Stage 1 Physics: Just a straight forward tutorial type session where students worked on questions around electrostatics and I modeled some problem solving techniques.

10 F Science: Today we did the following a phenotype caused by multiple genes through a family activity. I modified the activity to use m&ms as the markers. Of the class all but one did the task sensibly before eating the m&ms and most were able to identify which family members had high, medium and low risk of heart disease. So more or less a result this time around.

8 Science: Replacing body tissues – following on from our joint dissection I set the class the task of discussing the properties of the different types of tissues and then researching materials that matched those properties. We’re thinking about how we can live forever. About half the class got the whole point of the activity but everyone in the class put some thought into the properties of the tissues and published their thinking and findings in the classroom.

We then watched the start of a video – the part that discussed the circulatory system as that’s where we’re heading next…

10 B Science: Gattaca. I think the class were as enthralled with this as I am every time I watch it. It’s part of the process for the students to develop their own position on genetic engineering – an ethical statement. Next week I give them an aspect of genetic engineering to go into in depth and share with the class.

10 F: Gattaca. Similar reasons to the previous class but expectations are a bit different. I’ll need to provide a bit of thinking scaffolding for this class. They only got to see 30 minutes and there were only four of them today! They seemed to be involved.

Stage 2 Physics Tutorial: Reviewed atomic and nuclear structure and applications of radiation. I passed out some previous tests for the group to use for revision purposes and we demonstrated half life by tossing 200 coins and eliminating the heads and repeating – gave us a good half life graph and they worked out the average half life for the coins.

Stage 1 Physics: Last of my “presentation” style lessons before I engage in the flipping experiment. We looked at electric fields, how charged particles are affected by them and the mathematics used to describe the motion – we compared this with the motion of objects with mass in a gravitational field. Tutorial questions were next and we worked through a couple around the shapes of electric fields and calculations using the equations – I’d post the documents but I left my portable hard drive sitting being non-portable at school and my back up is not recent enough. Next step I have to put everything on skydrive as I create it.

10 B Science: First up the many students who hadn’t finished the genetics practical report finished that and those who had finished worked on my modified version of a task around following a group of genes responsible for heart disease through a family (my only modification was to include m&ms as the tokens) The results from this were good and I’ll scan a few to put up for next time. As students finished their practical report they got to do the other task – for some even the lure of m&ms was not enough. Part of a video to  introduce the idea of genetic engineering and then short research time (It’s amazing how some students never get their computers to turn on) to give themselves an understanding of genetic engineering – their leaving task was to write on the poster what they had discovered … see photo .

Year 8 Science: No dissections today. Instead the class were asked to investigate the cells that make up different tissues. There were three questions to answer; what do the cells look like; what is their job; and what properties do they have that helps them do the job. I randomly assigned groups by the students drawing out a name of a tissue type and grouping that way. Got through the grumbling as once they’d planed what each person was going to do they didn’t have to sit with the group. The students had to present their findings to the class at the end of the double. Other than that they had to work out how to do it themselves (with me providing support). Overall this was well done. We ended up with 2 posters, 1 power point and 3 talks about the tissue and its cells. Only a couple of students went down the road of copying text and then reading it. The exercise clearly showed that the cells that make up different tissues are different with different properties. The next step is for them to work out if the tissues can be replaced ….. Can we live forever?

10 F Science: We started the genetic model investigation. The class listened carefully for my explanation of how to use the gene cards and asked lots of questions as they constructed the first generation. Next lesson they will need to do the second demonstration by ‘mating’ their creature with others in the class and then we’ll have to report on the findings. I have to think about how I can get them to collect data and draw a conclusion without it seeming too onerous to them. Any one with any ideas can let me know now.

Stage 1 Physics: Test – wasn’t supposed to take the double but I’d stuffed up a couple of the questions (i.e. I’d forgotten that I needed to edit it – I have been focusing on collecting the materials to flip the classroom and using a lot of time on that – but enough of my excuses) All but one passed the test (I had questions which I used to establish a C level and others that were set to extend). Only one students did really well – very impressively – I think I made my question that were to allow students to extend themselves were a little too difficult. Fortunately I always combine two tasks to take the pressure off and the other task – the sailing one – is much more supported.

Stage 1 Physics – more time on the sailing assignment. I think it’s paying off in the students understanding of vectors, particularly because I’ve kept it all in lesson time (despite those who miss for other commitments and are supposed to catch up with me but never do). We had a few pretest questions too. The learning that has gone on with this assignment has added more impetus into my flipping the classroom desire.

10 F Science: I was hoping to get the class to finish off their workbooks and catch up on the bits they’d missed. Time to rethink that idea.

8 Science: Mr Dixon came and gave a short lesson using the pluck – inflating the lung, watching the blood change colour and looking inside the heart (we’ll be doing a heart dissection next week). Good fun for the class and allowed me to be squeamish and still have them see the lungs. Next up we went through safety for dissections (only two places for the scalpel). Then carried out the Chicken Wing dissection. Our primary object was to look at the types of tissue and their differences. We wanted to use this to see how the properties of the tissue type made it really good for the job it had to do. We got through, cleaned up and with sheets done (well mostly) before the bell so a very productive double.chicken wing dissection

Stage 2 Chemistry: Writing up the practical report on esters, most were working on the analysis while a few were still in the initial stages of their write up. We discussed the details that needed to go into the report and I worked through the theory of esters with one of the students who had missed the relevant session. Another reason to move towards flipping the classroom!

10 B Science: Family trees again – I had made a little movie following blue eyes through my family (my wife’s preference for a brown eyed child also made a good conversation piece) and ending up by assigning genotypes for this phenotype within my family. I’d put the movie up here but the power’s off again in Morphett Vale, twice in less than a week so I’m on my iPad to publish later. The students then had to determine the genotypes for the traits they were following in their family trees. They did a good job and we had good conversations about the detective process involved. Gave the class a bit of information about Mendel and his discovery of dominant/recessive characteristics, this included a rap song, thankfully not performed by me. The last point was to have the students draw out the DNA model they will be making next time. A huge amount for a single lesson.

10 F Science: Tough start (apparently today was a bad day for lots of classes) and I was only asking them to draw up a family tree. Eventually got there and did a page from the booklet about using family trees. We then had a game around family trees to be played in pairs – only one pair engaged and got a laugh out of it. Next up the last of our videos for students to post responses to, I’ll write up those last posts and take a photo of the responses. Finally we went through the statistics of dominant recessive genes – working out how likely blue eyes were in different scenarios and why phenotypes skipped a generation. Exit tasks was for students to do one analysis – which they happily and successfully did.

Stage 1 Physics: Most of the class not here today – the usual ones at VET or SMAF, others helping run a science week activity at a local primary school – I didn’t go this year but did run this for the last few years … Oh no! I’m no longer indispensable! Any way we did progress through the vectors in sailing assignment. The assignment at this point (after we’ve finished the whole topic) is proving very useful as sailing draws in the three laws of motion, momentum, impulse, balanced and unbalanced forces and the use of vectors. This should help cement some of the learning … but I’m probably going to have to cut some of the fields learning.

10 F Science: Got some learning done about DNA and how it communicates. Enough said.

My turn for the science week lunch time – hot air balloons – it took us to the end of lunch time but we did get one to float into the air. Mr Cunningham got some video of it and the girl who got the successful flight was over the moon that her’s worked. Mr Cunningham also had the van Der Graff going so there was quite a crowd of really nice students, as there has been everyday so far, having a great time.

8 Science: Everyone’s excited that they don’t have to come tomorrow due to course selection day. Today’s task was a newspaper report for element of the year. This involved using resources in the library (there are some really good books on different elements but the students preferred to use the web despite the difficulties they had with the level of language – have to do more on this in the future) and preparing a presentation. Most went with hand written on the scaffold I provided, others fancied there’s up a bit. Most of the class finished during the double and look to have done good jobs (seriously everyone should get a good grade on this task if they try). Some didn’t put in a lot of effort – they chose their element and then had to be prodded for every next step. I kept them back to ask for their reasons – they stuffed around, as they put it. I will actually get them to finish the task on Friday while the rest of the class are working on the start of the human body task.

Stage 2 Chemistry Tutorial; Preparing for the big essay on Wednesday. Spent a lot of time directing students from collecting multitudinous resources to actually planning how they would use all the information they had in 1000 words.

10 B Science: We looked at how much difference there was between students through a little punch card that the students completed about some obvious genetic traits most of which are currently attributed to a single gene. I used the cards to whittle down the class through several different traits until we ended with a single student. I aim to use this to discuss the questions they asked on edmodo – where they’ve actually started blogging

– about why we’re so different than chimps if we share so much of our DNA. It only took 4 to 5 differences (in other words mutated SNPs) out of 10 million possible to get to a single person in the class.  Students wrote a definition of phenotype based on this.
The class are blogging about the videos they are watching for homework as I slowly try to flip my classroom. The next one goes up tomorrow.

10 F Science: We followed the procedure seen previously to extract DNA from kiwi fruit – they enjoyed the process and a few were quite surprised that they could see DNA at the end. Again I was emphasising the ease of the separation and how much of it there is in living things – clearly a very important chemical. We then did the punch card activity as described above. This only took 2 goes each time to get an individual as there are less students. Again I’ll discuss the link to % of shared DNA. This class are also watching the 23 and me videos but we’re doing our watching and posting during lesson time. I’ll post a photo of our posting board after the next lesson.
Again the class finished with a definition of phenotype – but I had to write one up.