Happy Vacation!

I hope you all have a wonderful vacation. You have no homework over the break, except to bring back food for the can drive. Please help those who are less fortunate than you.

While I'm on JUA

Mrs. Joslin will be covering your class, please be nice to her :)
You should be working on your cancer pamphlets. E block: Mrs. Joslin will collect your pamphlets at the end of class on Tuesday. D block, I will collect yours in class.

Cancer Pamphlet

While I am on JUA you will be working on creating a pamphlet that discusses a particular cancer's causes, symptoms, detection, prevention and treatment.


For information on specific types of cancer, click here.

Food Drive!

Here's the video from school meeting.

Mitosis and Cell Cycle Project

The past few days students have been working on a cell cycle and mitosis project.

To see exemplary student samples from last year, click here.

Below are the guidelines for the project. This is due in class on Friday for E block and Saturday for F block.

REQUIREMENTS: Each Student MUST READ CHAPTER , focusing on ,

Draw, Label, and Define ALL the PARTS of The Cell Cycle.

A. INTERPHASE - THE TIME OF THE CELL CYCLE BETWEEN CELL DIVISIONS. (3 PHASES) DRAW/MAKE A MODEL AND LABEL ONLY ONE PICTURE BUT DEFINE ALL THE PHASES.

B. MITOSIS (M PHASE) - A FOUR STAGE PROCESS WHICH THE NUCLEUS OF THE CELL DIVIDES INTO TWO NEW NUCLEI WITH IDENTICAL GENETIC MATERIAL. (FOUR STAGES) DRAW AND LABEL ALL FOUR STAGES AND DEFINE MITOSIS AND DESCRIBE EACH PHASE.

C. CYTOKINESIS - THE CYTOPLASM AND ORGANELLES OF THE PARENT CELL DIVIDES IN TWO NEW CELLS CALLED DAUGHTER CELLS. DRAW AND LABEL ONE PICTURE AND DEFINE AND DESCRIBE CYTOKINESIS. BE CAREFUL! Plant and animal cells undergo cytokinesis differently.

What would you do?

Today students read and discussed the following case study.

Sam (73) had a growth inside of his mouth for some time that he finally had checked out by his doctor. Following some tests, Dr. MacAvee, an oncologist, told Sam he had cancer of the gum (a squamous [skin] cell cancer). Unfortunately, the cancer had spread to Sam's lymph nodes in his neck and into his tongue and jaw. Dr. MacAvee told Sam they could do radical surgery to take out part of his tongue, the right side of his jawbone, and all of the lymph nodes in his neck, followed by chemotherapy and radiation treatment. Sam has refused. Sam's wife, Lois, seems reluctantly supportive of his decision. Sam's daughter, Michelle, has been lobbying Dr. MacAvee to convince her father to accept as aggressive a treatment as possible, so that Sam might have as much time as possible with his twin grand-daughters

What are the consequences of the course of treatment the doctor has suggested?

What is the likely prognosis (what will happen) for a metastatic skin cancer

Does Sam's decision to decline treatment make reasonable sense? Please discuss from the perspective of all people involved.

How should a physician respond to the wishes of a family member

Homework: none :)

Cancer & You!

E Block:
Objective: Complete a jigsaw activity for the cancer reading.

Students read a packet of information on cancer causes and treatments then shared their answers with a partner.

Homework: Due Monday for both E and F blocks

1. Click here to get the list of types of cancers
2. Choose a cancer that begins with the same letter as your first name (unless your name begins with an F or a J, then you can choose any cancer).
3. Write down:
a. the name of the cancer
b. a 3-5 sentence description of the cancer
c. how many new cases happen each year
d. how many deaths happen each year.

F block:
Objective: Examine the relationship between the cell cycle and cancer.
Students completed a review of the cell cycle worksheet, took notes from a powerpoint and had a discussion on cancer.

Homework: see above

Cell Cycle

Objective: Introduce the cell cycle and complete a review of mitosis.

Homework: Play the cell cycle game here and answer the questions on the worksheet you got in class.

Mitosis "Flip Books"

Objective: Today students will create mini flip books for the stages of mitosis an animal cell.

There should be one card/stage. The stages are: prophase, metaphase, anaphase, telophase and cytokinesis. On the front of each card should be a drawing of mitosis with the appropriate cell parts labeled (scroll down for pictures). On the back of the card should be the name of the stage and a description of what is happening in the cell and what number the stage is (1, 2, 3 or 4).

Homework: Complete the mitosis summary table worksheet. Extra credit: Mitosis coloring sheet.

Mitosis & Microscopes cont.

F Block: Read the post below this, from Thursday November 29th, for what you did in class.

E Block:
Objective: Students examined slides to see how a plant cell undergoes mitosis and compared plant cells to animal cells to observe the difference in cell division.

Today students looked at plant cells and after completing drawings, needed to find various stages of mitosis on their own on the slides as opposed to looking at slides that were already focused.

Homework: Read section 9.3 and complete the notetaking sheet. Answer the concept check questions for section 9.3, #1-3 on page 188.

Mitosis & Microscope FOR THURSDAY E & FRIDAY F LONG BLOCKS

Objective: Students will use microscopes to look at unlabeled slides of animal cells going through mitosis.Purpose: This activity follows the ABC educational theory (activity before concept). Students will draw the stages they see and answer questions about the slides. After answering questions independently, we will talk about the questions as a class.

Homework: Read section 9.1 in the book and answer the concept check questions on page 181 # 1-3.

For the winter term only...

posts made on Tuesday will also apply to Wednesday, unless otherwise noted.
Why's this? Because E and F blocks each meet on either Tuesday or Wednesday for 55 minutes (therefore you'll be doing the same things).

New Unit: Cancer, Mitosis & the Cell Cycle

Welcome Back! I hope you all enjoyed you Thanksgiving break and caught up on some much needed rest. We are starting a new unit on Cancer, Mitosis and the Cell Cycle that will take we will finish right before winter break.

Objective: 1. Introduce the cell cycle, cancer and mitosis unit to the students. 2. Identify myths and truths about cancer.

Students competed a true/false quiz in teams to test their knowledge on cancer (don't worry it doesn't count as a quiz grade). We discussed each myth and explained if it was true or false.


Homework: None.

Food Lab: Bringing together the unit on Macromolecules.

What are you eating? Are you getting the protein you need? Today students conducted an experiment to see if various food samples contain protein, lipids, starch and/or sugars (specifically glucose and sucrose).

Homework: Complete the questions in the lab handout, we will go over the questions and how you should write your lab report.

Macromolecules Wrap Up

Today we finished the presentations on macromolecules. Each group made some great posters and handouts. You should be very proud of yourselves. To make sure we didn't miss any info, students completed a guided reading and study guide to review.

Homework: Bring in three different food samples. 1 that you think contains protein, one that you think contains MOSTLY starch and one that you think contains mostly fat.

Tomorrow we will be doing the Food Lab and you will get to see what your foods contain.

Peer Evaluation for Project

Please answer the following questions as HONESTLY as possible:

1. Out of 100% how much work did you do and how much work did your partner do? If you think you shared the work equally, you would write "I did 50% and my partner did 50%."

2. Were you pleased with the partner you had, or were you disappointed. Explain.

3. What did you learn about group work from this project.

4. On a scale of 1-10 (1 being the worst, 10 is the best). What score would you give your parter. You must write at least 3 sentences explaining your grade.

Personal Day

I'm taking a personal day today to recover from the race yesterday. Please come prepared to give your presentations tomorrow.

What are you going to say?

Today students put the final touches on their projects and rehearsed what they are going to say on Tuesday.

Homework: practice what you are going to say for the presentation.

Projects cont.

Today students worked on their projects. Tomorrow students will have a practice presentation of their projects. Remember: this counts as a test grade.

Click here to link to the post with info on your topics and how to cite your sources.

Projects and returning the quizzes.

First things first. On Friday October 26th you took a quiz on Osmosis, Diffusions and Membranes. On Thursday October 25th your homework was to study for this quiz. You were even given a link directly to the vocabulary for this quiz on the post from Thursday October 25th. So, as a result of this your quiz grades stand.

So the next logical question is: How can I raise my grade?

Answer: Do a really great job on your project. You will be working on it again in class today and on Thursday. I will also be available for extra help if you would like to practice your presentation on Thursday night in Moore House.

Homework: Work on your presentations.