Earth Science

No homework over interim and Spring Break!!

Biology HW - due April 12th and 13th

Read and take notes for all sections of Ch 17, Organizing Life’s Diversity, on pg. 482- 504, in the Glencoe Biology books.

Earth Science- TEST!!

Amnesty day for 5th Grading period is Thursday, 3/24/2011, notebooks will be collected after class.
Ch include ES Ch 17,19,18,11,12, and 13.

Test on natural Dissaster material will be after spring break, most likely 4/14-15/2011.   Be ready!  Also, remember that it is open notebook, if approved during office hours: T/Th  at lunch.

Biology- HW/CW

Amnesty day for 5th G.P eriod homework is Wed. 3/23/2011:  material includes Biology notes for Ch15;2;3;4 and EEP worksheets.


EEP presentations take place in class this week!!  Be ready , this is a HARD deadline!

Earth Science- HW

Read and take notes for ES ch 13: the Nature of Storms

Biology HW

Be prepared and ready to present next Monday 3/21/2011(odd) or Tuesday 3/22/2011(even).  You should have your visual, worksheets, workcited, and a 3-5 minute presentation covering your future and modern organism.

Earth Science- HW

Good Job on ND presentations!

Read and take notes for Ch 12: Meteorology ( weather)

Earth Science-

See me for Intros today!! Monday 3/14

Presentations are tomorrow in class!!!!  be Ready!

Biology- HW

EcoEvolution Project production!!  at least 2 more class days if on task!

Earlieast possible presentation date 3/16-17/2011

Ecology/Evolution Project Presentation Rubric 2011                     Name:

	Exceptional (5)	Good (4)	Satisfactory (3)	Revisit (1)	(0)
Content that should be included in your final product
Taxonomy	All of 4 and: the future organism is given a common name and a Genus species name based on Latin/Greek roots	All of 3 and: Complete taxonomy (K,P,C,O,F, Gs) for the ancestral organism	A complete taxonomy (K,P,C,O,F, Gs & common name) is included for the modern organism	Incomplete/incorrect taxonomy (K,P,C,O,F, Gs & common name) is given for the modern organism
Environmental Factors	All of 4 and: Identify the environmental pressures caused by human activity that the future organism responded to	All of 3 and: Include maps that show the geographic range of the modern organism	Identify the biome (climate & geography) for the ancestral, modern & future organism	Biome information lacking/incorrect for the modern organism
Ecology	All of 4 and: Construct/ Predict a possible food chain for the ancestral organism	All of 3 and: Predict a possible food chain for the future organism	Identify the niche and trophic level for the ancestral, modern & future organism and a food chain for the modern organism	Info. lacking/incorrect for the niche and trophic level for the ancestral, modern & future organism and/or food chain
Morphological & Behavioral Changes	All of 3 and: Describe the significance of these adaptations in terms of fitness	↔	Identify the morphological and behavioral adaptations for ancestral, modern & future organism	Info. lacking/incorrect for morphological & behavioral in ancestral, modern & future
Illustrations	Student makes obvious effort to accurately illustrate ancestral, modern & future organism	Student attempts to accurately illustrate ancestral, modern & future organism	Photocopies/print outs of ancestral, modern & future organism	Illustrations are missing or obviously done with out attention to detail
Presentation should include the following information on the future organism only
Evolutionary Principles	All of 3 and: Explain in detail the evolutionary processes that lead to origin of future organism	All of 3 and: Explain basic evolutionary processes that lead to origin of future organism	Present future organisms scientific name/meaning, biome, ecology and adaptations	Info. lacking/incorrect for future organisms scientific name/meaning, biome, ecology and adaptations
Eye contact	Eye contact good for all	Good eye contact	Eye contact attempted most of the time	Reading off poster etc.
Clarity/pacing	Clarity and pace are good understandable by all	Clarity and pace are good understandable by most	Presenter understandable by most	not understandable

A properly formatted, accurate and complete works cited page needs to be turned in.  All units must be metric. Failure to include WC page or using ESU will earn you an incomplete – revisit project grade. 

Earth Science- HW

1) Rough draft of Introduction for ND due;  minimum of 3 paragraphs- 1-2 P on how your dissaster works (mechanics), 1-2 P on Energy transfer in your dissaster and 1-2 P describing your specific dissaster event.  This can be turned in electronically or hardcopy.

2) Read and take notes for ch 18- Volcanoes, pg. 470-491

Biology Hw

1) Research worksheets for EEp:  ancient and modern organisms due t/w 3/8-9/2011

2) Read and take notes for ch 4 pg 90-106 on Population Ecology.


* EEp presentations will be either W/Th 3/16-17 or M/T 3/21-22*

Earth Science

ND worksheet research questions due Mon.3/7/2011

RD of intro ( 1-2para describing dissaster type; 1-2 para describing Energy mechanics and 1-2 para describing your specific dissaster with sources  due Wed. 3/9/2011

Earth Science

Useful web sites for ND project:

These sites may be very helpful:
http://usgs.gov/   for gelogic disasters
http://noaa.gov/   for meteorologic disasters
http://abag.ca.gov/   for info about local disasters and preparedness

Biology Hw

1) Research for EEp:  ancient and modern wkshts due t/w 3/8-9/2011

2) Read and take notes for ch 3 pg 58-82 on ecosystems and biomes.

Biology HW

1) Keep researching ancient and modern species for EEP

2) Read and take notes for ch 2 pg 30-50 in Glencoe Biology book on Ecology principles

Earth Science- HW

Complete answers to Earthquake triangulation handout given out in class.   due March 3rd, 2011

Earth Science- Natural Disaster project

We have begun the Natural dissaster project in both science and humanities classes.  Final projects are due March 16th

Below are some of the due dates as well as a copy of introduction to the project which will be passed out in Humanities class this week.

#1 The Disaster Research worksheet is DUE 3/7/2011, an individual grade worth 100 points with no revisits or incompletes given.  If students coordinate with their group members each student only researches the answer to 4/16 questions and group members can exchange answers to complete all 16 questions.  I advised students to use the internet citation template (not for a grade) to help them collect source information for text notes and the group Works Cited Page.  The research worksheet is due for ALL classes; an electronic copy of the research can be turned into my Teacher Desk Inbox or a print out of the research can be turned into the Inbox in my classroom.  Grades are based on the percentage of questions that are answered based on student research.  There will be no revisit or option to earn more points; make the hard deadline, these points count in Humanities and Science.

#2 Introduction to ND Rough Draft is due by 1PM on 3/9/2011, a group grade worth 50 points with chances to revisit.  ND groups will decide on one or two students that will be responsible for authoring the introduction essay on disaster mechanics, details about the specific disaster and the energy transfer in the disaster.  Students must use details from their research with textnotes identifying the source for the details to construct the essay.  Infomation from the essay will then be bulleted on the final product and be referenced during the final presentation.

Expect more ND information to be posted the project ends ~16th of March. 

NATURAL DISASTER PROJECT 2011

How does a country’s socioeconomic status affect that country’s ability to prepare for and/or respond to natural disasters?

INTRODUCTION:

            Disasters test people and governments to the extreme. They also provide an excellent lens for studying humankind’s relationship to the forces of nature. Through the study of natural disasters, you will gain a greater understanding of how culture, politics and economics affect the way we interact with both the physical world and each other.

FINAL PRODUCTS:

            This project will require both individual as well as group work. Your individual grades and your group grades will be counted in both Humanities and Science, so it is important that you take this project seriously and do your best work.  Each group will be responsible for producing a final multimedia presentation about one disaster that has stricken a developed, developing or underdeveloped nation.  For example, one group might produce a project on floods in an underdeveloped nation and another might study a volcanic eruption in a developed nation.   Examples of disasters and the nations in which they have occurred will be provided by your teachers.

Each group will conduct research on one of the following natural disasters:

¨TSUNAMIS

¨TROPICAL CYCLONES

¨VOLCANOES

 ¨TORNADOES

 ¨EARTHQUAKES 

Ø Individual work: 

1)      Research worksheets. After you have been split into groups, EACH MEMBER of your group will be responsible for researching one part of your disaster. Complete the research worksheet for your part of one disaster.

2)      Essay. Compare the response of developed, developing and underdeveloped nations and how their socioeconomic status affects the nation’s response to a natural disaster.

3)      Reflection. When the project is over, you will be given the chance to evaluate your group’s work, your group members’ performance, and your own performance.

Ø Group work:

Your group should assemble the whole report together.  Divide the work evenly.  Students who don’t help with the final presentation will NOT get a group grade.  As a group you must do the following:

1)      Introduction: Write an introduction which explains the scientific mechanics of your disaster, or how your disaster works from the potential energy build up through the kinetic energy release of destruction. 

2)      Detailed analysis of your disaster. Once you are done with your research, your group needs to use demographic and severity factors from the disaster, to analyze how the country’s socioeconomic status affected disaster preparedness and/or response to the disaster.  You will be given more detailed instructions in the coming days.

3)      Presentation: Your group is expected to create a thorough and complete presentation that includes visuals. Details will follow in a future handout, but the general overview is that your presentation should include:

a.       Explanation of the scientific mechanics of your disaster

b.      Explanation of what happened during the disaster

c.       Explanation of the factors that affected the severity of each disaster (based on your research worksheet)

d.      Explanation of what can be done to limit the severity if a disaster were to occur in the same place in the future

4)      Citations: Create a Works Cited page listing all sources used for the research worksheet, the introduction, and the presentation.  This should be a word document handed in separately from your visual.

REMEMBER: You will go far when you read and follow ALL handouts and rubrics!!!!

Assignment	Due date	Class it will be collected in	Point value	Individual or group?
Demographics research worksheet	March 4th	Humanities	50	Individual
Disaster Research worksheet	March 7th	Humanities	100	Individual
Rough draft of written introduction	March 9th	Before 1 PM to your Science teacher	50	Group
Visual for presentation	March 14th—HARD DEADLINE Due to HUM teacher	Science/Humanities	200 +100 =300	Group
Work Cited Page (printed)	March 14th—HARD DEADLINE Due to HUM teacher attached to rubric
Oral Presentation	March 15th & 16th	Science/Humanities	200	Group
Essay	March???	Humanities	50	Individual
Individual Reflections	Week of March 21st	Science	100	Individual

                                                                                    TOTAL: 850 POINTS!!!!!

Biology- EcoEvolution project

We have started our next science project which should be due around senior exhibitions- i.e. march 18th or so.  Students are researching an ancient and modern species  and will then create an "evolved" form of their modern organisms and justify and describe it using evolutional and ecological concepts.  Research worksheets will be due T/W 3/8-9/2011

Ecology/Evolution Project  v.4  2011

Project Description:  Students will pick an ancestral organism and a modern organism group from the provided list.  Students will then conduct research on the ancestral organism and its ancient ecology.  Students will also need to conduct research on a modern descendent (unique from the other modern organism chosen in this class) of the ancestral organism and its ecology.  Then students that share a common ancestor will research and predict a worst case scenario of the selective pressures exerted by Humans on the modern organism’s future biome and the evolutionary pressures that a future descendent of the modern organism will have to respond to for survival.  All throughout the project you will use the basic principles of evolution and ecology to show how organisms on Earth might have evolved into modern species and ultimately predict how Humans may be the driving selective evolutionary force for future life on Earth. 

Objectives:

1.       Identify Taxonomy of organism (past, present, and future) use complete taxonomic information you research for the modern species and its ancestor.  The species name will be chosen by the student for the future species.  Teacher will provide you with guidelines for giving a scientific name to your future species you may use the modern organism’s taxonomy for the rest.

2.       Identify the organism’s ecology for past, present, and future including:

a.      biome, habitat, niche, predator/prey relations, trophism, food chain and any important interactions with other organisms

b.      members of the same species (mates, solo/herds and offspring)

3.       Identify the major environmental pressures to which your creature has responded to in the past-modern & modern-future examples. 

4.       Describe changes (adaptations) in your organism’s morphology and behavior for the species to be successful at each age?

5.       Description of why your organism evolved using principles of evolution and natural selection.  

a.      Gradualism vs. Punctuated Equilibrium, method of speciation, convergence/divergence, coevolution…

6.       Student produced illustrations of organism (past, present, and future)

7.       Present your research and predictions

Final Product:

Poster, models, technology, …?  What ever suits you best; we have a limited time and computer access for completion of this project, so make choices that suit the amount of time you can devote outside of class in addition to the time given in class!  You will present with other students sharing the same common ancestor and may determine similar future conditions.  All grades will be individual.

Things to consider for the future:

-Future biomes: will be greatly altered by a worst case scenario: global warming, habitat

destruction (cities, roads…), pollution, war, bioterrorism, ozone depletion, etc…

-Morphology: size, color, patterns, appendages, trophism, defense mechanisms…

-Behavior: migration, mating practices, raising young, loner, herding, nocturnalism…

-Relationships: prey, predators, reproduction, competition, shelter/nest materials…

List of ancient species/group of modern organisms (each member of a group must have a different modern species): 

ie I choose Pseudaelurus-cougar, another student chooses Pseudaelurus-house cat and another student Pseudaelurus-lynx.  We may share the ancestral species research, but our modern and future species research is completely independent. We would then present our information as a group akin to the dino. project presentations.

Eryops (or Temnospondyli(- ls) or Paleobatrachus)/amphibians

Eurypterus/arachnids

Pseudaelurus/felines

Coytylosaurs/lizards

Archaeopteryx or Oviraptor/birds of prey

Primelephas/elephants (no more than 2 students may select this option) Asian, & African,

Hyracotherium/horses (no more than 3 students may select this option) donkey, zebra & horse

Hybodus/sharks

Cynodictis /canines

Archaeocetes/cetaceans

Cheirolepis/ray finned fish

Ancient Nautiloids/ Cephalopods (octopi, squid etc…)

Parictis/ Bears

Sphenicidea /Aquatic Birds ( penguins)

Australopithecus/human (this is a solo option)

Other?????

(Worksheet)

Species:                                                                         Name:

Eco/Evolution Project:  Research Notes for Ancestral Organism

Geologic time(s) this organism lived:

Environment: What type of biome does your ancestral organism live in? Describe the climatic and geographic range for your organism.  Maps could be useful visual aids.

Ecology:  What is your organism’s niche? What significant relationships did the organism have with other organisms and their environment?  Try to establish a food chain for your organism; if information is lacking identify your organism’s trophic level.  This information may be spotty; try to find the dominant plants and dominant animals for your organism’s geologic time.

Morphology: What are the basic structures that make up the organisms body and appearance?

Survival traits: What adaptations were necessary for this organism to be successful in its environment? Why the adaptations occur?  What evolutionary concepts?

Species:                                                                         Name:

Eco/Evolution Project:  Research Notes for Modern Organism

Environment: What type of biome does your modern organism live in? Describe the climatic and geographic range for your organism.  Maps could be useful visual aids.

Ecology:  What is your organism’s niche? What significant relationships did the organism have with other organisms and their environment?  Establish a food chain for your organism.  What are the dominant plants and dominant animals for your organism’s biome?

Morphology: What are the basic structures that make up the organisms body and appearance?

Survival traits: What adaptations were necessary for this organism to be successful in its environment?  How are Human activities influencing this species? Why the adaptations occur?  What evolutionary concepts?

Species:                                                                         Name:

Eco/Evolution Project:  Research Notes for Future Organism

Millions of years from now (consider the evolutionary trends your organism has been following from ancestral to modern; predict what selective pressures and adaptations will occur for the future descendent sp.)

Environment: What type of biome does your future organism live in? Research how Human activities are expected to alter the environment in a worst case scenario.  Teacher will provide some basic suggestion on how biomes might be changed and maps.

Ecology:  What is your organism’s niche? What significant relationships did the organism have with other organisms and their environment?  Establish a food chain for your organism.  What are the dominant plants and dominant animals for your organism’s biome?  Assume mass extinctions wiped out most modern plants and animals; you do not need to predict the specific biology/ecology of future plants& animals.  With your group just make generalizations about future  plants or animals that fill the niches of the extinct modern organisms.

Morphology: What are the basic structures that make up the organisms body and appearance?

Survival traits: What adaptations were necessary for this organism to be successful in its environment? (refer to the Intro hand out has some details, I have more detailed information once you have determined your biome)  For this project we are assuming mass extinctions Why the adaptations occur?  What evolutionary concepts?

TASK:  By the end of today’s period you will complete and turn in the following for your organism.  In a group of three each person must complete this task; in a group of two do this for the ancient and modern organism (one per student) and work together to complete the task for your future organism.  In a group of one you only need to complete the task for one of your organisms to earn credit today, but you will need to include this information for all ages.

1.  What is the trophic level for your organism?

• This is a good time to think/research what other organism are involved in the trophic process (relations with other species:  predator/prey, symbiosis, competition for resources, shared habitat…)

2.   Make a food chain representing the position of your organism. 

• research this if modern or ancient
• for future organisms you will need to predict what other organisms are a part of your organism’s food chain
• extra credit for making food webs for all ages