Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Pre-AP Semester Test Study List


Characteristics of Living Things (Ch. 2)
Cells (Ch. 3)
Organelles
Prokaryotes
Eukaryotes
Diagrams & Labeling
The Cell Cycle (Ch. 4 Section 3)
Heredity (Ch. 5)
Vocabulary
Punnett Squares
Meiosis & chromosome numbers
DNA (Ch. 6)
Vocabulary
Transcription
Translation
Replication
Base pairing
Differences between DNA & RNA


Test Thursday, 12/20

Monday, December 17, 2012

Pre-AP Semester Test

This week we will be reviewing for the Pre-AP Semester Test.  Topics will include our studies from this semester - - characteristics of living things, cells, heredity and DNA.  The Pre-AP Semester test will be Thursday.  It will be all multiple choice and counts as a regular test grade.

Wednesday - there will be a textbook check.  All students who bring *their* book to class will receive a 100 daily grade.   

Wednesday, December 12, 2012

DNA Study List




Vocabulary
Protein
Nucleotide
Amino acid
Nitrogenous base
DNA
RNA
Transcription
Replication
Translation
Mutation
Chromosome

Differences between DNA and RNA
Writing complementary DNA strands
Writing RNA strand from DNA
Using RNA to find amino acids
Important discoveries relating to DNA and the scientists who made them
Complementary base pairings


Friday, December 7, 2012

Finished Products and Follow Up

At the conclusion of the "Millers" DNA labs today, students were given a summary worksheet to complete over the weekend.  It corresponds to each lab we did this week.  It is due Monday.



This assignment is extremely important to consolidate what students learned in the lab this week.  I think this week spent on hands-on learning was extremely beneficial to the students for learning these concepts, and the worksheet will help them identify the most important take-aways from each activity. 


*While I normally don't assign homework over the weekend, this just happened to land on a weekend.  I reminded students of how infrequently they have "homework" for this class, and to be sure that it is completed and ready to be turned in on Monday. 

Finished Products:  (left to right) Amino Acids, RNA & DNA


Scroll down for pictures from earlier this week!

Thursday, December 6, 2012

DNA Models

Wednesday, we learned about the 3 parts of a nucleotide and the structure of DNA.  Students used this knowledge to build DNA models of a fragment "Jack or Jill Miller's" DNA. 






Today, we are using these models to build RNA strands.