Inquiring Minds

in·quire: to seek information by asking a question; have a wish or desire to know something; conduct an inquiry or investigation; ask, enquire, pry, wonder, query, question, investigate, examine, experiment, quiz, study, search, inspect, consider, research, scrutinize...EXPLORE

[msagostino]

How does a wind turbine work?

Students designed and built their own working wind turbines to learn about electricity and power generation. Students took measurements to calculate how much power each turbine produced. A couple of groups were able to light an LED bulb. 

[msagostino]

Building polysaccharides is just plain FUN!

[msagostino]

How does the digestive system work?

In this activity students created a working model of the digestive system using various household items like sponges, cups, pantyhose etc...The students were given a bin full of items and had to justify why each item represented a different organ based on its structure and function. They then created a video to explain how the model worked and posted it on Vialogues. They then commented on each other’s videos and posted questions to continue the discussion.

[msagostino]

How do muscles contract?

To explore the sliding filament theory, students built a working model of a sarcomere. The straws represented the actin and the foam sheet represented the myosin filaments. The pipecleaner wrapped around the actin was the tropomyosin. Velcro adhesive allowed the myosin heads to attach to the actin and paper fasteners allowed the myosin to cause a “power stroke” and pull the actin toward the midline. 

[msagostino]

How do antagonistic muscles work together?

To learn more about antagonistic muscle action (and throw in some review of homologous structures!) try a chicken wing dissection! Students identified and described muscles, bone, ligaments and tendons in this activity and described how antagonistic muscles cause movement in opposite directions.

[msagostino]

How does the human elbow joint work?

In this activity, students create a working model of the human elbow joint using popsicle sticks to represent the bones and elastics to represent the muscles. This model demonstrates antagonistic muscle action of the biceps and triceps. 

[msagostino]

Flowchart of Biomolecules!

There are a lot of new vocabulary words to learn in topic 2 of the IB bio curriculum. In order to keep them all organized, students created flow charts using neon white board markers on the lab benches. It was FUN and of course a novelty to write on the lab benches. The erasable nature of the markers allowed students to take risks and make mistakes. When they were done they went around to view each other’s flow charts to see what they could add/change in their own. They then made final copies either using Lucid chart or on paper.

[msagostino]

What is the protein content of milk?

Students investigated the protein casein found in milk. They separated the casein and measured the mass they found in different types of milk. They they compared their results to the advertised value on the box and calculated their experimental error. This led to a discussion of the sources of error and weaknesses in the method. This lab led to an assignment where students had to create an advertisement for the best type of milk!

[msagostino]

What factors affect the rate of respiration in invertebrates?

Students investigated how temperature affected the rate of cellular respiration in mealworms using respirometers. This was a spin on the traditional AP lab using germinating peas. Students learned about experimental techniques, data analysis and also about the ethics of using animal specimens for scientific research. 

[msagostino]

How healthy is Yellow Creek?

In the fall of 2015 the grade 9 students participated in some field work evaluating the water quality of Yellow Creek - a creek that is part of the Don Valley Watershed. We started the year discussing watersheds and their importance to the city by reading through the TRCA watershed report cards. From there we explored ways we could investigate the health of the watersheds which led me to find a program called Changing Currents through Eco Spark. This program gives students the tools and resources they need to becomes water quality detectives. They participated in chemical and biological sampling of our local water system. Despite the torrential downpour the students had an amazing time getting to participate in hands-on inquiry. Later our results were submitted to a searchable database that included results from other schools and other sites over time. For me this was the most powerful part of participating in the program. Students were then able to come up with their own research questions and compare their data to other places around the city. We hope to continue with this program every year, adding to the data to see how the health of the creek changes over time. We also hope to take it one step further next year and have students create action plans from their data on how they can help preserve the health of local waterbodies. 

http://www.ecospark.ca/changingcurrents

[msagostino]

How can genes be transferred from one species to another?

In this investigation students transformed ordinary bacteria into glowing bacteria! They used a fluorescent gene from a jellyfish to genetically modify bacteria so that they would glow under UV light.

[msagostino]

How diverse is our school’s biological community?

This year we participated in the School Malaise Trap Program hosted by Biodiversity Institute of ON. I first learned about this program at STAO in 2014 and was so excited to be a part of it this year. It fit in nicely with our theme of citizen science in grade 9. The program allows students to become part of the broader scientific community by conducting authentic inquiry. The program sent us a malaise trap in order to collect samples of insects in our yard. We then sent the samples back to the Biodiversity Institute where they were DNA barcoded. Our results indicated that despite our urban school setting, the insect community was more diverse than expected! Our trap collected a total of 101 specimens in week 1 and 118 specimens in week 2. Within the sample, there were 72 species, which ranked our sample 36 out of 64 for species diversity. The species collected came from several different groups and 13 species were only collected in our trap. We also collected one species of hymenoptera that was NEW to the Barcode Of Life Database! Amazing! I will definitely sign up for this program again - as soon as our renovations are done and we have our green space back!

[msagostino]

BIOLOGY SCRABBLE!

For grade 12 spirit week the students all dressed up as scrabble tiles! We spent the last 20 minutes of class spelling out biology related words. Ok - so we could only write "evolutian" - close enough!

[msagostino]

How are nerve impulses transmitted?

Students used whiteboards and beads to model the movement of ions across the membrane of an axon. This activity was done after students had already explored the nerve impulse through an interactive MOODLE lesson that included quizzes, screencasts and animations. It was used to formatively assess the students' understanding and their ability to communicate that understanding.

[msagostino]

How do we breathe?

Students created a working ventilation system out of a plastic bottle, balloons, straws and tape. This activity helped debunk a misconception that air is "sucked in" through the nose and helped explain the mechanics of breathing via volume and pressure changes in the thorax.

[msagostino]

Group 4 Project @ CDNIS: Disaster 2013!!

For our group four project this year students found themselves in the middle of a natural disaster! A tsunami had hit Hong Kong and residents were relegated to five neighbourhoods with limited supplies. Within each neighbourhood students had to work together to complete as many science based challenges as possible. The challenges included in the images above are to design a stethoscope and thermometer to monitor resident health, to create ink for communication, to build binoculars and a catapult to keep the neighbourhood safe, to test the pH of the drinking water and to make glue! There were many other challenges students had to complete in order to survive. At the end they presented their best ideas, explaining the science behind each one. At the end of two days students wrote a reflection on what they had learned about the process of science and themselves as learners. 

[msagostino]

How can urine be used to diagnose diabetes?

In this investigation students were provided with the urine from two patients - one without diabetes and one with diabetes. Students used test strips and Benedict's reagent to qualitatively assess the presence of glucose. However, before conducting the experiments students were required to predict which substance they expected to be in the urine of the diabetes patient. They had previously studied the homeostatic mechanism of blood glucose regulation and knew that diabetes was a failure of the body to produce or respond to insulin. This lab was then used as P.O.E (predict - observe - explain).