Science 90 - Sept 30

Today in class we spent time going over homework that I had assigned last week.  We also spent time talking about the exam that I scheduled for next week on Wed, Oct 8.  I gave a review today in class that students can work on and help them study for.  Students who complete the review and hand it in on the day of the exam can get an extra 5% bonus on the exam itself.  Here is the review.

•Questions pg 38

–#1-5,7,9-12,15,16,18,19,24-26,29

•Questions pg 74

–#1-3,5,6,9,12,22,23

•Questions pg 110

–#2-5,7,9-12,15,18,20,23,24

•Know all diagrams

–Plant/animal cells

–Mitosis

–Flower parts

–Male/female reproductive systems

Physical Science 20 - Sept 30

Today we had an abbreviated class due to the lockdown drill.  After the drill, we jumped into learning how to do unit conversions.  The method that I used to teach this was called dimensional analysis.  It works for any type of unit conversion, from the metric to the imperial system.  I gave a worksheet for students to work on for the remainder of the class.  I strongly urge students to use the method taught in class rather than something that they learned in earlier science classes.  This will make your understanding of stoichiometry much easier.

Physics 30 - Sept 30

Today we learned how to add non-collinear vectors together.  We did an example before where we added two vectors together but we learned that this approach (a graphical approach) is inaccurate.  Today we did an example where we added vectors together using the mathematical approach that we learned yesterday.   The vector resolution method led us to an answer that was more accurate than a scale diagram.  It involved breaking each vector into its x and y components then adding all x components together and adding all y components together.  The results from this give you the components of your resultant vector, and then we just use Pythagoras Theorem and the tan identity to figure out the resultant vector.

We did Example 5 today.  On Thursday we will do example 6 and students will then have some time to work on Assignment 2.3.  Reminder of your exam tomorrow.

Science 90 - Sept 29

Today we went to the library to do a little research on some current genetic technologies.  Students were directed to the website learn.genetics.utah.edu and needed to learn information on each of these four technologies - stem cells, cloning, genetic therapy, and transgenic mice.  They had to answer the following questions about each technology:

1.What is the technology?
2.How is being used?
3.What are 3 cool things that we might be able to do with this technology in the future?
4.What is your ethical opinion about this technology?

This is all due tomorrow.  Tomorrow we are going to go through all this homework that I have given you over the past couple of days.

Physical Science 20 - Sept 29

Today we started the new outcome on the mole.  The concept of the mole relies heavily on math so we need to spend some time looking at significant figures and scientific notation as well as metric conversion.  Today we learned how to work with measurements and round off to the correct number of significant figures.  I assigned a worksheet to practice all of this.  Students picked this up today in class.  Tomorrow we will learn about metric conversion.

I also assigned a take home assignment to conclude our section on chemical reactions.  Assignment C16 is due on Thursday, Oct 2.  Students will hand this in for marks.

Physics 30 - Sept 29

Today we learned how to break a vector into its components.  This method is called vector resolution and involves resolving a vector into a horizontal and vertical component - or what we call an x and y component.  This method involved using trig identities and Pythagoras's Theorem.  Examples 2,3, and 4 were covered.  Students were given the last 15 minutes to work on Assignment 2.2.  Tomorrow we will be moving on and looking at non-collinear vectors and how to work with them.

Science 90 - Sept 25 & 26

Yesterday I checked the homework that students worked on from Wednesday.  We also did a little activity where we extracted DNA from strawberry plants.  The activity is located in the course notes link.  Students handed in that activity today.  As well today, we had a discussion panel on ethical problems that arise from genetic technology.  Students were broken into 3 separate groups and given a list of scenarios related to genetic technologies and decided what to do in each case.  At the end of class we came together and went over our decisions and discussed the issues that came up in our groups.  I gave the students some homework to do after this and they are to complete it and have it done for Tuesday.  Students are to read pages 58-70 in the textbook and define the following terms:

• Selective Breeding
• Artificial Reproductive Technology
• Genetic Engineering

As well, they need to answer questions #3,6,7,9,10 on page 70.  On Monday, we will be heading to the library to do some a small research project on genetic technologies.