Week 5 Biology Co-op: Protista

Here's what we did today for our little biology co-op that I teach using BJU Press' 7th Grade Life Science textbook and lab manual.

Because I always open class with a video about an interesting animal, we watched the video “Wolves 101: Nat Geo Wild” on YouTube.

I asked them the question: What is an Apex Predator? We discussed.

We reviewed the Kingdoms.

We went through the first half of the Protists and Fungi chapter in the Life Science textbook.

Animal-Like Protists

• Ameoba 

• Pseudopod

• Video ”Amoeba Locomotion”

• Paramecium

• Cilia

• Video “Paramecium and cilia”

  
  

Plant-Like Protists

• Dinoflagellates

• Some are bioluminescent when disturbed

• Video “The beating of the longitudinal flagellum of a dinoflagellate”

• Video “Life that glows”

  
  

Fungus-Like Protists

• Slime Molds

• Video of slime mold solving a maze

  
  

Protist Behavior

• Video “Amoeba eats paramecium”

• Video “Microbes use flagella and cilia for movement”
• Video “World through microscope 675x/binary fission in paramecium”

Practical Lab:

We looked at Paramecia, Euglena and a Hydra under the microscope.

 

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

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

Field Trip to Galveston, Texas 2026

 Because we are kicking off next Friday with the first week of our co-op, in which I will be teaching biology, we took a long field trip last weekend to Galveston Island off the coast near Houston.  

We took a boat in the harbor and watched dolphins.  There's a nursery pod of about 1,000 dolphins that live together in Galveston Harbor.  They patrol the harbor looking for sharks.  If they see a shark, they will usually kill it.  So there aren't a lot of sharks in the harbor, even though they have found hammerheads, etc.  The last time we watched the dolphins, two of them had a flounder and were throwing it up in the air to each other.  The dolphins have a ton of personality and will play in the wake of boats, following them and jumping out of the water.

We did some beach combing and playing on the beach. I think that's a blue crab in the picture. 

We also went to Moody Gardens, which are three glass pyramids containing a rainforest exhibit, an aquarium and a Children's Discovery Museum, which showed an exhibit about animal skeletons.  Moody Gardens also has a zipline, gift shop, several restaurants and several mini movie theaters, which show nature-based 3D movies.  We enjoyed the rainforest the most.  The aquarium was very crowded, which made it difficult to see the animals.  Ironically, no one was in the children's museum and we were able to spend a lot of time in there looking at the skeletons.

This field trip was a great start to our biology co-op.  I will be teaching from BJU Press' Life Science, which is written for 7th grade.  Each week, I'll be teaching concepts from the chapter, followed by a lab.  I'm very excited, because my degree is in biology, so it's generally an easy class for me to teach.

Homeschool Day 11/10 + Nature Walk/Tree Identification

 Fifth Grader

Book Basket

• Because of Winn-Dixie
• Seabird 

Math

• BJU Math 5

English

• Voyages in English 6
• Cursive Success
• Independent reading

Ancient History

• You Wouldn't Want to Be a Greek Athlete
• D'Aulaire's Greek Myths
• Usborne Illustrated Odyssey

Latin

• Prima Latina lesson 21

Botany 

• We are finishing Apologia's Exploring Creation with Botany this week by going on two nature walks in a natural Texas forest and using the Trees of Texas Field Guide.
• Today we walked along a natural creek known for fossils and identified several trees that looked interesting.  
• We identified Ash trees, a Live Oak tree, Chinaberry, Holly and Sumac.

Field Trip Fort Worth Botanical Gardens

 Here is their link:  https://fwbg.org/

We ended up buying a membership, so we can go all year without paying for tickets.  It was $95 for a family membership.  For individual tickets, it's cheaper if you buy them online rather than at the ticket counter.  Because it was spring break, the ticket counter line was a mile long.  Once you get inside the gardens, everyone disperses and it's not so crowded. 

There are tulips everywhere and they're gorgeous.  The gardens also include a huge field of yellow daffodils.  I noticed statues everywhere that must be new.  We haven't been to the gardens since 2019 and I'm sure the statues were not there then. 

We spent about an hour just in the Japanese garden, which includes traditional Japanese structures, a waterfall, a koi pond, sand art, cherry blossoms and little bridges.  A gift shop sits at the gate of the Japanese garden.  

We were not able to see the northern half of the botanical gardens, because we ran out of time.  We're planning to go back in April and May.  I'm glad we bought the membership.

Planet Earth 2 series

 This series is just incredible: https://www.bbcearth.com/shows/planet-earth-ii

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5491994/

We are watching it as a supplement to Biology.

Right now, the series is streaming on HBO Max (that's how we're watching it).  It may be on another streaming service (like Prime).

They've made a Planet Earth 3, but it doesn't seem to be available for streaming yet.

Lots of Nature: 4/20

 2nd Grader

• Singapore math 
• Sonlight Reading/Language Arts

10th Grader

• Mathusee Geometry
• She worked on her persuasive essay

Both Together

• Rollerskating at homeschool skate time
• Ballet classes all evening at the ballet school
• We released our butterflies that we grew from caterpillars
• We watched a red-tailed hawk attack a nest full of baby birds and watched as the parents tried to fight off the hawk 

Homeschool Day and Box Day: 3/16

 Today is Box Day!  We are expecting a huge box from Sonlight, including Sonlight C (world history 2), Algebra 2, the Hands-on History box that goes with HBL C. 

2nd Grader

Wild Math 2

• We read It's About Time (which was a bit too easy for him)
• We played Sleeping Queens (addition card game)
• We played Mexican Train Dominoes

Reading/Language Arts

• Sonlight Reading/LA
• We played Story Cubes
• He's reading his dyslexia reader at night before bed

Science

• Boy, Were We Wrong About the Weather
• Bird ID outside using the Merlin Bird ID app and the guidebook Birds of Texas (see below)

Sonlight B

• A Child's History of the World
• Babe

10th Grader

• Bird Photography - she used a DSLR camera to photograph birds and ID them
• Merlin Bird ID app (Cornell University).  We recorded bird calls and identified
• House Sparrow
• Eurasian-collared dove
• Northern mockingbird
• Great-tailed grackle
• American Robin
• Cliff Swallow
• House finch
• Great horned owl
• Cedar waxwing
• We used the book Birds of Texas to see pictures of each bird we ID'd

Homeschool Day 1/9

 I'm back to trying to blog daily again.  Maybe easier.

2nd Grader

Math

• Wild Math 2
• Practiced adding 3 numbers

Sonlight Reading/Language Arts

• Sounded out new words for the week
• Handwriting without Tears
• Explode the Code 2

Sonlight B World History 1 (history, Bible and literature)

• We started Little Pear today for our read-aloud and he really liked it

Extras

• Cub Scouts

10th Grader

Bible

• Book of Psalms
• We talked about the authors of Psalms

Mathusee Geometry

Grammar & Writing

• Easy Grammar 10th Grade Ultimate workbook
• Typing practice

History & Literature

• Radioactive: Marie and Pierre Curie
• Trinity: A Graphic History of the First Atomic Bomb - she finished this book today - this was an excellent book
• We talked about the history of yeast, including how it was discovered in ancient times

Science

• Wicked Plants: The Weed that Killed Lincoln's Mother and Other Botanical Atrocities
• Yeast Fermentation Lab
• We tested expired yeast and discovered that the spores were dead
• We fermented yeast in warm water with sugar and observed changes in the foam over time
• We looked at the yeast under the microscope with and without blue dye

Extras

• Ballet class (outsourced)

Nature Walk/Tree ID 12/5

 We took the morning to work on local tree identification and hike a trail through the woods.  We're using the book Trees of North America (National Audubon Society) to identify trees.  

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/600056/national-audubon-society-trees-of-north-america-by-national-audubon-society/

On this walk, we found lichen, moss, looked at tree rings...  We identified Eastern red cedar, mesquite, Bradford pear, Shumard oak, and Osage-Orange.  

We talked about how Osage-orange wood was nicknamed "bow wood" by the French, because Native Americans would use its wood to make bows.  The seeds are also called horse apples or monkey balls.

We talked about how the stoma work (on the leaves) and why leaves fall off the trees before it gets too cold.

Field Trip: Marine Life in Galveston, Texas

 Galveston, Texas is an amazing place to see marine wildlife.  We've seen jellyfish, dolphins, sea birds, flounder, crabs - beach combing is wonderful - even watching the birds bobbing up and down in the water is pretty awesome.

This time, we took a boat into the bay and saw dolphins.  We saw dolphins do something I've never seen them do before.  They caught a flounder and kept flipping it up into the air to each other, recatching it.  We happened to be in the harbor when it was raining and saw several dolphins jumping out of the water over and over again.  They do that to get a different view above water - check for predators, look for food, etc.

Here's some pictures of the birds in the harbor.  This is a grey pelican, maybe?  I'm not the best with pelican identification.

They're all sitting on the back of this boat.

White pelicans and a grey pelican?

Dolphins are impossible to photograph, since they just move so quickly, but this was a great picture.  Atlantic Bottlenose Dolphin.