Cells and "E" Lab

In class on Thursday May 26 we labeled Animal and Plant Cells. We also started and finished a small lab called the “E” Lab. I will explain what we did in that lab later on in my scribe post.



Parts of an Animal Cell:



Cell Membrane - The outside boundary of a cell


Cytoplasm - Liquid inside a cell


Golgi Body - A structure in a cell that receives proteins and other newly formed materials from the endoplasmic reticulum.


Lysosome - A small round cell structure containing chemicals that break down large food particles into smaller ones.


Mitochondria - Rod-shaped cell structure that converts food into energy.


Nucleus - A cell structure that contains nucleic acids.


Ribosome - A small grain like structure in the cytoplasm of a cell where proteins are made.


Endoplasmic Reticulum - Carries material from one part of the cell to another.


Vacuole - Stores food, water, waste, and other materials.




Labeled picture of an Animal Cell:








Parts of a Plant Cell:


Cell Membrane - The thin layer of protein and fat that surrounds the cell, but is inside the cell wall.


Cell Wall - A thick layer that surrounds a plant cell.


Chloroplast - Captures sunlight to produce food for the cell


Cytoplasm - Liquid inside a cell


Golgi body - A structure in a cell that receives proteins and other newly formed materials from the endoplasmic reticulum


Mitochondrion - Rod-shaped cell structure that converts food into energy.


Nucleus - A cell structure that contains nucleic acids.


Ribosome - A small grain like structure in the cytoplasm of a cell where proteins are made.


Endoplasmic Reticulum - Carries material from one part of the cell to another.


Vacuole - Stores food, water, waste, and other materials.





Labeled picture of a Plant Cell:









“E” Lab:


So now a little about the “E” Lab. When we did the “E” lab we had to cut out any type of “E or e” letter from a magazine that was the size of this font, and paste it on a slide that had a drop of water on it. Then we put a cover slip over it and pasted it on the microscope. The people that had chosen color full letter “e” had seen many color full dots mostly colors like blue, green, yellow, and light purple mixed with dark purple. But the people that chose letters that were black saw a black letter with little lines around it. After we were done looking at the letters we had a sheet to fill in of what we saw and we also had to draw a little pic of how the letter looked like.



Microscope:








Web sites to Animal Cell information/ games:



1. http://www.cellsalive.com/cells/cell_model.htm


2. http://www.purposegames.com/game/716e85a2


3. http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/health/anatomy/cell/cell_game.htm


4. http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/health/anatomy/cell/cell_quiz.htm




Web sites to Plant Cell information/ games:



1. www.sheppardsoftware.com/health/anatomy/cell/plant_cell_game.html


2. http://www.studystack.com/flashcard-11683


http://zagreb.ceesa.net/course/view.php?id=188


Microscope Game:

1. http://nhscience.lonestar.edu/biol/biolab/microscope2.htm

Emilija's Reflection Post

I think I improved in my blogging over the past year. I think I mostly improved in my style of writing and the formatting. I think that blogging is helpful for class because the person that is the blogger for a specific class summaries the whole class in a few paragraphs and helps the people that weren’t there to see what we did and also it is helpful to the people that didn’t understand something in class to have a
chance to read what we did.I think blogger could be used also for many other things like for what we did in any other subject like German or French, like Croatian or any other subject. Blogger helped me with me learn how to summaries a one and half-hour of class in a few paragraphs without having to use difficult language. Blogger didn’t really help me with commenting, but it helped me correct a few errors. The most important thing I learned from blogging is that you should do your work on Microsoft word and then past it on blogger!

Chiara's Scribe Post 4th Quoter

I feel that I improved the way I put my post together. I learned how to use hyperlink and how to put in pictures. My grammar improved. I think that blogging helps when you miss the class. You can always go and look at the blog for an explanation. It can be used for sharig informetion and opinions. Blogging gave me practices with my english, and with writing in general, and it was good to hear other peoples' suggestion. I learned to give constructive criticism. Ilearned how to write a blog, which before I didn't know how to do.

Karin's Reflection Post

I think that I did inprove over these couple of years on Blogger, all though sometimes my blog posts were not as good as they could have been. I think that this class blog was sort of useful because it is quite the same thing as moodle and only people who have been sick usually check it. But sometimes it is helpful for other people who are not in our class to see what we are learning about in science class. I think that this blog could also be used for our parents to see what we did in class and what homework we had. Blogger helped my grammer skills a little bit but not by much. Blogging has helped my commenting by knowing what i should look for in a blog post. The most important thing i learned from blogging is how you can use the most simple thing like a science class and turn in into a learing site on a blog.

Nathan's Reflection Post

Over the last year, I feel I have improved as a blogger in probably every way possible. I have become more comfortable with using the post settings, and I find it easier to find appropriate pictures and links. I think I have become better with using the scientific vocab., and explaining most of the class in full detail. I think I've improved with spelling and grammar, along with sentence structure and clarity.
The blog really helps in learning because it is there to take notes off of, to study with, to answer your questions, and to clarify details that you didn't understand. The blog also helps if you've missed a class because you can look at it and read what you missed and catch up.
A blog could be used for multiple other things. If on a trip or vacation, you can post what you've done on the trip and pictures for your family and friends to see. Blogging could be used as a way of taking notes, and sharing them with your friends. It could also be used as a public diary, where you can explain your day and how you feel for others to view.
Blogging has helped me with my writing skills in spelling, grammar, and a bit in sentence structure. It has helped my writing voice, making it easier to understand and read.
The blog has helped me comment to others because I can more easily detect spelling and grammar mistakes, and I can explain the error so they can easily fix it.
The most important thing I've learned from blogging is probably that if a post is not done and posted by its due date, it can really affect your classmates because they view it and it helps them with remembering homework, and taking notes for class. It's happened to me where someone's post was posted late, and I never saw it, even though I needed it for notes the next class.

Eric's Reflection Post

I have no idea if a have improved or not because this is my first year and my first blog so I don't know how to answer this question. I think blogging helps your learning because you can't do a blog without paying attention in class so it definetly works or else no blog. Blog could also work for chatting maybe I don't know what else to say. This blogging program I think it helps my grammar a lot because people tell me if I had a spelling mistake or not I wish I had this in my other school. I like a lot blogging because I hate writting on paper. I like to compliment to others so I think is cool to help each other. Sir :) He's right to blog or not to blog.

Davide's Reflection post

Davide's Reflection Post

Hey Everyone!!!!

I feel that I have improved in different ways as a blogger over the

past two years, since I learned many things. At the start of blogging, even this year, I was nervous, since I wasn't sure how my blog comments and posts would be. Though, as I continuously commented and posted to the blog, I felt more secure. I learned how to hyperlink, add pictures, make my text funner to read, and putting a day's work in a brief explanation. I got better at commenting, with more complete and logic comments. I feel that almost every class in school should have a blog, since, even though it is a lot of work, it is mostly fun, and it helps both the scriber and a classmate reading it remember what happened during the day. I feel that blogs contribute a lot to learning a class for school, since they refresh everyone's memory. I think that a blog could also be used for even something simple and basic, like sharing ideas about life or about some specific sports or activities. Blogs help anyone feel involved in something they like without taking parts or being aggressive. I think that blogging has helped my overall writing, since, after I write a post or comment, and I spell-check it, I don't have a

s many mistakes. Also, it has helped get used to writing more and reflecting about what happened in class. Blogging also helped me a lot in commenting on others about their writing. Having to do comments, I got used to analyzing their text and looking at the different pros and cons that it contained. This also helped me outside of blogging. In fact, I am now definitely more able to analyze and evaluate a text than before blogging. The most important thing I learned about blogging is that revising things when you come home helps with school work, and that commenting, even though sometimes stressful, can be a whole lot of fun, as can posting. Overall, I really enjoyed blogging, and I hope to do it again next year!!

Ghazaleh Reflection Post

Hello to Evryone. This is my reflection post.

I think the thing that I improved from last year are:

• English(Grammar, Spelling, punctuation)
• Including science
• What pictures and links are good and related to the subject that I am talking about.

I think blog it is kind of good. For people that were apsent and they couldn't be in the class was a great thing because they could to blog and see what did we do in class and what did they missed and could chatch up, like once I missed a week of school but i checkd the blog and people posted everything that I needed to know a bout the classes that I missed. But sometimes It wasn't helping. and when you forget something that you did in the class blog it is great place to go and find out.

I think that I improved a lot in writing because now for English essays I improved a lot and I don't have as much mistake now in my writing. Now if I have to comment to somebody's writing I know what are the Technics that I have to use.

The most important thing that for sure learned it was how to be a better writer and how to explain something without using words, The another thing that I learned that how to organize when I am writing and what go where.

Blog People!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Valentina's Reflection Post

I think that I have improved as a blogger because now, I know how to add videos and photos, and how to add hyperlinks. Writing blogs is easier now, because the writing comes more fluently. The blog has also helped me as a writer, because I make less spelling and grammar mistakes. I feel I have also improved because I am more responsible, meaning that I remember that I have to make a post or a comment, and I keep track of when I should do it, when it's due, and to who I have to do it, or about what.
I feel blogs contribute to the class leaning, because you can go on the blog whenever you want, study, take notes, and remember what we have done in class if it was hard to understand or if you were sick. It also helps if you need to study, because it contains all the information one might need and it helps them go through the main highlights of the day, with extra information (if needed).
The blog could be used for many different things, to groups of people that have the same idea, as well as for discussions on different items. As a school project, the blog is used well and efficiently the way it is, but another way one may use it is by posting something they made, to then know (by other people's comments) what he or she should improve and what he or she did wrong. Also, it could be used to go over the important facts of the school day, or the questions that could have risen throughout the day, about something the teacher had said. One last way it could be used as a school project could be if it is used to study tests or quizzes together and to do homework or discuss it, in case of any questions or misunderstandings.
Blogging helped my overall writing because if I did a grammatical or spelling error, someone else would notify me immediately, and I wouldn't do it the time after that. Also, I learned how to express my ideas and write information, and a better way of writing blogs. I also learned how to make writing more interesting and how to catch the reader's attention.

Blogging helped me write comments to others about their writing because I learned how to see and understand other people's errors so that I could tell them. Also, I learned how to explain to them how they could improve it, as well as what they should keep the same. I learned how to balance the compliments and critics so that I wasn't overdoing in and category, as well as I learned how to write all their errors, in a non-offensive and embarrassing way as much as possible.

I think that the most important thing I learned from blogging is that to be able to write an interesting blog, you have to have a mix of many different things, from a good and legible font, to an interesting title and a variety of colors, and even important details or nice pictures. And that even if you have the best writing ever, if you don't also include the other things and some cool links, it will be a lot harder to focus, and way more boring to all the people reading it.

Jakub's Reflection Post

Hello everybody, here is my overall experiance of blogging!

I feel that I have improved a lot in blogging over the past two years! I have improved my writing, added hyperlinked links, added more pictures, had much more information and my posts were getting longer throughout the two years. I think that blogs help you to review the things that we did in class and they help you improve in writting and they also help you to understand things better. Also when your not at school, blogging helps you to see what we did in class that day. I think that my writting has improved while writting these blog posts and commenting on them becuase the first time I commented on a post, it was really bad, but now I do better comments! The most important thing that I learned from blogging is sharing my ideas in my comments and understanding things much better! Blogger was both a good and bad experiance for me, but it was overall OK!

Homework and Cells

Nathan's Scribe Post for Tuesday, May 24

The first thing we did today was discuss the homework assignments we had and when they were due. Our homework is to:

• Do a reflection post after posting your scribe post (Due May 31st)
• Our last blog comment (Due May 31st)
• Cell Project(Due May 31st)

We also have a cell quiz coming up next week, and the rat dissection is taking place on June 7th.

For the Cell Project, what we have to do is use everyday objects to create a representative model of an animal cell or a plant cell. For each organelle, we need to choose an object that symbolizes or represents the organelle’s function. Next, we create a table which lists each organelle you have represented in your model. For each organelle, state its main function. For more information about the project or the rubric, it's in grade 7 science, on moodle. It's a word document at the bottom of the page called "Cell Project".

What the Table is Supposed to Look Like

After the homework discussion, we moved into cell diagrams. First, we had to take out our highlighted "Building Blocks of Life- The Parts of a Cell" sheet (also on moodle). After going through each part of a cell, we color-coded each part with a different color for each. Then we each received two sheets with two different pictures on them. One had a picture of a plant cell, and the other with an animal cell. Our job was to label it and use the color-code we created to color that part in the picture.





The things we had to label on our diagrams:

• Plasma/Cell Membrane
• Cytoplasm
• Nucleus
• Rough ER (RER)
• Smooth ER (SER)
• Nucleolus
• Ribosomes
• Golgi complex
• Golgi apparatus
• Mitochondria
• Vesicles
• Vacuole
• Lysosomes (Mostly in animal cells)
• Cloroplast (Only in plant cells)
• Cell wall (Only in plant cells)

Here is a cool animal cell labeling game! See how well you know your animal cell parts.

Here is a cool plant cell labeling game! See how well you know your plant cell parts.

Emilija is the next scriber!

Tamara's Reflection Post 4th Quarter

Hello everyone! Here is my reflection post for the fourth quarter!

I think that I improved as a writer because I started putting hyper linked links and more pictures. Blog helps people to understand what people did in class better, for example for parents to know what we are doing for science class, or for the people who are sick and were not in school. Blogging helped me with making my post look nice and interesting to read. Well, blogging also helped me by commenting on other people's walls, looking at their writting style, and pictures that they took in science class. The most important thing I learned from blogging was about science. 

I hope that blogging will continue next year! 

Ben's Reflection Post

Ben's Fourth Quarter Reflection Post

1. Over this past year, I feel that I have definitely improved as a blogger. I was looking back at older posts and saw that they didn't have too much information or scientific vocabulary. Also there was a lack of pictures and formatting skills. After that, I looked at my most recent post and saw improvement in almost every field of blogging.

2. The blog did help us learn new things about the current unit whether it was from youtube videos or diagrams. Also, the blog could be used as a study guide for an upcoming quiz or test. Also the blog helped me when I was sick one time, because whoever was scribing recounted the class and what new information we learned so I felt like I didn't even miss science class. I'm sure anyone else who missed class could say this as well.
3. Besides a science class blog, the concept of blogging could be used in other subjects. Another thing could be a personal journal recounting your day for anyone who you want to keep in touch with but one person is far away. From personal experience, another usage is a travel blog. A blog to tell about all of your travels and adventures to friends and family. Blogs could also be sued for sports or reviews on movies, TV shows, books, video games, and so on.

4. I wouldn't say that blogging has extremely improved my writing skills, but in some aspects it did. My scientific vocabulary has been enlightened and I've learned random words I didn't know before just from reading comments. Also, because blogger was on the Internet, I always had the urge to use shortened spellings of words like I would on social networking sites. I don't do that as much now because blogger is supposed to be formal, with sophisticated words instead of casual and slang.

5. Leaving comments to other people's posts have improved my ability to find something nice to say about the psot, even if there really was nothing, for example, the colors you used were vibrant and made the post come together. Also, at the beginning of blogging, I really only commented about the writing and grammar instead of taking in the pictures, links, and labels. It's good that I got this skill from blogging, because it will probably be useful later in life.

6. There are many important things I have learned from blogging so I will narrow it down to three things: 1) There is always something good to say about the post. 2) Even the littlest things in a post, like colors or the font could impact your grade and what people think about it. 3) If you plan on making a blog post on an Apple computer, there is a good chance everything will go completely wrong.

Ben's 4th Quarter Scribe Post

Science Class of Thursday, May 19

Hello everyone, in my scribe post I will be giving a summary of Thursday’s class. Enjoy reading and be sure to check out the links.

We started off the class with talking about some final details of the CERN trip to Geneva, Switzerland. After that, we reviewed the order of everything. Here is the order:

?-Quarks-Protons/Neutrons/Electrons-Atoms-Molecules-Elements-Compounds/Mixtures-DNA-Cells-Tissues-Organs-Systems-Organisms-Species-Genus-Families-Order-Class-Phyllum-Kingdoms-Biomes-Planets-Galaxies-Clusters of Galaxies-?

Here is a link to a game about the order of everything. It covers some things that we didn’t get to yet, but for the most part it is relevant. I find the order of everything pretty cool because it begins and ends with a question mark, probably to show that there is still much to discover. So back to the class, we finished with the order of everything, and then talked about cells. Here are some cell notes I took:

• 
  
  Cells are the basic units of structure and function
  


• 
  
  All cells are created by other living cells



• 
  
  All organisms are made up of cells



• 
  
  One square centimeter of skin holds 100,000 cells



• 
  
  Cells weren’t discovered until the late 1600’s



• 
  
  
  People couldn’t see them, but when microscopes were invented, it was possible to see cells



• There are two types of cells



• One type is Prokaryotes cells, they have a nucleus and are very small



• The other is Eukaryotes, they don’t have a nucleus and are much bigger than Prokaryotes

Later on in class, after we reviewed all the information about cells, we talked about microscopes and their history. Here are notes I took about Microscopes:

• 
  
  The first cells were discovered using microscopes



• The first microscope was a tube with a lens at each end



• The first light microscope was made in 1886 and magnified 1,000x



• Electron microscopes were created in 1933 and magnified 500,000x



• In 1981 the first tunneling microscope was made and magnifies 1,000,000x



• Tunneling microscopes go inside of a living thing



• Today only light and electron microscopes are used



• 
  
  A common lens used today is convex, which are in eyeglasses and magnifying glasses

Ms. D told us to get with a partner and then grab a microscope. She gave us some safety and usage tips about using microscopes, for example, hold the microscope by the base and the arm, or, make sure to start off with the lowest powered objective and put it back at that one too. She gave us slides with small things on them, like volcanic ash or blue wool, and then we got to look at them under microscopes. I think the best view was with the middle objective, which was 40x, because it wasn’t too far away or too close. We finished up using the microscopes and put them away. For the last few minutes of class, Ms. D reminded us of the last few critical details about the CERN trip. Then that was it for Thursday’s class.

Real Life Example

I don’t know if you’ve heard about this recent debate in the USA and other parts of the world. It’s about stem cell research. To extract stem cells, embryos inside of people are killed. Embryos are vital for reproduction and many other things inside the body. There was a recent article about in the NY Times. This is another article from the University of Wisconsin about the history and more information relating to stem cells.

Here is a link to Moodle so you can check out reflection post tips or upcoming homework.

I hope you all liked reading my scribe post for this quarter.

THE NEXT SCRIBE IS………..NATHAN HUNTZ

Tamara's Scribe Post 4th Quarter

   Hi everyone! I am going to talk about ''The Evil Elves'' group, during our Tuesday's science class. I hope you enjoy reading my blog. 

   We (The Evil Elves) did not do many things our Tuesday's Class. What we did at the start of the class, was people working on the details of the compound machine. So, for example, me and Emilija were building a long black connector (the chain), while Nathan Davide and Eric attached the parts that were already made, to the entire compound machine; Ghazaleh and Ben made another part that we were missing.

   At about 9:45 Vale''s and Davide's mom, and also David's mom came to see our compound machine which (at that time) was almost built. And then, I would say - SUDDENLY, 2nd, 3d, 4th graders came to see how our compound machine was working. While the elementary school looked at the work we did for this month, the room became crowded, loud and somehow reminded me of the Science Day. Still, everything went well, children were polite, and some of them, even wanted to help us build the machine. 

   But unfortunately, when at the end of the class Ms.D and The Evil Elves and The Cookie Monsters tested their two enormous compound machines, The Cookie Monster's machine worked perfectly, so of course they they got 4/4, unlike us, who got 3/4 .... :(

   At the end of the class me and Ghazaleh, Emilija cleaned up, and our teammates helped us. If people want to know how we built simple machines, I would recommend them to see the older posts by other people: Ghazaleh, Emilija, Courtney, Chiara, Karin, David etc.  

   Like I mentioned before, we did a compound K'nex machine and here is a link about simple machines: http://www.mikids.com/Smachins.htm 

   And here is a link to K'nex website: http://www.knex.com/About_KNEX/ 

   If people want to check what's for homework, or for some reason they need moodle, here is a link: http://zagreb.ceesa.net/course/view.php?id=188 

   REAL LIFE EXAMPLE OF SIMPLE MACHINES IN A CAR: wheels- wheel axle; gear shift- lever; pedal- inclined plane; seat belt- pulley. 

                                                                    THE END!!!!!!!!!!!!