These next few weeks are a little tricky. I have to prepare my students for the grade 8 exam, plus get them ready for midterm exams, plus keep moving forward with the content and the labs for regents. At this point we have almost 600 minutes of lab time, which is not where I would like to be. I will need to step up the pace a little in the third marking period so there will be plenty of time for tying things together and test prep in May/June.
- Microscopy – Introduction/Review, looking at plant & animal cells and various human cells, estimating size with grids. This has to be made from scratch, and depends on what materials I can get my hands on at school or by ordering.
- Extracting DNA – A “throwaway” lab, more of an attention getter than anything else. I may work some scientific method into it – manipulating a variable and measuring the amount of DNA that can be extracted.
- Dichotomous Keys – A review for the middle school exam (end of January), also a skill included in the Living Environment curriculum. I’ll probably use past activities for this one.
- Making Connections – required lab - NY State
- Digestive System Model – a “design” project. Students will use readily available materials to build a model of the digestive system.
- Return to mealworms for students who are interested in doing an exit project with them – I won’t force this one on anyone.
Completed Labs
- Yo! Where’s my Peanut – a dinky "close-looking," observation activity.
- Black Box/Mental Models Lab – mystery in a box, develop mental model using observations.
- Finches' beaks – NY State Required Lab
- Mendel’s Peas Simulation - this one didn't go so well, mainly because I messed up the ratios myself!
- Alien Heredity
- Mitosis with Pipe Cleaners
- Osmosis Through an Egg Membrane
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