Gangnam Biology

Can’t get the “Gangnam Style” song out of your head?  Me neither.

 Well, for some science students at Shaker Heights High School, near Cleveland, Ohio, the song just might come in handy for their next biology exam!

Squid Dissection

Student Task:  

Epic Battle II: All that's missing is the T-Rex

   -write a brief positive couple paragraphs outlining the purpose and goals of this dissection. Include a discussion of how this lab helps us to understand the biological world and how it relates to what we are learning in class (tell me some facts you learned in class which relate to the squid we dissected and that compare it to other body forms in the Phylum). Include a personal response.  Don't forget to refer to your blog rubric so that you're posting a top-notch post!
   -take a photo or video for each of the questions outlined in your dissection guide and answer the question with a brief (1-2 sentence) full sentence explanation as the caption (use Paint or the Skitch app to label the parts you are highlighting for the question)
   -Post these in your blog.

                                                                                                Due Date: Tuesday night

Hint hint....

Simply HAD to get soosh after class today...

Uni. Echinoderm lunch is called uni.

Annelid (earthworm) Dissection!

Student Task:
   -write a brief positive paragraph outlining the purpose and goals of this dissection. Include a discussion of how this lab helps us to understand the biological world and how it relates to what we are learning in class. Include a personal response.  Don't forget to refer to your blog rubric so that you're posting a top-notch post!
   -take a photo or video for each of the questions outlined in your dissection guide and answer the question with a brief (1-2 sentence) full sentence explanation as the caption (use Paint or the Skitch app to label the parts you are highlighting for the question)
   -Post these in your blog. 

Hint hint...

Cool story bro, but... Who won?

Post your guess below:

Epic battle I

Aquarium Adventure

Thursday: Vancouver Aquarium field trip!!!

Student Task:
-write a brief paragraph outlining the purpose and goals of this trip. Include a discussion of how this trip helps us to understand the biological world and how it relates to what we are learning in class. Include a personal response.  Don't forget to refer to your blog rubric so that you're posting a top-notch post!
-take a photo or video for each of the specimens or relationships outlined in your guide and answer the question with a brief (1-2 sentence) explanation as the caption.
-take a few fun photos with your friends in different areas in the aquarium! (I hear the Cnidarian tanks make great backdrops!)
-Post these in your blog.
Due date: Tuesday

Fun key

Good morning bloggers!
Here is a great visual I found for some common fungi: this illustrated key shows examples of all the major mushrooms genera and other fungi, so you can try to match your finds to the pictures. I found it at this great website: http://www.rogersmushrooms.com/gallery/VisualKey.asp

Thanks to http://www.rogersmushrooms.com/gallery/VisualKey.asp

Blog Rubric

       Here is a copy of the blog rubric so that you can get credit for being the most famous Biology Blogger on the net. If you're getting this in your blog feed then you're following me successfully. Yay!! If not: FAIL!

Student task: please comment on this post with your first name and blog URL. I need these to give you credit for your upcoming spectacular blog posts!

@msiannone

Blog Rubric: So you can show me how a biology blog is done!

Fungus Hunt

   Friday we spent the afternoon exploring the park to find the fungi that we have been learning about this week. We learned in class about Oomycota (protistlike fungi), Zygomycota (common moulds), Ascomycota (sac fungi), Basidiomycota (club fungi), and Deuteromycota (imperfect fungi).  On our fungi walk we found mushrooms EVERYWHERE!  We found many Club Fungi species including mushrooms, colourful jelly mushrooms, and many many shelf mushrooms growing through all sorts of decaying matter.  We also found symbiotic Lichens in the form of Crusticose, Foliose, and Fructicose lichens on seemingly every surface, snacking on sunlight.  We were slightly disappointed not to find any real fairy circles, however, it may have been fortunate as we wouldn't want to lose any of our classmates into other worlds.
   I very much enjoyed finding fungi seemingly on every surface of the forest, but more so I loved getting to know you guys as my students.  I had been very much looking forward to having this type of casual exploration of real-life biology and enjoyed chatting and getting to know you so much.   Thanks for being such an awesome class! @msiannone

Student task:
-Upload a short positive paragraph telling the world about our trip, linking what you learned in class to what you found on our fungus walk.  Reflect upon the purpose of our trip, how it links to what we learned about fungi, and if you learned anything new (see rubric sheet for details)  /20
-Include 8 of your group's favorite fungi photos (each student should have 8 photos posted). /8
-One of these photos should have fungal parts labeled using the Skitch ap (parts should include at least: mushroom cap, fruiting body, stalk, gills, mycelium, hyphae, bastidia, and spores). /7

Due Wednesday, Nov 21

 /35

This is a beautiful Basidiomycota that we found on our fungus hunt.

Welcome!

Welcome to Ms. Iannone's Biology blog!

   We will be blogging from our Biology 11 class about our exploration of the biological world.  Our classmates will be sharing the real life examples of living organisms that we encounter in the field and in our lab.

For students:  From the moment you start your first blog post you will be a worldwide journalist, letting people from all ecosystems know what the living world is like in our corner of British Columbia.  Please check out the examples of High, Medium, and Low level blog posts on this link.   It also has a similar rubric to the one we will be using in our class to assess how amazing you are as a blogger.    @msiannone 

Congratulations and Enjoy! 

This is a Gastropod Mollusc that I found on the beach when I was living in Grenada a few years back.

This is a beautiful Basidiomycota growing through a bed of Bryophyte.  I took this photo while hiking at Buntzen Lake over the summer.