Go to my wiki page located here.  You will see two links (Exploring DNA and DNA Structure).  You should visit these pages in the order presented and view the JMOL interactive models at those sites.  These are very cool 3-D models that you can manipulate to understand the structure of DNA.  After you view the first site (Exploring DNA) and while you are viewing the second site (DNA Structure), you should answer the questions from the Question Sets you received in class.  A copy in pdf format can be found here.  Please don’t just rush to answer the questions.  Take your time to investigate and appreciate the beauty of DNA and of these modeling programs.

Due:  Monday, 1/30/12

Your task is to create a DNA model. You may use any materials you wish when constructing your model, except food items. The model should be at least one foot long and be as realistic as possible. It should show the sugar, phosphates, and bases, the anti-parallel nature of the two strands, the 3′ and 5′ ends (structurally correct), the number of bases per turn, the correct base pairings, the hydrogen bonding between bases (2 or 3 as appropriate), etc… At least part of the model must be twisted in the helix shape.  You also must include a ‘key’ that explains what each item is.  There are examples in class for you to view.

Due: Friday, 2/3/12

You will have a test on Carbon chemistry, carbohydrates and lipids on Thursday, 1/12/12.

You should go to the Intel Science Fair website located here: http://www.societyforscience.org/isef/document.  Once  there, you should read the Student Handbook and look at the Category Descriptions.  After reading those two items you should think of a project for which you would like to research and conduct an experiment.  You should then type a proposal.

The proposal must be typed and include the following things: Problem, Hypothesis, Independent and Dependent variables, the purpose of the experiment, and a brief procedure.  The purpose of the experiment should be two or three sentences on why this is an important problem to study.  The problem, hypothesis and variables must be something that can be measured.

1. Problem or question

2. Purpose (why are you doing this project? How does it affect society?)

3. Hypothesis (this must be measurable)

4. Independent variable

5. Dependent variable

6. Complexity
• Complexity of science fair project is very important.  Your project cannot be a lab experiment you did in high school or middle school.
• Your project should not be a simple music oriented behavior problem.
• Your project must not be a race or gender based behavioral experiment.

7.  Brief procedure

Things to note:  The most important thing is to choose a project that interests you.  Think of the the things you have read about or learned in school and which of those seemed to excite you the most. Try to design a project around one of those topics.  It is also important that your project be important and deep enough to be worthy of not just a high school science project but a Charter School of Wilmington high school science project.  Consider that as you determine your project.

Due: Monday, January 9, 2012

Your task is to go through each and every question on your test and…

On a separate sheet of paper you will write a comment as to why each answer choice is either right or wrong.  You do not need to rewrite the actual question or the answers, just comment on why each is right or wrong.  Do this for every question, not just the ones you got wrong.  The overall idea is for you to show me that you understand why the wrong answers are wrong and what the right answer is.

For example, if the question was:

1.  What is the capital of Delaware?

• Wilmington
• Philadelphia
• Dover
• Atlanta

You would write something like:

1. a – is a city in Delaware but not the capital

b – is not a city in Delaware nor a capital

c – is the correct answer

d – is the capital of Georgia

Doing this will earn you the opportunity to potentially improve your test score and earn half of your missed points back.  You could also cause yourself to do worse, so be sure to take this seriously and do this correctly.

In the end you will staple your new paper to the original test and scantron and return all of them to me.

Note: Do not answer question #24, there is a mistake in the graph that makes the question too ambiguous.

Due: Wednesday, 1/4/2012

Read chapter 1 up to section 1.9 (proteins) and answer these chapter 1 questions.   For now we will concentrate on carbohydrates and lipids so answer questions 1-16.  We will answer the remaining questions later.

Due: Monday, 12/19/11

Your task is to create a podcast on a current event.  This time it may be on any math, science, or technology topic.  The podcast must be between 55 and 65 seconds long. (no shorter, no longer)  Quality is important in this podcast.  Make sure the sound quality is excellent and that you have edited out any extraneous noise, retakes etc…  You may have music in parts of the background but be sure to obey copyright rules (only short snippets of a song).  Be sure to say your name, the podcast name (Science Snapshot), and attribute your source.  Also be sure to present the information in your own words.  Do NOT read an article to me or even plagiarize parts of the article – turn it into your own words or be clear that you are quoting a specific line.

Email me the file to my cswfleetwood email address given in class.  Do not send it to my charterschool email.  Include your source citation in the email (in APA format).  It must be an mp3 file.  Be sure to name the file using your name (lastname_firstname_period) or you may not get credit. (e.g. smith_john_G.mp3)  If you are using Audacity, you can follow these instructions to get the Lame encoder to be able to export as an mp3.

http://audacity.sourceforge.net/help/faq?s=install&item=lame-mp3

If you need help, come see me during an activity period this week.  No excuses related to technical issues.

One online way to create a podcast is to use Aviary – you can read more at the following website: http://www.aviary.com/tools/audio-editor

Due: Thursday, 12/15/11 by 7:30 a.m. (via email) – this means that it is due before school on Thursday.

• producers, consumers (primary, secondary, etc..), autotrophs, heterotrophs, herbivores, carnivores, omnivores
• 10% rule (energy flow through a web), trophic level, biomagnification (toxins through a web), carrying capacity, limiting factor, abiotic factors, population density, exponential growth, logistic growth
• niche, competitive exclusion principle, invasive (non-native) species, symbiosis (mutualism, commensalism, parasitism), mimicry, predator/prey dynamics (graph of predator/prey cycle)
• cycles – water, carbon, nitrogen
• vertex/vertices, edge/arc, directed edge, digraph, redundancy, resiliency (with repect to a food web/ecosystem), shortest path, longest path, keystone species, weighted edge, mathematical model,
• biomes, graph of biomes (temperature and rainfall)
• human body systems (digestive, skeletal, etc… basics from handout)
• levels of organization – everything we talked about, such as: ions, isotopes, water properties, polar, surface tension, capillary action, prokaryote, eukaryote, parts common to all cells, etc…

Go to my wiki ecosystems page and complete the lesson activity Exploring Food Webs.  If you use a computer in my room then the appropriate Wolfram CDF Player software is already installed.  This software is free.  Follow the directions to explore shortest and longest path trophic calculations, keystone species determination in non-weighted digraphs and keystone species determination in weighted graphs.  Answer the questions associated with each CDF file in your notebook.  Be prepared to defend your answers.

Due: Thursday, 12/1/11

Follow the directions given in class and on my Biome webpage located here.  When you send me the email (to my cswfleetwood address) include the following…

• subject line = biomes section-letter your-group-member-first-names
• example: biomes G john and stacy
• body of email = group member full names and name of unknown biomes 1-5 as well as evidence for each describing why you say it is that biome
• e.g. John Doe and Stacy Smith
• biome 1 = desert – because we see ‘insert evidence here’
• biome 2 = taiga forest – because we see ‘insert evidence here’
• note that the two examples above are not necessarily the correct answers for those biomes, they are just examples
• attach your kmz file to the email – that file should be named ‘biomes_section-letter_group-initials.kmz’
• example – biomes_G _JD_SS.kmz

Due: Monday, 11/21/11