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