Mrs. Reisbeck's Life Science

This week we continue our Animalia Webquest as students move from their expert groups into their cooperative, creative groups. Students will design and create their podcasts in preparation for the Carolus Cup competition. You can check out the webquest on this blog under resources. Please remember that Wednesday is a late arrival day: students begin school 2 hours later than usual.

Monday: Students will join their new groups and teach each other about their respective classes.

Tuesday: Students will take on specific roles and begin to design the format for their podcast. Home learning: Come to school Wednesday with 1 creative idea for a podcast to share with your group.

Wednesday: Late Arrival!! Students will begin rehearsing and filming their podcasts.

Thursday: Filming continues. Editing starts as needed.

Friday: Students are editing their movies.

This week we continue our studies on the classification of life. Students will begin a two-week webquest in which they will, as a group, explore one of the classes on the phylum animalia. Once they become experts they will regroup, teach their cohorts, and together plan, design and create an iMovie that will be peer-reviewed by Ms. Lovett’s class. Students will be competing for the coveted Carolus Cup.

Monday: QUIZ!! Students will use the dichotomous keys they created on Friday to identify several varieties of trees.

Tuesday: Students will begin our webquest project. Today they will get into their Expert Groups and choose a Class to research.

Wednesday: Expert Groups will continue to research their chosen Class. They should complete the first side of the student worksheet and post one website or annotation to the class blog. This is homework if not completed in class.

Thursday: Expert Groups will complete the student worksheet, finding pictures of 3 representative species and corresponding data. Students should also complete their 2nd post to the class blog. Again, this is homework if not completed in class.

Friday: Expert Groups will create a lesson plan to teach the cooperative groups they will join and teach next week.

This week we start our unit on classification.

Monday: Intro to classification. Home learning: Classify 20 items in your bedroom.

Tuesday: Classification online activity.

Wednesday: Revisit the scientific method with MythBusters.

Thursday: Making cladograms. Home learning: Complete your cladogram.

Friday: Using dichotomous keys.

This week we continue our study of change over time by focusing on human evolution. There will be a unit test on Friday! Friday will be an early release day for our quarterly recognition winter carnival.

Monday: Discovery dvd Walking with Cavemen.

Tuesday: Walking with Cavemen continues.

Wednesday: Complete dvd packet and human evolution discussion.

Thursday: Caveman Challenge and review. Home learning: Study for test.

Friday: Unit test.

This week we will continue our studies of evolution by focusing on Charles Darwin and his theory of evolution by natural selection.

Monday- Class notes. Home learning-”Selection of the Sneakiest”

Tuesday- Brain Pop video and Walking Stick online activity.

Wednesday- Galapagos- Beyond Darwin video.

Thursday- Clipbird Island activity. Home learning- Study for quiz tomorrow.

Friday- Quiz!! Intro to human evolution.

I can’t believe it is a new year. I hope everyone had a great holiday season and is feeling rested and ready to go! This week we will begin our unit on evolution.

Monday: Intro to evolution. Class notes and vocabulary.

Tuesday: Dating the fossil record activity. Home learning: finish activity packet.

Wednesday: Inquiry into the concept of “deep time”.

Thursday: Evidence of evolution-homologous structures, vestigial structures and embryonic similarities.

Friday: Whales- a closer look at whale evolution.

It’s showtime!! This week students will be giving their oral presentations on their ecosystem research.

I wish you all a very happy and very safe holiday season:) See you in January.

This week students will work in groups to investigate one of the Earth’s biomes. Each group will create a poster and presentation to educate their classmates about their biome. Note: Students who will not be here for the presentations (Dec. 21st and 22nd) will be responsible for submitting an individual paper about their ecosystem, due Friday, December 18th.

Monday: Research and preparation. Home learning: Finish the 4 research questions.

Tuesday: Become an expert. Students each focus on one aspect of their ecosystem. Home learning: Complete independent research.

Wednesday: Making connections and poster planning. Home learning: Complete items for your section of the poster.

Thursday: Create the poster.

Friday: Presentation rehearsal.

We will continue our ecology studies by exploring relationships within an ecosystem. We will also look at limiting factors and carrying capacity of an environment. Part I of our ecology assessment will be on Friday.

Monday: As an introduction to carrying capacity, students will investigate human population trends over the last century.

Tuesday: Interactions amongst organisms via jigsaw text reading. Home learning: review questions, page 449.

Wednesday: Carrying capacity activity.

Thursday: Unit review. Home learning: Study for assessment.

Friday: Ecology assessment, Part I and introduction to the ecology presentation project next week.

This week we will begin a new unit of study: ecology. Students will explore how organism interact with the environment. The unit will include a group investigation of one of Earth’s biomes, culminating with a class presentation.

Monday: Intro to ecology-learning the vocabulary.

Tuesday: Students will watch Jane Goodall: Among the Wild Chimpanzees. Home learning: complete Jane Goodall questions.

Wednesday: Class notes: 18.1.

Thursday: Population activity.

Friday: No school for students.