FIELD TRIP

where: Pacific Science Center
when: Friday, December 20, 2013  from 8:20-3:00 
what: planetarium and exhibits
who: 5th-8th grades

cost: $9:00

 PARENT INFO:
 I have three drivers currently: Mrs. Johnson, myself, and Mr. Nickum.  It would be more comfy if we have one more car!  Let me know if a trip to the city would add to your Christmas cheer!

 Student info:  PACK YOUR LUNCH! Bring enough to keep your Krebs cycle rocking in your mitochondria.   

Pacific Science Center

Biochemistry Basics part two- I have questions!

and you have answers!

Here's the big seven questions of life chemistry. Everything starts here in living things.

  There's a lot of information in that basic set of biochemistry papers I doled out today.  Use your highlighters, listen, write stuff down make connections.  I will look forward to hearing what you have to say tomorrow and then update the blog with definitions.  We'll test your knowledge next week on a quiz.

What is metabolism? All the chemical processes that take place in an organism

What is photosynthesis? Plants making sugar from oxygen, carbon, water and sunlight.  This takes place in the chloroplasts of plant cells, which are special organelles.

What is the equation for photosynthesis?

H2O + CO2 + sunlight----> C6 H12 06  + O2

What does photosynthesis mean for life?
Without it, there isn't life.  Almost every living depends on glucose at some point

What is glycolysis? The process of breaking sugar down into usable energy.

What is the equation?
C6H12O6 ---->usable energy +CO2+ H20

What do you get? The mitochondria in human and animal cells breaks down sugar through glycolysis, a few electrons, and the Krebs to produce usable energy stored mainly as a compound called ATP.  It also produces carbon dioxide and some water molecules. 

Biochemistry Beginnings Vocabulary

We start our unit on biochemistry basics this week.  Here is the vocabulary you need to know for a quiz next Tuesday.

element
atom
molecule
compound
organic compound
carbohydrates
lipids
proteins
enzymes
nucleic acids

Periodic table 1-34

Stay tuned for final results, but it looks as if Comet ISON got a little too close for it to remain intact.  

ISON footage from Goddard Space Center


This is great footage from NASA.

End of Unit Test

What: 30-35 Thoughtful questions encompassing the entire astronomy unitWhen: Tuesday, December 3, 2013Where: CascadeWhat should I do? Review, study, prepare a review sheet because good things happen to prepared students (like bonus or brief access to study sheets at beginning of quiz)

Who: 6-8 grade Science Students

Review terms for Astronomy

History-telescopes, heliocentric vs. geocentric theory, tools (gnomon, etc.) People: Galileo, Kepler, Copernicus, Brahe, Ptolemy, Newton, earth’s motions of revolution and rotation

Universe-expanding, vast, containing lots of different structures, mass only accounts for a tiny portion of its size.  Dark matter is main component.  

Stars and their ilk-black holes, novae, supernovae, quasars, stars (come in different sizes and colors,cycle through a life span)neutron stars,variable stars, binary systems, galaxy types, nebula

Sun-center of our solar system, located in Milky Way Spiral galaxy, runs on nuclear fusion at its core,has sunspots, solar flares, creates solar winds, composed of hydrogen and helium, source of life giving electromagnetic energy waves that create heat and light, also neutrinos

Planets (Earth, too)- order, gas giants, terrestrial planets, Jovian, which ones have moons, which ones have rings, inactive and active planets

Other Solar System Occupants- asteroids, meteors (ites, oids), comets, our moon

Neutrinos

Neutrinos...caught in an incredibly creative way.

Remember neutrinos?  They make up the remainder of particles emitting from stars which are not electromagnetic wave types, basically.  They pass right through us and the Earth...kind of weird.  They don't interact with other particles much, so it's really hard to detect them.

Until now.  It's still hard, but scientists in Antarctica have caught a few.

Neutrino catcher

Have a great weekend. Don't forget the quiz on Tuesday- asteroids, comets, meteors (-oids, -ites, too) and the Moon!

Look for ISON in the Eastern Sky before sunrise (about 1/2 hour).

Assignments for next report, due December 6, 2013.

Space Missions - Manned and Unmanned
 Please address dates, purpose, measure of success in goals, and how it affected future missions.  300-400 words.


        Student              Topic

1. Ethan                Mars Curiosity
2. Jameson           Viking Program
3. Drake               Pioneer Program
4. Christian          Galileo 
5. Aleah               Voyager Program
6. Josiah               Mars Spirit
7. Brooke             Gemini Program
8. Miles               International Space Station
9. Anna               Mars Sojourner
10. Mary Marie     Magellan
11. Christy             Space Shuttle Program
12. Hannah            Cassini-Huygens
13. George             Mars Opportunity
14. Livi                 Mercury program
15. Krysta              Skylab
16. Alec                 Apollo program

BBC's "The Planets" Report

No test this week during conferences.

Instead, please write a 400-500 word essay over the two episodes of BBC's the Planets that we watched.  We watched and discussed episodes 1 and 2, "Different Worlds" and "Terra Firma".  There are several ways to approach your report.

• Organize it as a summary
• Respond to the discussion questions I handed out by using complete sentences and an orderly approach--restating the questions as you respond.  The link is below.    There's also some vocabulary and some activities, but look at  the section labeled discussion questions. 
• Restate in your words the current theory of solar system formation  and explore where it lines up with Christian belief and where it departs

AETV Guide to Terra Firma

  Also, please remember there will be another go around on Periodic Table#1-26.  1-19 are randomly and partially filled in, and 20-26 are completely blank. 

QUIZ TOMORROW!

Name and list the seven planets which aren't Earth in the correct order, spelling counts.
Tell me three things about each planet:  what kind is it, does it have rings, does it have moons, is it different in its orbit....does its soil have a high iron content, rusting away?

Know what the following terms mean, be able to use them.

Aphelion
Perihelion
Albedo

Kepler's 3 laws of planetary motion, in your words--remember, shape, speed, size of orbits.

We did not get to AU.

Next topic of report is due December 2,  topics will be assigned by Mrs. Steele.

Bring a snack if you like, along with your notetaking skills, to watch "The Planets" from BBC later this week.  Please remember to bring critical thinking skills too, as we view this with a mindset that there is a Creator.

Elements 1-26 this week--- 19-26 are the whole caboodle, 1-18 will be fill in the missing part.

Topics, Vocab, and elements to learn this week

PT Test Friday, November 1 Elements 1-22  (1-18 are random, 19-22 all)

Report also due on Friday-- 300 words over the agreed-upon topic.

Quiz over planets  next Tuesday--

Facts about each planet
Name them in order
Spell them correctly
Vocab:
Perihelion
Aphelion
Albedo

What an astronomical unit is and its abbreviation

Kepler's 3 laws of planetary motion  (middle school version)

Differences between inner and outer planets and which are which

Happy trails to you on this third rock from the sun!

SCHEDULE UPDATE

Dear Students,

Thank you so much for your flexibility and hard work this fall.  Good job!  I just wanted to update the class schedule now that we've had several weeks of trial and error.

Monday- Active instruction, have your book, have your brain and be ready to think about concepts.
Tuesday- Quiz Day with Miss Molinaro in Cascade
Wednesday- New concept framework=vocabulary given, ideas discussed
Thursday-Active instruction over new information
Friday- Periodic Table Quiz, more delving into new concepts

The lesson cycle begins on Wednesdays, ends the following Tuesday.

Periodic table elements will be listed in a calendar coming soon.  On short weeks, we will push the periodic table quiz to the following Monday.  (Like this week!  Quiz will be over elements 1-14, name, number and symbol).

Ultra Deep Field Hubble

Hubble Ultra Deep Field in 3 D

We will look at this Wednesday, but I wanted to get this on the blog so you can check it out. By the way, the singing astronaut is Canadian Chris Hadfield.  He has a dedicated channel on you-tube and a teenaged kid of his own, so he mixes that up to interact with educators everywhere.

But this link is pretty amazing~enjoy!
http://hubblesite.org/explore_astronomy/deep_astronomy/episodes/

and the usual caveats apply to a Christian world view versus naturalism.  Consider together.

Dear Leon Foucault

So this was kind of awesome!  We were JUST talking about you, long-departed Leon Foucault, and Google (which would blow your 19th century mind)  decided to celebrate your famous demonstration device with an official Doodle.  By the way, I apologize for the misnomer our textbook stuck you with.  Jean was your first name, true, but it seems your papa Foucault was called Jean whilst  you preferred Leon.  You were a very busy guy, calculating the rough speed of light and naming the gyroscope.  You died fairly young, at 48.  I wonder what you would have accomplished had you lived a bit longer? Great thinking!


http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/comic-riffs/post/leon-foucault-many-happy-returns--googles-interactive-pendulum-doodle-celebrates-french-physicist/2013/09/18/4ab91736-2013-11e3-94a2-6c66b668ea55_blog.htm

Weather, whether, weather it's weird or what!

Howdy and hooray! It's nearly time for school to start again.  I have been plotting and planning on a COSMIC scale.  (That's a clue about where we're starting.)  Bring your brains, because we're going to be learning about all kinds of scientific goodness and the wild weirdness of God's amazing mind for details and all-out, mind-boggling, complicated coolness of many topics.
There's something for everyone's interest this year as we investigate and learn about very small things to the biggest thing there is besides God.

First things first.  Go to this link and watch the video and read about a very strange atmospheric phenomenon. Sprites. Yes, you read that correctly.  Sprites.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/08/13/211716322/sprites-a-rarely-seen-sky-phenomenon-caught
Check out the amazing still photo that Mr. Ahrns (a student at the University of Alaska at Fairbanks) took from a high altitude flight.

And then check this link out.  Ahem.  A signed note from a parent saying you participated in spotting the station before school starts will be worth 5 points on your first quiz.   That's assuming the station shows up again in the night sky over our heads.  You can also get text alerts.

spotthestation.nasa.gov

My summer homework for you is simple: spend some time stargazing.  See if you can find some stuff.  There's meteors ahoy this time of year if you can convince your parents that staying up late is an academic pursuit. If you find a meteor with a parent, you can bring me a note or have them email me for 5 points if the station spotter doesn't pan out.  *you can have one or the other, not both.

Happy summer! Praying for you!

A little space music...

Space Oddity

Skip the add if it's anything like the one that popped up on mine, but it's so worth it to watch Chris Hadfield (who is older than ME!) sing this song from the International Space Station.  Gorgeous shots...can't wait to visit this topic with next year's middle school students. :)  Eight grade students, you are always welcome to visit us here at this website to see what bizarre things I have scrounged up for you to see.

Science Fair in three weeks!

SCIENCE FAIR IS IN THREE WEEKS!  Okay, give yourself exactly ten seconds to panic.  Now take a deep breath and go find your info packet.  If you have lost one, the ladies in the office will assist you with another one. This packet has what you need to get a good project done. BY NOW: You should be pretty clear on your topic, conducting some research or refining your experiment, recording observations, collecting data.  You should also be gathering supplies to present your project, like a trifold project board.  Start thinking about how to present your data.


New (as in not deceased) scientist report--  This brief report of 300 words is due June 5.  It should include a modern day scientist with the following information: education, name, field of expertise, philosophy of cosmology (origins of life, beginnings of the universe, etc.)  how they became interested in their science fields, what contributions they have made, what their current interests are...anything else you can find that is pertinent.  Good places to hunt one down:  Nobel prize winners in the sciences,  science periodicals, news such as NPR which is more science focused...or think about what fields you find interesting and start searching for influential current leaders in the field.

the rest of the mollusk video...pretty cool!  I have also included one of the  fabulous swimming nudibranches.
Amazing underwater astonishments

Spanish dancer nudibranch

It comes complete with five minutes of swimming sea slug accompanied by a traditional flamenco tune. :)

Genetic Disease Research

Write a paragraph or so long essay-ette about the genetic disease to which you have been assigned. Your paper should be about 200-300 words (no more, please) and should include the following information.

1.  Name of genetic disease and any common name it carries.
2.  Type of genetic disease-- usually one of or a combination of the following: sex-linked, dominant, recessive, chromosomal abnormality, or spontaneous mutation.
3. Symptoms of  or changes from normal human development.
4. Treatment and prognosis

Due Tuesday, March 19.  You can email your finished paper to me if you would like at the school and they can forward it to me.  (This is a public blog, so I don't want to put it here.)

Meet Tim

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18563_162-57454369/tims-place-restaurant-takes-unique-approach-thanks-to-special-owner/



Here's the article I was telling you about--meet Tim!

Mitosis video

Here's the video I tried to load in class! If the commercial loads, skip after 5 seconds.  Watch and pause a couple of times to get the picture. 

Mitosis video

Okay, here's a very good video about meiosis that also explains the difference between meiosis and mitosis.
BUT! I have to give two warnings for families. There's a reference to evolution, and there's also, ahem, some potentially embarrassing references so don't fall off your chair.  But it's all stuff you need to know, and what better way to learn embarrassing terms than without your peers around?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35ncSrJOwME

Have a good weekend.  Don't forget to collect your info about family eye color.  Grandparents or best guesses, and both parents.  Write them down and be ready to go for class on Monday.

Chemistry test alert

TEST ALERT! Unit 1 test on Thursday.  I sent home a detailed study sheet today and we will review tomorrow. But please study.

And when you need a break, here's the giant squid.

 http://www.npr.org/2013/01/13/169274472/the-kraken-is-real-scientist-films-first-footage-of-a-giant-squid
  Or maybe you should just check out this icky animation about what viruses do to your cells and how your body responds.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/krulwich/2013/01/12/169183716/phooey-on-flu