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Thursday, December 13, 2012

Consent Form For the Beaty Museum and Sustainable Building Tour

Reminders for next weeks events:

Monday: microbiology quiz.  this includes notes as well as information in the disease slide presentation
Wednesday:  field trip to UBC.  Download the consent form
Friday:  Microbial wine and cheese AND virus/bacteria model due.

Our field trip:
We will meet at the CK Choi building and do a walkabout in and around the building.  Microbes are used to take care of the waste in this building.Next, we will proceed to the CIRS building and then make our way to the Beaty museum so we may enter at 10am when it opens.  The Beaty Museum is a research collection of biodiversity. It is like a library.  It's primary purpose is archival. The public is invited to come and take a peek at the specimens.  The flagship specimen is a huge blue whale skeleton collected from the shores of Prince Edward Island.

Monday, December 10, 2012

Quiz on Microbiology: December 17th

based on the microbiology notes and disease slideshow.  this is our last quiz of 2012!

Disease activity

slideshow on disease for our Centre for Disease Control activity:  


Next day we will be doing the CDC activity.  Here are useful links:

Very generalized differences between viral and bacterial infections

A list of bacterial pathogens and viral pathogens (note the error under viral pathogens: botulism is not a viral disease - gov't of australia website made a mistake here!). some of the pathogens are particular to Australia, but others are common worldwide (such as measles, meningitis, salmonella, influenza).  These sites are easy to navigate.

 a more comprehensive list of viral pathogens .  this list is undergraduate level.


CASE STUDIES
Airborne Diseases

            Preventing airborne diseases case study: a viral airborne disease (SARS)

Managing an airborne disease case study:  a bacterial airborne disease (TB)


STI: 


dine safe website: a comprehensive list of health inspection reports for any restaurant!

Animal vector:
            Vertebrates mainly :

Insect vector: note only the ones caused by virus and bacteria:

Waterborne:

Sunday, December 2, 2012

Microbiology, An Introduction

Today you will go over the Introduction to Microbiology Notes, which cover Virus, and Monerans, with a mention of unicellular fungi.  You will also be given our Microbial Wine and Cheese assignment.  due date TBA.  And finally, our virus in a box assignment: below:


Make a model of a virus or bacterium of your choice.  Make it out of any material.  It must fit within a shoebox. 

the model:  10
it is complete and presented well: 4
the write up is on the outside of the shoebox:  6 marks:

bonus marks for the best three assignments.


   on the sides of the shoebox: 
side 1:  name of the virus or bacterium and a description
side 2:  disease that it causes in humans
side 3:  what is your name, draw a picture of yourself and describe a disease you had in the past (not the same disease that is in the box.
side 4:  a picture of the virus.

Thursday, November 22, 2012

Bamfield Video Conferencing! Learning Evolution from a Baby Grey whale Skeleton

Dr. Hana Kucera and Dr. David Riddel will be guest speakers via video conferencing in our biology course.  Stay tuned for an opportunity to learn about ecology and evolution from marine educators .  Ask questions and interact with Canada's premiere marine science station.   We will arrange for our video conferencing session in the next two weeks.

Evolution notes - Quiz next tuesday

There will be a Quiz on evolution next tuesday.  We will go over these notes today in detail.

The following notes summarize our lessons in evolution
Evolution
How evolutionary change occurs

also images from a discussion on
punctuated equilibrium
natural selection
For those of you following along in the Miller and Levine text, this material is covered in chapters 13 and 14.

Quiz will be based on the notes and include multiple choice and short answer.  When you hand this in, there will be an open book portion where you will be expected to identify fossils.  You may use your lab notes for this portion of the quiz.

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Fossil Lab


There was a lecture on Geological time, a video on why we ought to be grateful to be related to jawed ancestors, and also box sets of fossils, which, like chocolate boxes, come with a nice legend so you can see which one to sample first.  This lab will take two periods, after which, you will hand in your colour coded geological timeline with your observations of known and unknown fossil specimens.

Fossil stations include:
1.  comparative anatomy of modern and fossil animals:  boxed samples
2.  Wards fossil box (little samples, use the lenses)
3.  unknown sample set, mainly plants,  including a gingko fossil, with some modern gingko for comparison
4.  Texas Cordova Shell limestone, dating back to the cretaceous, and featuring Trigonia, a clam-like shell and turritella, a tightly spiraled snail-like creature.

Draw, observe, place in the correct location on the timeline and hand in wednesday.




Monday, November 5, 2012

test 15th of November

Our test will be from these study materials: It will take place on Thursday, Nov 15.

1.  Kingdom Plantae notes here
2.  plantae diagram of evolutionary history showing the pattern of evolutionary history of plants
3.  plantae handout showing  leaf anatomy, fern anatomy and the difference between monocot and dicot plants.  be prepared to identify a leaf, a bean or seed using these criteria.
4.  Classification notes
5.  DNA questions (only 1 to 10) from the DNA notes (only up to page 4, DNA replication).  

test will be short answer, long answer and multiple choice

Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Reviewing Kingdom Plantae

Today will
1.  have a brief lecture reviewing the Kingdom Plantae notes here
2.  we will do the following assignment for handing in.  Create a collage using real plants on big 11 by 17 pieces of paper and tape:  

1. find an example of the land plants on the school grounds.  Bring back a tiny example:    Put 
them in evolutionary order.  
2. draw the alternation of generation of mosses and ferns and use a real example of a moss or fern, 
Use this diagram to help you learn structures of the gametophyte and sporophytes of mosses and ferns

3.  students will quiz one another to become ready for a plantae quiz next period on the same subject



Thursday, October 4, 2012

Ravine Park: botanizing















We did a site walk in Ravine Park today to start off our Ravine project and collected a sample of tree and understory specimens for later study.

Students collected and positively identified the following plants:  Bracken fern, Sword fern, English ivy, Vinca, Cedar, Laurel, Douglas Fir, Vine Maple, Salmonberry.  There are other plants (potential birch, alder, and aspen - but we need to check these with tree guides).   We will dry the leaves and press them in books.

We found a coyote scat that looked like it had hair in it.  And I thought I saw a Cascara tree - it looked so much like the one in Camosun bog, but I was mistaken.  We picked a sample, and after returning to school, and seeing the pattern in the stem, I think it is more likely a really young horse chestnut.   We'll know for sure if we can observe the flower and fruit.

For your field notes, take a note of your samples and classify them as bryophyte, tracheophyte, and then gymnosperm and angiosperm and identify the characteristics that support your classification.


Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Evolution of Plantae





Today we examined specimens that represented Bryophytes and Tracheophytes.  Tracheophytes included sphenophyta (horsetail) , pterophyta (fern), spermophyta (seed plants) . Of the spermophyta, we looked at gymnosperm and angiosperm samples.   We also observed a sundew in action (Drosera rotundifolia) after a few students captured a small spider and let it walk on the sundew.  Images of Shelob from Lord of the Rings comes to mind.... We also passed around a fuzzy and soft Stachys byzantina leaf: or lamb's ear.

Our notes today were the Kingdom Plantae notes here on alternation of Generation and the evolution of plants.  

Thursday, September 27, 2012

Monday, September 10, 2012

Summary of what we did today:
class notes:  
Classification, addendum:  define heterotroph, autotroph, eukaryote, prokaryote, multicellular, unicellular.  
identify organisms, according to kingdom, identify bog plants

 Make your own dichotomous key for objects displayed in class

for next day:
THIS CONSENT FORM for camosun bog.

Also, there's a bird hanging out on school grounds!:  I saw two this morning: look around for it!  It sounds like this:  http://www.birdjam.com/birdsong.php?id=8 I heard the "week, week week" sound...It's  a type of woodpecker: The one I saw seemed totally unafraid so I think it's really young.
http://www.utahbirds.org/birdsofutah/ProfilesL-R/NorthernFlicker.htm

Friday, September 7, 2012

Setting up for the new term


Welcome to Bi 11.  It was a pleasure to meet you last block.   I have marked all of our initial assignments just for completion to get an idea of your written work.  

For next block, download the following:  notes on classification and dichotomous key of sharks

SETTING UP WEB-BASED TOOLS
I would like you to see the instructions below to set up some web-based classroom tools.  The instructions seem very involved - if you need assistance, I will set up a computer station next block specifically to help you set up your nicenet account and your tumblr account, so no worries if you can't do it the first time.

ON-LINE ASSIGNMENTS AND COMMUNICATION OF ASSIGNMENTS:
We will use nicenet.org  to share and record selected on-going assignments.  Please create accounts for these websites.  Occasionally there are technical difficulties in setting up these accounts.  I will be happy to assist you.  


  1. Go to nicenet.org and create a username (must match your actual name)
  2. nicenet class key for biology 11 class is:  ZZ406Z9B73
  3. ensure your preferences indicate you will receive email messages as a copy of your nicenet messages.  this will help us communicate with each other
BLOG YOUR FIELD STUDIES AND LABS on TUMBLR

In a group, you will record your learning on a blog.  
Create an account to record your labs and fieldwork.

Step one:  go to this website:  https://www.tumblr.com/register
Step two:  fill in an email address and a password (different from your regular email password)
Step three:  in the URL section, write a word.  tumblr will automatically use that word as your URL

use the default setting. additional settings are extra cost.  use the no cost setting
Read the privacy section on tumblr.

You will create a link to your tumblr account within our nicenet space.  
It is worth noting that our biology 11 blog and nicenet space is within the formal classroom environment.  Your conduct in this internet space should reflect your behaviour in the presence of your teachers, parents and peers in a school setting. 

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Spring Sustainability Projects - consent form due next period - updated form

During April and May we will

  • Study Kingdom Plantae:  Here are notes 1 and notes 2 for download.  Note that brown algae and red algae is no longer a part of Kingdom Plantae and is now considered to be Protozoans according to evolutionary biologists
  • Embark on two major sustainability projects: our major projects for term 3
    • Sustainability Tour:  dates are April 23 bi 11 pre-visit.  April 25, visit grade 8, April 27, visit CIRS building and CK Choi building with grade 8s.
    • Bog Buddy please note that for the saturday work parties, the dates are incorrect in the doc. the actual dates are: 14th of April and 21th of April 
    • consent form for both projects
  • Monitor and care for the radishes and spinach we planted in one of the school garden beds!

Hand in your consent next period please




In mid-May, we will focus on preparing for our final exam.

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Kingdom Plantae Quiz

Kingdom Plantae notes here
you will get a quiz Friday on the sexual reproduction of land plants, the definition of plants, the three things that happen to glucose and trends in plant evolution on land. mainly page one.  There will be 10 questions from these notes.  Also, I will include 5 questions from this set of notes to start our review for the final exam:  classification


Great job on our garden work party!

Sunday, March 4, 2012

Homework for Biology 11

On Thursday, there will be a mc test on the following content:

molluska notes
flatworms and roundworms
kingdom animalia
cnidaria and porifera
Some notes on arthropoda

And you ought to bring to class your own set of notes on the following for which there will be an open book assignment:
annelida (key words, bolded)
echinodermata (key words, bolded)
arthropoda compare and contrast the different subphyla for life history and mouthparts and adaptations.


This will finish our animalia unit.  

Be sure to vote on BC Green Games. There are prizes for projects with lots of votes.  This funding can be used to promote sustainability at PW - particularly PW garden.    Many bi 11s and ex-trekkies were very involved with these projects:
PW sustainability Prezi

bog buddy program

PW Community Garden Blog

Plan-It Earth Student Conference

I love the site BC Green Games because it demonstrates the power for positive change initiated by youth, supported by teachers.  PW has a pretty good track record of this through its leadership program.

Monday, February 27, 2012

Arthropoda notes

Some notes on arthropoda with an assignment at the end of it.
And Dr. Wayne Maddison's jumping spider video:  click on the picture below
And for the wolf spiders, take a look below:

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

animalia intro

intro to kingdom animalia
intro to cnidaria and porifera

homework:  read and make notes on the bolded words and illustrations in section 26-1, 26-2 and 30-1 of your text

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Kingdom Protista

Today we went over Kingdom protista.  Notes are here.   10 mark quiz next period on the notes.  Welcome back and Happy New Year.