Watch and take quizzes for 3 Brainpops: DNA, RNA, and Heredity. Discuss theories about Nature vs. Nurture. Use Punnet squares to identify: homozygous genotypes, heterozygous genotypes, phenotypes, dominant and recessive genes. Google examples of co-dominance and incomplete dominance. Discuss Mendel's Principle of Segregation and Principle of Independent Assortment.
Assignment
Study heredity vocab, evolution video worksheet
Session Minutes
135
Minutes Student Attended
135
Lesson Comments
Rowan did pretty good, but I was a little surprised about how much difficulty he had when the Brainpop quizzes would ask simple questions involving a nature vs nurture theme. Given both the enormous evolutionary and social applications of this theme, I think I'm going to devote Monday's session to it.
Help Rowan put together his adaptive radiation poster. Review heredity terminology. Watch Brainpop about DNA and take the quiz at the end.
Assignment
Study for heredity terminology quiz Friday
Session Minutes
90
Minutes Student Attended
90
Lesson Comments
I was very pleased with Rowan's final product for his project. We discussed what grade he should get, and agreed that a 92 was fair. Rowan would have gotten a 100 except that he didn't have certain portions of the project completed when they were originally due.
Help Rowan edit and type up his 4 paragraphs about his 4 different fish species for his adaptive radiation poster.
Assignment
Completed adaptive radiation poster due Monday; "Evolution" video clip questions
Session Minutes
135
Minutes Student Attended
120
Lesson Comments
Lost about 15 minutes of session because of the late lunch. Rowan did not have any of his homework completed. However he worked hard on his project during class today and I'm looking forward to seeing his completed project on Monday.
Biological Evolution quiz. Watch and discuss short video explaining the theory of evolution and clarifying common misconceptions. Continue work on divergent evolution project- review what Rowan has drawn and written in his "rough draft" and discuss areas that need improvement.
Assignment
Draw full color pictures of 4 species, type up descriptions.
Session Minutes
90
Minutes Student Attended
90
Lesson Comments
Good lesson! Rowan got a 91% on his bio. evolution terminology quiz. He continues to enjoy his divergent evolution project.
Review biological evolution terminology.
Project: Create an imaginary species of organism that undergoes adaptive radiation by evolving into 3 new species. Draw each species and write a paragraph explaining the features of each organism and how they help it to survive. For each new species, explain what sorts of environmental pressures caused the evolution of new features. Rough draft.
Assignment
Study for vocan quiz monday
Session Minutes
135
Minutes Student Attended
115
Lesson Comments
Rowan dove right into this one...I thought this project would be perfect for him because several times he has drawn animals that he created in his mind and asked me if I thought it was a "plausible" animal. So now he gets to create and draw several animals and apply the principles of natural selection and adaptation to them.
Enter and review Biological Evolution vocabulary. View and discuss keynote about vestigial structures, homologous structures, embryology, and artificial selection. Discuss the lines of evidence for evolution and review the principles of natural selection. Play "Who Wants to Live a Million Years?" on NatGeo.
Discuss evolutionary implications of sexual reproduction vs. asexual reproduction. Introduce the cell cycle, do diagram illustrating and explaining the steps of mitosis. Introduce Inheritance terminology. Study biological evolution terminology. Introduce meiosis keynote project.
Assignment
Enter inheritance terminology into quizlet. Study biological evolution terminology. Create meiosis keynote.
Session Minutes
90
Minutes Student Attended
90
Lesson Comments
Good session! I gave Rowan a project to do for homework, because I will not have class with him again for almost 2 weeks due to his surgery and then President's Day. I am doing a brief unit on heredity because Rowan has never studied it, and it is such a necessary part of understanding evolution.
Read article "No Left Turn," which is about a species of snake in South Asia that has developed "right-mouthedness": an asymmetrical dental structure that helps them remove snails from their right-coiled (dextral) shells. Meanwhile, a portion of the population of the snails develop left-coiled (sinistral) shells. Answer questions based on this article, and discuss the meaning of an "evolutionary arms-race." * Play "Who Wants to Live a Million Years: The Charles Darwin Game"at science.discovery.com. *Create new terminology set in quizlet: biological evolution. Review terms such as homologous structures and vestigial structures. Address new terms, including punctuated equilibrium, adaptive radiation, co-evolution, divergent evolution. Discuss microevolution vs. macroevolution.
Session Minutes
90
Minutes Student Attended
90
Lesson Comments
Good session. We got a lot done today and Rowan was engaged.
Go over Rowan's test on Geologic Dating. Introduce the 5 principles of natural selection.
Assignment
Reading Assignment (Prothero)
Session Minutes
90
Minutes Student Attended
90
Lesson Comments
Rowan did well on the terminology portion of the exam, as well as answering questions on absolute dating. However, his understanding of relative dating using stratigraphy needs improving.
