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.

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.

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

DNA field trip OCT 26

We will visit the michael smith building to do the PCR experiment. consent form here.

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

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.

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.