Investigations in Science 7 – March 1, 2019

Announcements:

All missing work for this unit is due next Friday! Any Z work that is not
turned in today will be marked as a zero and will not be able to be completed later
on this quarter. We will be cleaning out our binders at the end of next week, giving
students one last opportunity to find their papers before starting fresh on our new
unit.

Students can clean out their science section on March 8th. This will be their
assigned homework for the evening. Have them leave their papers in a safe place
at home and not throw the papers out.

Shortly we will begin our genetics unit. The four diseases we will be studying
throughout the unit are Huntington’s disease, cystic fibrosis, sickle cell anemia
and achondroplasia. If there is anything that I should be aware of when we
are talking about these diseases or anything else that may come up in
conversation with genetics, please let me know.

This week, we completed frog dissections. The PTA funds our frog
dissections each year. This is a lab that students will remember for a lifetime.
This is our most expensive lab that we complete each year. Thank you to all the
PTA members for helping us fund this lab. If you aren’t already a member of the
PTA, you can join here: http://www.fmsptamd.org/support-our-students

Coming Up:

 RFP

 2nd Annual Body System Olympics

Dates:

 March 1 - Early Release

 March 4 – Open Lab Assessment – Frog Dissection
  March 6 – RETAKES – DIGESTIVE SYSTEM QUIZ
 March 12 – PTA Meeting
 March 14 – Joe Corbi’s Fundraiser forms and money due
 March 19 - Bay Trip Parent Meeting at 7:00 pm
 March 21 - Orchestra Festival
 March 29 - Mary Poppins School Play at 7:00 pm
 March 30 - Mary Poppins School Play at 7:00 pm
 March 31 - Mary Poppins School Play at 2:00 pm
 April 5 - Career Day
 April 5 - Roadrunner Night

What we did this week:

On the first day of frog dissection, we looked at how a tadpole changes into
a frog what types of things change. Students received their frogs, gave them a
name, and then we started by observing how the hind legs are different from the
forelegs. We found that the hind legs are more muscular, longer, and have more
"toes." The hind legs help with jumping while the forelegs help with balance.
We also observed the eyes. Did you know that the frog has a third eyelid
called the nictating membrane that acts like goggles while underwater?
Students then found the tympanum which is the circular eardrum. You can
predict if the frog is a male or female because the male tympanum is always larger
than its eyeball. Students predicted the gender, and some groups had to rename
their frog. We will know the gender for sure when we open the abdomen. If the
abdomen is filled with eggs, it is a female.
We also looked at the external nares on the frog (nose) and talked about
advantages of the external nares being on the top of the head. They are less likely
for predators to see them when they come up to breath = survival!
We observed the skin of the frog and determined many functions of the
frogs’ skin: camouflage, breath through it, drink through it, and some even have
poison glands to discourage predators (ours do not).
We started by looking at some adaptations that allow a frog to live on both
land and water, such as; gills turning to lungs, smooth skin, webbed feet, nictating
membrane, external nares (nose) on top of its head. Then we started to open the
mouth to look inside. They located the tongue and determined if it was attached
at the front or back of the mouth. I had some groups say, 'the tongue is stuck to
the lip' until they realized it was attached to the front of the mouth and not in the
back. They measured the length of the tongue as well. They saw that by being
attached to the front of the mouth, the tongue can out that much further and
catch prey more easily. We also felt the inside of the mouth for teeth. There are
teeth inside the mouth but not like we have.
We then poked our probe, without using pressure, in the external nares to
see where it came out. We were essentially picking its nose with a tool to see
where the tube led to, which happened to be the internal nares. Not all groups
were successful at finding this tube.
In the back of the mouth, we found the glottis (the air tube) and the gullet
(the food tube). We found Eustachian tubes as well. Again, we poked with our
probe to see where they led to. We found that they led to the tympanum
(ears). These tubes help the frog equalize air pressure when it swims deep in the
water.
This week we finished dissecting frogs. We started to look at the digestive
system of the frog. We took some observations of the different organs and
opened up the stomach to see if there was any food that the frog had eaten. We
also looked to see the layers of muscles in the stomach of the frog. We took a
look at all the systems and made some observations how they are similar and
different to the systems that are found in us. Some groups even were able to see
if they could find the brain.

Have a great weekend!