Thursday, November 10, 2016

8th grade Unit 3

This blog is going to be about Unit 3 of Biology and other things going on in my WAAS life. I feel like it started such a long time ago, because there is so much information and content we covered. Science Olympiad has also been another event in life. I think that this unit has been the hardest so far in science this year. Unit 1 and 2 mostly was going back to the first year but with advanced content. Unit 3 was purely about cells and their division, microscopes and we learned a little bit about sexual reproduction. We didn't go too in depth, but we definitely covered a lot. At the end of the unit we studied photosynthesis and cellular reproduction. I feel like the most difficult part of this unit was photosynthesis and cellular reproduction. We did plenty of labs that helped us understand the content easier as always. I actually find labs fun, and I think that it is an excellent opportunity for the students to see the reaction or result for yourself. We did labs that demonstrated and pictured what we are taking notes on. 

So far this year, WAAS has helped me a lot throughout all of my classes. We are now in the second quarter and I am sure it will go by fast, just like the first did. Science Olympiad has been good, we have to do a lot of fine tuning for Mission Possible. We also need to replace a wing, and make another glider for Wright Stuff. All of this must happen before December 10, which is the invitational. I think that the team is working hard to place well in the invitational.  





This is from when Mrs.Giacomelli did a lab with eggs, water, vinegar, and corn syrup. We observed the effects of the liquids would have on the egg. 



This is a close-up picture of a plant cell under the microscope. This made is easy to see the individual cells and their parts. 


To the left is a picture of a spinach leaf being cut. The little holes will be put in a beaker with solution and put under the light. This represented photosynthesis. The holes would go up towards the light. 
This is a picture of test tubes during a lab. The lab was about seeing if CO2 or acid in the substances we placed in the tubes. 






This lab was probably the best, we made ginger ale. We did this by fermenting a solution and fermenting it made it have CO2. 







In this lab we used dialysis tubing to see how osmosis and diffusion works.