Case Studies, Cellular Respiration and Catapults,Oh My!

Fall is quickly approaching which means leaves are changing and Halloween is almost near! October is a fun month for high school science because lessons can easily be adjusted to reflect the themes of autumn along with the darker side of Halloween.

The biology students started this month with two case studies learning about cyanide poisoning (affecting cellular respiration) and also death by osmosis (yes, it is possible!) The topics were not related, but both were dark stories that had tons of learning opportunities for the students. I am a huge fan of the National Center for Case Study Teaching in Science. Please explore this website! There are some absolutely wonderful case studies for students to research tailored to every topic in biology. If you have an idea for a case study, please let me know! This week we also moved into learning about cellular respiration. The students will be designing their own lab to investigate the unique properties of bread yeast and fermentation. The goal is to blow up some balloons with carbon dioxide! Next week we transition into photosynthesis and the pigments found in leaves. We will be conducting a chromatography lab measuring the distance these pigments rise following a solvent. I want to thank Mrs. Stark for donating some of her bread making yeast!

The physics students are moving into their next project based learning: catapults! Our learning unit is projectile motion. We just were introduced to vectors last week. Remember, vectors have both magnitude and direction. The wonderful thing about projectile motion is it truly shows how physics and math are so closely linked when using the projectile motion equations. I want to thank Mr. Hubbard, our beloved math teacher, for working together with me to cover the topics of vectors along with the quadratic equation to help make this unit easier for our students. Multidisciplinary project based learning is the creme de la creme of education! Our catapults are going to be due Monday, October 26th for our Physics War day. Do not worry, students are safe, water balloons and our lovely field are not. My goal is to build these in class! If you are interested in helping, the students will be working on them next Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. 2nd period physics meets from 9:30-11:55 and 3rd period physics meets from 11:00-12:25. Please let me know if you would like to help!

Thanks again so much to the parents who came in to listen to the projects our biology students created last week! Having you in the classroom was a true honor! I hope you enjoyed your time here.