5/30

Our second-to-last week of school really flew by! We finished our frog dissection on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week. Once again, students did a fantastic job on this lab! I gave students a practical quiz on Wednesday over the frog structures that they learned during their dissection. Students were required to identify real organs and structures from the frogs that I dissected for demonstrations. Even though the quiz was for extra credit points, I was quite impressed by students' knowledge of frog anatomy! Great job!

On Thursday, students were given a "Life Science Internet Scavenger Hunt." Students had to cruise through various science web sites to answer the questions that were given.

On Friday, we spent a soggy day at Naper Settlement. Even though it was wet, we still had a good time.

Next week, we will play our final review game of the year. This one is a bit more difficult, though, because it covers science content from the ENTIRE YEAR! I look forward to seeing how much these students can remember!

5/23

After reviewing our invertebrate phyla one last time on Monday, students were ready for their final test on Tuesday. On Wednesday and Thursday, students were introduced to amphibians. We discussed the anatomy of the frog, and viewed real pictures of organ systems. We focused on the major organs of each body system (circulatory, respiratory, digestive, and urogenital). I demonstrated the frog dissection for students in order to prepare them for Friday's dissection.

The first day of our dissection, Friday, went very well. Most students have opened the frog and are currently examining its digestive system. Students are doing well with the oral "quizzes" that they take after viewing each system. We will continue our explorations on Tuesday, and students will examine and identify the remaining organs. On Wednesday, students will take a "practical" quiz in which they will have to view real organs and identify them. This quiz will be our final one for the year, and will be for EXTRA CREDIT points!!!

5/16

Some students have been looking forward to this week for a long time. We finally did our first dissection! On Monday, I reviewed dissection procedures with the students, and they watched as I demonstrated the earthworm dissection. Students had the chance to observe how it was done and to ask any questions that they had. On Tuesday, students worked with their partners to dissect an earthworm on their own. The students did a great job of following the lab procedures, working carefully, and helping each other identify earthworm structures. A few students opted to complete the virtual earthworm dissection instead of the real dissection. Students who participated in this option did a great job as well.

We discussed our final two invertebrate phyla this week; arthropods and echinoderms. On Thursday, students received a study guide for their final test of the year. We began reviewing in class on Friday, and we will play our favorite review game in class on Monday. Students have been strongly encouraged to spend a little time studying this weekend. Tuesday's test will have 50 questions and be worth a total of 100 points (this is larger than our usual tests because it covers more material).

Today was our final Project Challenge meeting. We had a big breakfast together to celebrate a fun year together. A big thank you goes out to the PC students for my lovely gift and card. I will miss those Monday and Friday mornings we shared together! :(

5/9

This week, we did a simple invertebrate lab where we observed and identified organisms of the phyla Porifera, Cnidaria, Platyhelminthes, and Nematoda. We took our simple invertebrate quiz on Tuesday and began our discussions of the Mollusk and Annelid worm phyla, which are more complex. On Thursday, we began our external and internal explorations of the earthworm. We learned a little about their body systems and anatomy, and we also learned important direction terms (anterior, posterior, dorsal, and ventral). We practiced our new vocabulary terms on our gummy worms before eating them. On Friday, we put our new knowledge of directions and earthworm anatomy to work. We did a live earthworm observation lab. Students had the opportunity to observe an earthworm's movement, external structures, and they even had to test the earthworm's reaction to environmental stimuli (being placed on its dorsal side, dry/wet paper towel, and presence of food). Many scared students were brave enough to at least touch the worm (and then again, some were still too "grossed out")! A special thank you goes out to all of those who brought in earthworms for us to observe!

Next week, we will do our earthworm dissection and discuss our final invertebrate phyla (arthropods and echinoderms).

5/2

We have finally made it to the animal kingdom! Students explored the diversity of the animal kingdom with an activity on Monday. Students had to list animals that fit into given categories, and then as students shared answers with the class, they had to cross off any animal that was listed by another group. We discovered that there are WAY more animals than we could have anticipated. Remember, though....most animals (more than 95%) are actually invertebrates!

We discussed simple invertebrates (sponges, corals, jellyfish, flatworms, and roundworms) on Tuesday, and students were able to see video clips of them "in action." Students will be expected to remember the phylum names for each of these groups!

On Wednesday, students did a Porifera (sponge) lab. Students conducted an experiment to see whether natural or artificial sponges held more water. Our class results varied quite a bit. Every natural sponge is a bit different, so it isn't surprising that our results were not consistent throughout the day.

Even though our band students left us on Thursday and Friday, the students who remained did more explorations of invertebrates. They watched video clips of the major phyla and even played the "guess the invertebrate" game. Students had to put a sticker of a given invertebrate on their back or forehead (so they couldn't see it), and then had to ask yes/no questions to other students in order to guess which invertebrate was printed on their sticker. It was quite humorous watching the students ponder which questions to ask next!

Next week we will explore the mollusk and annelid worm phyla and begin examining the internal and external anatomy of the earthworm. Our first dissection is rapidly approaching!