In Science Class . . . Week of 12/6

This week, the students have been studying digestion through reading, discussion and a video. Here's a diagram:

Of the structures shown above, students need to know the names and functions of the following:

Teeth: Used for grinding food into smaller bits
Saliva: Made in the mouth and used for wetting food and breaking it down.
Esophogus: Moves food from the mouth to the stomach
Stomach: Contains strong digestive acids for further breaking down food
Small intestine: Most nutrients are absorbed through the wall of the small intestine to the blood stream

For excretion, the students need to know the following structures:
Large intestine (colon): Condenses and dries solid waste
Rectum/anus: Used for excretion of solid waste
Kidneys: Clean blood in preparation for liquid waste excretion
Bladder: Stores liquid waste prior to urination
Lungs: Used to exhale carbon dioxide

In Science Class . . . Week of 11/29

This week, the students have started a new unit on living systems. They learned about cells and circulation through reading, discussion and video. Here is a diagram of the circulatory system:

The students do not need to know all of the names of the various arteries and veins; it is more important that they understand the main ideas:

• What are cells? (Small units found in all living organisms) 
• What do cells need to survive? (Water, food, gas exchange, waste disposal)
• How do many animals, including mammals, get these requirements to the cells? (Through a circulatory system). 
• What are the key components of human circulatory system? (Blood, heart, arteries, veins and capillaries)
• How does the body respond to increased cell needs during exercise? (By increasing breathing and heart rate, the circulatory and respiratory systems can get more oxygen to cells).
• Why do your veins appear blue? (They contain blood that has already "given up" it's oxygen to the cells, so the blood itself is blue. When you cut yourself, the blood immediately gets oxygen from the air, so blood from all cuts is red.)
• How many chambers does the human heart have? (4. The right two chambers are responsible for pumping deoxygenated blood to the lungs, while the left two chambers are responsible for receiving oxygenated blood from the lungs and pumping it to the body. 

Note for Ms. Carter's class: Our CalTeach student, Ashley, taught about digestion this week, so those students will learn about circulation next week! I'll include questions then about digestion. Sorry for the confusion! Ashley is an undergrad at Cal who has been with the class for the last couple weeks, and she chose to teach about digestion, so there is a little scheduling anomaly - I needed to switch digestion and circulation for this class to meet her scheduling needs. 

Quiz on Tuesday!

We're wrapping up our study of earth science, and will be having a quiz on Tuesday, November 23. The students brought home a study guide yesterday that we completed in class. Please take a few moments to review with your student over the weekend. Thanks!

In Science Class . . . Week of 11/15

This week, we'll officially begin our study of weather and weather maps. For fun, we'll be using our mobile computer lab to go online to study weather maps. We're using the site, www.weather.com, but there are lots of sites out there! A sample weather map looks like this:

Key questions:

• What symbols did you see on the weather maps, and what do they mean? ( H= high air pressure, L= low air pressure, etc)
• Why does the California coast have more moderate temperatures than inland? (Because we are near the ocean, and the air over the ocean heats up much more slowly because the ocean itself does not heat up easily). 
• Where do our storms in Berkeley come from? (Primarily from out over the Pacific Ocean)

Water Cycle

In Science Class . . . Week of 11/1

This week, we'll be learning about the water cycle. The students have already studied condensation and evaporation, so these concepts should be familiar. We will be reviewing vocabulary and playing a game. Key questions:

• What is the water cycle? (The global water-recycling system that includes water in all three states - gas, liquid, and solid)
• Where is most of the earth's water? (In the ocean as salt water. Only about 1% of the earth's water is fresh and available to us to drink.)
• As a water molecule, where did you "go" in the water cycle game? (Answers were vary - may include ground water, glacier, animal, ocean, clouds, river, lake, etc)

In Science Class . . . Week of 10/25

This week, we will be working on a study guide and taking a quiz in preparation for the end of the grading period. The students will be getting a study guide and working to complete it on Tuesday, and then they'll be taking a quiz on Thursday. The study guide will go home with them on Tuesday afternoon. The quiz questions will be very similar (hint, hint!) to the study guide questions, so please take a moment on Tuesday or Wednesday night to go over it with your student.
Thanks!