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.
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