The First Scribe Post of the Quarter - Class on Thursday, January 27th, and Friday, January 28th

Hi everyone and welcome to the first blog post of the 3rd quarter!

Our requirements have changed a little bit, and the more detailed information can be found here. The main change is that we have to do less comments; only one per every two weeks! The next one is due on Friday, February 4th.

Thursday's class

On Thursday we immediately started working on our "Genetics Relationships" projects. We had a sheet with directions and a rubric. The project was mainly about defining words and then explaining how they are related with genetics and each other. The words we had to define were:

• Deoxyribose sugar
• Centromere
• Recessive/Dominant allele
• Proteins
• Heredity
• Genetics
• Adenine
• Thymine
• Guanine
• Cytosine
• Nitrogen Bases
• Genes
• Alleles
• Chromatin
• Chromosome
• Hybrid
• Gregor Mendel
• Homozygous
• Heterozygous
• Chromatids
• DNA
• Traits
• Purebred
• Fertilization
• Double Helix
• Phosphates

Almost everyone presented their project on Thursday;

Sophie, Noam and Ciprian:

Iva, Terez, and Vance (Iva missing):

Calvin, Bryce, and Antonia (Antonia missing):

and Gio and Reza (Reza missing):

Here is the song "It's Called Genetics" from "Bill Nye the Science Guy"'s show:

Our homework for Friday was to read pages 84-89, which was the section "Probability and Heredity".

Friday's Class

When we came to class, Val and Viktor (me) presented their "Genetics Relationships" project:

We started discussing Gregor Mendel (an Austrian monk who started studying heredity, and combined pea plants to get different combinations) and his work, and after that we discussed our homework and what "homo" and "hetero" mean. "Homo" means "the same" and "hetero" means "different". We also discussed people having three sex chromosomes, such as XXX or XXY. This often leads to Down Syndrome, which you can read more about here. Jamie Lee Curtis is a famous actress who has three sex chromosomes, as well as Lady GaGa. People who have this disorder are called hermaphrodites.

After that, we started talking about Punnett squares. Here is what a Punnett square looks like.

Then, we worked on the Bikini Bottom Genetics sheet that we got from Ms. D, which we have to finish for Tuesday (but only the front page!) If you want to, you can do the back page as well.

That's all we did these two days; remember to check the Science Moodle page for information about homework and other assignments.

The next scribe is Ciprian - good luck! :)

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Vocabulary used in this scribe post:

Genetics: The scientific study of heredity.

Heredity: The passing of traits from parent to child.

Chromosomes: A combination of two identical chromatids and a centromere, holding DNA, found in the nucleus of the cell.

Sex chromosomes: The chromosomes "X" and "Y", used to determine your gender. Usually you have two sex chromosomes, XX if you're a girl, and XY if you're a boy. This is not the case if you are a hermaphrodite.

Punnett squares: Charts that show possible combinations of alleles passed on from parents.

3rd Quarter Scribe List

Dan

Fabi

Ciprian

Terez

Sophie

Reza

Noam

Viktor

Bryce

Val

Iva

Calvin

Vance

Antonia

Gio

Dan's Reflection Post

Overall, I think I did moderately well considering I wasn't exactly sure of the requirements, but I definitely could've improved it. As most people pointed out, my pictures didn't show up for some reason. Other than making them appear, obviously, I could've added more hyperlinks or outside media sources (as well as explaining the existing ones more in depth than I did), and labeling my pictures. Another thing most people pointed out was that my post wasn't very in depth concerning the things we did in class, and I could've explained more about several things.

Next quarter I will take much better notes during the class, so I can write a more detailed post, as well as make sure my pictures appear and I have more outside links. The only benefit I can conceive for this blog project is to help those who were absent. I enjoy seeing everyone's thoughts on the blog, as well as being able to edit and review each other's work, though I don't enjoy the general process of having to record and edit every single class.

Calvin's Reflection Post

So when I posted my blog I did not realize that the type of respiration that we had gone over in class was cellular respiration so my link for that part was to the respiratory system. It should have been to the process in which cells allow energy and waste to come in or out. Other than this mess up, my links were fine. In the future I plan to pay more attention and not take so many notes and also to ensure that my links are correct and as Ms. D said I should have put a link to moodle which I will do from now on.

A lot of people also mentioned that I should have split up my blog so that it was easier to read. I am sorry for that and I will try to split the blog up where it is appropriate in the future. People also said that I needed more pictures for my blog. I plan on getting more in the future and also putting captions under them to explain what they are. I did have some grammatical mistakes and I think that it was just me not catching them so I will have my father read it over the next time I do one just to be sure. My labels and title were wrong so I will from now on put the title as the date of the class and have the labels be my name what it is and whatever else I am told is needed.

What I did well was my notes, my information, and the lab. People said that my information and notes were good and I hope they were because I spent half the class taking them. I had also included the lab we did that day which was good but as Ms. D pointed out I did not explain the lab which was my mistake.

I think that in doing the blogs we help those who were absent that day or need a refresher for a test or quiz. I like doing the blog and I think it is very affective. I am sure that almost every one learns a thing or two from the links and that we all help each other in our writing threw our comments. So the blogs are a great thing.

Vals Reflection Post

My Blog in this quarter was not very good and I could have done much better if I'd have tried my best. My main-mistakes were that I haven't explained good enough and that I didn't label or hyperlink things. Otherwise my grammar/spelling was pretty good and I had a very organized Blog. Mainly I do really like the idea of the Blog in case someone would get sick, but I didn't. I enjoyed reading over others work to see their point of views of the specific things they were talking about. I don't really see a bad side in it and would like to continue the project.

Sophie's Reflection Post

Overall I don't think I did too well for the first semester of blogging. The things I did good and bad were:

-I should have put a better color that was easier to read in one spot.

· - I should have put pictures.

· - I gave the homework but I needed to define the words I listed and the information in bold.

· - I had to label my name in the labels also.

· - I should have put a link to Moodle and also the BBC video I talked about.

· - I should have given the book’s name that the questions were from.

- My post was a little too short.

~ ~ The colors I chose - except for one - added to my post.

~ ~ I gave the homework and what pages the homework was on.

~ I said what we did in class.

~ I didn't make any grammatical or spelling mistakes.

In the 3rd quarter I will improve my scribe post my first reading the rubric. Then I will look at my old post and the comments so I will know what to do and not do so I don't make the same mistake twice. I will surely put my name on the label, put a link to Moodle, and put at least 1 picture.

A benefit of having the blog is if someone is gone that day, they will most likely know what happened. I enjoy doing the blog for this reason and I think we should keep on blogging. The only things bad about the blog is it is sometimes hard to use with the text.

Science class on thusday

Science class on thusday

On Thursday we had very cool lesson. For that day we had to do some homework for Ms.D. The homework were questions about DNA, Heredity, Chromosomes and all that science stuff I think all of the class did it. For do that questions we had a website on the Internet that talk about all the stuff that we need for do the question. We started to talk about the question and everybody were ready to answer . The packet that we had was made of three pages of questions about all topics. It was a little log because the pages were in the front and in the back. It was fun to talk about all of that things that we have in our body. Sometime someone come up with some crazy question like : can we make a brain: and Ms.D start to explain the topic. Ms.D talk about one website about scientist that make crazy things. That website is called TED and we had it on Moodle for homework to watch the speech James Watson and the website is the following (http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/james_watson_on_how_he_discovered_dna.html). James Watson is a old scientist that discover the structure of the DNA and he was the most important scientist in the 20th. After the questions of the tour of basics Ms.D gave to us a paper because we had to do a lab. That lab consist to make the DNA. Not with chemicals things but with candy. The class of the lab was the best class ever because when we finished the DNA we ate all the candy.
This is for everyone. Remember to do the comment and the reflection post and remember to look up at Moodle (http://zagreb.ceesa.net/course/view.php?id=189)

Bryce's relection post

This quarter on my blog post according to the comments I did a good job adding details and covering everything. Also I did a good job with links a videos. I should have checked my spelling and captioned pictures. For next quarter I am going to proofread the post and bold important word. I enjoy the fact that the blog lets us see another point of view of what happened in class. I do not like the fact that people overuse color and make the blog irritating to read.

Antonia's Reflection Post

I think that my scribe post for this quarter had both good and bad parts. The comments often pointed out similar things such as:

Good things:

• Good links to moodle and a website


• No spelling mistakes


• Only a few grammar mistakes


• I explained the vocabulary that we went through during class

Bad things:

• Only one picture


• The font and layout was a little confusing


• A better explanation of the food label activity that we did during class


• Did not include a video


• Did not use enough colors


• Could have made the labels more specific

For the 3rd quater, I will pay attention to using more than one picture and also looking at the layout. I will check on what I did wrong on my last post and try to avoid the same mistakes in the next post I write. My next scribe post will have a better explaination of what we did during class. This quarter I did not really focus on what activities we did during class that much.

I think the benefits about having this blog are that absent people can catch up on work. I did not enjoy adding pictures to the blog. Blogger can sometimes confuse someone because, it deletes what you wrote or, it changes and moves around the font. I think that blogging is fun and we should continue doing it!

Teréz's Reflection Post

Hy everyone!
My blog hade some good and some bad parts. I had some pictures and videos that were helpful and linked to Moodle. I didn't really check my spelling and grammar. I used colors, but they were hard to read. My blog was well organized and neat. I didn’t use a really readable font and could have included more about the experiment we did in class.
The next time I will check my spelling and grammar more carefully and look for more links and videos or pictures that help understand my topic. I will also use more readable colors and fonts.
I think it is good to have a blog so people all over the world can read what we are doing in class. You also pay more attention to class when you have to do a scribe post about it. I liked looking for pictures and links related to my topic and reading other peoples blog. I didn't like writing my blog because my English is not as good and I have a lot of spelling and grammar mistakes.

Reza's Reflection Post

I thought that this quarter of blogging was good. I think I did pretty well in the sense that my comments were detailed and did have compliments, criticisms, and lots of science. This is what other people thought of my scribe post:

Good pictures

· Good links

· Use of hyperlinks in professional way

· Should have sub-scripted the 2 in CO2

· Make picture of graph smaller

· Should make link to Moodle Science not just Moodle

· Should have more use of color in post

· Should rearrange pictures

· Needs more scientific vocabulary

· Good video

· Video helped explain topic

· Good job putting up homework

· Good job putting up supporting details

· Graph was good for clarification

· Should not use the date of post in labels

· Link to khanaacademy was good choice

· First half was better

· Good font size

· Readable

· Forgot to put the title

· Interesting

· Should put more links for topic

as I think that I will improve my scribe post for the third quarter by putting more colors into my scribe post. I will also be putting more detail into the science of my post. I would like to put in more scientific vocabulary into my post. I will make sure to include subscript and superscript when necessary. My graph will also be explained more in depth than it was. I think that the benefits of having this blog is that the students who are sick and miss a science class can look on the blog and find out what happened in class. It also helps explain what the assigned homework was. I feel that people can learn more from the videos the scribes link to. During this blog I enjoyed making comments to other peoples posts and seeing what they did with

h their posts. I did not enjoy commenting on the 7th grade blog because I felt that it was quite hard to find whether the science was good or bad.

Gio's Reflection Post

Hello,

This is my reflection post. First of all, down here is the list of the positive and negative sides:

Negative sides:

• I should check if my links work or if password/username are needed to access the website.


• I should explain my pictures more specifically.


• I should include more pictures.


• I should have explained what happened throughout the reading we did in class.


• I should have italicized the textbook's name.


• I should have included the Quiz's date.


• I should have included the homework due for next class at the end of the post.


• I should have included some extra link to YouTube videos or interesting websites that could have helped to understand the post.

Positive sides:

• Good spelling.


• Good pictures.


• I linked the Moodle site.


• I gave the definitions of the scientific vocabulary needed.


• I labelled the post correctly.

I will improve the 3rd quarter's scribe post by being more specific in everything I write, by including extra links that I found about the subject of the Scribe post. Then I will watch the colors of the font because some are not so legible. I will include more pictures and explain them if they need an explanation. About Blogger and the blog, I have to say I like the blog idea. First of all it's useful to understand and know what was done in science class if a student was absent. Also, it's good because an absent person could click on links included in the post and understand (at least a bit) the lesson. Also, the blog is good because we get to actually, when commenting on other's posts, understand the good and bad aspects of one's post. One thing I have to say, though, is that in some aspects Blogger has some defects. For example, is hard to position a picture in the middle or aside the text, once it is downloaded. Also, it would be good to have spell check in the option bar, wehn writing a post. Also, I've lately been having some problems commenting, because when I try to publish the comment, for some reason Blogger doesn't publish it, and automatically refreshes the page instead, so I'd have to rewrite the comment all over again. But overall, it is good to keep the blog in 8th grade.

Gio.

Noam's Reflection Post

For this quarter my blog post had some good but mostly bad comments. For once, my post was a little short and my pictures were a bit to small. I had no links and not enough pictures. (list below)
Good:

• adding Mrs. Gren and table
• no spelling errors
• organized
• colors where helpful
• pictures if DNA and RNA
• covers what we did in class

Bad

• not explain DNA and RNA in depth
• Pictures not next to the pictures
• pictures to small
• table missing some information\
• did not explain pictures
• not enough colors
• post to short
• no link to moodle
• not enough pictures
• no “fun link”
• too vague

For my next blog post, I will try to make it longer and have more pictures and links. I will take more notes in class and take some pictures. I will also explain my pictures better and maybe have a you tube link for something to do with what we are learning. The benefits of the blog is to show the world what we are learning about in our science class. This blog is also good for people that were absent that day or the whole week. I enjoyed reading peoples blog post and to see what they did if I was gone. I did not enjoy putting pictures on Blogger because you can move them around. I would like to do this again next quarter! :)

Iva's Reflection Post

This quarter I think my blog post went well! Even though the computer and my font did not get along, and my font was confusing, I am satisfied with my scribe post! What I didn't do well on my scribe post was that I wasn't able to make my font all the same, I also could have added the link to Moodle too, so that anyone who was sick could follow the link and open up all the documents! Yes, I did put in two pictures, but I agree that I could have put in more pictures! I think that the youtube video of the Element Song added humor to my scribe post as well. In my opinion, my scribe post was colorful, but not overly colorful. All our notes taken that day were put on my post, and that is a plus and I did explain everything we covered in class during that day! In the next quarter, I will be sure to add the link to Moodle and put in three or more pictures! I will try to make my font all the same so it does not confuse readers, and I will watch out on my verb tenses! Blogger is a good way to make sure that you are not missing out on class and I am getting to like it more and more, all thought at times it can be frustrating! Concerning the blog that is the only thing i dislike about it, that when you paste something from a word document it sort of goes crazy!!