February 2015 - AP Biology

OK we have made it through midterm exams and our second blizzard in a week, so we can now get back the business of studying biology! 


Below please find a link to an article about "Three Parent Babies".  Please read the article and watch the embedded videos and then post what you think about the procedure or comment on one of your peers posts.








http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/science-news/11386151/Three-parent-babies-the-arguments-for-and-against.html

December 2014 Blog - AP Biology

This month we begin our in depth look at DNA!  We examine the research that has lead to its understanding, its structure, how it is transcribed, and how it is translated.  But as our understanding of DNA increases and out technological abilities to manipulate DNA improve, it opens a number of bioethical issues.  Below is a link to an article about genetic testing.  Please read and leave a comment about how you think your genetic information should be handled.




http://nymag.com/news/features/23andme-2014-4/

November Blog Post AP Biology 14-15

This week in AP Biology we began to look at the processes of cell division, namely the cell cycle, mitosis and meiosis.  Understanding of these processes is essential and a hot topic in medical research.  Many human diseases can be traced to problems associated with the regulation of the cell cycle.  To that end, in this week’s blog I would like you to read the linked article and then pose one question that is generated having read the article on cell cycle regulation.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/10/131011101148.htm

October Blog Post - AP Biology 14-15

Great job on last month's blog post!  This week we will be learning about enzymes and conducting several inquiry based labs about enzymes to learn how they work.  Turns out enzymes are "wicked" important in biology and everywhere we turn we will see examples of their use.


What I would like you to do this week is to follow the link below and choose one article about enzymes to read and summarize for the class.  Please include the title of the article you chose to summarize.  Please do not choose an article that has already been summarized.  Finally toward the end of the week, go back and read the summaries of the other articles.  Enzymes are amazing!


http://www.livescience.com/search.html?cx=partner-pub-1894578950532504%3Aqaei7k190hq&cof=FORID%3A10&ie=ISO-8859-1&sa=&q=enzyme


Best,


Mr. Clark

1st Post: September 11, 2014

AP Biology students 2014-15,

Here is our first opportunity to Blog about the wonderful world of biology!  Every  other Wednesday I will post a blog promt to get us talking about biology.  Your contribution to the blog is due one week after the initial posting.  Essentially it is a participation grade, so if you respond to my posts and / or respond to other peoples posts you will have met the requirements for this assignment.

So do not stress over this .... let's have fun blogging about biology.

Task find an interesting biology news article on line and provide the link.  Next, write a brief statement about why this article is interesting.  (No repeating other students articles.)

Science News, November 5, 2013 "Clay may have been birthplace of Life on Earth"

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/11/131105132027.htm


This article suggests a mechanism for how complex organic molecules like DNA or RNA could have been organized with the use of clay particles.  This suggests how these molecules necessary for life could have been synthasized before the evolution of the first cell membranes.

Ok, now read and comment on this article (or one your peers posted) or post your own article and comment on it.

3rd Quarter Thursday 4/3/14 "Final Post"

As the 3rd quarter comes to an end and with the AP Biology exam around the corner, (5/12/14) we will suspend our Thursday Blog posts.  In this way, you can spend more time leading up to the exam in your review.

Seniors have just a couple weeks after the exam until they begin their graduation preparations, so after the exam we will devote our remaining time toward the final project and your room paintings.

Thank you for your contributions to the blog, I have enjoyed reading your thoughtful posts this year.  I intend to continue the blog next year with my students, and I you would  welcome you to follow the blog and contribute if you are interested.

Best,

Mr. Clark

3rd Quarter Thursday 3/27/14 "Cool Stuff in Biology"

Thank your for your attention to last week's post and your ideas for "animal for a day" activity.  This week I would like you to explore the wonderful world in biology by reading a recent news article concerning biology, make a one or two sentence summary, and then posting a link to a different article you have found.

So the to start us off, here is a link to a recent article in the news.  The first person, to respond to this post should read, offer a 1-2 sentence summary, and then post the link to a different article.  The next, person should respond to that link and so forth. 

http://www.scientificamerican.com/gallery/slowly-evolving-elephant-shark-offers-clues-about-why-some-fishes-have-no-bones/

Be good and do good,

Mr. Clark