Videos, etc. for Module 1
Quizlet Vocabulary Game, M1
Worksheet for Exp. 1.1 Biological Classification
First post for Biology!
When I flipped through the Biology book for the first time, all I saw were big words: deoxyribonucleic acid, kingdom Monera, phylum Chordata, prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells, autotrophs and heterotrophs, binomial nomenclature, a Biological Classification key with more big words, and these were just things in the
first module! (Yikes!)
If I had not done Apologia's Physical Science first, I do not know if I would have purchased the Biology. But Apologia's Physical Science had explained everything so well, I just knew I would be fine in Biology. [gulp]
Taking it step by step, I did learn a lot.
If you want, you can read
the first module (chapter) online. (click on
Sample Module)
In
Module 1, we learned the
scientific method, the four criteria for life, how to do biological classification, the five kingdoms, what
autotrophic and heterotrophic mean, the difference between
prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells (and now these word just roll right off my tongue!), and how to use a microscope. Well, a
virtual microscope. I do not own a real one.
(I don't even own the virtual one!)
The five kingdoms:
The four criteria for life:
There are four criteria to actually be able to say something is alive.
1. All life forms contain deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA).
2. All life forms have a method to extract energy from their surroundings and convert it into energy that is useful to them.
3. All life forms can sense changes in their surroundings and respond to those changes.
4. All life forms reproduce.
After we learned this and a few other things mentioned above, we were ready to learn to classify living things.
Living things can be classified into one of five kingdoms. Each kingdom can then be further classified into a phylum. Each of the phyla can be further classified into a class, and so on.
The full order is kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, species.
The steps are written out in a
Biological Classification Key. One of the living things we used a Biological Key to classify was a tiger.
Experiment 1.1, Using a Biological Key
We started at question #1, which was to determine if something is
microscopic, or macroscopic (visible w/ the naked eye). We can see the tiger without the aid of a microscope, so the tiger is macroscopic. To the right of the word microscopic is the number 3. So we skip to question #3.
3. Autotrophic or heterotrophic? A tiger cannot make it's own food (like plants can, for example), so it is heterotrophic. To the right of heterotrophic, we see the number 5. So we skip to #5.
5. Decomposer or Consumer? A tiger is a consumer of food, not like fungi which is a decomposer. To the right of the word "consumer" are the words "kingdom Animalia" and the number 6.
That is our first classification, so in their notebook, the kids wrote the
kingdom: "Animalia" and moved on to question 6.
6. Backbone or no backbone? Tigers have backbones, and that gives us our next classification of
phylum: Chordata. They write it in their notebooks, and we see we should go to number 22.
22. Jaws or beak, or no jaw or beak? Tigers have a jaw, and the next number we go to is 23.
23. Skin covered with scales or no scales on skin? No scales on skin, so we go to 26.
26. No scales, no hair, no feathers; skin is slimy, or feathers or hair. Tigers have hair; we go to 28, which further distinguishes between hair and feathers.
28. Hair or feathers? They have hair, and that means our next classification is
class: Mammalia. The kids write it in their notebook and next is 29.
29. Hooves or no hooves? No hooves; go to 31.
31. Carnivore or herbivore? What do
you think? Carnivore! On to 32.
32. Teeth or no teeth? (like, what carnivore would have
no teeth? That would be an insect.) Tigers have teeth, so the next classification is
order: Carnivora.
This is the last one we write, since the key we are using only goes thru kingdom, phylum, class, order.
Our classification for a tiger is:
kingdom: Animalia;
phylum: Chordata;
class: Mammalia;
order: Carnivora.
We had 15 living things to classify, and the kids did about half of them at my house and finished the rest at home. They were really catching on! =)
Experiment 1.2, Introduction to the Microscope
The kids did this at home and used the
virtual microscope. We had gone to this site the week before we started Biology and had gone through the tutorial that teaches the name of each part, as it is teaching how to use it. I'm sure it is vastly different to actually use a real microscope. You'd definitely need a steady hand. On the virtual microscope, you just click the adjustments one way or another until you get it focused. But at least they learned a
little about the microscope.
The kids went thru the tutorial with an image other than the cheek cell, so when they go to the experiment in the book, they could use the cheek cell that day.
They were to draw what the cheek cell looked like at each magnification. I haven't seen their drawings yet since the class hasn't met again.
Turns out, since there are quite a few experiments we will not be able to do, we may be not meeting as often this year. =( I was able to find this virtual microscope which will work only for cheek cells, bacteria (one kind, apparently) and the cells of an onion root tip. I hope to find videos and other resources to help with understanding other experiments we aren't able to physically do.
►Click for more images of cheek cells.
►Here is Michelle's class looking at cheek cells.
►See images of thread fibers and hair at Julie's blog.
Next is to further explore the kingdom Monera. (bacteria!)
I'm well into the chapter, and it is fascinating! Who could
ever believe there is not a Creator???
Random chance? NOT a chance!!!
