microbial wine and cheese due on dec 16

see the original post for details

Bacteria Lab write up, part 1 due for Dec 8. Consent form due same day

The first part of bacteria lab is complete and the procedure and initial observations are due for next period. (Dec 8)

Hand this in using the following methods:

1. make a print out and hand in a hard copy in class
2. put it on your blog.  then email your blog to me to scng@vsb.bc.ca
3. create a link to your document and email the link to me to scng@vsb.bc.ca

do not send an attached document as my mailbox is not able to handle big files (with photos)

Field Studies

Here is the consent form for the Beaty Museum.  You will be missing all of period one, two and part of period 3.  Download this form and fill it in completely

Beaty museum consent form

I would like a few more parent volunteers.  Please invite parents to come along.

Microbiology Notes

Notes on Bacteria and Viruses
Slideshow on disease

check out : Prince of Wales:  Microbial Wine and Cheese  

Many foods are made by the action of microbes from kingdom Monera, or Fungi.  In a group of two or three, prepare a plate artistically displaying an sample of a food that is made by a microbe.  For example, sourdough bread is made by the action of lactobacillus and Propionibacterium freudenreichii produces emmental cheese.  In the history of food, it seems, there was always someone who decided to try something that looked like it had gone bad and said,  "hey, a little off, but…not bad!"  And thus the birth of beer, bread, cheese, natto! 

Due in the library, dec 16...  during the morning.  Please bring a tea mug for the fermented Camellia sinensis. This is what we will be drinking.  De-alc beer and wine provided by Mr. Haji.  semi-formal event.  if you have a musical instrument, please bring it!  make only enough for your own group to eat and include a bite for the vp or principal who plans to drop in for a taste.

Volunteer opportunity Pacific Spirit Park

Here is a great opportunity for volunteering and blogging: If you enjoy being in the forest, and you would like to be a youth leader, check out this opportunity:

Hi there Susan,

This is Lauren, co-head of the youth committee of PSPS. I hope you are doing well!

Maddy and I have been planning a new project for this upcoming year that maintains the same focus as Forum in the Forest (which you might remember as the Earth Week event from last April) but on a monthly basis. We are looking for interested and committed youth volunteers to lead our monthly "Trail Treks".

Rhizobium Bacteria live in the root nodules of legumes

today we looked at the root nodules in a legume plant.  These plants have a symbiotic relationship with a nitrogen fixing bacteria called rhizobium.  Not all plants have these nodules. Legumes are plants that make pods like soybean, clover, alfalfa, kidney beans, peas.

We tested several plants for the presence of nodules and to discover which ones are, in fact, legumes.  We also observed some insects found on some of the specimens.

Virus Model Due November 2

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.

sign up for this lecture

Hello bi 11s,

there is an opportunity to learn about biodiversity and landscape architecture from one of Canada's best landscape architects, Cornelia Oberlander.  Remember that attendance to conferences and lectures and reporting your learning could help go towards your term mark.  The information is here:

Biodiversity and Landscape Architecture in the 21st Century

At the Beaty Biodiversity Museum.

test on monday!

test is on all notes including classification
evolution, natural selection (see all previous notes in previous posts below)

including this one:
How evolutionary change occurs

also powerpoints on
punctuated equilibrium
natural selection

test will be some multiple choice and some long answer.  emphasis on the notes.
if you want to study from the text:  it is chapters 13, 14, 15.  last period, I gave you a challenge to put something in evolutionary order.  this question will also be on this test.

good luck everyone!

Evolution Animation and your Class Notes

Evolution is the idea that all life is related in some way.  We can count primates and fish as distant cousins. And earthworms, mollusks as even more distant relatives.  Going back even farther, we can even have a family reunion with a flatworm.  The story of life as an animation is here.  Your bi 11 evolution notes here.

skull activity continued

continue and finish the lab from last day.  This reference sheet  may come in handy.  (Ruth Gronquist, "Skulls of Alaskan Mammals", 2005, published by the Alaskan Department of Fish and Game. Web.  retrieved, September, 2010.)


Those who signed up for the DNA field trip ought to do some pre-reading on DNA here.  Don't worry, we'll get our DNA lesson on Thursday.  The fee for the biochemistry trip is $10.  Consent form will be posted shortly.

Examining and Identifying Mammalian Skulls

Skull Observations Activity                                                            Ms. Ng Chung

Purpose: 

Examine mammalian skulls and note their adaptations for finding food and eating. 

Part 1

Examine three diagrams of “mystery skulls”.  Label and identify them. 

Part 2

Examine actual specimens.  Examine key characteristics such as

Parts of skull : Eye sockets, nasal passages, auditory bullae, Foramina, Horns, Antlers, especially teeth.

Tasks:

1.  Draw specimens carefully and label the parts of the skull (as above).

2. Write their a.  characteristics.  b. Identify them as the following taxanomic order : 

                  Carnivore

                  Ungulates - Herbivore – ruminant

                  Rodents - Herbivore

                  hares and rabbits - Herbivore

                  Omnivore

3. give evidence for your thoughts. 

3. bonus:  attempt to make a positive identification.  (this is really challenging!!!! As we only have fragments of some of these). 

Hand in your work.  

dichotomous keys

How do biologists identify new specimens?  They use or create dichotomous keys.  We will practice making keys and reading keys:

A note regarding your quiz.  They have been recorded and will be given back. If you did poorly on your quiz, I will give an opportunity to take another quiz to add to your quiz total.  For example, if you scored 3/5.  You may take another quiz next day (wednesday) after school, on the same topic.  if you get 5/5 in the second quiz, then your quiz total becomes   (3+5) / 10   or a total of 8/10.   There is only one opportunity to do this second after school quiz for every quiz you take.  

From Kid's Habitat Shark School

classification and camosun bog

The first set of notes you received is a review of the cell and the cell organelles.  Today we reviewed our classification notes and went over the species found in a bog. we defined the word
heterotrophic - an organism which cannot synthesize its own glucose, it must ingest complex organic molecules such as glucose, starch, fat, etc, to obtain energy.    
 autotrophic- an organism which is capable of synthesizing its own glucose or other organic molecule.  prime example of an autotroph is anything that photosynthesizes.  
 Our bog lecture describes the primary abiotic conditions found in a bog.  we reviewed some of the bog species.  (see class notes, term 1)

We had our first quiz out of five marks, class average was 4/5.  daily review of our two column class notes is highly recommended.  I mentioned in an earlier class of

A reminder to everyone to bring their class fee next block so we can start going out on our trips

BIOLOGY 11 CLASS

What defines the parameters of life and death?  How does a jellyfish function with no brain, no heart? Probe, observe, examine, dissect the three hearts of a squid, the taste buds of a fly, “fangs” on a spider, “breathing” apparatus on leaves, carnivorous plants.  Record your observations in a blog.  Indulge in a microbial wine and cheese.  Get dirty as stewards of an urban bog, dig in our PW community garden.  


This course explores the universal processes of life from the tiniest microbe to a blue whale.  All living things have common traits and interconnections.  These traits can evolve and change in response to a changing environment. Our modern, urban life is accelerating environmental change at a rate that may exceed the ability for organisms to adapt.  There are now 6 billion people on earth.  3 billion are in cities.  By 2050, there will be 9 billion people on earth and 6 billion will be in cities.  If all the cities are exactly like ours, we would need four earths.  Biology 11 provides a biological, ecological context to inform our ability to design a sustainable future -  which you must do within your lifetime.