Beginning of the Year!

Here is what we have already done and will be doing at the beginning of this year:

• Mon 8/27:  Full 8 Day!  30 minutes of brief introduction to the year.  Read 4.1.
• Wed 8/29:  Classroom procedures.  Hand out Safety Contract and Academic Contract to be signed by next Friday 9/7.  Group work on Ecology.  Individual bookwork done in your notebook.  Read 4.2.
• Fri 8/31:  Go over 4.1 bookwork.  Discuss how to do Chi-Squared and do it.  Get 4.1 work checked off today or next Wednesday.  Notes on nutrient cycling, sustainability, and mesocosms.  Jane Poynter video on Biosphere 2.
• Wed 9/5:  Finish checking off 4.1 work and go over it.  Energy transformation notes.  At your table group, make an illustrated food web that includes at least 10 organisms and draw an energy pyramid that represents one of the food chains.  Read 4.3.
• Fri 9/7:  Carbon cycling.  Distinguish between carbon pools and carbon fluxes.  Pick 2 out of the 4 DBQ's in 4.3 and do them in your notebook.  Draw a labeled carbon cycle in your notebook.  Read 4.4 for next Tuesday.

In-class Work for 8/29/2018

Group Brainstorm.  Have somebody in your group record to share out.

1. What do you think “ecology” means?

2.  What topics do you think fit under the ecology umbrella?

3.  When people say that a person is “ecologically-minded”, what do they mean?

4.   Who are some famous ecologists?

To be done in your notebook (each of you).  You can use 4.1 in the text for the rest

5.  What are     a)  producers?     b)  primary consumers?    c)  secondary consumers?     

d)  detritivores?    e)  saprotrophs?       If possible, include an example of each of the above.

6.  What are   a)  autotrophs?    b)  heterotrophs?   Examples?

7.  Define:  a)  species    b)  population    c)  community

8. What is an ecosystem?  Give 3 examples.

9.  How does an ecosystem remain sustainable?

10. DBQ on p. 204

11. DBQ on p. 209 (start if you have time, but we will discuss this and have more time on Fri 9/31)

Welcome Back to IB Biology HL!!

Welcome back for your senior year (except for a couple of you) of IB Biology!  I think you will enjoy the material for this year as we have saved the best for last!  At the same time, it will also take a lot of effort and perseverance.  It can be very challenging to juggle college aps, extended essays, portfolios, athletics, activities, and just having a social life!  You will probably find that you can't do it all and you will have to make some choices so that you can navigate the year.  Here is the proposed outline of topics for this year: 

Ecology (Chapter 4)

Biodiversity (5.3 and 5.4)

Evolution (5.1, 5.2, 1.5 and 10.3)

Digestion (6.1)

Circulation (6.2)

Respiration (6.4)

Carry out Individual Investigation (IA)

Semester 1 Final Exam

Immunology (6.3 and 11.1)

Muscles and Movement (11.2)

The Kidney (11.3)

Sexual Reproduction (6.6 and 11.4)

Neurons and Synapses (6.5)

Option A,B,C, or D (we will vote shortly)

Review for the IB Exam!

Late April:  Practice IB Exam on Papers 1, 2, and 3

May:  take IB exams and work on end of year projects

Information about the Final Exam

1. The final exam is on the 2nd semester only
2. List of topics is in the documents section
3. Short answer questions are in the documents section (we will randomly choose 8 on the day of the test and you will answer 6 of the 8):  36 pts
4. About 40 multiple choice questions done on a Scantron:  40 pts
5. Any form of cheating, whether it be getting questions or answers from another person or source or GIVING questions or answers to another person or source, results in a score of ZERO on the exam.  Don't do it!
6. No phones are allowed out at all and you must remain quiet and nondistracting until all students are done with the exam.

End of the Year!

• Tues 5/22:  Finish up on Flowers.  Life Plant Video.  Fill out hand-out as we go and get it checked off.
• Thurs 5/24:  Kahoot Review for Plant Test.  Work on Plant Inquiry.  Deadline extended until Saturday 5/26 at 6:00 pm.
• Tues 5/29:  Plant Test.  Start reviewing for semester exam.
• Thurs 5/3l:  Go over review topics and Short/Medium Answer Questions for Final Exam.
• Mon 6/4:  Play Final Kahoot Review.  Deadline for late work and Extra Credit is today!  
• Wed 6/6:  Finals  1, 2, and 4.
• Thurs 6/7:  Finals 5, 6, and 8
• Fri 6/8:  Finals 3 and 7

Plant Inquiry Assignment

Plant Unit Inquiry:  You will be writing up the beginning of this lab, but you don’t have to do it!

1. Come up with a plant topic for which you can write an inquiry lab.  Check if with Ms. Kenny
2. Write at least 2 paragraphs of background, using citations where necessary.  Remember that usually backgrounds start general and then go to more specific (what you will be actually doing) and also hopefully give some reason why you think this investigation is important/interesting/worthwhile (5 pts)
3. Write a focused question (remember that it needs to be specific!)  (1 pt)
4. List and discuss variables:  independent (manipulated), dependent (responding), and at least 5 controls (explain how you will control them)  (3 pts)
5. Methodology:  explains what you will do and how you will do it, being specific.  Include the tools you will use to measure things, how many trials you are doing (1 plant is a trial, so 10 in a pot is 10 trials!), and what conditions you are using and why (for example if you are changing salinity, what salinities are you using:  do research so you know what is reasonable!). (5 pts)
6. Finally, although you don’t have to do it, you should outline the data-processing you will do and what information you hope to get from it.  (2 pts)

This inquiry is due through turnitin.com by Thursday, May 24.  16 pts in the Lab Section of your grade.

Almost the End of the Year!

• Tues 5/8:  Notes on Transpiration in Plants.  Virtual Transpiration Lab.  Can be done in pairs.  Answer the questions in your notebook and get them checked off on Thursday 5/10.  Remember that your Court Testimony for the DNA Fingerprinting Lab is due today through turnitin.com.  Check off Leaf Anatomy Worksheet.
• Thurs 5/10:  Check off Virtual Transpiration Lab and go over.  Look at stomata through a microscope.   Examine one way to make a potometer.  Xerophytes and Halophytes.  Start going over the process of translocation in phloem.  Read 9.2.
• Mon 5/14:  Finish notes on Translocation.  Start notes on growth in plants.  Seed germination:  start some seeds in your group!  When done do DBQs on p. 418 and p. 424.  Read 9.3.
• Wed 5/16:  Check your seeds and plant them!  Plant tropisms and micropropagation of plants.  Structure of an animal-pollinated flower.  Finish DBQs from the other day and get them checked off.  Read 9.4.
• Fri 5/18:  Flowering, pollination, fertilization, and seed dispersal.  Difference between monocots and dicots.