Another idea for Plants

 The kids are working through plant microscope slides, Experiment 14.2, and their lab reports.  I added another idea: Modeling Glycolysis and the Krebs Cycle.  I pulled out the Labaid Molecular kits.  I reviewed cellular respiration in class.  Dr. Wile has a graphic with the products on cellular respiration (p.187).  The kids build glucose, pyruvate, two-carbon molecules, carbon dioxide, water, and oxygen molecules.  I had them lay out the models into glycolysis of glucose into two pyruvate molecules and relate the molecules and breakdown of pyruvate in the Citric Acid or Krebs Cycle.  Why?  When kids build and manipulate models, their level of understanding rises.  We’ll see if this helps when the kids take their tests.

More on the Spinach Leaf Photosynthesis Lab

 I have an update on the Spinach Leaf Photosynthesis Lab.  Here is the post with the lab link.  The kids collected data to enter into Google Sheets, graph as scatter plots, as part of the lab report.  There are screen shots of the data, sample spreadsheet, and sample graph.  Thursday, my husband, Rob, is going to review formulas, editing cells, creating formulas, etc with the kids.  I organized their data into one document and sent it to the kids.  Why?  Good question!  The objective is for the kids to use Excel or Google sheets to present data.  Take a look.

 

Plants: The Ongoing Sequel

Many of my kids report to online home-school academies: Mother of Divine Grace, Kolbe Academy, Homeschool Connections, and Seton Home Study School.  Parents submit work samples to the online schools: tests, lab reports, models, etc.  Each school has different requirements for Co-op classes.  I try to keep the work sample submission requirements in mind as I teach.  Basically, the online school wants evidence that the Biology or Chemistry class has labs.  Additionally, since we use Apologia Biology, I try to schedule labs which are similar to the experiments in the textbook.  Today, the kids did the Apologia Biology Experiment 14.2, ‘How Anthocyanins and pH Help Determine Leaf Color’.  Surprise!  I did not follow the lab exactly.  Instead of boiling cabbage leaves, we used red cabbage powder.  Apologia Biology  instructs the kids to boil the red cabbage.  Here are instructions from Carolina Biological to just blend the red cabbage leaves. Here is an entire thread about using different methods to extract pigment from turmeric, red cabbage, etc.  Believe me, I have used several methods.  What a pain!  I just buy the red cabbage powder instead.  My kids mixed up extract and tested it with baking soda, ammonia, citric acid solution, and vinegar.  Here is a red cabbage pH chart.  When you mix the red cabbage powder in water, pH 7, the solution is purple.  Litmus pH strips are made from lichens.  

We also started the Transpiration lab. The kids bagged up cucumber seedlings, some in light, and others inside a box.  Several plants are serving as controls, unbagged.  Let’s see if there is moisture on Thursday. I took pix.

Family Science: Let’s Garden!

 In another life, I wrote grants.  I wrote many grants for gardens.  They make excellent STEM projects.  There is a tremendous amount of science designing gardens.  Start with  Designing Your School Garden. There are fun ideas for a pizza garden, an alphabet garden, or a rainbow garden.  Take a look at Kids Gardening.  There are loads of ideas for specialized gardens.  Look at School Garden Program and these garden plans with ideas for lessons.  The Nature Conservancy has more videos and resources.  

Let your kids take the lead.  Measure the area in the yard.  Pick a theme.  We created a rain garden in the sodden area in our backyard.  Let the kids graph out the plants.  How much sunlight does each plant need?  How much sun does the garden spot get?  When is the best time to plant?  Should you sprout seeds or buy mature plants?  Loads of science!

Plants

 The kids are all over the map working on leaf dichotomous keys, the spinach leaf lab, and the microscope slides.  A few are writing lab reports.  Most of these kids have large families and are used to siblings working on different subjects and projects.  Tuesday, we’ll have everyone complete the assignments.  I took pix.

eScience Lab Kit

 Good Will online has an eScience kit available with one cent shipping.  This is a biology kit and has little equipment.  However, if you need basic lab equipment, such as plastic beakers, plastic cylinders, and a few test tubes, the kit is fairly priced.  Below is a screen-shot from the Good Will listing.

See this Amazon product as a basis for comparison.

This week we are tackling plants….

 This kids are in every stage of Plants, Modules 14 and 15 in Apologia Biology.  The kids are doing loads of activities.  (Here is an assortment of plant activities.)  This week we’ll classify, introduce photosynthesis, do the spinach leaf lab, classify leaves, and look at plant slides.  Take a look.

Leaf Classification

 Tomorrow the Bio class is classifying leaves.  The Kids are first using this simple dichotomous key and then are classifying these leaf cards with this key.  The kids are completing POGIL Photosynthesis and Respiration.  The kids might start the Spinach Lab Photosynthesis.  We will see how well they use their class time tomorrow.

Fruit and Flower Dissection Pix

The kids did the Spinach Leaf Chromatography lab, the Daffodil flower dissection, and the fruit or apple dissection.  Take a look!

 

Let’s start Botany!

 Plants, or Kingdom Plantae, is Modules 14 and 15 (2e) or Modules 12 and 13 (3e).  Why now?  The daffodils are in bloom.  I bought daffodils in bloom at Walmart for $12.97.  We’ll plant the bulbs in the garden after to have blooms next year.  (I would have liked to start protozoans and compare them with bacteria.). Tomorrow we are doing this Daffodils Flower Dissection, this Fruit Dissection with apples, and this Spinach Leaf Paper Chromatography lab.  (This Spinach Leaf Chromatography lab explains Rf and paper chromatography.  But, the lab uses acetone.  My kids are pretty literal.  I’m using the first spinach leaf lab with isopropyl alcohol or rubbing alcohol instead.). Two of my groups work well and often complete lab early.  Just in case they finish early, I have this POGIL activity ready called Photosynthesis and Respiration.  I’ll post pix tomorrow during lab.

National Historic Chemical Landmarks

 One trend in science education is to use stories to teach.  I see stories or case studies as supplementary—not the main vehicle for instructions.  The American Chemical Society (ACS) has these Landmark Lesson Plans. One sample lesson is Man and Materials in History.  It isn’t surprising that these history lesson feature ‘green chemistry’, Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring’, Climate Change, and Ozone Depletion.  There are lessons about Ivermectin, Radiocarbon Dating, and Steroid medicines, which are less politically charged.  I like to add readings from Chemmatters to my Chemistry curriculum.  My choices among these landmark lessons are Radiocarbon Dating and the Transuranium Elements.  Take a look!

Apologia Biology: Module 2 Mini Activities

I wanted the kids to use the dichotomous key from Module 2 (Module 9 in 3rd edition) to classify bacteria.  Here is the activity.  Here is one student’s work.  I had the kids compare three bacteria: Streptococcus pyroxenes, Clostridium botulinum, and Salmonella enteritis. Below is a sample of the chart I made with the kids to help them compare different bacteria.  Lastly, here is the quiz my kids are doing to finish bacteria and viruses.  I reviewed bacteria and viruses with this slideshow and this packet of worksheets.  I hope these resources help!

Microscope Slides

 The kids looked at bacterial and protozoan slides in class.  We did use both the digital and traditional microscopes.  Take a look.

Do you want to buy a microscope?

 Many home-school families invest in a compound microscope.  This is one piece of science equipment that is best to buy new.  (I have had more bad luck than good luck buying used microscopes.)  I bought this microscope for my Biology Co-op class.  Both the magnification and resolution are fine.  My Bio class also uses digital microscopes with older Chromebooks and laptops.  This post has more information. Below are some notes about different types of microscopes.

The Shinco microscope retails for around $90.  There is no light source.  Kids have trouble angling the microscope near a window or lamp to get enough light to see the specimen on the slide.

This is a Celstron LCD microscope, which retails for around $300.  Ask your library if they have an LCD microscope.  Our library system does.  Bring your own slides to the library and sketch away.

There are many similar versions of the EDU microscope, often sold as a kit.  This is a toy.

This monocular, compound microscope from Amscope  retails for less than $100.  I bought one for $70 last fall.

This is a dissecting microscope.  Specimens lie on the tray.  I don’t find this type of microscope to be terribly useful.  Most kids do not want to closely examine their dissection specimens.