Lesson 1 - Monday, Nov 10 (Dr. M absent)
Housekeeping: With a Guest Teacher, students took a break from working with the microscopes to do the following…
- Watch a portion of the BBC’s “The Cell – The Hidden Kingdom” (Episode 1).
- As a means of processing some of the key knowledge presented in the video, every 10-15 minutes students were asked to record/write three pieces of information worth remembering on a single piece of lined (writing) paper.
- Students were asked to submit their properly labelled and titled video notes at the end of the lesson.
Homework: There is no science homework tonight.
Lesson 2 - Tuesday, Nov 11
Housekeeping: After making a few comments about students’ video notes, Dr. M asked students to temporarily take a break from the video and…
- Work in small groups of 2-4 students to create two diagrammed models of a) an animal cell, and b) a plant cell. These are meant to serve as students’ initial cell models, which we will then work hard to improve over the coming weeks through our investigations and class activities. For this activity, students were not allow to use the internet or any school textbooks, but they were allowed to their Science Notebooks.
- Any students completing both models with time still remaining in the lesson were asked either to A) draw two additional cells drawings, but this time a model of a fungi cell AND a protist cell, or B) compare their animal cell model to a model contained in one of Dr. M classroom books (The Usborne Science Encylopedia).
Homework: There is no science homework tonight.
Lesson 3 - Wed, Nov 12 (D) & Thu, Nov 13 (E)
Housekeeping: After briefly looking over the Animal Cell Model gallery, students were asked to…
- Make a new entry in their Science Notebook (NTS – Cells Size & Shape), so that they can ‘get smarter’ about the SIZE of animal cells.
- To help students develop a better feel for the size of animal cells, Dr. M made use of this “Voyage into the world of…” video produced by the good people at CERN.
Homework: There is no science homework tonight.
Lesson 4 - Friday, Nov 14
Housekeeping: None.
1. So that they can ‘get smarter’ about the SIZE of animal cells, Dr. M did a short exercise with a ruler in which students learned by drawing a 10 cm line, a 1 cm line, and a 1 mm line. To image what micrometers are, students were asked to imagine dividing their 1 mm line into 1000 equal-sized slices!!!
2. So that they can ‘get smarter’ about the SHAPE of animal cells, Dr. M asked students to create a 2 (columns) x 9 (rows) table in their Science Notebooks in which they named, described, and drew nine ‘typical’ animal cell shapes. Students can see these in the NTS – Cells Size & Shape entry in their notebooks.
Homework: As per the TASIS MS school homework policy, there is no weekend science homework (due on Monday).
Announcements...
The DRIVING QUESTION of our current unit is: How do the microscopic structures and functions of a cell explain what it means for something to be alive?
C & D period homework collection days: Wednesday & Friday.
E period homework collection days: Tuesday & Thursday.
Including this week, there are 8 weeks of school to complete before the end of the Fall Semester.