the graded lab notebooks turned in on Friday.  I asked everyone who did not turn it in on Friday to please turn it in today (especially those who had to leave early for the game)
Today we completed the work from yesterday and added the work to our Ecology Unit Book in our lab notebooks as below:

     Read Ch 4-2 p 90-97

     Answer Key Concepts p 90

     Define Vocabulary p 90

     Answer Section Assessment p 97 #1-3, 5

     Use these answers to fill in Relationships/Interactions

and Define Ecological Succession pages

in Ecology Unit Book

I highly recommend if you did not get this completed in the last TWO days (you have plenty of time) you need to sign out a textbook.  The work not turned in today will also be considered late!)

Nitrogen and Carbon Cycles

Today we took  quiz 5 on Levels of a Organization and Trophic levels.

We also wrote the Nitrogen Cycle and Carbon Cycle into our ECOLOGY UNIT book AND answered the interpreting graphic question for each.  Pictures are below.

I collected the lab journal to grade: characteristic of living things, Levels of Organization, Trophic level notes, owl dissection lab,

If you missed any of the Warm Ups for the week Click Here: QOTD week Sept 22nd

Dissection

Today to help reinforce how the removal of a secondary or tertiary consumer can impact the balance of an entire ecosystem we dissected owl pellets.  The lab follow up is found: Owl Pellet Lab extras

Below is a picture of the lab.  Students put in their lab notebook:  Title, purpose (1-4) summarized the procedure (1-8) wrote the chart, and Safety equipment needed (PPE's)  I have uploaded some of the pictures below.  We will continue this lab tomorrow.

I also asked some students to bring in water samples from a moving water source by their home.  Mason jars were sent home to collect the samples in our water pollution lab coming up next week.

Prey Or Starvation

Today we talked about balance in an ecosystem regarding predator and prey.  We did a graphing activity regarding this delicate balance using real data from a study in Minnesota a few years ago.
Click on the link for access to the lab. Deer: Prey or Starvation

We also set up our lab for tomorrow for further discussion of the balance in nature with
Title,
Purpose
Procedure
Chart
Safety   The lab will be uploaded tomorrow as we perform the dissection.

Good Morning,
Today we went over the quiz from Friday and took some review notes on Trophic Levels.

We then discussed the vocabulary associated with trophic levels by highlighting prefix and suffixes.

Lastly we began work on Food Web with labeling with Food Web Artic due for homework on Wed Sept 24th.

Classwork:  Food Web Scenerio

Homework: Food Web Scenario-Artic

QOTD

In case you missed a day this week here are the QOTD

QOTD Week Sept 15th

Energy of Ecosystems

Today we got into pairs and reviewed food webs from middle school.  We will take this a step further in creating food pyramids and energy transformation and loss at each tropic level.  Each set of partners was given a different ecosystem and set of organism cards to create a food web today.

The links here are for each of the ecosystems.  Only one is needed per partners.

African Grasslands

Antartic

Forest

Food Web Construction and Manipulation

Purpose

To construct an accurate food web and discuss the implications of species extinction in the web.

Materials

One set of cards per group

Butcher paper to glue cards onto

Glue sticks

Scissors

Marker

Pen/pencil

Procedure

1. Cut out each of the squares representing the animals in the food web.
2. Arrange the cards into a logical food web, being sure to draw the arrows in the appropriate direction showing energy flow.
3. Show your web to me. I will kill off one of the species in your web with the introduction of a parasite.

Parasites

1. On a separate sheet of paper, discuss the impacts of the extinction of this species. How will their death impact the animals who feed on them? How will it affect the species who were preyed upon by them? How might the parasite affect the ecosystem in twenty years? Fifty years?
2. Turn in your web and paragraphs.

Levels of Organization

We completed cutting out our circles and creating our levels of organization using organisms found in the biome chosen by individual students.

We used the levels of organization as seen here to label each level of the circles.  Starting from the smallest to the largest:  Individual, Population, Community, Ecosystem, Biome, Biosphere.

Emphasizing Bio means life and Eco means environment using our Bio prefix/suffix page.

 To refresh your memory of each biome:

We then drew organisms from our selected biome at each of the levels of organization.  At the end taping this in our Ecology Unit on the Levels of Organization page.

Tuesday Sept 16th

Good Morning,

Today we continued our review of the Characteristics of Life with watching short videos and filling in chart on which characteristics were observed.   The document have a hyperlink to each video for each of use.

Characteristics of Life

We then folded and stapled our Ecology review book into our notebook.  The link is here for you to print out and use if you misplace yours.

Ecology Unit     This should be updated in your Table of Contents as well.

DNA Coloring

Wed and Thursday this week we completed a DNA coloring sheet and questions in class that are to be taped in their science notebook.  This should be completed BEFORE school on Monday.
DNA coloring Sheet with questions

Monday Sept 15

Today we started our Science Fiction unit discussing living vs. non living things.  We watched a short video clip  Short Video Clip and filled in a triangle as seen here:

We then discussed whether or not these were alive:    Why or why not.

We then cut and glued the characteristic of living things chart in our notebook and filled in the answers as a class.   To print out your own see the link below
Characteristics of Living Things Chart

Those words highlighted in blue needs to be highlighted in your Bio prefix and suffix chart.  An example is attached

Out for the count

Sorry class.  I has a severe allergic reaction to something on Sunday and Monday which became what you see here.   I hope you got lots of practice with the homework assigned Monday.    The assignments out of the book will help you with our next next unit  I can't wait to see you all Monday as in 12 years I've only ever called in sick twice.  

Science Lab TOD

This is a quick snapshot of the labs that are in your Table of Contents (TOC) so far.

Today we set up the density lab with TOC,  Title, purpose, procedure #1-6, and chart

Reading Data Tables

In Class activity:
Reading Data Tables

Liquid Density lab

We have our activity to go over proper measure and safety techniques.  In your notebook you should have TOC, title, purpose, procedure, safety, data chart, graph, conclusion and questions.

Here is a link to the lab
liquid density lab

QOTD week of September 2nd

Here is a link of the warm ups just in case your missed them

Warm Ups week Sept 2nd

Heads or Tails

Today we started our new lab Heads or Tails.  This should also be labled in your TOC (table of contents.  In your notebook please have your Title, Purpose, Hypothesis, data, bar graph, conclusion, and questions.  This should be competed by Friday September 5th for bells 1, 4,and 5 and on Monday for bells 2 and 6.

Here is a link to the lab for your convenience.
Heads or Tails lab

Science warms up (QOTD) the week of August 25th

Click on the link below to access the warm ups for last week in case you were out

QOTD week August 25th