Investigations in Science 7 – March 29, 2019

Announcements:

Wednesday, April 3rd is the last day of quarter 3. Please have your child
check the Portal for any missing assignments and have them turn them in no later
than Tuesday, April 2nd (when my gradebook closes for the quarter).

Coming Up:

 DNA, Chromosomes and Genes

 Artificial Selection

Dates:

 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 2 – Mrs. Grandin’s Gradebook Closes for Quarter 3
 April 3 – Early Dismissal
 April 3 – End of Quarter 3
 April 4 – First Day of Quarter 4
 April 5 – Career Day
 April 5 – Spring Fling
 April 12-13 – Band Trip
 April 14-16 – Bay Trip
 April 16 – Report Card Distribution

What we did this week:

This week has been all about fun with Punnett Squares. Punnett Square
Palooza! On Monday we took a few notes and immediately started practicing how to
fill in a Punnett square if you know the parents ‘genotype.’ We practiced a lot with
using the vocabulary while completing examples together. An example of a Punnett
Square is below.

On Wednesday, we did a Punnett Square Spice-O-Meter. Every student

started with a “mild” Punnett square worksheet. When they were finished, they
had their paper checked by me. If they completed it perfectly, they were
awarded a Minion buck. If not, they went back and fixed any errors. When they
mastered the “mild” worksheet, they moved on to the “medium” station with
slightly harder Punnett squares. They again, got the sheet checked by an adult and
when they successfully completed the “medium” worksheet, they moved on to the
“hot” station and worksheet. The students that mastered Punnett squares easily,
even made it to the “very hot” station. Students were able to move at their own
pace and moved as they mastered the different levels.

Thursday and Friday, we did a Baby Traits lab where students flipped a coin
to determine if their "baby" received a dominant (heads) or recessive (tails)
trait. They then combined mom and dad's alleles together to determine the
genotype of their offspring for each trait. Once all the traits were determined by
coin flipping, they got to draw their baby with the traits that they flipped for. As
a challenge, their group then partnered with another group, and crossbred both
offspring together to see the likelihood of different traits appearing by using
Punnett squares.

Have a great weekend!