Biology Co-op Week 4

 Week 4: Identifying Bacterial/Fungal Colonies

To open the class, we are discussing why animals dream and which animals scientists have discovered that dream.  

Video: "Do Spiders Sleep and Dream Like Us? CBS News"

Video: "Jumping Spiders See with Rose-Colored Glasses"

LAB: Bacteria Part 2

Last week, we took swabs from different surfaces and made streak plates on Petri dishes with agar.  Over the course of the week, colonies grew on the Petri dishes and now we're going to examine them

Rank/chart surfaces by growth

Loosely identify bacterial versus fungal from visually observing the Petri dishes

Take a couple of samples, make slides with coverslips and examine under the microscope

Discuss the three main shapes of bacteria: Coccus, Bacillus and Spiral

Discuss how autoclave machine sterilizes

Homeschool Day 10/22

 I'm posting this before we start our school day, because we will be busy afterwards.  Here's our plans for today:

Bible

• The Action Bible

Reading

• The Wild Robot
• We are finishing Where the Red Fern Grows and then we're going to watch the old movie version of the book.  It seems to be streaming on Tubi or Plex.

Math

• Life of Fred Fractions - we are hitting another bridge today - he's flying through this book

History

• Story of the World 2
• Martin Luther and the Reformation
• We will make the paper Luther from Famous Figures from the Middle Ages and Renaissance

Extras

• Violin practice
• Work on knots for Boy Scouts
• Prepare for the Plumbing Merit Badge workshop this weekend

Homeschool Day 10/21

 Bible

• The Action Bible - story of the Good Samaritan

Reading

• The Wild Robot
• Where the Red Fern Grows

Math

• Life of Fred Fractions - reducing fractions

History

• Story of the World 2
• Cortes and Montezuma

Art & Music

• Lots of violin practice
• Private lessons with the violin teacher

Extras

• Confirmation Class at church

Homeschool Day 10/20

 Bible

• The Action Bible - healing the blind man in the synagogue

Reading

• Where the Red Fern Grows
• The Wild Robot

History

• Story of the World 2 - the Slave Trade

Extras

• Karate class
• Boy Scouts 
• Playing basketball at the park
• As we wind down with our school year, he and I went over my school records showing everything he's done this year

Homeschool Day 10/19

 Bible

• The Action Bible

Reading

• Where the Red Fern Grows
• The Wild Robot

Language Arts

• The Good and the Beautiful Cursive 6
• The Good and the Beautiful Language Arts 6

Math

• Life of Fred Fractions

History

• Story of the World 2 - the Incas

Art & Music

• The Good and the Beautiful Drawing I

Biology Co-op 10/16

 I didn't post this yesterday, because I was overwhelmed, but here's what we did for the biology class that I teach on Friday mornings.  It was a great class.  The boys were actually listening and enjoying it.

Bacteria and Viruses (reference: BJU Life Science textbook)

Thylacine

• We learned about the Thylacine or Tasmanian Tiger, an extinct marsupial from Tasmania/Australia
• We watched videos of the last Tasmanian Tiger from 1936
• We discussed what led to its extinction

Bacteria

• Bacteria structures, size
• Bacteria types
• How bacteria help the environment
• Can you see bacteria with a microscope?

Viruses

• Viruses are not living organisms
• Virus structure
• Video of a virus attacking a cell
• You can only see viruses with a special microscope

LAB

• Using 10 Petri dishes with agar and 10 cotton swabs, the kids swabbed various surfaces (including a toilet seat, doorknob, cat's paw, cat's water bowl) and then created streak plates.  I'm keeping the Petri dishes in a warm place until next week when we can compare/contrast bacterial and fungi growth on the plates.  Maybe we can take some small samples, form slides and try to identify bacterial shapes under the microscope

Homeschool Day 10/14

 Bible

• The Action Bible

Reading

• The Wild Robot
• Where the Red Fern Grows

Language Arts

• The Good and the Beautiful LA 6
• The Good and the Beautiful Cursive 6

Math

• Life of Fred Fractions - adding fractions

History

• Story of the World 2 - Tenochtilan and the Aztecs

Art & Music

• Violin lessons with a teacher

Extras

• Confirmation Class at Church
• Homeschool Recess Group