7th Grade Alternative Assignment

Here is the assignment for students who are not going to the Bronx Zoo.

You are going to get "up close and personal" with some animal.

Click here for the details.

The assignment is due Monday. Please give it to Mr. Ardito or Mr. Wulfhop.

Bronx Zoo Field Study

Here is the assignment for those of us going to the Bronx Zoo.

Have fun!
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We have been studying ecology, which teaches us about how living things are related to their environment. The way the living things are put together – their structure, functions, and behavior – are all adaptations to the habitats in which they live.

On the trip to the Bronx Zoo, you will see many, many different organisms. For at least 5, make careful observations about the places they live in the zoo. How do these match or differ from their natural habitats. If they differ, why do you think they were designed this way? With what other animals does your animal live? Why are they together?

You will write a brief reflection sharing what you have learned about these organisms and their habitats in the zoo.

For extra credit, interview a zoo employee about what he or she does and why they decided to work at the zoo. You can add what you learned to your reflection.

This assignment is due Monday, June 23rd. Please turn it in to your homeroom teacher at the beginning of the day.

Australian Project Resources

You are all doing a really good job learning about your Australian organism.

I thought it might be helpful to put the various resources in one place.

Mrs. Gow's Web Page for the project -- click here.
A good resource for Australian animals -- click here.

Here's what you are doing:
1. You claim an organism (which you have all already done).
2. You research the organism. Keep track of the sites you visit with the "Virtual Bibliography" that Mrs. Gow made for us.
3. You answer the questions on the "Scaffolding" worksheet. On this worksheet, you are answering 3 basic questions:
a. Structural Stuff - Cool stuff about how your organism is put together.
b. Functional Stuff -- Cool stuff your organism does with its parts.
c. Behavioral Stuff - How your organism uses what it has.

The next step will be presenting it to Mrs. Gow and her class. We'll discuss that next.

Have fun!

Period 3 - Claim Your Australian Organism

Okay, this is a first come first served situation.
Respond to this post with which organism you are going to research.

Period 7 - Claim your Australian Organism

Okay, this is a first come first served situation.
Respond to this post with which organism you are going to research.

Good luck!

Practice Voicethread

The Australia Project

Mrs. Gow has set up a web site where the two classes (hers and ours) will work together.

Please take a look and get familiar with the site and the assignments. You can get to it by clicking here.

Also, please visit Voicethread and get yourself an account. All you need is an email address and a password.

Reflection Assignment - Period 3

Here is the reflection assignment for Period 3 science.
Remember that you are pretending to be paid by the word.
I look forward to reading your reflection.

Evolution Slideshow

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Inconvenient Truth Reflection

We are watching the movie, An Inconvenient Truth, to introduce our study of Ecology. Ecology is all about relationships – relationships of various organisms to each other and to their environment.

The movie will talk about these things in the context of Global Warming.

As you watch the movie, make notes that start to address the following questions. You should make these notes in your Science notebook.

1. How does Global Warming work?
2. How do human activities make Global Warming worse and/or better?
3. What species are affected by Global Warming? How?
4. What can be done to address this problem?
5. What do you think we can do at PVC to address Global Warming?

I am asking you to turn your notes into a detailed reflection. This reflection is due to me on Wednesday. You will submit them to me on paper for this one.

Gardening Links - DUE TUESDAY

Here is the place to collect the links you have found for our garden.

This set of links should be about:

• Resources that will help us plan the layout the garden
• Resources that we can use to help us take care of the garden

For the ones you post here, please write a sentence or two that explains why you think the site is useful.

For example:
Growing Plants Indoors
I thought this site was useful because it tells about growing plants indoors, which we will need to do until Spring comes.

Weekly Science Article Report - January 25th - Period 3

Here is the place for this week's weekly science article report.

As usual, please find an article about science that you think is cool and worth writing about. The more inspired you are, the better your reflection will be.

Then, you are writing a report that has 3 parts:

• The citation - the name of your article, who wrote it, and where did it come from. Include a link if you got it online.
• The summary - a one or two sentence recap of the article (no more).
• The reflection - a discussion (two or three paragraphs) about what you thought about the article. Did you like it or not? Why? What interested you about it and why? What questions or suggestions do you have for the writer?

I look forward to reading your reflections.

"Sleep" Reflection - Period 9

You have a different type of blog assignment this week.
Rather than finding an article on which to reflect, I want you to listen to their radio program called Radio Lab. This episode is all about sleep and what it does for living organisms.
You can listen to the episode here. If you prefer, you can download the episode as well.

Once you have listened to it, you will put together a reflection. Your reflection should try to answer the following questions:

• What did you learn about sleep that you didn't already know?
• How does sleep help maintain homeostasis?
• How is sleep related to memory?
• What really struck you as cool or strange (or both)? Why?
• How did you like listening to the story rather than reading it? Was it easier or harder? What did you like about it?
• How did the reporters use humor to tell their story? Did it make the story more interesting?
• What would you like to know more about from what you heard?

If you click here, you can get an overview of the episode.

I really look forward to your reflections.

Photos from our diffusion experiments

From Diffusion Exp...

Here is a link to the pictures from your diffusion experiments.
Feel free to download them and use them in your presentation.

Incredible Human Machine Reflection - Period 9

The purpose of this assignment is for you to have a chance to reflect on and digest what you saw in the Incredible Human Machine movie.

You are to address two things in your reflections:
1. Name and discuss three new things you learned about the body systems. What impressed you about them?
2. Name and discuss five relationships you saw between how the parts of the systems are built and what they do. Each of these relationships should come from a different system.

Have fun.

Cells Alive Project

Just in case, here's a link to the Cells Alive Project. When you click on the link, you can download an extra copy.

Period 6 - Comparing Structure and Function

Hi guys!

Here is the presentation we started looking at in class. I ask that you pick at least 3 of the slides and talk about how the structure of the cells you see there relate to what the body system does that they are a part of.

In class, I said to answer on paper. I would ask that you answer right on the blog instead. Just like usual, use your fake name. In your responses, be sure to say which slide you are talking about.

Have fun!

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Weekly Science Article Report #4 - Period 7

Hello all.

Here is the place where you would post your weekly science article reports for this week.

Your mission for this week is plan for and write the BEST report you have done all year so far. You might want to look over other students' comments to you and use their feedback to be a better writer.

I look forward to reading your work.

Weekly Science Article Report #4 - Period 3

Hello all.

Here is the place where you would post your weekly science article reports for this week.

Your mission for this week is plan for and write the BEST report you have done all year so far. You might want to look over other students' comments to you and use their feedback to be a better writer.

I look forward to reading your work.

Weekly Science Article Report - Body Systems - Period 9

Hello all.

Here is the place where you would post your weekly science article reports for this week.

Remember that the focus for this week is an article that relates in some way to the body systems we have been studying.

Please add to your reflection how the article connects in some way to what you have been learning in class.

Have fun!