WELCOME BACK! NEW SYLLABUS!

Students, I hope you enjoyed your Spring Break.   Please see the new syllabus for Unit 7, below:

We now enter the 'home stretch' of the academic year.   Since many students are still struggling with below-average grades, this is a critical time for many of you.   Please work hard over the next nine weeks remaining.  And, speaking of hard work....

An important skill which you have been asked to rehearse repeatedly this semester involves creating electronic documents.   On the Poster Project, you were asked to include an APA-style bibliography of sources as part of your electronic document.   I have had this expectation of students for the last eight years, and in the past virtually all students demonstrated their ability to do this.

For whatever reason, this year many of my students have failed to do this, or seem unwilling to do this.   This is one of the major factors contributing to the high number of below-average grades in my course.

I AM NOT GOING TO CHANGE THIS ASPECT OF THE COURSE.  If you haven't yet mastered this skill, what are you waiting for?

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Now, what needs to be done first as far as coursework?   Here's two items of great importance:

First, if you did not yet complete the Lecture Guide on Human Heredity, all the Power Point notes for that item can be found here:

The Power Point Notes for Human Heredity are available here.



Secondly, any other outstanding work from before Spring Break will be accepted through the end of school on Thursday, March 31st, but it is in fact late.   You can expect to receive a new Syllabus on that date for the next unit, which will be short and focus on human genetics and biotechnology.

UPDATE: A MESSAGE FROM MR. HATFIELD

Class, I am sorry not to be with you today or the rest of this week.  

 I was looking forward very much to being in class on Wednesday, when you assemble your poster projects.  Please make sure that you bring all your research and basic materials to class on Wednesday.  My colleagues will provide you with basic items like scissors, glue sticks or colored pencils; anything else is your responsibility.   Wednesday, March 9th, is the only day you will be given in-class to complete your posters, which are due the following day, March 10th.  

DO YOUR BEST!   I STILL INTEND TO BEGIN GRADING THESE POSTERS THIS WEEK, AND IF I OBSERVE THERE IS A GROUP THAT FAILED TO HAND IN THIS IMPORTANT 100-POINT PROJECT, I WILL CONTACT THE HOME.

UNIT 6 TEST POSTPONED

On Thursday’s class, you will receive a STUDY GUIDE for your next test.  A copy of that STUDY GUIDE is available on-line, HERE.

But, because of my illness, we will not be able to test you this week.   Therefore, your test has been postponed to Wednesday, March 16th.  There will be no STUDY SESSION, as my doctor wants to reduce the amount of time that I speak in front of the class.

Therefore, for the rest of this week, it is important that you cover the material in Chapter 14 in order to prepare for your test.  Chapter 14 also contains information about pedigree diagrams, which can be potentially very helpful additions to your poster projects.  Please follow OUR directions during this time, because if you don’t, there will be gaps in your understanding when you are tested on Wednesday.

Finally, I hope to return as soon as possible.   I will be grading student work and contacting parents during the rest of this week, so that I do not ‘fall behind’ in my responsibilities.   All of this information has also been placed in a post on the class blog, so that anyone who needs to know what the expectations are during my absence can be well-informed.

VIDEO: "LIFE'S GREATEST MIRACLE"

Students were given a worksheet in class to accompany the PBS Nova program "Life's Greatest Miracle."  

This is helpful for understanding the special form of cell division called meiosis, and how the 'crossing-over' of chromosomes helps generate genetic variation.

You can watch it online here!

POWER POINT: MENDEL'S EXPERIMENTS; PROJECT, TEST DATES

The lecture notes for the present unit on Genetics is available at this link. 

Also, students have previously been assigned a 100-point Group Project, a "Human Genetic Disorders" Poster in which each group of 2-3 students have been randomly given a different such disorder to research.

Students will have only one day in class to complete their POSTER PROJECT (Wednesday, March 9th).   The Project is DUE the next day, Thursday, March 10th.   

STUDENTS WHO FAIL TO ATTEMPT THIS PROJECT MAY BE ASSIGNED SATURDAY SCHOOL.

FINALLY...the next Unit Test is on Friday, March 11th.   There will be an AFTER-SCHOOL STUDY SESSION on Thursday afternoon, March 10th, between 3:15 and 4:45, in Room N-63.