Monday, May 21, 2007

This is something new.

Welcome to Laboratory 116. This blog chronicles the investigations, discoveries, activities and learning of my students and I as we explore Earth Science, Biology and English. Some of the posts are written by me (Ms. G) and later posts will be written with contributions from students.

All: Maker Faire was this past weekend, and students could go for extra credit. During the share-out, it seemed like everyone who went to Maker Faire saw something different and had a different experience. T.S. reflected: "The event helped me realize that in science, it doesn't matter how many times we fail. If we keep trying, someday we will get the results we want." Thanks for a good quote about the hard-working attitude it can sometimes take to succeed. Remember, though, that in lab experiments we want to keep working until we can explain the results we have. Of my 150 students, 9 went to Maker Fair, and I saw 3 of them. I kept wondering how I could use that information for crowd estimation, but I imagine we'd have to tag people somehow. Maybe next year...

ESS: What is an ecosystem? Is Neaveh's fishtank an ecosystem? What makes an ecosystem stable, and how do ecosystems change? We began exploring these questions with a KWL chart.

BIO: As if in a Kafka-eque dream, over the weekend our diets, stomachs and mouthparts changed, such that we were hunting the five morphs of Pinus toothpicatus, the toothpick animal, for our snack, capturing them with our modified mouthparts, which looked remarkable similar to laboratory tools (that would be convergent evolution, everyone!)

BIO AE: We worked hard in the computer lab today. Most of us were writing our lab reports about the glowing bacteria. One student, with Mr. H's help, was using a computer for the very first time. Sometimes we take for granted that we have computers in school. Today made some of us more thankful for what our school can teach us to do. E.B. is working on her report at home, , so she sat in the nature area and sketched the kill-deer couple who has made a nest on the ground. They've laid 4 eggs since last Monday.

1 comment:

Jed Carosaari said...

Wow! Wicked cool, Sis. Good idea. And welcome to blogspot, btw. I think you'll find it much more conducive to blogging with all it's bells and whistles.

As you know, I just combined my posts in one blog, with travel and life with what happened in the classroom. I think your idea of a dedicated blog to the classroom works better, as it appears you want to do more regular posts about the classroom, whereas I was just doing those extra-special events.

Hope this turns out well for you. Hold on a moment while I add you to my Bloglines.

(It's sad that I just breezed by your scientific name, thinking it was just a strange insect I was unfamiliar with.)