This page is intended for review and further study of the topics worked on in Mr. Benton's Science class and on homework assignments. These assignments will be completed during the first quarter.
Return to 1st quarter all assignments page
These assignments are for September and October, 2007.
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Assignment |
Requirements and expected learning |
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| Diversity of Life (DOL) Resources Book pp.21-23 | Read pages 21-23 and answer the questions
on the question sheet.
What needs and functions demonstrate that something is living? All living things (organisms) need to use energy, absorb water, exchange gases, and eliminate waste. All organisms respond to their environment, grow, reproduce and are made of one or more cells. |
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| Is Anything Alive in there? | Students place five different materials
into three different watery liquids and observe for evidence of life over
the course of a week. Bubbles, odor, movement, growth, possible
reproduction may be evidence of life.
Students learn that…
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| Science Court | The Science court cartoons
are a fun
and engaging series that mixes animated courtroom drama, hands-on science
activities, and humor. As each case unfolds, students examine the facts and
perform hands-on experiments to help them predict the verdict. By discussing
their findings in groups and as a class, students are able to articulate and
comprehend challenging science topics.
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| The circle of light that we see when we look through the eyepiece of a microscope is called the field of view. When we change the total magnification by turning the different objective lenses into place, the size of the field of view changes. Even though the circle of light appears to always be the same size, the higher the power, the smaller the actual width of the field of view. At 40x total magnification, the field of view is about 4 millimeters wide, at 100x it is 1.6 mm, and at 400x it is only 0.4 mm wide. (See example.) | |||||||||||
| Diversity of Life (DOL) Resources Book pp.24-26 | Read pages 24-26 "The Lowly Paramecium" and answer the questions on
this worksheet. (modified) The paramecium is a member of the Kingdom Protista. It is a common example of a single-celled organism, which, despite being simple in structure, exhibits all of the intricate functions of life. |
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| Focal Plane (worksheet) | The lenses of a microscope are able to focus clearly only at one certain distance from the object on the stage. When we turn the focus knobs, we move the lens up or down until the objective lens is exactly that certain distance away from the object. At that point, the object on the stage is in the focal plane and we can see the object clearly in focus through the eyepiece. The focal plane is very thin. Therefore, as an example, we can only see one layer of ribbon in focus at a time when we place three layers of nylon ribbon on top of each other on the stage, even though the ribbon is only a few microns thick. | ||||||||||
| Diversity of Life (DOL) Resources Book pp.27-30 | Read pages 27-30 and answer the questions on this
worksheet.
Cells are the building blocks of living things. The first cells - the first living things - appeared on Earth about 3.5 billion years ago. 2 billion years later, the first cells appeared that had structures inside of the cell membrane. These structures, organelles, each have a specific job to do in the cell. Life began in the ocean and life on land developed when some organisms were able to "take their water with them" by developing cell walls to hold the precious water inside. Our salty tears may be evidence that we are descendants of those first terrestrial organisms. Investigation 4: THE CELLLife happens in cells. No matter how simple or complex an organism is, it is made of cells, and the cells are alive. Cells have defining structures, such as a membrane, cell wall, nucleus, chloroplasts, and cytoplasm. A major subdivision in cells is whether they have a nucleus (eukaryote) or not (prokaryote). The diversity of cells helps us understand the diversity of life on Earth. |
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| Ribbon of life | Explore the
FOSS CD-ROM section on the Ribbon of
Life, which illustrates the particle nature of living things: Cells
are the basic unit of life, but they are made of smaller, non-living parts:
atoms, molecules and organelles. Cells join together to form tissues,
which make up organs. Organs join together in organ systems (like the
circulatory system) and these form multi-cellular organisms like animals. Prokaryotic (no nucleus) and eukaryotic (containing a nucleus) are the two basic kinds of cells. Cells are alive, but cells are not organisms unless the cells are able to live independently, like a single-celled paramecium, for example. |
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| Read Pages 65-70 | The world of living things is divided into 5 Kingdoms: Bacteria, Protists, Fungi, Plants and Animals. Scientists further divide each kingdom into subdivisions: Phyla, Classes, Orders, Families, Genera, and Species. Organisms have scientific names which are two-word Latin names made of the Genus and Species names; humans, for example, are Homo sapiens. | ||||||||||
| Read pages 31-34 in DOL book | Seeds are dormant plants with a food source (cotyledon) wrapped inside a protective seed coat. Under the right conditions of moisture and temperature the dormant embryo (baby plant) begins to grow. Energy needs of the plant are supplied by the starchy contents of the cotyledon until the leaves reach light and begin to make food for the plant through photosynthesis. Roots of the plant take in water, not food, for the plant. | ||||||||||
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