5/27

The first part of the week students spent their time reviewing the frog anatomy and preparing for the frog dissection. The last three days of the week, students worked extremely well working together to complete their final lab of the year; the frog dissection. Students worked cooperatively by sharing the duties of the dissection. Throughout the lab all students had to complete certain checkpoints making extra sure everyone was comprehending the material. The 7th graders did an outstanding job following directions and showing me that they understand the material! Next week, we will review and take the quest on Wednesday.
Have a wonderful Memorial Day weekend!

5/20

On Tuesday, students took their chapter test on invertebrates. We spent the rest of the week starting our last unit about vertebrates and amphibians. We learned about a frog’s anatomy, and we reviewed a few of the many organs and their functions, that humans share with frogs!
Students finished up the week with their Career Fair, which they really enjoyed! We will start next week a reviewing the frog’s anatomy and a demonstration of the frog dissection from me before they dissect their own frog.

5/13

What an exciting week! Students really impressed me during the earthworm dissection on Tuesday. Students showed accuracy and patience throughout the lab. We learned about the final phyla of invertebrates on Wednesday ( Arthropods and Echinoderms) and we spent the rest of the week reviewing for our big invertebrate test. As a reminder, the test will be this next Tuesday, May 17th. Please come and see me either on Monday or Tuesday morning if there are any questions at all about the upcoming test.

I did want to make aware that I have added on our “Preparation Points” to the grade book. I have given each student 30 points to start off with, with the hope and anticipation that they will come prepared for class( we have discussed what this means for 7th graders). If they need to go to their locker for a supply that should have been brought to class, I will take off one point. Students have been doing an awesome job with the point system and ever since I started implementing this in class, they have been coming to class much more prepared!

Friday, 5/6

We began the week wrapping up the Simple Invertebrate portion of the unit with our quiz. On Tuesday we took the quiz and then started discussing the Mollusk and Annelid worm phyla, which are more complex than the previous invertebrates studied. We watched a couple video clips about Mollusks that showed how smart some of the organisms in this phylum can be. Later in the week, we began our external and internal exploration 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). 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 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). A special thank you goes out to all of those who brought these earthworms for us to observe!
Students are getting quite excited about the earthworm dissection next week!!