Molecular Structure and Properties: Molecular Formulas

We began Unit 2 with the Lesson 28 PowerPoint (slides 1-9) and then transitioned to the lab with the accompanying Lesson 28 Worksheet.  Students worked in groups of 4 to complete the lab and worksheet, and then worked individually to complete textbook questions 1, 2, and 7.

Energy, Matter, and Organization: Relating Nutrition & Chronic Disease

After the nice long Thanksgiving holiday weekend, we returned to our study of energy, matter, and organization by connecting our previous work deducing the formula of cellular respiration with the study of nutrition.  Students were tasked with completing the Relating Nutrition & Chronic Disease.  They were also encouraged to use the USDA’s National Nutrient Database to look up the nutrient content of any ingredients not listed in the worksheet packet.

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Matter, Atomic Structure, and Bonding: Unit 1 Exam

Students took the Unit 1 Exam today.  We will begin Unit 2 on Monday after the Thanksgiving holiday break.  At the end of class we watched a video about Giving Thanks for Chemistry:

Energy, Matter, and Organization: Unit 2 Summary #1

We began class with a quick video called Giving Thanks For Chemistry:

Then we worked together as a class to summarize the learning from the last two weeks (from the beginning of Unit 2).  Notes were similar throughout the day and notes from 5th period are shown below (click to enlarge):

Matter, Atomic Structure, and Bonding: Review Unit 1

We reviewed the Unit 1 exam (version A) that students took home and worked through over the weekend.  For the exam tomorrow, students are allowed to bring one page of notes (single-sided, notebook paper size).

Energy, Matter, and Organization: Organizing and Summarizing

We used our time in class today to organize and summarize learning thus far on Unit 2.  Students have had several assignments and many needed some additional time to complete their work.  The goal by the end of class was to identify all of the work from the unit, summarize the key findings into a narrative, and store the work in student folders that will be kept in the classroom.  The folders will serve as a portfolio and as an organizational tool.  They will also allow students to easily present their work on the current unit during the Student-Led Conferences scheduled for this evening (from 2:30-6:00) and tomorrow (from 4:00-7:30).  Tomorrow we will share out as a class and come up with a common narrative to help students retain our learning over the long 5-day Thanksgiving weekend.

Energy, Matter, and Organization: Cupples

Students completed part 2 of the Keeping the Balance worksheet packet, working in pairs to study how a fictitious organism (a Cupple) uses negative feedback to regulate blood sugar through diet and exercise.  After the lab, students learned to use pipettes to refill the reagent vials.

Matter, Atomic Structure, and Bonding: Review Chapter 5

We used the short class period to review the Chapter 5 Quiz that students took home the night before.  Students then received the Unit 1 Exam (version A) to practice over the weekend.

Energy, Matter, and Organization: Feedback

We continued our learning from the Google Classroom by focusing on the last question in the worksheet that asked students to consider the effect of temperature on metabolism.  We watched the the “squirrel” segment (from 41:40 to 50:00 of the Can We Live Forever? video from NOVA scienceNOW).  Students then updated their answers to question 6 from yesterday’s worksheet.  The the last half of class, students worked in pairs to complete part 1 of the Keeping a Balance worksheet.  They reviewed homeostasis and negative feedback, applying their learning to the scenario of a car adjusting speed in an effort to maintain the set point speed (the speed limit speed of 55 mph).

Matter, Atomic Structure, and Bonding: Electroplating Metals

For today’s lesson, we decided to deviate from Lesson 27 in the textbook because of reagent availability and safety concerns.  We began class with a brief video demonstrating the process of electroplating copper metal with zinc metal:

After the video we sketched out the lab setup:

The students then watched a live demonstration before they set up the lab working in groups of four.  Because the electroplating takes an hour or so to be clearly observable, the experiments continued to run until 4th period as pictured below along with a picture of the copper we started with:

After setting up the experiments, students watched a video about how electroplating is used in industry: