Biology Interview Schedule

Raaj at 11:15 on Friday

Adiba at 11:40 on Friday

Asad at 2:10 on Friday

Abby at 2:20 on Friday

Big Ideas in Biology - Interview Questions

There will be 2 parts to the interview - first, prepare to present the following 2 questions and discuss with me.

The big ideas of Biology 11:

• Evolution and Natural Selection
• Requirements of living things
• Curiosity and Inquiry

1.  How can you show your learning of these big ideas throughout the course?  Be ready to show your best examples.  

2.  How do you see the world differently after taking Biology?  Discuss.



The second part of the interview will be discussing your mark.  Come prepared with the following framework in mind.  You can decide how you want to weight each criteria - write / prepare how you came up with your self assessment based on what we have discussed in class.

Your mark in Biology is to be based on the following criteria that we have discussed & created in class:

Assignment completion:  Are your blog posts complete? Are the assignment questions answered and similar criteria met?  Where you prepared for your interview and self-evaluation?

Assignment Quality:  To what level did you complete the assignments?  Are you able to remember what you have learned from them?  Would others be able to follow your blog posts?  Did you care about what you were writing?  Provide examples.

Skills: How did your skill set change throughout Biology 11?  Blogging, research, communication (written and verbal) lab skills such as microscopes & dissections.

Your Learning:  What did engagement in activities look like to you?  When were you the most engaged in class / assignments (really into what we were doing)?  Were you eager to learn?  What did you learn about how you learn?   What was your attitude after learning? How did your attendance affect your learning and why?

You can come up with your final percentage in a variety of ways - either create a total for each category that you mark yourself and add up the totals (ie.  10/15, 30/40 etc.), give yourself a letter grade for each category (A, B, B, B) and base your percentage on the average of those letters, or come up with your own system.  You must be thoughtful and reflective and be able to clearly explain your evaluation method.  Be responsible & prepare for your interview and self-evaluation.

Finding Nemo

We watched the first half of Finding Nemo today - and as practice for your final question of Biology 11 please reflect on and answer the following:

We have all seen Finding Nemo before. How did you see this movie differently since taking Biology 11?  What did you notice now? What did you wonder? Can you relate any of our main themes to the movie?

Second Final Question of Biology 11

Curiosity & Inquiry

Recap and summarize your research blog posts that you have done over the semester - from celebrity named organisms, to amazing organisms, to amazing/interesting plants, to interesting cnidarians to interesting arthropods.  

Which blog post was your best?  Why did you choose that one?  What did you learn?  What stands out about this post?

Relate this blog post to one of the other main themes in Biology 11 - 

How does the organism that you have written about relate to either of the following themes:

1.  Evolution and Natural Selection

2.  Requirements & Characteristics of Living Things.

Thank you for finding such cool organisms as a class - I learned about so many amazing and disgusting things!  Like Tardigrades!  Whoop!

Update on required blog posts

There is an earlier post that lists the blog posts that you should have completed since the midterm - the link for that is here:

Blog posts since midterm

Since then, you should have the following assignments posted on your blog

1.  Porifera / Cnidaria research - learn and share your information with a partner.
2.  Interesting animal from porifera/cnidaria/platyhelminthes/nematoda/mollusca
3.  Phylum Arthropoda research (interesting arthropod)
4.  Roundworm dissection
5.  Earthworm dissection
6.  Grasshopper dissection
7.  Starfish dissection
8.  Frog dissection
9.  First final question of Biology 11 - Animal Kingdom

First Final Question of Biology 11 - Animal Kingdom

In Biology, we have been focussing on three main themes throughout the semester:

• Evolution and Natural Selection
• Requirements & Characteristics of Living Things  
• Being Curious & Asking Questions

I would like you to relate all of the dissections that we have been doing in class to all three of these main themes.  Within the animal kingdom we have dissected a roundworm (phylum nematoda), an earthworm (phylum annelida), a grasshopper (phylum arthropoda), a starfish (phylum echinodermata) and a grass frog (phylum vertebrata, class amphibia).

Within each of these dissections and representative species, there are characteristics that we were able to examine that are excellent examples of how there is so much diversity of life on earth, yet there are certain requirements that all living things must have with unique systems to meet these requirements (feeding/digestion, reproduction, respiration, circulation, nervous system etc.)  Please discuss the how these organisms and phyla achieve this, as well as the trends towards increasing complexity in body form.  Your post should include pictures, examples and a thoughtful explanation of the topics.

Echinoderm Dissection Questions

External features:

Make observations about the size, symmetry, colour and texture of your specimen.
Note the oral and aboral surfaces.
Find the madreporite & radial arms.
Find the tube feet & mouth.

Internal features:

Carefully cut two radial arms as shown...

Make observations about the internal features of our specimen - find the pyloric ceaca, gonads, ampulla, tube feet.
Cut around the central disc of the aboral surface and try to find the pyloric and/or cardiac stomach.

What were you surprised by with this dissection?  What other questions do you have now?