4/25

This week, we examined the fungi kingdom in more detail. We took a look at yeast cells under the microscope and conducted a "mushroom dissection," in which we were able to closely examine a mushroom's gill and hyphae from its stem. Students reviewed their protist and fungi notes on Tuesday, and we played our "tennis ball review game" on Thursday.

On Wednesday, we went to the career fair. Students had the opportunity to listen to many professionals discuss their careers. Overall, students found this to be a rewarding experience. We spent some time in class writing thank-you letters to the presenters that impacted students most.

Next week, we will finally step into the wonderful world of animals. We will begin our studies with invertebrates.

Today, the 7th Grade Project Challenge students went to Brookfield Zoo. They participated in a scavenger hunt (boys vs. girls, of course) that involved solving problems, taking pictures, and obtaining clues from zoo exhibits. We had a great time and walked a LOT (just ask the girls that decided to wear flip-flops). Amazingly, by the end of the day, both teams ended up with the same number of points! A special thanks is due to Mr. Little for joining us on our adventure!

4/18

On Monday, students finished their "Where Does Bacteria Grow?" experiment by observing the growth on their Petri dishes. The dishes were FULL of bacteria and fungal colonies from all over the school (and many samples were provided by teachers themselves)! Students had to record their findings and create a conclusion to their experiment.

On Tuesday, we discussed the general characteristics of the protist kingdom and its three major divisions. We did our protist lab on Wednesday and Thursday. Students had the opportunity to view prepared slides of three common protists: amoeba, euglena, and paramecium. After viewing the prepared slides, students had the chance to do live observations of these same protists. Some lucky students found the elusive amoeba, and earned extra credit points. A special thanks goes out to Ammar, who set up my scopecam. Since I could hook up my microscope to the TV, everybody had the chance to see a live amoeba moving (which is a very cool sight)!

On Friday we discussed the general characteristics of the Fungi kingdom and its four major groups. We will do a "Fungi" lab next week where we will observe two types of fungi in more detail: yeast and mushrooms. We will wrap up this chapter next week and be ready for another quest next Friday!

4/11

This week, we worked in groups to read and share some articles that dealt with bacterial and viral diseases. The articles covered food poisoning, SARS, West Nile virus, and the avian flu. Students were introduced to the causes of these diseases, how each is transmitted, and the outbreaks of each over the past several years. We reviewed for our bacteria and virus quest on Tuesday and took the quest on Wednesday.

On Thursday, students were introduced to the weird (and creepy) organisms that live in a drop of pond water. I took some local samples of pond water and had students identify the different creatures they found living in it. We found lots of protists (protozoa and algae), and some students even found worms and arthropods. Feel free to bring in your own pond water for investigation!

On Friday, students were asked to design an experiment to determine where bacteria lurks in our school. They had to construct a question to investigate, make a hypothesis, and then swab their cultures into a Petri dish. Students took swabs of everything from locker room showers to Mr. Little's head! Our dishes will incubate over the weekend, and we will check them out on Monday! Who knows what we will find!

Next week, we will study some very interesting protists and see them "in action!"

4/4

We began the week by doing some observations of bacteria. We looked at slides containing bacilli, cocci, and spirilla-shaped bacteria, and we also viewed the bacteria that is commonly found in yogurt (Lactobacillus acidophilus). We also spent time in class calculating and graphing bacteria growth rates over time. From these activities, students realized that, in ideal conditions, bacteria reproduce quickly over a short period of time (exponential growth). Students watched a video that showed the helpful and harmful sides of bacteria. They were able to see how sourdough bread is made, view several examples of diseases caused by pathogenic bacteria (TB, "Black Death," flesh-eating bacteria, E. coli poisoning, etc.), and see how antibiotic resistance is becoming a huge problem today.

We discussed viruses, and came to the conclusion that they are non-living particles. We also watched a video that described how a virus infects its host, the discovery and use of vaccines, past and present pandemics (influenza, smallpox, polio, and AIDS), and how researchers are finding new viruses everyday.

Next week, we finish our chapter on bacteria and viruses ("quest" on Wednesday) and begin to focus on protists and fungi.