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?

Echinoderm Characteristics

Echinoderm Characterisitics

"spiny skin"

Radial symmetry (5 points/arms)

Internal skeleton 

Water Vascular system - radial canals with ampulla (bulbs) on inside and tube feet extending out bottom surface.  Madreporite on aboral surface (back), water intake.

External fertilization - sperm and eggs released into water

Complete digestive system - mouth on bottom, oral surface in middle.  Cardiac stomach everts out mouth to digest prey externally and suck into pyloric stomach, anus on aboral side.  Many digestive glands fill radial arms (pyloric caeca)

Asexual reproduction - can regenerate lost limbs

No brain - tiny eyespots on ends of arms to detect light, ring of nerves

Poorly developed respiration - diffusion through tube feet.

Excretion - diffusion through tube feet.

Examples: sea stars, sea urchins, sea cucumbers, sand dollars

Echinoderm Pictures

Sea Star Dissection

Internal anatomy pictures

Grasshopper Dissection

Grasshopper dissection

You have some choice as to how you would like to present your dissection - video, drawing with paper answers, or pictures & blog post, or any combination of these...  Here is the information that needs to be included.

Take pictures, draw or take video of the external anatomy of your grasshopper and complete the following questions - labelling as necessary...

1.  Is your grasshopper male or female?  How do you know?
2.  Identify the head, thorax & abdomen.  How many segments are in the abdomen?
3.  Identify the compound eyes, tympanum & antennae.
4.  Identify the 3 parts of the jumping legs - tarsus, tibia and femur.  How many legs are present?
5.  Use a dissecting microscope to find the spiracles (small holes on the sides of the abdomen.
5.  Make observations about the exoskeleton, wings, size and shape of your specimen.

Internal anatomy:
Remove the wings and appendages from the specimen by snipping them close to the body.  Make a careful, shallow cut through the exoskeleton down the dorsal (back) surface from the posterior end (bum) towards the anterior (head).  Try to just cut the exoskeleton, not cutting the organs below.

1.  Make initial observations about what you see when you open the grasshopper.
2.  Find the crop, gizzard of the digestive system.  Digestive enzymes are produced by the gastric ceaca.  Where you able to identify them?  Identify the stomach, intestine, rectum and anus.
3.  If possible, identify the coiled malpighian tubules (excretion), ovaries and oviducts (reproduction)

LAST QUESTION:
What more are you curious about since you have dissected this grasshopper?

Arthropod research

Hey Kids:) 

Sorry I'm not there today - but I'll see your posts and read about all the interesting & cool things you find today. Try to publish your post by the end of the class.

Find an interesting creature that belongs to the Phylum Arthropoda (there are TONS) which includes all insects, crustaceans and spiders.  You might have a hard time choosing just one! 

As usual with our interesting species posts - include pictures, video, links etc. and a summary of what you have learned. 

In addition today, I'd like you to relate evolution and natural selection to your species - what are the advantageous adaptations that allowed that species to be successful? It could be things like protection, increased camouflage, diet, predation etc. Why is your species successful?

Also think about where the species belongs in the ecosystem - is it helpful or harmful? To humans or the environment?

Okay, so 2 extra topics to think and write about along with your summary today. 

Once you have published your post, you can share, read and comment on other students posts. That would be learning about stuff. 

Have fun & be ready for a grasshopper dissection for tomorrow.