This Blog serves all Chesapeake Bay Governor's School - Warsaw Campus Biology students for the 2013-2014 school year. Here I will post notes and assignments along with interesting links to science based websites.
I only have a few announcements to make so this post should be short and sweet:
The unit test will cover all material since the last test (chemistry to diffusion and osmosis) and will be held next Monday, Oct 21 for the Mummichogs and Tuesday, Oct 22 for the Killifish.
The first part of Lab-1 is due this Thursday October 17.
And lastly I am posting a Khan Academy video for further explanation of diffusion and osmosis:
Remember my Skype ID is VW181MAN if you want tutoring, but be sure to call my cell first to set up the appointment.
We managed to get most of you on field trips just before the shutdown of our federal government, which means you have had a taste of real scientific fieldwork! If you recall, our group learned about the importance of decomposers such as Bacteria, Fungi, Benthic Macroinvertibrates, and Cave Fauna, in various ecosystems and why decomposition is considered a key process. But what is the end production of decomposition? Are these newly composting compounds all being turned into the same substances?
Yes and No
Sometimes decomposition breaks organic molecules all the way down into small inorganic molecules (we call this mineralization).
Another possibility is that organic molecules are broken down into
smaller organic molecules. Somewhere on that continuum of decomposition
lies molecules whose size and structures are similar to the
macromolecules we are discussing in class: Proteins, Nucleic Acids,
Carbohydrates, and Lipids.
Hello CBGS biology students! After reading through your essays I must say my hope in the future of science and research has been strengthened. My major gripes are the quality of the presentation (many un-typed papers....come on folks type them) the references format.
On another note we are moving forward into the Large Biological Molecules (Macromolecules) section of our notes as we have covered enough chemistry to begin to move into the building blocks of living systems.
Since some of you are getting left behind in the material (not understanding the mole, converting grams to moles, calculating molecular mass, etc) I am posting a few links to some online tutorials which can help explain these concepts:
My class is structured in a way that requires you to study at home, read materials before class, and actively search for further knowledge around the present topics.
And now for some fun chemistry videos:
Na in H2O is exciting! Yay Exchanging Electrons
Thermite is also cool! Yay Exchanging Electrons!
New notes will be posted on the blog next week. For now make sure you check the weather for our amazing mountain field study!
Tests have been scored folks and they generally look good with both classes achieving a "B" for the mean score (actually this tells me two things - either the tests were too simple, or you guys are seriously studious [ I like the latter explanation]).
Next week we should be starting Organic Chemistry (or a very simplified version of O-Chem) which will put us on the road for some fun lectures.
I'll post those notes below the ones on water below.
