define integrity.  rampid cheating

The studnets are analyzing food labels for macromolecules in Biology by looking at the chart.  I did th emath completely wrong.  I mean for reals.  Wrong.  So I should probably get the answer key straight.

For the Week Of...

Coming up next week in Biology

Elements and Molecules Amnesty Day Monday.  Make corrections to this assignment and both grades will be averaged for your grade.  We will not be accepting amnesty on any other assignments this term.  

Review Macromolecules and Water
Quiz Macromolecules Wednesday 10
Quiz water Friday 10/

Tech failed me again during Wildlife Biology

I had a Google Earth mapped out to each location to present the Mountains Planet Earth for the segue for Biomes to Rocky Mountain Biomes in  right as it was about to go on to the big screen the screen shut down chrome browser tab closed down and I had to start over.  I felt unprepared, rushed, and frustrated.  Great review of abiotic and biotic factors, we should have students write their answers to the worksheet in a class graphic organizer. 

Tech failed me again during AP Biology 

Field Trip 

GSL Lecture

Ch. 2 Reading Guide 2.1 and 2.2 stamped 

I presented the GSL sway lesson but I should have made it more hands on.  I feel we were all exhausted.  I printed the worksheets out for the Ch. 2 video guide from aurumscience for "Hunting the Elements" and should show them theElements app.   We did not watch the movie and I did open the Ch.2 Active Learning, passed out the whiteboards and we made magnesium atoms.  TBG and I made a Mg atom with peanut mms, peanut protons, and jellybean electrons.  They kept rolling off the slanted desks.  Hashtag need lab table and lab room thanks.  

I passed out the inquiry hatch a cyst assignment (i may have passed it out as before).   I will present the Lab Report Template.  We will do them together in order. 

First Quarter AP Labs01 Brine Shrimp Lab Natural Selection first hatching data and inquiry experiment.02 Wisconsin Fast Plants Height Measurements first generation.03 Water Lab Data (with Statistics) 

Biome Books for MidTerm Assessments

Wildlife Biome Book research session worked pretty well.  Students worked in groups and I had a translator help explain the assignment to small groups of differentiated ELL learners 11/40.  10 groups of 4.  Let's not talk about it.

10 groups of 4.  Chromebook/Textbook/Foldable Book to research and record information on a particular Biome.  Most groups finished their graphic organizers and worked using various forms of technology.  Opened the book straight off the shelf to the page we needed.  There was the word F*@! written in bubble letters above the african savannah biome paragraph.  I left it open.  All class.  The kids are with me in this class and it is going to be great year.  HHMI is amazing and it is NOT just an AP resource.

I am dabbling in the sketchnotes realm, I need a way to have a document camera from above me writing like the overhead projector, but with paper.  Then reveal the sketch notes as we go.  Student teacher copied the sketch notes so we will decorate them as we go through the lecture with the train packet (if not this term, then in the review of April.

Mid term Exam in AP Biology.  A Data Nugget "shooting the poop" 2 long FRQ questions and 15 multiple choice on CANVAS.  They really tried.  I cannot wait to grade them.  But I will wait because I left them at home.  The rule if I don't do the reading guide, then you don't have to turn it in still stands from last year.  I couldn't even find my original notes and finally found them after I spent all night on Chapter 21.  We did chaps 19 and 21 but not 20 and 22 of the Evolution chapter.  I think this will work fine because it will help so much with phylogeny and speciation from a genetic perspective after chapters 9-16,

The 4B class is going to be a struggle.  40 is TOO many.  They keep moving seats.  I will help her in there from now on with individual student interviews around the end of the term.  I can pull up all their grades and have a little 4 minute meeting with each student.  It will help maintain my connection with them, but allow her to maintain control of the room.  If I go back in now, she will never get them back.



Below is my daily email template for students and parents.  It might just go on CANVAS.  But it's good.  

Quote of the Day:

To Do TODAY in BIOLOGY

Drill and Vocabulary

Image of the Day

In the NEWS

Mid Terms already!

AP Bio is cruising along.  

We only finished CH 19 and CH 21. 

Moving away from StATs is now impossible.  I keep finding things to do.  We did the Hurricane Data graph, I need to help them review TALKITUP and use LENSES.  For the Chapter 2 Reading Guide I want to include the blank diagrams they can fill in as we take notes.  Remember to included LENSES for the in Chapter science articles and diagrams.  

Mid Term Exams this week.  I have compiled some great resources and hope it works.  

Data Nuggets Shooting the Poop
Climate Change BCR
FRQ
Quiz 2 on CANVAS Chapter 21 Evolution of Populations
HW:  Chapter 2 Reading Guide.  Due Thursday Sept 28.  

Building Portfolios and Interactive Notebooks in Wildlife Biology

Each student is recording writing prompt responses in their notebook.  I need to branch out to graphs and actually commit to the INB, but it has morphed into a writing and animal recording of data in the Gorongosa.  We have completed most of the HHMI BioInteractives on the Gorongosa and I hope it will continue throughout as such.  I have students highlight the  dates of their writings as a pre assessment.  Students choose 2 they want me to grade for accuracy.  I grade the rest for completion.  

A Binder Section/ Portfolio of Handouts and Notes.  Kept in order Table of Contents on Board and CANVAS.  Self, Peer, Parent Assessments.  Turn in for PTC.  Discuss contents at the meeting.  

Full on science teacher blog

Mentor Experiences

Co-Teaching for the mentor/student teacher experience has morphed into me needing to leave the room.  I found myself barking at students while she was in charge of the room.  Also, I'm in the hall so often being out of the classroom that I'm seeing a lot of hallway behaviors I never saw before, but I should just go to the library and work on lesson plans for the next quarters.

Planning new lessons

What is the best way to teach Macromolecules?  Build models, identifying known and unknown macromolecules labs, teacher directed notes, video clips, graphic organizers, connection to food, Mcmush lab, food label lab???

A colleague from the national AP Biology teacher facebook group posted a foldable and sketch notes that looks like a hamburger.  Each part of the burger is a different flap.  We are very excited to make these next class.

We will rush through them in AP.  We are finishing the Rock Pocket Mouse Allele Frequency lab tomorrow and collecting data on our fast plants.  We shared data on a google doc and it was amazingly well done by my students.  The statistics excel tutorials from HHMI are such help and we will use them to establish statistics from our height data.  I will walk them through the lab report format for the Wisconsin Fast Plant adaptation lab as they use inquiry to explore the reproductive and heredity aspects of plants.  Ask Botany teacher for help and use the greenhouse?

 Reflecting on implemented lessons and strategies

It has been my first successful attempt at differentiating for both ESL and IEP in the introductory lesson for introduction to atoms of life CHNOPS. We gave ESL1 students copies of the vocabulary and periodic tables in their own languages (Spanish and Somali) and supported IEP students with reading strategies for the text.  However, in doing so we realized that for those 10  it worked but the other 30 kids were bored the assignment of reading and answering 35 questions was not a great fit.  They built models with toothpicks and marshmallows.

Reading Guide Syllabus AP BIO

First Quarter	Dates	Biology in FOCUS		Title	Page Numbers
Week 1	8/22/2017	Chapter	1	Introduction: Evolution and the Foundations of Biology	1-18
	8/30/2017	Chapter	19	Descent with Modification	365
Week 2	9/6/2017	Chapter	20 21	Phylogeny and The Evolution of Populations	381 399
Week 3	9/8/2017	Chapter	22 - 23	The Origin of Species and Broad Patterns of Evolution	481 436
Week 4	9/14/17	Chapter	2	The Chemical Context of Life	19
Week 5	9/20/2017	Chapter	3	Carbon and the Molecular diversity of Life	40
Week 6	9/28/0207	Chapter	4	A Tour of the Cell	66
Week 7	10/3/2017	Chapter	5	Membrane Transport and cell Signaling	94
Week 8	10/10/2017	Chapter	6	An Introduction to Metabolism	116
Week 9	10/17/2017	Chapter	7	Cellular Respiration and Fermentation	135
Week 10	10/24/2017	Chapter	8	Photosynthesis	155
Second Quarter			9	The Cell Cycle	174
Week 1	11/3/2017	Chapter	10	Meiosis and Scual Life cycles	192
	11/10/2017	Chapter	11	Mendel and the Gene Idea	206
Week 2	11/17/2017	Chapter	12	The Crhomosomal Basis of Inherinace	228
Week 3	11/30/2017	Chapter	13	The Molecular Basis of Inheritance	245
Week 4	12/8/2017	Chapter	14	Gene Expression: From Gene to Proten	268
Week 5	12/15/2017	Chapter	15	Regulation of Gene Expression	293
Week6	1/5/2018	Chapter	16	Development Stem Cells and Cancer	311
Week 7	1/12/2018	Chapter	17	Viruses	330
Week8	1/19/2018	Chapter	18	Genomes and Their Evolution	343
Week 9	1/26/2018	Chapter	24	Early Life and the Diversification of Prokaryotes	458
Third Quarter
Week 1	2/3/2018	Chapter	24	Early Life and the Diversification of Prokaryotes	470
	2/9/2018	Chapter	25	The Origin and Diversification of Eukaryotes	491
Week 2	2/16/2018	Chapter	26	The Colonization of Land by Plants and Fungi	504
Week 3	2/23/2018	Chapter	27	The Rise of Animal Diversity	528
Week 4	3/2/2018	Chapter	28-29	Plant Structure and Growth Resource Acquisition, Nutrition, and Transport in Vascular Plants	553, 571
Week 5	3/9/2018	Chapter	30 -31	Reproduction and Domestication of Flowering Plants and Plant Responses to Internal and External Signals	597 617
Week 6	3/16/2018	Chapter	32-33	Homeostasis and Endocrine Signaling, Animal Nutrition	641, 665
Week 7	3/23/2018	Chapter	34*36	Circulation and Gas Exchange, The Immune System, Reproduction and Development	700
Week 8	3/30/2018	Chapter	37-38	Neurons, Synapses and Signaling and Nervous and Sensory Systems	751, 768
Week 9	4/6/2018	Chapter	39*40	Motor Mechanisms and Behavior, Population Ecology	792, 818
Week 10	4/13/2018	Chapter	39-42	Species Interactions, Ecosystems and Energy, and Global Ecology	849, 864,882

Artificial Selection

What a week!
Oh yeah, inquiry science is amazing!  Especially watching painfully as they work out of the questions like how many seeds?  How much dirt should we put?  How do we water them?  What should we water them with?  To the amazing can you help me make a watering can? or Next time maybe we should... because...  or even better if it doesn't work this time, next we should...

The labels fell off the kids planters when I put the lid on, we left the lights off for the Labor Day weekend and will turn on the lights in 3 days.  This may have an effect on germination rate and when I got home, I found a note to myself to wait until after Labor Day to plant the fast plants.
Covered in a brick house for 3 hot days, no AC. Germination


Interest in doing more Brine Shrimp studies.  I planted more in a crusty salty container from last year.  We will see.  The labels fell off the kids when I put the lid on, we left the lights off for the Labor Day weekend and will turn on the lights in 3 days.  This may have an effect on germination rate and when I got home, I found a note to myself to wait until after Labor Day to plant the fast plants.
Covered in a brick house for 3 hot days, no AC. Germination

Interest in doing more Brine Shrimp studies.  I planted more in a crusty salty container from last year.  We will see.