Public Service Announcements, Pt. 1

I think these videos are pretty awesome. Everyone did a really good job with this project! Let me know if you think they should be public (on youtube)!

Isa's Oxygen Lamp

Check this out!!! It looks like magic!!! Everyone ask Isa to explain how it works to you!!!

6th grade homework Monday May 14th

Your homework tonight is to do Lesson DD the rock cycle in your workbook, pages 167-169. Please underline and make the foldable. Answer the reading check and after you read questions.

Happy Mother's Day!

Thank you to all the Salam Academy moms, step-mom, and grandmoms for raising such sweet and enthusiastic children!

8th grade study guide

Materials:

• Workbook pages 196-224
• Workbook pages 331-370
• Fish coloring packet
• Mammals coloring packet
• Grizzly Bear videos and student organizer
• Symbiosis videos and student organizers
• Class activities from this week
• Shark powerpoints
• Vocabulary quizzes

Topics:

• What is a chordate? What are the major characteristics that all chordates have at some point in their life? When do humans have a gill slits and a postanal tail? Are all chordates vertebrates? What are the major groups of vertebrates?

• What is a fish? What are the three types? How do fish get oxygen? How do fish keep from sinking or floating? How do fish prevent osmosis and dehydration?

• What are amphibians? What are different types of amphibians? How do amphibians breathe? What is special about amphibians in regards to environmental issues?

• What is a reptile? What is the largest group of reptiles? Why are reptiles important? Why can reptiles lay their eggs on land? What is environmental sex determination?

• Describe lift. How does it work? What animals use life? Birds and sharks.

• Describe major characteristics of birds.

• What makes a mammal a mammal? What are the different types of mammals? Examples of each?

• What are the major differences between sharks (cartilaginous fish) and bony fish like perch? Know at least 3.

• What is a living fossil?
• Why are top predators, usually animals that live a long time and become sexually mature late in life, especially important to ecosystems and especially vulnerable?
• Why are shark populations threatened and in some cases endangered?
• What are some of the issues surrounding grizzly bears in yellowstone park? Why did the grizzly population first decline? How did it first come back? What are some interactions between humans and bears now? Should grizzlies stay protected by the endangered species act? What do grizzlies eat? Why are they threatened now?
• What is symbiosis? Describe the different types? Which type is ++ +- +0 ? why is there not a --? give an example of each type.
• What is malaria? How is it transferred? What type of symbiotic relationship is it in?
• Describe what a biosphere, ecosystem, population, and habitat are.
• Describe competition and predation. Why are they not symbiotic relationships?
• What is a limiting factor? Examples.
• Explain carrying capacity. How are carrying capacity and limiting factors related? What is the carrying capacity of the earth for humans? What are limiting factors for humans on earth? How many humans are on earth now? When will we reach out carrying capacity? What is exponential growth? Describe it.
• How are producers and consumers different? What is a niche? How do niches decrease competition?
• What is an abiotic factor and a biotic factor? Important abiotic factors... How does latitude affect temperature and how does elevation affect temperature?
• What are the components of climate? How does climate affect life in an area?
• Describe the water cycle, the nitrogen cycle, and the carbon cycle.
• What are decomposers and why are they important to ecosystems. FBI. Give Examples.
• How do humans affect the nitrogen cycle? Oil is used to produce nitrogen fertilizers. Run off into rivers. Example dead zone in the gulf of Mexico.
• Chemosynthesis. Hydrothermal vents.
• Energy pyramids and trophic levels. Transfer of energy. How much energy is transferred up to each level? Why? Why are there very few top predators? Why do the biggest animals on the planet eat plankton?
• Biomes. Describe the major plants and animals and the climate of earths major biomes. Which do we live in? How do you know? Give examples of other places that are the other types of biomes.
• Aquatic ecosystems. What's the difference between a lake and a pond? What is an estuary? What is a wetland? Why are they super important? How are humans threatening these habitats?
• Rain shadow. What is it? How does it work? Where are they?
• Sampling technique. Why do scientists use sampling? Describe how it is used.

Important Reminders (6,7,and 8th grade)

Hey everyone!

First: Tomorrow in science, we will be working on our PSA's and hopefully taping a few. If you need any supplies or props, please bring them.

The school year is quickly coming to an end. I know many of you are scrambling to get your grades up at the last minute. I appreciate that you care about your grades and want to improve them. I would like you to also appreciate that when everyone is handing in weeks worth of work in the last week of the semester, it creates a huge amount of work for me. I am grading and entering make-up work as fast as I can. The final date to hand in make-up work for 7th and 8th grade is Tuesday of next week The final day to hand in make-up work for 6th grade is Monday of next week. All grades must be entered by Thursday! Parent/teacher conferences are next Friday. Please be advised that I have class at 5:30 and will need to leave school by 5pm. If you can, try to schedule your conferences with me early in the day!

7th and 8th grade you have a really big science test on Monday... Please study over the weekend!!!

8th grade you have a 1 page (typed, single spaced, or 2 pages double spaced) report on what you have accomplished in helping to fix the environmental issue you researched. I hope to see that you have accomplished quite a bit!

In PE today, girls played a game called magic carpet. All the girls stood on a tarp, the "magic carpet," and tried to turn it over without having anyone stepping off. It is a quite challenging initiative and the girls didn't quite figure it out. It takes a lot of teamwork and excellent communication skills. If they had a little more time, they would have made it, I am sure!

Also, aftercare is always a trip! Check out how absolutely adorable these two are together!!!! They are watching Toy Story 2 and sharing a chair! AWWW!

 

Never leave your phone alone! Some paparazzi will pick it up and catch some pics when you are not expecting! I found these pics in my phone today and they made me laugh. I thought you might enjoy the laugh too!!

And this one is just plain funny. Gnasher would hate me if he knew I posted this one...

7th Grade Study Guide

Materials to study:

• The power point slides that I posted on the blog for you (mitosis, meiosis, mendelian genetics, and advanced genetics)
• Your notes that you took while I was giving the lectures that correspond to the above mentioned power-point slides
• The workbook, pages 77-100
• The videos posted on the blog, watch them again! They have a lot of great information. 
• The cell division coloring packet and the DNA coloring packet
• Any homework, classwork, or quizzes that I have handed back to you. 
• Neok12.com quizzes on cell division and genetics

Topics:

• Why is mitosis important to single celled eukaryotic cells?
• Why is mitosis important to multi-celled organisms?
• What is interphase? It is part of the cell cycle, but not part of mitosis. What happens during interphase. 
• List the stages of mitosis and what happens in each. Draw a picture of an animal cell in each of the stages. 
• Mitosis is the division of the cell's nucleus. How does the cytoplasm divide?
• How many cells with how many chromosomes are produced at the end of mitosis?
• How many chromosomes do human body cells have?
• Can bacteria undergo mitosis? Why or why not? 
• Why is sexual reproduction important to diversity, survival of species, and evolution?
• Where does meiosis happen in animals? In plants?
• Describe the stages of meiosis I and meiosis II. Which stage are the really important differences in? How many cells with how many chromosomes does meiosis I make? How many cells with how many chromosomes does meiosis II make?
• Why is it important for sex cells to have half as many chromosomes as body cells?
• What is the production of eggs called? How many eggs are made? What is the production of sperm called? How many sperm are made?
• What is independent assortment?
• What is crossing over?
• Who was Gregor Mendel? Why is he so famous? What did he do that others before him did not?
• What is meant by mendelian genetics? The study of traits coded for by one gene that exists as only 2 alleles with one dominant and one recessive. This is "simple" genetics.
• Punnett Squares! Practice. Be sure to be able to set up a cross and then determine the probably of an offspring having a certain genotype or phenotype. 
• Advanced genetics: Polygenetic inheritance. What type of traits are coded for by many genes? Things that you see a range in; hair color, skin color, eye color, height. 
• If given a data set, plot the data in a histogram and determine if the trait is likely to be controlled by more than 1 trait.
• Box plots.
• incomplete dominance, remember the flowers and the cows.
• Multiple alleles- Blood Type, A, B, and O. Can have genotype AO, AB, AA, BB, BO, OO and phenotype, A, B, O, or AB (A and B are codominant, O is recessive)
• DNA, what does it stand for? What is it made out of? Twisted ladder, the sides of the ladder are __________________ and the rungs of the ladder are ____________________________
• Where does DNA stay?
• What is RNA, what does it stand for? How is it different from DNA?
• What are the 3 types of RNA and what do they do?
• What are Amino Acids? the building blocks of proteins
• Practice coding from DNA to mRNA to tRNA to AA
• How are the different types of cells in our body different if they all have the same DNA?
• What can happen if the DNA in a body cell is damaged? Can this be passed on to babies?
• What happens if DNA in a sex cell is damaged?

The Lorax Writing Assignment

A lot of you failed to hand in this assignment. This assignment was fun and easy, and is a great one to make up if you are missing it. I am posting the original Lorax video, which follows the book word for word with some additional adorable songs and animation. Below the video is a link to the assignment.


Here is the assignment:
Lorax Writing Assignment

In case the movie is not loading for you on the blog, here is the link:
The Lorax

More make-up work for 7th grade

50:50 chances coin flipping activity

Genetics Crossword

XX/XY Punnett Square

The "Mitosis Summary" that is listed on GPA is from when we first started reading about mitosis. To make up this assignment, reread the workbook chapter on Mitosis. Write 3 sentences summarizing each stage of mitosis.

The mitosis v. meiosis chart was a classroom activity that you were meant to finish for homework. On the board we made a chart with chart with meiosis I, meiosis II, and mitosis along the top. Along the side was Interphase, prophase, metaphase, anaphase, and telophase. We filled in the chart with s description of each stage of meiosis I, meiosis II, and mitosis, paying special attention to things that were different between the three processes.

It is not likely that you can redo or make-up the "Interpreting polygenetic inheritance classwork," but you could find it! The classwork involved measuring everyone's handspan and then graphing the data. We graphed the data as a histogram and as a box-plot. I am posting the assignment so that you know what it looks like and may be better able to find it in your backpack, desk, or home.
Interpreting Polygenetic Inheritance Classwork

8th grade NPR assignment

Here are links to the newscasts:

Lionfish Threaten Bahamas

Lionfish Prowl Eastern Seaboard

Super Stars!

Baklavia!

I had the most amazing Friday night watching your production of Baklavia! You are all naturals and you each did a fabulous job with your part! I laughed out loud so many times I can't count and was smiling the whole time. You should all be so proud of the hard work and dedication you gave to the play. I know it wasn't easy, but you really pulled it together in the end and did an AMAZING job! Also, Ms. Kasparian is pretty fabulous.

I hope you each enjoyed your moment in the spotlight and will continue to participate in theatre in the coming years.

Thank you, also, to all the parents who cooked for the audience and cast. The food was delicious!

Gnasher and Edith went on a date!

Edith hung out at my house during your afternoon performance on Saturday and Gnasher is completely in love with her. So am I, I considered not giving her back, but she is going to get too big for my little house! The two of them wrestled and cuddled and played together. Gnasher even gave Edith his last piece of the rawhide bone he got for being good at the vets when he had his surgery.

Run for the Zoo

Run for the Zoo was Sunday morning with different starting times for each different event. My race, the 10k or 6.2 miles, started at 8:30am. I had a really great race and achieved a PR (personal record). My time was 54:22 which meant that I ran each mile in about 8:45. I placed 265 overall out of 986 total runners, 76th out of 536 female runners, and 13th in my division 25-30 year old females. I felt great at the finish and then ran over to the starting line for the start of the 5k times race. I watched for Junte, hoping to cheer him on, but I did not see him. Next, I waited for the fun run to start, since most of the Salam Academy students and families registered for these runs. The start of the fun runs was extremely crowded! It was hard to pick out familiar faces and hard to get people's attention. I got to see Mrs. Cuba start with her husband and baby (in a stroller) and I saw Landon and his family. Unfortunately, I was not able to find anyone else. I hope everyone had a wonderful morning outside being active and were able to spend some time at the BioPark. Sara sent me a picture of her and Darya at the zoo and it looks like the two of you were enjoying the day! 

Marathon Results

So, the marathon was much more difficult than the two I had run previously. There were more hills on the course than any other race I have run and it was really hot and humid. When I train, I usually drink gatorade every couple of miles to give my body sugar to fuel my muscles and replenish the electrolytes and water that I have lost by sweating. When you run for more than 1 hour, it is really important to give your body carbohydrates, such as sugar, or else your body will start breaking down your muscles for fuel. Usually races will offer gatorade, or the equivalent, about every other mile on the course. Unfortunately, this race did not and I did not have any of my own. I got extremely dehydrated and my body started shutting down. It was really painful, but I finished. My time was 4:41:32, more than 30 minutes longer/slower than the time I ran in the 2010 NYC marathon (4:09). But, my stats show that I was a pretty average runner for the course. I was 1,732th out of 3,925 total runners. I was 185th out of 443 25-30year olds. And, I was 637th out of 1,800 females.

This picture was taken right before I crossed the finish line. I think you can see the relief in my face. I looked much more miserable in the pictures taken around mile 22.

At least the medal is pretty...

I am very much looking forward to run for the zoo this coming Sunday, when I only have to run 6 miles!!!