After finishing up our global warming soap box debate on Friday, we will now jump into the other cycles in this unit - water and nitrogen. We will do a quick review of the water cycle early in the week and add some new terms to the elementary school version. Then we'll check out the ways the element nitrogen moves through living and non-living things, and the effects that excess nitrogen can have on the environment. Good luck on your last ELA MCAS this week! Stay curious and keep looking for answers!
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This week is chock full of MCAS, so there will be no homework - lucky you! We're going to continue our analysis of how the carbon cycle works, then begin a group investigation on the debate about climate change today. Later in the week, we will begin looking at the nitrogen cycle and its affect on the Mississippi River Delta. Good luck on MCAS this week! Stay curious and keep looking for answers!
This will be a great week in the digestion unit because we are doing the worm dissection! To start, you'll be finishing up your enzyme and chemical tables, then begin your pre-lab work for the worm dissection. On Tuesday, you will be having the parts of the digestive system quiz (2 bars). Then on Wednesday and Thursday we be working with a number of organisms. To begin, you will be dissecting earthworms with your lab partners to take a closer look at their digestive system and then compare it to our own. Please make sure to email Mr. Bowles by Tuesday, if you will choose do a virtual dissection instead of the real one. Then on Thursday, we will be comparing the anatomy of the earthworm to that of a rat and dogfish (both will already be dissected). Then to top off the week, we'll play Jeopardy on Friday to prepare for the Digestion test (4 bars) next Wednesday the 18th. Stay curious and keep looking for answers!
Last week we began the grossest unit of the year - Digestion! We will be talking about how your food gets processed, watching videos that explore what really happens to all that food, and will actually dissect a worm to look at its digestive system (compared to ours). These all sound really fun (maybe only to some), but an important step in understanding how this system works is knowing that just because your eating doesn't mean your digesting . Breaking down your food into its most basic pieces (molecules), then absorbing all of those nutrients into your blood stream and eventually your cells is REALLY digestion. Just because you eat doesn't mean you absorb those nutrients. Your body uses many organs that both physically mash up and chemically breakdown food to help it get absorbed more easily. If these processes don't work correctly, not all of your food is digested. This week we will be looking at these topics in more depth - specifically at how each organ breaks down incoming food and contribute to nutrient absorption.
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