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Week of Sept 8 to Sept 12
Cool fact: More deaths are caused in Africa by hippos each year than by all other animals combined. But, hippos are not carnivores and are not killing for food! However, they are VERY territorial and will slash or trample people who stumble into their part of the river or stray onto their paths to their water.
HW: MONDAY: Bl. 1 - finish ALL Fold-its in packet (reviewing experimental design); Bl 3 & 4 - Finish Comparison fold-it (IV vs DV) and matchbox fold-it ("Hypothesis"); METRIC UNIT QUIZ on WEDNESDAY & TEST on Experimental Design/Nature of Science on FRIDAY.
TUESDAY: ALL blocks - do the next practice sheet on experimental design; Bl. 3 & 4 - also finish fold-its (Bl. 3 - finish all, Bl 4 - all but inside of 4-corner); WEDNESDAY: ALL blocks - do the next practice sheet! TEST on Experimental Design/Nature of Science on FRIDAY.
HW: MONDAY: Bl. 1 - finish ALL Fold-its in packet (reviewing experimental design); Bl 3 & 4 - Finish Comparison fold-it (IV vs DV) and matchbox fold-it ("Hypothesis"); METRIC UNIT QUIZ on WEDNESDAY & TEST on Experimental Design/Nature of Science on FRIDAY.
TUESDAY: ALL blocks - do the next practice sheet on experimental design; Bl. 3 & 4 - also finish fold-its (Bl. 3 - finish all, Bl 4 - all but inside of 4-corner); WEDNESDAY: ALL blocks - do the next practice sheet! TEST on Experimental Design/Nature of Science on FRIDAY.
Week of August 26 to 29
Cool fact: A few new species of the Slow Loris have been discovered in Borneo recently. A member of the primate order, the Slow Loris is the only venomous primate. They create their venom in patches in their armpits, which they then wipe on their teeth before they bite (or sometimes they wipe it on their young to protect them from predators)! While they may make the only poison in the primate group, as a middle school teacher I can assure you that they are not the only primates with toxic armpits!!
HW: Monday: By now you should have turned in your signed syllabus and "parent letter". Please do so ASAP if you haven't yet! QUIZ on Friday on metric tools - review your warm-ups! Tuesday: Bl 1 & 4: Do the cartoons and the explanations on page A-4. Bl 3 - No HW, but you'll have to do this tomorrow!
HW: Monday: By now you should have turned in your signed syllabus and "parent letter". Please do so ASAP if you haven't yet! QUIZ on Friday on metric tools - review your warm-ups! Tuesday: Bl 1 & 4: Do the cartoons and the explanations on page A-4. Bl 3 - No HW, but you'll have to do this tomorrow!
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Cool fact: Donald Jusa is an Indonesian photographer who uses a macro camera to photograph amazing close-ups of insects. Look at more of his amazing work at this website.
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Cool fact: Donald Jusa is an Indonesian photographer who uses a macro camera to photograph amazing close-ups of insects. Look at more of his amazing work at this website.
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Cool fact: Ants are farmers, just like humans! They help trees grow to collect nectar from them, and they grow fungus in their nests on the leaves that they cut down and bring back. They even raise and protect aphids and caterpillars for the nectar they secrete, just like we keep dairy cows and chickens! (The picture shows leaf cutter ants taking back their leaves to their nest. They will chew them up, grow fungus on them, and eventually harvest the fungus to eat!)
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Cool fact: In Arizona, scientists (and many others) are trying to develop a totally self-sustaining (long-lasting on its own) environment within an enclosed space. The only thing that is allowed in to the biosphere is light. All the air, water, and materials are recycled by the things living inside. If we are ever going to colonize Mars we will need something like this! They call this self-sustaining environment "Biosphere 2", as Biosphere 1 is the Earth! Check out this project at this website.
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Cool fact: There is a lot more going on inside of a cell than we can even imagine, and certainly more than our pictures seem to suggest. The movie we watched in class is linked here- try to see how many things are going on at one time!
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cell_analogies_project.doc | |
File Size: | 33 kb |
File Type: | doc |
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Cool Fact: Many of you know of Ms. Weed's aversion to sloths on the ground (in trees and hanging on to things is ok, though). Did you know that there once existed GIANT ground-dwelling sloths? And even cooler, there was a giant marine sloth called the Thalassocnus. It lived in South America during the Miocene and Pliocene periods of ancient history and swam in waters, eating sea grass and seaweeds. It was a bit like a manatee, but sloth-like. Ms. Weed is not sure what to make of this one. More on this creature (and its modern-day cousin - video of a three-toed sloth swimming!) here.
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Cool Fact: Many of you know of Ms. Weed's aversion to sloths on the ground (in trees and hanging on to things is ok, though). Did you know that there once existed GIANT ground-dwelling sloths? And even cooler, there was a giant marine sloth called the Thalassocnus. It lived in South America during the Miocene and Pliocene periods of ancient history and swam in waters, eating sea grass and seaweeds. It was a bit like a manatee, but sloth-like. Ms. Weed is not sure what to make of this one. More on this creature (and its modern-day cousin - video of a three-toed sloth swimming!) here.
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Cool Fact: Actually - this is a sad fact: Henrietta Lacks (August 1, 1920 – October 4, 1951) contributed amazing things to medical research, but with her knowledge or permission. She had a fast-growing, aggressive tumor, and when she sought help at Johns Hopkins University, her doctor took a sample of her cells. These cells (HeLa cells, from her name) turned out to be immortal - ever-growing and never dying of old age - and have been incredibly useful in many different kinds of research. While HeLa cells have been sold to many scientists, Mrs. Lacks' family never knew and never saw a penny of this money.
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Cool Fact: Actually - this is a sad fact: Henrietta Lacks (August 1, 1920 – October 4, 1951) contributed amazing things to medical research, but with her knowledge or permission. She had a fast-growing, aggressive tumor, and when she sought help at Johns Hopkins University, her doctor took a sample of her cells. These cells (HeLa cells, from her name) turned out to be immortal - ever-growing and never dying of old age - and have been incredibly useful in many different kinds of research. While HeLa cells have been sold to many scientists, Mrs. Lacks' family never knew and never saw a penny of this money.
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Week of Feb 3 - Feb 7
Cool Fact: Mae C. Jemison was the first African-American female astronaut, travelling to space on the shuttle Endeavor in 1992. She knew from a young age that she wanted to be a scientist, and got her Bachelor's degree in chemical engineering from Stanford University. She then became a doctor, working overseas for the Peace Corps before applying to become an astronaut. Her biography can be found here.
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Cool Fact: Mae C. Jemison was the first African-American female astronaut, travelling to space on the shuttle Endeavor in 1992. She knew from a young age that she wanted to be a scientist, and got her Bachelor's degree in chemical engineering from Stanford University. She then became a doctor, working overseas for the Peace Corps before applying to become an astronaut. Her biography can be found here.
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Week of Jan 27 to Jan 31
Cool Fact: Scientists who study animals often have to rely on information that they can get from examining the dung (feces, or poop!) from the animals. A lot can be learned from dung! What the animal eats, where it travels, how big the groups are, and even how many individuals there are can all be learned by charting and examining dung samples! Read more about it here!
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Cool fact: The peacock spider is not only beautiful (see picture!) but it has flaps for gliding, a lot like the flying squirrel! They are mostly tiny spiders, but truly beautiful. Try doing a google image search of them!
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Cool Fact: We have more bacteria living in us and on us than we do our own cells! Yikes! BUT, most of them are helpful bacteria, and we couldn't survive without them. In fact, our bellybutton has the most diversity!
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Cool Fact: Jellyfish are very simple animals made of 95% water. They have a simple nervous system called a nerve net, and a very simple digestive system. However, their jelly-like substance is easy to produce, and for that reason, many scientists think that jellyfish are extremely successful organisms, populating waters all over the world! They have even have found a jellyfish that may be immortal! Read about it here!
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Cool fact: Some of the most brilliant discoveries in science have come from failures! Penicillin was discovered by Dr. Alexander Fleming mostly by chance, as he was cleaning up some contaminated petri dishes of bacteria. Of course, he had to be open to seeing the importance of his "failure"! Read the whole story HERE.
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Cool Fact: Researchers have found a bacteria that can create tiny gold nuggets from toxic gold ions in its environment. Wonder if we could get enough for a ring?? See the article here.
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Week of Aug 26 to Aug 30
Cool fact: In the late 1990's, a scientist named Dr. Vacanti injected cow cartilage cells into an ear-shaped mold under a mouse's skin. The cells grew into tissue, and the result was an "ear" (just the outer shell, not the inner ear) growing on the back of a mouse.
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Cool Fact: While animals mostly cooperate with others of the same species, sometimes they form relationships with others of a different species. Most of these relationships are between any individuals of each species, and are not "personal". However, the sweet story of Owen the Hippo adopting Mzee the tortoise as his motehr i
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Cool fact: Scientists have discovered that all giant squid seem to be the same species. As giant squid are found all over the world, this is an astonishing fact. They aren't sure if squid travel a great deal through their lifetimes, or drift long distances when they are still eggs. Oh, and that creepy picture? That's a giant squid's eye! Read more about the Creepy Eye here.
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Cool Fact: Some squid are bioluminescent, which means they can create their own light! Check out this article about the Firefly Squid in Japan!
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Cool Fact: One quarter of all mammal species are bats! The smallest bat (and probably the smallest mammal) is the bumblebee bat, found in Southeast Asia. It is about the size of a bumblebee and lives in limestone caves. It is currently threatened by humans who are burning forest near its caves as well as tourists who disturb it, wanting to see the smallest mammal.
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Cool Fact: Look at those world record trees over to the left! Amazing to think that some of them have been alive longer than Western civilization has been around!
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iv_dv_hw.docx | |
File Size: | 115 kb |
File Type: | docx |
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Cool fact: 25% of a Chinese population sample has shown a gene that is uncommon in other groups. This gene may explain why they were harder hit with the swine flu than other groups, and may change HOW we treat illnesses in different people.
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Cool fact: Watson and Crick made the first accurate model of DNA, and published their findings in a one page paper. You can read this ground-breaking paper yourself! Read it here!
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Cool fact: All cells in your body are replaced every 7 years. Most cells die and are replaced by new ones, but nerve cells never die (and never divide). They are replaced piece by piece, until the entire nerve cell is made of different parts than it used to be! (see nerve cells at left)
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Cool fact: Cuckoo birds are parasites! They lay their eggs in another birds' nest, and when the baby cuckoo hatches, it kicks all the other baby birds or unhatched eggs out of the nest. The parents of those eggs think that the cuckoo is their chick and raise it, even though it is an intruder who has killed all of their own offspring. (See the picture to the left of the very large cuckoo chick being fed by the host bird.)
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Cool fact: Until fairly recently, it was thought that hyenas were the scavengers for lion kills, and that the lions did all the work. Now we know that hyenas often kill the prey, and lions bully them away and take it from them. Lions are the scavengers in this case!
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