5/22

This week was frog week! On Monday, we discussed frog anatomy, and we discussed the functions of a frog's organs. I did a sample dissection for the students on Tuesday, and the students spent the rest of the week in the lab doing their dissection. The students were asked to read through the lab and identify the organs that we discussed earlier in the week. Each lab group had to take an oral quiz after completing each system, and they were required to show me all of the organs that they had learned. The students did a FANTASTIC job overall, and I am quite impressed with their knowledge! The final test of the year will take place on Wednesday of next week and will cover our amphibian notes and frog anatomy notes. Part of the test will be "practical," so students will view and identify the actual frog organs that they learned through their dissection. Students will have time to practice for the "practical" test in class on Tuesday.

5/15

We wrapped up our invertebrate chapter this week. On Monday, we discussed our last two phyla of invertebrates: Arthropods and Echinoderms. We reviewed for the test in class on Tuesday (individually) and on Wednesday (as a class with our review game). Students took their test on Thursday. On Friday, we began discussing the characteristics of amphibians. Next week, we will discuss frog anatomy and we spend two to three days doing our frog dissection.

The 7th grade PC students traveled to the Brookfield Zoo on Tuesday to participate in a scavenger hunt. We had a great time, and students got plenty of exercise running around from exhibit to exhibit after solving their clues. Mr. Little deserves a special thanks for joining us for the day!

5/8

This week was worm week! We began our discussions of the Mollusk and Annelid worm phyla, which are more complex than those we discussed las week. On Tuesday, we began our external and internal explorations of earthworm anatomy (structures and functions). 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 Wednesday, 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 a real earthworm's movement, 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!

On Thursday, I showed the students how to do the earthworm dissection, and on Friday, they worked on their own to do the dissection themselves. All students did a GREAT job with this! I was impressed by how well students followed directions and how well they did on their "oral quiz" after they had finished. It looks like we may have some future surgeons in the 7th grade class!

Next week we will discuss our last two invertebrate phyla (Arthropods and Echinoderms) and review for our big invertebrate test, which will take place on Thursday.

5/1

We finished our discussion of the 4 simple invertebrate phyla (sponges, corals, jellyfish, flatworms, and roundworms) on Monday, and students were able to see video clips of them "in action." We did an observation lab in order to review what we had learned. In this lab, students were able to identify and view hydra, planaria, sponges, coral, flatworms, roundworms, and jellyfish. On Tuesday, 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. We took our simple invertebrate quiz on Thursday, and we will be focusing on the mollusk and annelid phyla next week. We will also be doing our worm dissection next week as well!