CRITICAL INFORMATION FOR BIOLOGY

Parents and Students:

Monday begins the final week of instruction for the Fall Semester. This is a post to give everybody one last 'heads-up' about Finals week in Biology!

First of all, 'A Twist of Fate', an important 100-point project, is due at the beginning of Monday's class (12/14)

This assignment is based on a reading describing the scientific detective story that led to the discovery of DNA's structure. The reading is adapted from an article by Michael Lemonick that appeared in the Feb. 17, 2003 issue of Time. That article can be read in its entirety on-line here.

Students are expected to define terms underlined in the article, and to answer four discussion questions according to the usual guidelines: complete sentences that refer to the original question and provide supporting evidence for the student's opinion.

Secondly, students should have already received a Study Guide for their 200-point Semester Final.

This was given in Friday's (12/11) class, and students should be reviewing it and using it to identify any weaknesses, as well as working to submit any other outstanding work in the course by the end of instruction (Tuesday, 12/15).

Next, there will be a Study Session after-school on Wednesday (12/16).

This Study Session will take place in my classroom (N-63). It will begin at 3:45 and end at 5:30 that evening. Students who attend will not only receive valuable feedback as to what to expect on the test, but will also receive 20 points of extra-credit.

And, finally...Finals! Our scheduled Finals are on Thursday afternoon (12/17) for 4th period, and Friday (morning, 5th period; afternoon, 6th period).

There is no makeup period scheduled. Students need to attend their final exam period. Those who fail to attend without having their parent or guardian reach a prior understanding with Mr. Hatfield will be given an 'incomplete' in the course.

POWER POINT: AIR AND WEATHER

This is the next-to-the last chunk of notes in this course for the Fall semester. There will be one more set of notes covering clouds, precipitation and global wind patterns.



1st period's Final is on Wednesday morning, 3rd period's on Thursday morning. There will be a Study Guide issue on Monday. Mr. Hatfield will hold a Study Session after school on Tuesday to prep students in Room N-63, between 3:45 and 5:00.

Good luck!

POWER POINT: DISCOVERING ...DNA!

These notes were given Monday through Wednesday in the first (morning) session. These Power Point notes are available for download here.

"CRACKING THE CODE OF LIFE!"

"CRACKING THE CODE OF LIFE!"

The video viewed in class, and thus the handout based on it, can be viewed on-line here:



There is an entire PBS-sponsored web site to accompany this program. It's truly excellent, and since I can't show the entire program within a regular class.

I can, however, assign it as homework during the Thanksgiving break....in fact, I just did! :)

"CRACKING THE CODE OF LIFE!"

POWER POINTS: CELLULAR ENERGETICS

There are three Power Points in sequence here for Biology:

Photosynthesis, Part 1 and Part 2, as well as "Cellular Respiration". Students were given a Lecture Guide based on the first one only.

Photosynthesis, Part 1: This Power Point contains an outline of photosynthesis, relating it to the 'Great Circle' of chemical reactions that all living things participate it (autotrophs and heterotrophs!), reactions which recycle the raw materials that life requires.

Photosynthesis, Part 2: This Power Point provides much more detail about the light reactions, photosystems, the proton pumps that use the enzyme ATP synthase, the electron transport chains that help power those pumps. There is less detail about the 'dark reactions' of the Calvin cycle and other material which is not explicitly part of the state standards.

Cellular Respiration: This Power Point contains information about cellular respiration, including glycolysis (which takes place in the cytoplasm) and the Krebs Cycle (which takes place in the matrix of the mitochondria). The electrons produced in the Krebs Cycle move through the inner membrane, or cristae, of the mitochondria. The motion of these negatively-charged particles attracts protons (H+), and eventually a high concentration of protons within the membrane is available to drive 'proton pumps' that power an enzyme, ATP synthase, leading to the production of more ATP:

You can download the actual Power Point here.

EXTINCTION!

EXTINCTION

This video was shown in Thursday's class: 'Extinction!' is Episode 3 from NOVA's 'Evolution' series (2001). There is a worksheet based upon the video given in class, and which is due on Friday, which I summarize below:


"The video begins with paleontologist Peter Ward hunting for Permian fossils in South Africa's Karoo Desert, and relates ecological pyramids (which are like a 'house of cards') to mass extinctions, which are believed to be rare but important events in the history of life. It then follows the work of American Museum of Natural History researcher Michael Novacek in building the fossil record of small, shrew-like mammals from the Mesozoic, representative of the lineage that will survive the next mass extinction (the K/T event), which will claim the dinosaurs. It concludes with an examination of the role of human activity in accelerating the rate of extinction, with important attention to conservationists like Alan Rabinowitz."

I do not have enough class time to review this with students again, but students who need to review it can either go to Google Video, or watch it embedded here:

POWER POINTS: THE CELL CYCLE AND PHOTOSYNTHESIS

The Power Point summarizing the Cell Cycle, based on the first two sections of Chapter 10, is available here:



This Power Point contains an outline of photosynthesis, relating it to the 'Great Circle' of chemical reactions that all living things participate it (autotrophs and heterotrophs!), reactions which recycle the raw materials that life requires. Much of this material is covered in the first two sections of Chapter 8 in the Dragonfly Book.

The Power Point for Photosynthesis, Part I, is available here.

A PDF file of the Lecture Guide based on that Power Point can be downloaded here.

The Lecture Guide based on these notes is due THURSDAY, November 5th!

STUDENTS need to be VERY focused on completing work on-time in the next two weeks, as we have a holiday on Wednesday the 11th and a buyback day on Monday the 16th.

The test for this unit follows just two days after the second 'off day', so students who are casual about meeting deadlines at this time could really end up hurting their grade!

POWER POINT: DIVERSITY AND CLASSIFICATION

These notes were given to students between Thursday, Oct. 15th and Tuesday, Oct. 20th. The Power Point on "Diversity and Classification" can be uploaded here.

POWER POINT: CELL MEMBRANE NOTES

For students who still need to complete the previous Unit notes, please look at the previous post on 'Cells and Their Organelles" as well as this one. CLICK ON THE IMAGE IF YOU NEED THESE NOTES! On the most recent test, your instructor only assessed whether or not you had added (as directed in class) the highlighted vocabulary terms from pg. 187-89 to your notes. If you do not have these, you would want to add those as well!


POWER POINT: THE FLUID MOSAIC MODEL OF THE CELL MEMBRANE

CELL BROCHURE PROJECT

CELL BROCHURE PROJECT

Students in Mr. Hatfield's Biology classes should be planning on completing their Cell Brochure project, based on a Rubric from this cover sheet. Just to help everyone out, both sides of the Brochure are included below in case anyone 'misplaces' their instructions. JUST CLICK ON THE IMAGE IF YOU NEED TO SEE MORE DETAIL!

The front:


The reverse:

This is due on Monday, October 19th!

CELL BROCHURE PROJECT

PROGRESS REPORTS

PROGRESS REPOR

Previously, I've shared with students and parents the fact that the district is not presently supporting alternative grade scales in Power School, and my dissatisfaction with that lack of support. The first quarter ended on Friday, Oct. 9th. Prior to that time, I received an email from the district:



I thus spent time manually overriding a number of individual student grades, as seen in this screen shot . . .


The result is that if the letter grades that will appear on the first quarter progress report are accurate as of Monday morning, Oct. 12th, and do reflect the grade scale that I use.

Another consequence is that when parents go onto Power School and click on the grade for this class, they will receive a breakdown of points earned on various assignments, but they will also see a disclaimer reflecting my practice:



I'm going to this level of detail and transparency so that students and parents will have a clear understanding that I don't intend to adjust how I determine grades, and that any temporary discrepancies in how grades are displayed are the responsibility of the district.

If the district does not have alternative grade support implemented by the end of this semester, I will continue to manually override grades to reflect my actual practice.

PROGRESS REPORTS

POWER POINT: "CELLS AND THEIR ORGANELLES"

Here's the Power Point for the first section of notes from Unit 3, on cells and their organelles. Students received a Lecture Guide in class based on these notes and can use this Power Point to refine their responses.

POWER POINT: EARTHQUAKES AND VOLCANOES

EARTHQUAKES AND VOLCANOES

Here it is, in all its earth-shaking glory:

EARTHQUAKES AND VOLCANOES

POWER POINT: FAULTS AND FOLDING

Here are the Power Point Notes on Faults and Folding!

Here are the Power Point Notes on Faults and Folding!

RING OF FIRE

RING OF FIR

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Students were given a worksheet in class on Tuesday based on the 1991 IMAX film 'Ring of Fire.' This film discusses plate tectonics, subduction, earthquakes and volcanoes along the Pacific Rim, in locations including San Francisco, Japan and Indonesia. Students who had trouble completing the worksheet may go here, to Hulu, and watch the entirety of the film for free.

THIS WEEK IN BIOLOGY

Dear Parents and Students:

Please check the class blog for updates! A new Power Point ('The Chemistry of Life') is now available to assist students, and there is also an important note about letter grades that appear on Power School.


TUTORING

Beginning next week, science tutoring is available after-school between 3:00 and 4:00 in Room N-33. If you are concerned about your student's grade, please encourage them to attend tutoring. In addition, I will be assigning mandatory tutoring as per the Course Contract, beginning this coming Wednesday. Failure to attend assigned tutoring or to follow directions in class may lead to students being assigned Saturday School...


TEST RESCHEDULED

To assist students who need additional time to master material, Mr. Hatfield is rescheduling Tuesday's (9/29) exam for Friday, Oct. 2nd. There will be a Study Session after school on Thursday, Oct. 1st.

GRADING SCALE ISSUES

This is an announcement of interest to all my students and their parents.

It has always been my practice to employ an alternative grading scale for my classes at Bullard, rather than the so-called 'standard' scale of 90/80/70/60 etc.

The scale below is the scale that I have used for the last six years. It is the same scale that is on the course materials I distributed to students in the first week of school, and the one that I shared with parents on 'Back To School Knight'. Here it is:

A 86-100
B 71-85
C 56-70
D 51-55
F 50 or less

This is also the same scale I've used, every year, since the district implemented their Power School grading program. In the past, teacher grading was site-based, running off a platform installed into the instructor's school-site computer. I could use the program to create my own grading scale. Unfortunately, a decision has been made to inplement a new web-based version of Power School that requires me to get "permission" from a site administrator to use an alternative grading scale.

Well, that's not only nonsense, it's taking liberties with academic freedom. As an instructor, I have the right under the California Education Code (Article 3, provision 49066a) to use my judgement to determine a student's final grade, and if I choose to use an alternative grade scale* to make that determination, that is none of the district's business. So I will continue to grade things the way I always have, and I assure you that I will do whatever is necessary so that a student's final letter grade in my course will reflect my grade scale alone.

Now, I have petitioned the district to support my instructional practice, and so far I haven't gotten any assurances that this support is forthcoming. Until such time as my scale is implemented, the district's computers may display a different letter grade for some student's grades: an 'A' on my grade scale as a 'B', a 'B' as a 'C' and a 'C' as a below-average grade. That's unfortunate, but I am not going to let the district undermine the rights of teachers.

* = an alternative grade scale which is favorable to students, frankly!

POWER POINT: THE CHEMISTRY OF LIFE

Here is the Power Point on 'The Chemistry of Life.' Students received a Study Guide for their Test on Thursday (June 25). They should use that Guide to compare the notes in their composition books with the Power Point notes.

IMPORTANT DATES IN BIOLOGY

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Parents and Students:

The Power Point "Atoms and Molecules" is now available on the class blog.

Students received a Study Guide in class today for their first UNIT TEST on Friday, Sept. 11th.

On Thursday the 10th, we will have a Study Session after school (3:30 - 5:00) in Room N-63, based on the Study Guide. Participating students will earn extra credit in the course and receive valuable feedback regarding test.

Also:

The lab "Metric Measures" was due today, Tuesday the 8th.
The handout "The Lives of the Stars" is due tomorrow, Wednesday the 9th.

Scott Hatfield
Biology Instructor

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POWER POINT: ATOMS AND MOLECULES

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For all my classes, here are the notes on 'Atoms and Molecules.'

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THE LIVES OF THE STARS

COSMOS

The following episode of Carl Sagan's Cosmos, 'The Lives of the Stars', forms the basis of a student homework assignment. Click on the icon below to play the video within the blog:



You can also go to Hulu directly.

COSMOS

POWER POINT: ABIOTIC CYCLES

ABIOTIC CYCLES
ence%202009-10

Here is the Power Point for 'Abiotic Cycles'.

ABIOTIC CYCLES

COSMIC VOYAGE

Biology students will be viewing a 36-minute IMAX video in class and completing a worksheet based on part of the video. The film, 'Cosmic Voyage', was made in 1996 for the Smithsonian Institute and was clearly inspired by a classic science education film called 'Powers of Ten', originally produced in 1977 by the husband-and-wife team of Rae and Charles Eames.

'Cosmic Voyage' approaches the idea of using the metric system, which is based on powers of ten, to explore the question: "What is really large, and really small?" The film first zooms out from an acrobat's ring in St. Mark's Square in Venice, the place where Galileo first trained his telescope on the heavens.


Through 23 powers of ten, we leave first the Earth, then our solar system, then the Milky Way Galaxy behind, until we reach the limit of modern astronomy, where we can see images from about 13 billion years past.


Reversing course, the video then zooms in on drop of water in the Dutch town of Delft, where Antonie Van Leuuwenhoek first trained his early microscope to discover the hidden world of microbes.



As we zoom in on a paramecium, we penetrate its cell nucleus, then zoom in on a molecule of DNA.


Within that molecule is a carbon atom, and the world within that atom is mostly empty space! Within the atom, the atomic nucleus contains virtually all of an atom's mass, made of particles called protons and neutrons. These, in turn, are formed from even smaller particles called quarks.

The film continues with a discussion of the search for a fundamental theory in physics through the use of particle accelerators like Fermilab, along with an overview of the likely "recent" events that led to our sun, our solar system, the Earth and life itself.

Here, presented on YouTube, is the first segment (Chapter 1) of the film who wish to review the material or share it with others. As the narrator (Morgan Freeman) intones, 'we are all travelers on a voyage of discovery!' Chapter 2, Chapter 3 and Chapter 4 can be assessed at YouTube directly or by clicking on the hyperlinks

ENVIRONMENTAL NEWS JOURNAL

Environmental Science has a public policy dimension: the findings of science are used to inform decision-making about how to best manage and conserve resources.

Scientists who are unable to address the concerns of politicians and civic interest groups will not be able to influence the decision-making process!

To raise student awareness about this aspect of Environmental Science, students are expected to produce an 'Environmental News Journal'. This will involve creating a booklet containing 10 news articles from between August 1st and September 18th:

The articles may come from a newspaper or the Internet. Students must properly cite their sources APA Style (Mr. Hatfield will show you how!)

Each article must be followed by a summary of that article written by the student. An adequate summary would be at least one paragraph of at least 75 words, and an outstanding summary is likely to be more than one paragraph and in excess of 125 words.

Remember to check the class blog for information:

http://biologyknights.blogspot.com/

POWER POINT NOTES: THE NATURE OF SCIENCE

Students! Here is the Power Point for the notes on 'The Nature of Science'. You will receive a Lecture Guide based on these Notes sometime this week! If you don't have Power Point on your computer, don't worry . . . you can download a free program, Power Point Viewer, to see the notes!

THE NATURE OF SCIENCE

WELCOME TO BIOLOGY!

http://biologyknights.blogspot.com/search/label/Environmental%20Science%202009-10

Welcome back, students, to Bullard High School, and this year's science course, entitled . . .!





Tomorrow (Monday, August 17th) is the first day of instruction in the 2009-2010 instructional year at Bullard High School. During the first class, you will meet your instructor, Mr. Hatfield (Hey! That's me!) . . .:)




In addition, you will be given information about the Course Contract, which you are expected to review with your parent or guardian and return for a grade. The Contract will spell out the basic Rules and Policies for the course, and also contains a pledge from Mr. Hatfield concerning the classroom's 'learning environment.' Mr. Hatfield will be working with all students to build that environment. Tomorrow's post will spell out the expectations of the Course Contract. During the school year, students will find it very handy to check the blog for course updates or links to important information. Students should set the following page as a Bookmark or saved location in their browser:

http://biologyknights.blogspot.com/search/label/Environmental%20Science%202009-10

ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE (2009 - 2010)

http://biologyknights.blogspot.com/search/label/Environmental%20Science%202009-10

Welcome back, students, to Bullard High School, and this year's science course, entitled . . .!







Tomorrow (Monday, August 17th) is the first day of instruction in the 2009-2010 instructional year at Bullard High School. During the first class, you will meet your instructor, Mr. Hatfield (Hey! That's me!) . . .:)





In addition, you will be given information about the Course Contract, which you are expected to review with your parent or guardian and return for a grade. The Contract will spell out the basic Rules and Policies for the course, and also contains a pledge from Mr. Hatfield concerning the classroom's 'learning environment.' Mr. Hatfield will be working with all students to build that environment. Tomorrow's post will spell out the expectations of the Course Contract. During the school year, students will find it very handy to check the blog for course updates or links to important information. Students should set the following page as a Bookmark or saved location in their browser:

http://biologyknights.blogspot.com/search/label/Environmental%20Science%202009-10
http://biologyknights.blogspot.com/search/label/Environmental%20Science%202009-10

PROJECT

Both the morning and the afternoon sessions (1st and 2nd period) will have a Project based on this video. The classes will watch the video in its entirety during class on Wednesday, then be given a Study Guide with questions to complete for each section of the video. Answers must be in complete sentence! To help students unpack the big ideas in the video, there is an entire PBS-sponsored web site to accompany this program.

Students who wish to review this video further will find it available free online, in two segments from Google Video. You can watch it embedded below or follow the links to Google.

Segment 1:




Segment 2:

POWER POINTS FOR FINAL SESSIONS

The Power Point Lecture Notes on 'Deep Time' are available

The Power Point Lecture Notes on 'Deep Time' are available here.

A PDF of the Lecture Guide based upon those notes can be downloaded here.

The Power Point Lecture Notes on 'Deep Time' are available here.

Here's the Lecture Notes.

Here's a PDF file of the Lecture Guide based upon the notes.

The title, incidentally, is taken from the Daniel Dennett book which also inspired a two-hour episode of the NOVA 'Evolution' series. We will end up seeing the whole thing in class on Wednesday. Here's a link to view the whole thing on-line, here.

POWER POINT: DISCOVERING DNA!

These notes were given Monday through Wednesday in the first (morning) session. These Power Point notes are available for download here.

POWER POINT: DIVERSITY AND CLASSIFICATION

These notes were given to students in the second (afternoon) session on Thursday and Monday. The Power Point on "Diversity and Classification" can be uploaded here.

The Lecture Guide based on the Power Point can be found as a PDF file here.

EXTINCTION!

EXTINCTION

This video was shown in Monday's class: 'Extinction!' is Episode 3 from NOVA's 'Evolution' series (2001). There is a worksheet based upon the video given in class, which I summarize below:


"The video begins with paleontologist Peter Ward hunting for Permian fossils in South Africa's Karoo Desert, and relates ecological pyramids (which are like a 'house of cards') to mass extinctions, which are believed to be rare but important events in the history of life. It then follows the work of American Museum of Natural History researcher Michael Novacek in building the fossil record of small, shrew-like mammals from the Mesozoic, representative of the lineage that will survive the next mass extinction (the K/T event), which will claim the dinosaurs. It concludes with an examination of the role of human activity in accelerating the rate of extinction, with important attention to conservationists like Alan Rabinowitz."

I do not have enough class time to review this with students again, but students who need to review it can either go to Google Video, or watching it embedded here:

EXTINCTION

POWER POINT: BIOTECHNOLOGY

Here is the final set of Power Point notes for the second (afternoon) session of Summer School's 2nd unit, 'Introduction to Biotechnology". Students will learn about selective breeding, gel electrophoresis, PCR, gene sequencing, DNA fingerprinting, restriction enzymes, the Human Genome Project and other such things. Remember, your 2nd test is on Monday, July 13th!

POWER POINTS ON CELLULAR ENERGETICS

There are three Power Points in sequence here for the 1st (morning session) of Summer School:

Photosynthesis, Part 1 and Part 2, as well as "Cellular Respiration". Students were given a Lecture Guide based on the first one only. It's a shame, but in a summer session we have to cram a lot of information in short bursts, and this is one of the especially tight squeezes. Anyway, click on the images below for the notes.....

Photosynthesis, Part 1: This Power Point contains an outline of photosynthesis, relating it to the 'Great Circle' of chemical reactions that all living things participate it (autotrophs and heterotrophs!), reactions which recycle the raw materials that life requires.

Photosynthesis, Part 2: This Power Point provides much more detail about the light reactions, photosystems, the proton pumps that use the enzyme ATP synthase, the electron transport chains that help power those pumps. There is less detail about the 'dark reactions' of the Calvin cycle and other material which is not explicitly part of the state standards.

Cellular Respiration: This Power Point contains information about cellular respiration, including glycolysis (which takes place in the cytoplasm) and the Krebs Cycle (which takes place in the matrix of the mitochondria). The electrons produced in the Krebs Cycle move through the inner membrane, or cristae, of the mitochondria. The motion of these negatively-charged particles attracts protons (H+), and eventually a high concentration of protons within the membrane is available to drive 'proton pumps' that power an enzyme, ATP synthase, leading to the production of more ATP:

You can download the actual Power Point here.

POWER POINT: HUMAN HEREDITY

POWER POINT: HUMAN HEREDITY

These are the notes for the second-semester (afternoon) session.


There WILL be a Lecture Guide based upon these notes, and students should use these Power Points to complete their Cornell style notes in their composition books, and to refine their responses to the Lecture Guide. This material will be on their Unit 2 test on Monday, July 13th.

POWER POINT: HUMAN HEREDITY

POWER POINT: THE FLUID MOSAIC MODEL OF THE CELL MEMBRANE

These are notes for the first-semester (morning) session. There is no Lecture Guide for this particular section of notes, but this material will be covered on the second Unit Test on Monday, July 13th.


POWER POINT: THE FLUID MOSAIC MODEL OF THE CELL MEMBRANE

"CRACKING THE CODE OF LIFE!"

"CRACKING THE CODE OF LIFE!"

The video viewed in class, and thus the handout based on it, can be viewed on-line here:



There is an entire PBS-sponsored web site to accompany this program. It's truly excellent, and since I can't show the entire program within the confines of a short summer session, making the whole thing available on-line is a definite plus.

"CRACKING THE CODE OF LIFE!"

POWER POINT: 'MUTATIONS!"

Here is the Power Point containing notes for the second (afternoon) session of Summer School, on 'Mutations'. Students received a Lecture Guide based on these notes in yesterday's class, and they can use this Power Point to refine their responses.

POWER POINT: 'CELLS AND THEIR ORGANELLES'

Here's the Power Point for the first (morning) session of Summer School, on cells and their organelles. Students received a Lecture Guide in class based on these notes and can use this Power Point to refine their responses.

POINT POINT NOTES: THE CHEMISTRY OF LIFE

Here is the Power Point on 'The Chemistry of Life.' Students received a Study Guide for their Test on Thursday (June 25). They should use that Guide to compare the notes in their composition books with the Power Point notes.

POWER POINT NOTES: MENDEL'S EXPERIMENTS

For the afternoon session, here are the Power Point Notes for 'Mendel's Experiments.' Students should plan on reviewing their notes just prior to class every day, as we are likely to have quizzes based on the previous day's instruction...every day!