All this week we studied the diffusion of water (aka:osmosis) through a membrane.  As a model of this we used vinegar to dissolve the shell off of two eggs.  We then found that although the shell dissolved off of the eggs the eggs gained mass which indices that water entered the egg through the chorion.  We then placed one egg in corn syrup and the other in distilled water. The egg in corn syrup was in a hypertonic solution so water diffused out of the egg so it got smaller and lost mass; the egg in distilled water was in a hypotonic solution so water diffused into the cell, got larger and gained mass.

This week we will finish up the Reproduction unit by reviewing the process of sexual reproduction in plants...here's a hint: they do it in the dirt :)   and we will watch everyone's favorite video: "Life's Greatest Miracle"
If you miss it...or want to watch again...here's the link to the video segments:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/miracle/program.html

This week we continued our discussions about reproduction and development.  We studied the development process in placental mammals and then studied marsupials.  many students were amazed with the process in kangaroos and insisted on watching this video a second time.  Boy, we were so lucky that we were able to stay in the uterus when we were little embryos.

Well, it's spirit week and we no longer have a wild plant area in the school yard.  It has been replaced by a smoldering pit of wood scraps left by last night's Bonfire.  Bonus for us....we get to see "Succession" in action.  Stay posted to find out more...

Today we learned about all of the garbage that we produce and where that waste goes and how it affects other living organisms.  These were the different stations that we went to and the videos we watched.  We then went to the Smartboard and did a quizlet for review and then answered questions on a survey at station N.  It was a paperless lab.

•     Station A  Landfill Video (2:19)
•      Station B  Regular household garbage
•      Station C Captain Charles Moore Pacific Ocean Garbage Dump (7:23)
•      Station D  Recyclable Trash
•      Station E Electronic Waste Video (2:18)
•      Station F  Food scraps that could be fed to our pet worms
•      Station G  Composting National Geographic (5:33)
•      Station H The Wonder of Worm Poop (1:55)
•      Station I  Worm poop
•      Station J  Info about Worm Composting 
•        Station K  Worms breaking down food.
•      Station L Take out the Trash (7:31)
•      Station M Smartboard Quizlet about Garbage(click on "Play Scatter")
•      Station N What have you learned?
  

Our class pet will be arriving soon.....what will it be? Here is a clue...













Comment below and guess what it will be...

We used chromatography paper to separate the pigments in 4 different markers. Each marker's pigment separated with the use of water. The smallest pigment molecules were carried by the water all the way to the top of the paper, the largest pigments barely moved up the paper at all.

We identified trees in the memorial grove at the high school. We used the Master Tree Finder's dichotomous key and identified the genus and species of the various deciduous and coniferous trees on the school grounds. We also learned where the trees grow naturally in the United States.