Welcome to the 2011-2012 School Year!

Every week or two, I will be writing a post on this blog that details the current activities and homework.  Sometimes we will not get to all that was planned or there will be slight changes, but for the most part, this is a very good place to look to see what we did in class.  In addition, you will find that most class documents will be available on the side using Google Docs.  Occasionally the formatting for documents suffers in the translation to Googledocs.  If you have questions (students or parents), feel free to e-mail me at mkenny@pps.net

• Tues 9/6:  Short classes.  Take Roll.  Students fill out information sheets.  Demonstrate Early Work.  Hand out Classroom Expectations.  Read them and bring questions this week or next.
• Wed 9/7:  First Early Work.  Go over basic classroom rules and routines.  Small group activity:  parts of speech of science.  Share out class ideas.  First lab activity:  counting brine shrimp cysts.  You and your lab partner should each count the cysts in the 7 identified quadrats, then calculate your estimate for the total number of cysts.  Show work neatly in the space provided on the front or back of the lab hand-out.  Before you go, hydrate your cysts and leave to hatch.  Read 1.1 in text.
• Fri 9/9:  Hand out Safety Contract and Academic Honesty Contract.  Bring them both back signed by yourself and a parent/guardian by Thurs 9/15.  Attempt to count live (hatched) brine shrimp.  If not enough hatched yet, pick up statistics hand-out for TI-84's and work through it.  I will bring the t-test information on Tuesday so that you can complete it then.   After counting is complete, everyone in the class can begin working with the live brine shrimp to find a factor (light, color, salinity, etc.) that might affect their behavior in a measurable way.  We will carry out this experiment next Tuesday and/or Thursday depending on whether you were able to count your brine shrimp today.  Read 1.2 in text.
• Tues 9/13:   Count hatched brine shrimp and calculate percent hatching.  Finish TI-84 activity.  Turn in TI-84 Activity and Brine Shrimp counts hand-out by Thurs 9/15.  Complete your plan for the brine shrimp behavior inquiry and turn it in to me today.  Hand out IB Biology Survival Guide.  Read 1.3.
• Thurs 9/15:  Carry out Brine Shrimp Inquiry.  Take data, start processing data, and write down possible conclusions.  Written lab due Wed 9/21 for color-marking.  Hand out "Using Statistics to Illuminate Data".  Do pages 23-25 of this packet by Mon 9/19.