Lest we forget……9/11

 

Biology: Cells

 Yes, by all means make a cell model. Make membrane models, too!  Cells transport glucose and O2 in and waste and CO2 out.  (Yes, hormones, enzymes, etc are also moved in and out.) Below are my initial activities.  This is going to be the best year,meet!

1.  Cell Boxing is using a manipulative to learn the organelles and their functions.  It works best as a competitive game between at least two siblings, or a Co-op class.  The same site has Cell Sidewalk Chalk and instructions.  

2.  Another favorite is the Membrane Model Bubble Lab.  It helps teens understand the properties of a membrane, such as it’s self-healing or permeable.

3. The Plasma Membrane requires a model: Cut and Paste, 3D Paper Membrane, and Build a Membrane.  I use images from this Slide Deck to help kiddos see the proteins, glycolipids, etc in the plasma membrane.  The content itself is college level.  Here is an easier explanation with a q-tip model.  Make a model.  My kiddos make a giant graphics we post to the wall.  The model I used in the past is gone.   Boooo!  I caved and bought another paper model.

Set a day aside for labs!

 Many families join a Co-op just to do the labs, especially at the high school level.  Teens work on the course material, reading, study guide questions, etc on their own; they attend Co-op to do the labs.  It’s a good strategy.  If you don’t have a high school, science lab Co-op, set a day aside to do labs.  Is once a week too much?  Set one Friday aside every other week.  There are generally about 30 labs in Apologia’s textbooks.  Do two labs on fifteen Fridays.  Schedule four, once a month, over eight months.  It does reduce the mess. Don’t be too concerned about matching the lab with the textbook’s content.  For example, get out the microscope and do all of the microscope labs at once.  I schedule batch days for microscope work in Biology all the time.  I do the same thing with dissections; we do all of the animal dissections over a two week period.  Really.  (The owl pellet, flower, and fruit dissections are done during Ecology and Plants.). Take photos and make a few lab notes.  You’ll be surprised how much your kiddos remember about any experiment they do.  At any time, before, during, or after the lab, ask your children one question, ‘What is the point to this experiment?’  Whenever you schedule lab days, do as many labs as you can stomach!  Every single one you do is one fewer you have remaining to do.  Let’s make this the best year possible!

Try a book instead of TPT: Human Body

What do I mean by trying a book instead of resorting to TPT or Etsy? Often books have more bang for your buck.  Let me start with the original ad.

I took a screenshot and Googled the image.

It’s a single page of respiratory organs.  Now, this can be ideal for an interactive notebook.  Aren’t you teaching human anatomy or the human body?  Look at The Body Book or Inside Out Human Body —ideally at the library!  Although libraries cull older books ruthlessly.  

Another choice is Human Body, which has transparent overlays.  

Once you see an interesting ad, make a note.  Now, take the topic and head to the library stacks.  The library might be able to get a specific book through inter library loans, too.  

Lab Safety: Chemistry

 Treat lab safety seriously.  Let’s make sure your kiddo understands standard lab practices.   Post this Free Poster  and watch The Amoeba Sisters’ Lab Safety Video, video worksheet, and key  We have a fire extinguisher and  aid kit by the basement sink, which is also an eye-wash station.  I keep a bin of safety glasses on the lab bench.  We have a coffee can we use as a sharps’ bin, such as broken glass.  In fact, we have a dust pan and broom to sweep up broken glass.  HST’s Chemical Safety at Home is an excellent guide, which includes the GHS Pictograms and Safety Data Sheets or SDS.   Here is an example of a SDS for phenolphthalein, an indicator solution.  Many, many high schools use Flinn’s Safety Contracts.  We have both students and their parents sign these agreements and retain copies for our records. Yesterday, the first thing we did in class was to go over safety.  I found my Math Pretest and Lab Safety Quiz.  They were scanned and saved; the type-face is tiny.  (I wrote the quiz based on personal experience—with a little exaggeration!) Flinn’s YouTube Channel has lab safety videos.  Finally Flinn has a Lab Safety test (and key).  Let’s pray there are no accidents!

How does Easy Peasy All-In-One Homeschool compare to Exploring Creation with Biology?

Easy Peasy All-In-One Homeschool (EP) offers free curriculum.  Outstanding!  One of my Co-op friends uses EP for her kiddos.  I was reviewing her portfolio; whenever I conduct a review, I also examine the curriculum.  EP has high school courses, including Biology with Lab.  It’s free!  How is the course?  It’s not bad; Apologia’s Exploring Creation with Biology is better.

EP Biology is based on Georgia’s Virtual Biology Course (GVB).  First, both EP and GVB are fine courses; the content in both is a basic, Biology survey course.  The content does compare to Apologia’s Bio course, especially if you use both EP and GVB.  The devil is in the details.  EP and GVB address  all of the core Bio concepts; however, Apologia Bio has much more depth, especially with regard to plants and animals.

Both EP and Apologia have labs.  Ep has four labs requiring materials, such as the  Osmosis Lab or optional DNA Extraction,  which are similar to Apologia’s experiments.   The Reebop Lab is clever.  Is Cat Genetics Lab really an experiment or a problem set?  Some labs are virtual labs and an optional Virtual Frog Dissection.  Apologia has several dissections, including perch and frog, with guides in the textbook.  Here is EP’s lab report template; here is Apologia’s guide.  There is nothing wrong with EP’s  template.  Apologia offers a greater amount of information.  

EP and GVB offer a bunch of videos with questions.  The EP lessons, such as Invertebrates, have text, terms, videos, and graphics. Apologia relies on kiddos reading the textbook and answering study guide questions, instead.  Overall, Apologia just has more depth.  

Let me make a case for Apologia Bio; used copies of second edition of Apologia and the test and solutions guide are very affordable.  (I’m switching to the third edition because the families are switching; they worry about missing out on updated contents. The content in the second edition is fine.)  Here  is a daily schedule to follow because I know that is an important feature!  The specimens and slides for Apologia Bio are costly.  To save money, buy a set of specimens  and dissect on paper plates or foam trays.  Use a cell phone microscope with a basic set of prepared slides.  Here the complete list of lab supplies.  I use prepared slides—even for pond water.  (We have a retention pond in our back yard; there aren’t many species in the water. Ask me how I know.)  The purpose of slides is to learn how to observe and sketch slides; any type is fine.

As I said yesterday, there is nothing wrong with using any of EP or GVB’s materials.  Why not use Apologia and resources from EP or GVB, especially for tough units, such as cellular respiration, photosynthesis, or genetics?

Apologia Chemistry: Day One!

Update: we actually completed the preliminary lessons, such as lab safety and equipment.  Whoooo!  The kiddos started It’s All About Density!  I use the lab to introduce spreadsheets, data analysis, scientific notation, percent error, etc.  On a separate note, we have three siblings who can only meet Tuesdays.  They remain after class and work on Thursdays materials.  Rob and I tag out of our Middle School Chem and Physics and Consumer Math classes to check on the siblings.  Happily each of us has a mom who stays to help.  We’ll make this work.

Co-op Chemistry launches today!  Google Classroom loaded with materials?  Check!  Summer assignments?  Check!  Slides ready?  Check!

 I am so ready for classes to begin.  Module 1 has my Day One lessons, slide decks, labs, and activities.  Day One can take two weeks.  For example, here is the overview for the first lessons and labs. Along with lab safety and equipment, the focus is on measures.  I have an entire series of labs, including the density series.  Why?  I use it to introduce lab practices, data analysis, accuracy, metric conversions—the whole lot.  From the first day of Co-op class, we need to emphasize safety, learn how to produce, organize, and analyze data, and the role of math in Chem.  It’s a lot!  I assemble materials into kits for lab groups.  The first photo is lab equipment to review.

Also in Module 1 are Quick Lab images.  (See here for an overview of Wilbraham’s Chemistry textbooks.)  I use Apologia’s textbook; however, the Quick Labs and the Atomic Theory Timeline are terrific.  The Quick labs use simple equipment and inexpensive chemicals—perfect for home-schoolers!  Below is a copy of one of the older Prentice Hall textbooks.  The lab forms are in the Core Teaching Resources, which is expensive.  The Teacher’s Edition has sample data with answers and tips.

This year, my goal is to pull out all the stops to deliver a chemistry curriculum parents and Co-op educators can follow and deliver.  Why?  Home-schooling is often part of a family’s vocation.  I’m here to offer support.

Apologia Young Explorers Chemistry and Physics (YECP) Day One

 This is the first time I’m teaching Apologia’s Young Explorers Chemistry and Physics.   Here are the lesson plans for Chapter 1.  I have helped my husband, Rob, plan the course, when he taught it.  (BTW, I have a bit of experience teaching Chemistry and Physical Science.). YECP is a fun course.  Many of the experiments and activities are those my kiddos have done at Science Camp.  Our Co-op schedules YECP when we have a batch of kiddos ages 10-12, or so.  (There are always exceptions!). Could you teach a mixed group of children ages 6-12?  Sure!  We chose YECP as a prequel to General Science and Physical Science the following two years.  We are using both Junior and regular Notebooking Journals.  (Three of the kiddos have learning differences.)  Their families and I think a reduced homework load will help them stay on track. Here’s hoping for a wonderful school year!

See the ad—find the lab!

 There are so many ads for labs!  Yes, teachers pay for labs!  No, they aren’t getting a kit or materials; they are paying for curriculum.  Boooooo!  So, I saw another ad for Candy DNA.  By all means make Candy DNA. We’ve used gum drops, gummy bears, and marshmallows.   It’s another hit!

Interactive Notebooks for Chemistry!

 I’m trying something completely new: Chemistry Interactive Notebooks.  I was inspired by the Periodic Table Interactive Notebook because I already do these activities.  It makes sense to do them as part of a notebook.  I know for a fact that jamming these activities into a folder doesn’t make them accessible to study later.  What if teens glued stuff into a composition notebook?  Last year, most of the Advanced Bio students maintained one notebook all year.  I sent out emails requesting families buy composition notebooks.  (I’ll buy a few more, too.  I know my class.). 

Here’s how interactive notebooks work.  You glued stuff into a composition notebook.  You can get fancy and make flaps or windows.  You can attach baggies with materials.  I’ll start with the activities I love and adapt them.  For example, Putting Ions in Their Hands has a data table, ion chart, and baggie of ions.  The students are going to glue the data table, staple the baggies with ions, and put the ion chart in the back of the composition notebook.  Why didn’t I think of this before?  Ever.  

Another example is Periodic Table Coloring.  My Chem classes always annotate periodic tables.  The teens promptly loose them.  I keep a stack.  Instead, we can glue three or four into the notebook.  For example, one periodic table can be just metals and nonmetals, another, different groups, and a third diatomic elements, liquids, and gases outlined.  The fourth can have ions.  We’ll still need stacks of periodic tables when kiddos loose their notebooks—but fewer copies!  We also do activities with Periodic Trends. Right now we do Plotting Trends; I want to add the guided activity to their notebooks.  We can do the models with straws; the notebook plots can also serve as an assessment.  

I did quite a bit of research for examples: Mrs. Farmer’s Interactive Notebook, STEM Center Chemistry Interactive Notebook and Nitty Gritty Science Interactive.  Will mine have a table of contents and a glossary?  Probably not. It also looks doubtful that they will be filled with little flaps and tiny booklets.  However, it might help kiddos keep references in one spot—their notebooks!  

Google Classroom

 Are you familiar with Google Classroom?  It’s a free, classroom management system or learning management system (LMS), which allows you to enter assignments, tests, and post materials, such as the syllabus.  Classroom keeps track of grades and missing assignments.  You can communicate with students and parents by email through Google Classroom.  When I taught professionally, the schools used a variety of classroom management systems.  (Canvas is one popular LMS, currently.)  Google Classroom dovetails seamlessly with the Google ecosystem of products: Meet, Docs, Slides, Sheets, etc.  

I have been using different LMS for many, many years, beginning with Blackboard.  Schools and Colleges changes LMS platforms frequently.  I’ve tried several.  I learned to keep my lessons, materials, and resources saved on an external drive; one time the school switched LMS six weeks into the school year.  I like Google Classroom.  It’s free and fairly intuitive to use.  I post ‘how to’ YouTube videos, tests, assignments, and materials to Classroom.  Below are some screenshots from my Chem class.  See what you think.