End of Unit One - On to the Nuts and Bolts of Biology

Unit one is officially over! Quizzes are graded and scores are posted in PowerSchool. Frog and microscope labs are graded as well and will be in PowerSchool by the end of the school day Friday. Next we will begin the macromolecule unit (biochemistry)

Here is the schedule for the unit:

Friday Sept. 23: Introduce macromolecules & start notes (see wiki for PowerPoint) & worktime for Frankenstein letter (due Tuesday)

Tuesday Sept. 27: Identifying macromolecules lab (see wiki for lab sheet) & Frankenstein letter due

Wednesday Sept. 28: Finish macromolecules notes (see video on wiki on Friday) & construct tree map of notes (due Thursday)

Thursday Sept. 29: Make enzyme puzzles (you may print a picture if you wish before class) / review macromolecules / complete enzyme graphing activity

Friday Sept. 30: Enzyme notes (see wiki for PowerPoint) & online activities & macromolecule unit review sheet assigned (see wiki)

Monday Oct. 3: TBD

Tuesday Oct. 4: Macromolecule unit QUIZ / Begin cells unit

Enjoy your day off on Monday :)

RIP Stewart & Schedule for Week of September 19, 2011

Let's begin this entry by paying our respects to Stewart the Frog, who tragically passed away today during 3rd block during our frog respiration experiments. Stewart will dearly be missed. In a final act of generosity, Stewart has donated his body to the forensic science class to be used as part of their decomposition studies, which will begin next week on the school grounds. As for all of his counterparts, they will be moving to their new home at the end of the day - the drainage pond on the north side of the school


Highlights of next week:

1. Quiz on Wednesday (scientific inquiry and experimental design)
2. Microscope exploration
3. Characteristics of Living Things (What makes biology?)
4. Start of the macromolecule unit

More detailed schedule will be out later. Enjoy your weekend

Great First Week!

Thank you everyone for a great start to the year. You guys all did a great job with the styrofoam peanut lab and we will continue to focus on lab based studies next week.

Here's the schedule for the week of Sept. 12-16 (First quiz is Tuesday Sept. 20):

Mon. Midterm pretest
Tue. More practice with IV/DV/control groups & glowstick lab prep (lab procedure due Wed.)
Wed. Glowstick Lab (full lab report due Thu.)
Thu. Glowstick lab results/review unit one/frog lab prep (Frog lab procedure due Fri. & unit review sheet due Mon)
Fri. Frog lab (completed lab due Monday)

Also, there are two extra credit opportunities out there:
1. Bring in two boxes of Kleenex OR one container of Clorox wipes (free homework pass)
2. Bring in a frog for Friday's lab, along with a sample of the water it came from - they must be frogs, not toads. (10 extra credit points)

If you have any questions, feel free to contact me through email at matt.landry@staff.spartaschools.org

Welcome to a new school year

Hello everyone and welcome to the blog that I maintain for my biology classes at Sparta High School. I will update this blog frequently with schedules, due dates, science news, miscellaneous study tools, etc. to help everyone achieve at a higher level.

Toward the top of the page you will find a "follow by email" feature that I highly recommend. Just type your email address into the provided box and then hit submit. This will then send you an email everytime I update this blog (two to three times a week). On this site you will also find a link to my wiki, which is where I store all of the files that I use for this class, including note sets and powerpoints, review sheets, lab activities, etc. Some of the files will require a username and password (Username: first.last@sparta.lan and the password is your normal password at school) while others will take you to a google document (which you can turn into either a word or pdf document).

I will post the remainder of the weeks schedule soon.