The Life Science Chronicles

This is the end of a very long week for all of us at MV.  Several of us were handed our layoff letters on Wednesday, and it’s been a harsh reality of the tough times we’re facing.  Personally, I have faith that something will come through.  I believe that the passion in my heart to teach and mentor young people will find me on my feet in some school community in the fall.  Hopefully here!

With the high unemployment in our state, the tax revenue is much less than we’re used to.  Because the bulk of school funding comes from our state’s general fund, the higher the unemployment, the lower the revenue.  The lower the revenue, the less to give toward education and other public services.  It’s a domino effect, really.  Please be talking with your parents or students about what we can do in the future to make our system more sustainable and less volatile.  Obviously, as a community, we suffer together in tough times and we celebrate together in lavish times; right now, how can we support each other to make it through?  This is the question we must ask ourselves as we move forward.  I’m confident the staff at our school will band together to provide the absolute best education for the middle schoolers in our community, but it will be a much different experience than we’ve seen this year and in recent years.

Thanks to ALL of you for your wonderful words of encouragement and support.  It’s been a rough week, but a rewarding one all the same.  Here’s to a bright future…together!

We have a test tomorrow — Thursday, May 14.  Here’s what you need to know:

• Punnett Squares
• homozygous vs. heterozygous
• phenotype vs. genotype
• dominant vs. recessive traits
• Gregor Mendel
• alleles (B or b)
• Can brown-eyed parents have blue-eyed children?
• Can blue-eyed parents have brown-eyed children?

Here’s the yearbook presentation we saw in 4th period today.  If you like what you see, make sure you order your yearbook for $20 from the main office, or you can click here to order online.  Enjoy!

Here is a great (although a bit hard to read) article from a geneticist at Stanford University about how eye color is passed from parents to offspring. If you have been asking: “My mom has green eyes and my dad has brown eyes, so how did I get blue eyes?” or another similar question, please READ THE ARTICLE. It really is a good explanation.

Now, as to why we simplify this and teach eye color as a single trait is twofold. One, students (even middle schoolers) are familiar with eye color as an inherited trait. Second, when we learn about how traits are passed from parents to offspring, we introduce terms like dominant and recessive, and a simplified model gives us the opportunity to illustrate alleles, phenotypes, and genotypes in a familiar context. I prefer to think about it as a spiral concept — we learn a new concept this year to a limited level, then come back to it again later to review and add more; in this case, the “later” may not be until undergraduate biology. The model still serves a purpose to learn a concept.

You guys have worked hard on your web pages!  They are due this Friday.  Remember, your completed web page contains:

• Information on your animal
• Design elements (pictures, font colors and styles, etc.)
• Relevance

Find your web page in the MV Science wiki.

A note to calendar followers: our schedule is back up, online, and current!  Be sure to check it out.

Wow, you guys did a great job at the Tualatin River National Wildlife Refuge!  We saw eagles, frogs, deer, rabbits, ducks, geese, herons, sandpipers, salamanders, turtles, and many other animals.  It’s a great resource right here in our community.  Check it out — take the family up there for a nice weekend stroll.  There are several miles of trails and roads to walk on, so take a water bottle and some walking shoes and go for it!

Consider the fact that a highway borders one edge of the refuge and a junk yard borders another.  What effects do you think these could have on the wildlife and habitats of the refuge?  Also, do you think we should have places dedicated to protecting and preserving wildlife?

We have our plants unit test this coming Friday, 2/27.  Please take the time to study so you can ace it!  Feel free to leave a comment with a question.

What You Need to Know:
How are plant cells different from animal cells or bacteria cells?
What are the tissues of the “vascular system?”
What do these tissues transport through the plant?
How are plants classified?
Name the 2 types of root systems found in most plants.
How are seeds able to survive for long periods of time before germinating?
What is a gymnosperm?
What is an angiosperm?
What are flowers for?
What are fruits for?
Identify the structures of roots (root hairs & root cap), and describe the functions of roots.
Identify the types of stems (herbaceous & woody), and describe the functions of stems.
Identify the structures of leaves (stomata, guard cells, cuticle, & epidermis), and describe the functions of leaves.
Identify the structures of flowers (stamens, anthers, pistil, petals, sepals, stigma, ovary, & ovule).
Describe the difference between pollination and fertilization.
Plants produce ______ through photosynthesis.
They take in CO2 through their leaves and water through their roots…
They deliver sugar through phloem and give off oxygen through their leaves.
Any type of plant response to a stimulus is called a tropism.
Phototropism is a plant response to light.
Gravitropism is a plant response to gravity.
A positive tropism means “growth toward” the stimulus.
A negative tropism means “growth away from” the stimulus.
Why do leaves turn color in the fall?

Ever been curious about whether a plant will grow in soil when watered with Monster or milk?  How about coffee?  Now’s your chance to find out.  Design an experiment to test your question and report to us your results.  Think it through — what do you need to know before you begin?  What data will you collect and how will you measure it?  Does your experiment actually answer your question?  HAVE FUN!!!

How do you like to start a story or essay?  Most writers will craft a “hook” — something to catch their readers’ attention.  How about these for some of the best and worst first lines?  (Leave a comment with your favorite.)