Worms and dead shrimp

There was no school on Monday. This week was a short week, with our mid chapter quiz.
On Tuesday we made our biodomes. I thought it was really fun making it. I watched shrimp and snails wiggle around in the water. I was very excited to pick up a worm! It was very slimy. This is the first worm I have ever picked up! I liked planting the grass seeds and I hope they grow. I am sad the shrimp keep dying.
On Wednesday we reviewed for our quiz on plants; both vascular and non-vascular and their life cycle. We played really fun games including sink or swim. We also checked up on our beans and biodomes. My bean was growing okay, but not as well compared to others. It is really cool watching the progress of the socks on the wall to see if any socks had picked up spores from other spore producing plants outside from the previous week. I have seen growth over the week on some of the socks. I learned that it takes a lot of time and patience for plants to grow!
On Thursday we had our quiz. I need to improve on studying!!! I studied chapters 1-5 instead of Chapters 1-3! I thought it was a test instead of a quiz! Next time I will check with Mrs. Giacomelli before I study the wrong thing.
On Friday we dissected a bean and a corn kernel. It was my first time dissecting anything so it was a great learning experience. I had a fun week and the experiments were really fun as always.
I was so excited to pick up a worm I wanted to learn more about their life cycle. A really cool link is attached


http://www.worm-farming.com/worm-life-cycle.html

Dissected beans 

Dissecting a bean 

Growing sock plant 

Biodome

Midterm week

As usual this was a great week considering it was mid-term week! On Monday we reviewed for our science midterm by playing lots of fun games. My favorite, but hardest game was sink or swim. I thought it was a fun way to review because it felt more like a game than as though we were actually studying. We also checked up on our plants that we had planted the week before.
I noticed a big difference between last week and this week's bean growth. I noticed that the bean was cracked and looked really big. I thought it was cool growing a bean out of a cd case. It seems like the perfect way to observe and grow a bean at home because it was so much fun.
Tuesday we had our midterm. I thought it was both hard and easy. It was easy because I had studied really hard and knew the answers to the questions. It was hard because the information that I had missed at the beginning was more difficult and I had to work even harder on those questions.
On Wednesday we observed our beans once again. Sadly, my bean grew mold. I think I may have over watered it. If I tried this at home I could improve by adding less water each day. We also finished our leaf collection. I learned about the different scientific names of plants and I learned the different parts of the flower and leaves when I did my leaf ID card. I thought this was a very interesting way to examine and observe the leaves around us.
On Thursday I replanted my bean so it would not grow mold. I am hoping to see the results on Tuesday! It was fun this week in science even though it was midterm week.
I read the attached article on the 10 top study methods to reduce midterm anxiety. I liked the tips. I'm glad I survived my first set of midterms!!!

http://homework.answers.com/school-tests/reducing-midterm-anxiety-with-the-top-study-methods

Below are pictures from last week.

Protists and Fungi

During this week we had lots of fun. I thought learning about protists was jam packed with fun. I learned that protists are living one cell organisms.  I thought it was really cool learning about how bacteria grows, reproduces and thrives. I really enjoyed doing our disinfectant lab. We got our results and was surprised that soap was the winner and it had worked the best! My hypothesis that the soap would be less effective than the other sanitizers was wrong and the results were surprising. I can improve on my hypothesis by taking what I already know with what is obvious and make a better educated guess. We also finished our microorganisms in school environment lab. I enjoyed this lab very much and I didn't know that there were so many microorganisms in our school environment! After finding out that there was more bacteria than I thought there was in the school it made me want to wash my hands more considering that soap kills more bacteria.
We had our quiz on Wednesday and it was on Sections 1 and 2. I learned a lot about bacteria and viruses and made a good grade on the quiz. I think our class really understood bacteria and viruses considering we had so many As and Bs on this quiz. Thursday's lab was my favorite lab this week! We placed food in jars and are hoping they grow mold so we can observe it. On Friday we did our mold spore lab and checked the progress of the mold on the food from Thursday's lab. 
I wanted to see different types of protists and found a very informative site at microbe world. The link is attached.

http://www.microbeworld.org/types-of-microbes/protista

Viruses and Bacteria

This week in science we learned about viruses and bacteria. On Monday we took notes on the topic and we learned how viruses reproduce. We also did a lab that showed how viruses are transferred. Each student had a tube containing water and one student had a chemical in his tube. We all shared what was in our tubes without knowing who had the chemical. The person who shared their chemical infected the other tubes just like a virus would. On Tuesday we finished our lab by narrowing it down to who had the virus by seeing who had infected us and seeing who had infected them. On Wednesday we started a new lab. We grew bacteria in  petri dishes and agar. We then removed bacteria from different areas around the school where we thought bacteria would be. My group chose the computer keys which had 56 bacteria colonies. On Thursday I watched some of the progress of the bacteria .We also started another lab. In this lab we tested to see if anti-bacterial cleansers worked as well as they said they would. We put 4 hole punches with anti-bacterial cleansers on each of them in a petri dish with bacteria and waited for the results to see if the cleanser killed the bacteria in the petri dish. On Friday we looked at different bacteria that the other classes had grown. I wasn't surprised that the dumpster had the most bacteria.
This week I learned that bacteria is everywhere and that some bacteria is good and some are bad; but there is more good bacteria than bad bacteria. One way in which I can improve is by thinking more through my hypothesis when we do an experiment, by connecting the dots of the information I learn from my notes in class to what I actually do in my actual lab experiments.
I looked up the pandemic of 1918 and was shocked to learn that more Americans died from the flu in 1918 than the number of people who died in World War I! The link is attached.

http://www.flu.gov/pandemic/history/1918/the_pandemic/index.html

Thanksgiving Break

I was really looking forward to Thanksgiving because it is one of my favorite holidays. It was a short week in science but as always we had fun and lots of learning! On Monday we made ice cream! Even though we made ice cream which was fun, there was learning involved. I learned the effects of heat transfer on phase changes. The phase change in making the ice cream occurred when the heat was lost to change the milk from a liquid to a solid. During my ice cream experiment in class, the ice cream was not as smooth and solid as I would have liked it to be. So I decided to try a new technique and improve on the quality of my ice cream, by using sea salt at home in my ice cream experiment. At home, my ice cream was smoother and not as lumpy and stayed solid longer. I have attached pictures to show the improvement in the consistency of my ice cream. It was so good!
On Tuesday, I had to do my makeup test during class because I was sick the week before. However during guided study I was able to complete the classroom activity experiment in  gratitude. I had to write a thank you note to my mom and then call her to read it. I was so excited when she answered the phone because she never answers her phone. At first she thought I was sick because I have never called her from school. But then she was surprised when I read the note and was so grateful for the call. I am glad Mrs. Giacomelli did this because it made my mom's day!
Then we went on Thanksgiving break and my family ate lots and lots of food. My favorite dish was my mom's cranberry salad. I ate a whole tub just by itself. My family kept on eating lots of turkey but they did not know that turkey contains the amino acid tryptophan which can make you very tired. I googled the effects of tryptophan in turkey on making us tired and read about the effects, which also stated that if the tryptophan did not make us tired it was all the huge amounts of carbohydrates that we ate. I have attached the link to the website with information on tryptophan and also attached a picture of my family and the effects of our huge turkey Thanksgiving dinner! I realized how much I have to be thankful for this Thanksgiving holiday!!!!!!

http://science.howstuffworks.com/innovation/edible-innovations/question5191.htm  

Sick week

Last week was not a great week for me. I had science for only two days because I got really sick at the end of the week.. On Monday we did our meiosis review. I really missed Mrs. Giacomelli on Monday because I enjoy when she is there and I learn a lot. I learned during Monday's review that another word for "sex cells" is "gamete cells". We continued review on Tuesday with our protein synthesis worksheet. I learned how to decode mRNA codons. At first I thought it was difficult but after a lot of practice, I learned how to do it correctly and I improved on my knowledge of transcription and translation with practice. We also did a lab this week. We made a strip of DNA using twizzlers and marshmallows. I was absent for the rest of the week, but I know that the class reviewed for our test on Wednesday and Thursday in preparation for our test on Friday, which I missed.
I watched a protein synthesis animation video on you tube and that also helped me understand a little more. The link is below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ikq9AcBcohA

From the pictures in the dropbox it looks like science class was fun as usual and there was lots of learning going on. I have attached my favorite pictures and a picture of my week with my tissue box.

Human karyotyping

This week was a short week in science because there was no school on Monday. That does not mean the short week was not loaded with lots of learning and fun as usual! On Tuesday we learned the difference between sex cells and body cells and the different processes such as meiosis and mitosis. We also learned about the chromosome theory of inheritance. We had our Chapter quiz on Punnett squares, probability, heredity, genetics and also alleles. I really liked the Spongebob Punnett square page. That was fun! I was prepared for the quiz because I reviewed more carefully and studied my definitions. I realized while reviewing that trying to read the class notes from the class website was more challenging than I thought, so I had to print out the notes. In the future, I can improve in my notes preparation and make this less of a hassle if I print the notes ahead of time.
On Thursday we did a lab showing us how to make our own human karyotype. We did two karyotypes. One was normal and the other was abnormal. We had to determine the abnormality by looking at the number of chromosomes. We continued on Friday with karyotyping. We did a lab that showed us how karyotypes were put together and their purpose. We cut chromosomes and matched them from tallest to shortest and determined the abnormalities in the cell to determine the disease.
This week I was fascinated with genetics and how it causes disease in offspring and so I researched human karyotyping and found this website by the University of Utah that explained the process of using karyotyping to predict genetic disorders even more and I was able to play some of the games.

http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/begin/traits/predictdisorder/

I have also attached pictures of my dna model and others as well as class activities this week.