Monthly Archives: May 2016

Evolution

Evolution: Infectious Organisms Project Comic Work

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For the final phase of the Infectious Organisms project, it is time to put together what you have learned into something easily shared with others.  A comic strip is one way to share information both with words and images.  Using the information contained in your organism-specific article summary worksheets, and carefully reviewing the project rubric to be sure you have the necessary information, it is time to create your comic strip.  Your work must be original – you may refer to existing comic strips for inspiration only.  We have different sized paper available: large poster paper, 8.5″ x 14″ long printer paper, and 8.5″ x 11″ standard printer paper.  Use the paper that works best for you and your project.  Include as many panels as you need to tell your story.  Be creative!

Students have been quite successful using comic creator websites like  MakeBeliefsComix.com, Pixton.com, and StoryBoardThat.com so if the thought of drawing your own comic is overwhelming, try using an online resource to help you with the artwork so you can focus on the content.  There are several other comic creator websites on the Internet, so find one that works best for you.

Comics are due at the beginning of class on Wednesday.  All comics must be ready to share in paper form, so if you create a comic online, be sure to print it!  On Wednesday, you will get to see everyone else’s work and they will see yours, so use your class time well to make a comic strip you are proud of.

Chemistry

Toxins: Mystery Solutions

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For class today, students will watch Life’s Rocky Start from NOVA.  While watching the video, students will complete a worksheet to help them identify the key learning from throughout the video.  The worksheet should be turned in at the end of class.

Update: May 10 – thank you to Mrs. C for substituting for me yesterday.  The students were in her capable hands and did a great job staying engaged through the video.  For today, students worked through the Lesson 83 Worksheet.  We approached Part 1 as a thought experiment and notes from the whiteboard are pictured below.  The Lesson 83 PowerPoint is included for reference.

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Chemistry

Toxins: Preparing Solutions

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We took advantage of the gap in AP testing to work through Lesson 82.  The Lesson 82 Worksheet called for students to work in groups to prepare salt solutions and work through the math to calculate the molarity of their assigned solution.  Although we did not review it in class, the Lesson 82 PowerPoint is available for download.

Additionally, students are encouraged to practice observing the relationship between moles, volume, and molarity using the University of Colorado Molarity PhET simulation below:

https://phet.colorado.edu/sims/html/molarity/latest/molarity_en.html

Evolution

Evolution: Infectious Organisms Project Research

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First, a couple of brief housekeeping items.  Google Classroom once again proved to be too cumbersome to use as a classroom tool, so all documents pertaining to the Infectious Organisms Project will be stored here on the class website.  Additionally, rather than have one long running project post, I have decided to write separate posts for smaller chunks of work to help students locate information quickly and easily.

Onward!  At the beginning of class, students will find out which infectious organism they have been assigned to research.  The vast majority of students elected to work individually, so I have made the decision that while students may collaborate, they will need to turn in their own individual project.  Students will have today (Wednesday, May 3) and tomorrow (Thursday, May 4) to deeply research their organism.  Learn as much as you can!  Read, watch videos, talk with each other to share resources, and let me know if you are struggling to find information or are unsure if the resources you are using are scientifically credible.  By Friday, each student must complete two more Article Summary Worksheets for the two best articles found for their assigned organism.

Due at the beginning of class on Friday, May 5:

  • Article Summary Worksheet completed for the Biological Warfare Case Study (assigned yesterday) – read through all 12 slides!
  • Answers to the four questions found on slide 1 of the above case study
  • Two additional completed Article Summary Worksheets (see sentence in bold red text above)

Also from yesterday, here is a link to the project rubric.

A few resources to help with your research:

Ready to start working on your comic strip?  The rubric provides a list of content to include in the comic strip.  A successful comic strip will be easy to read, have pictures that help explain what is happening, and it should take the complicated information you read about and craft it into a form that is easy to understand but is also informative.  The topics are pretty intense, and comics often have some humor in them, so if you can lighten the mood in an appropriate way using a bit of humor, your reader will appreciate it!

For students excited to draw their comic strip by hand, we have poster paper (go big!) and 8.5″ x 14″ printer paper along with pens, colored pencils, and crayons.  Prefer to go digital?  A Google search for “comic strip creator” will provide several website options.  Find the one you like best and get to work!

Evolution

Evolution: Co-evolution Case Study

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Having learned key vocabulary concepts about co-evolution and symbiosis, and with images of parasites fresh in our minds, we will now transition to the Infectious Organism Comic Strip Project.  Students will read through both the Infection Comic Strip Grading Rubric document, as well as the List of Infectious Organisms.  Students will select their preferred infectious organisms and submit their preference to the teacher for placement into groups.

To complete the day, students should visit the UC Berkeley Understanding Evolution website and read through the Coevolution and Case Study of Coevolution pages, then read through and take detailed notes from the Biological warfare and the coevolutionary arms race case study.  For the biological warfare case study, your notes should include complete answers to the questions on the first slide (also listed below).  Students should also complete the Science Article Summary Worksheet for the case study.

  • What is coevolution?
  • How do living and non-living environments shape organisms through natural selection?
  • How do evolutionary trade-offs restrict adaptation?
  • How can we use the methods of science to answer questions about the natural world?
Chemistry

Toxins: Molecular Views

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Our work today involved thinking about solutions from a molecular perspective.  Students briefly reviewed yesterday’s Gummy Bear portion of the lab via the ChemCatalyst on slide 3 of the Lesson 81 PowerPoint.  Students then received the Lesson 81 Worksheet and the Particle Views Handout.  The handout was used in Part 1 of the worksheet.  For Part 2, students assembled into groups and gathered around lab stations to gain experience diluting a 3.0 M stock solution to a 1.5 M solution.  They also observed how two different volumes of a solution with the same concentration both appear the same color.  The lesson helped illustrate the connection between molarity (M), particle density, and the number of moles (particle number) in a solution.  Pictures from the white board are shown below.

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Chemistry

Toxins: Solution Concentration

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For the first lesson of Chapter 15, students were immersed in the vocabulary of solution concentration.  The Lesson 80 PowerPoint includes five important vocabulary words that students recorded in their lab notebooks.  They then were shown gummy bears that had been placed overnight in either water, 0.1 M sugar, 1.0 M sugar, 2.0 M sugar, or honey.  The gummy bears were rinsed and the mass was measured.  The results are pictured below:

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Students briefly thought about why the gummy bears changed mass and used the data and their thinking to complete Part 2 of the Lesson 80 Worksheet.  Students then transitioned to lab stations, working in groups to complete part 1 of the worksheet.  Most groups had time to finish either the sugar or the salt portion of the lab before we reconvened as a group to share results.  While students were settling in, they were treated to a chemistry video showing what happens when a bit of salt is added to a supersaturated salt solution.

Results from the lab are shown below.  Students should calculate the final column as homework.

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Evolution

Evolution: Zombie Parasites

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After a thorough examination of the process of evolution, it is time to apply our learning!  We will begin with a PowerPoint to briefly discuss the concept of infectious organisms, with an emphasis on thinking about how the co-evolution of organisms has resulted in complex relationships between organisms.  Students will define the vocabulary terms of host, bacteria, virus, parasite, and infection.  Next, we will watch a National Geographic video about zombie parasites.  The presenter, Anand Varma, applies his expertise in photography to the study of parasites.  Mr. Varma travels the world collecting specimen for study, and his ability to apply biological concepts to his work, think creatively, and drive to overcome failure make him and his work truly remarkable.