Carver AP Bio Farewell

A quick note on the NOVA program, "What Darwin Never Knew": I was unable to make this run from Mrs. Rice's computer as school, but it worked fine from home, so there was probably a video player software issue in the school computer.  If everything seems fine, but the video never plays for you (black screen), that's likely the problem and software updates or viewing on a friend's computer might be necessary. 

A HUGE THANK YOU for the nice card someone made (nice work) and that many of you signed!  It was totally unexpected.  Everyone loves their efforts to be appreciated (even these fall a little short!), and the card made my whole week.  It's a keeper.  Take care, and good luck with the rest of your year and the AP Exam and your future plans.  I meant what I said before: keep in touch!
Jeff 

February Vacation Work

1. Finish the Chapter 14 Reading Guide

2. Watch the video "What Darwin Never Knew" at the link below and write a 3-2-1.  Remember: that's
          3 things you learned (be specific and factual)
          2 topics you'd like to explore further
          1 Burning Question for immediate discussion

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/evolution/darwin-never-knew.html

(Appologies: this turns out to be a 2-hour video.)

While you're at the website, check out the other features in the sidebar, especially The DNA of Human Evolution, and Big Thinkers on Evolution. 

Have a good vacation!  Stay in touch if you like!
JMB

Evolution Test!

The open response question on tomorrow's test will be on the ideas Darwin contributed to biology, and the ways these have been modified since.  Good luck!

Friday, 2/10 Found it!

Here is the link to the 2-hour NOVA I want you all to see! 

Watch this some time before Tuesday 2/14 (Valentine's Day!) and do the following:
1. Write a page following one line of scientific argument made by one side or the other over the validity of evolution by natural selection or intelligent design, and then give the opponent's counter-argument.  End it with your own assessment of that line of argument.
2. Write a 3-2-1 as follows:
     3 Things I Learned
     2 subjects I find interesting
     1 "burning question"

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/evolution/intelligent-design-trial.html

Carver AP Biology Monday 2/6 Homework

NOTE: BRING BOOK TO CLASS TUESDAY.

On the clock diagram given out in class, mark the following events taken (mostly) from the Timeline of Natural History pages.  Write small and use a sharp pencil.  When events are too closely-spaced to fit, write in the margin and at least show the approximate location and the chronological order of events.

1. 4,450mya earliest crust, surface cool enough for oceans
2. 3,920-3,850mya  late heavy bombardment of moon (& prob earth)
3. 3,850mya C enrichment of rock characteristic of  photosynthetic life
4. 3,800mya oldest banded iron formations
5. 3,500mya fossils resembling cyanobacteria
6. 2,700mya biomarkers of cyanobacteria & steranes associated with eukaryotes; chemical evidence of small rise in atmospheric O2
7. 2,500mya  banded irons form
8. 2,400mya  Huronian Glaciation begins
9. 2,200mya  iron content of fossils shows O2 building up to 5-18% of modern levels
10. 2,100mya  Huronian glaciation ends; earliest eukaryote fossils, earliest multicell organisms
11. 850mya-635635mya  “Snowball Earth” 3 times
12. 575mya Ediacaran fossils
13. 555mya first possible mollusks
14. 550mya first jellies, sponges, corals, anemones
15. 544mya  “small shelly fauna”
16. 505mya  Cambrian “Explosion” recorded in Burgess Shale
17. 444  Mass Extinction “#1”
18. 420mya  first (small) vascular land plants, first land animals (millipedes, scorpions)
19. 400mya  first insects
20. 395mya  first tetrapods, other modern groups
21. 370mya  trees, forests
22. 365mya  Mass Extinction “#2” (?)
23. 315mya  first reptiles
24. 251mya  Great Permian Extinction (Mass Extinction “#3”)
25. 200mya  End Triassic Extinction  (Mass Extinction “#4”)
26. 155mya  first birds
27. 130mya  first flowering plants; Laurasia & Gondwana begin to split
28. 65mya  Cretaceous-Tertiary (K-T) Extinction  (Mass Extinction “#5”)
29. 60mya  first primates and miacids (small weasel-like arboreal mammals)
30. 55mya  “island” Indian collides with Asia, raising Tibetan Plateau, Everest
31. 50mya  primates radiate, Africa collides with Eurasia, 49mya  whale ancestors return to water
32. 35mya  first grasslands
33. 5.4mya-6.3mya  subtribe Hominina
34. 2.5mya  first species of genus Homo
35. Today: Mass Extinction  “#6” ???

Carver AP Biology Wednesday 2/1 Homework

For those absent today: I collected remaining Ch 21 Reading Guides, we reviewed parts of ch 23, we did some simulations of natural selection on Pop Gen Fishbowl and Allele1A, and I collected ch 23 Reading Guide.  Several old assignments were passed back.  Here is a site where you can download Allele1A:
http://faculty.washington.edu/herronjc/SoftwareFolder/AlleleA1.html

Homework for today: Go on to the Biology textbook website, go to ch 23, and go through the two activities you find there.  Then do the Activity Quiz and print to pass in for a homework grade.  Tomorrow or Friday we will do AP Lab 8.

Homework Someday, Maybe: watch Intelligent Design on Trial at:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/search/results/?q=dover+pennsylvania&x=0&y=0