10/17

This week, we spent two days reviewing and practicing how to use light microscopes. We discovered how the microscope changes the position of an image, what our hair looks like when magnified 400x, and we also had the chance to explore other interesting prepared slides. I am impressed at how quickly the students are becoming accustomed to using the microscope. This is great, because we will use our microscopes a LOT this year! On Thursday we discussed what it meant to "be alive." After our "is fire living?" discussion, we finally agreed that fire was NOT living because it did not have cells or DNA. Next week, we will talk about cells in more depth, and we will have the opportunity to view our own cells under the microscope!

I returned the graded leaf collections to students this week. Overall, I must say that I was quite impressed by the quality of student work! Many students took the time to complete extra credit and really went "above and beyond" my expectations. Nicely done!