Showing posts with label Science. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Science. Show all posts

CPO Life Science Supply List

2 comments Posted by Kristine at 3/10/2011 06:03:00 AM


All items are from Home Science Tools except those in light blue which can be found at Carolina Biological Supply.

Illustrations by Charles Harper, Giant Golden Book of Biology, 1961

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CPO Focus on Life Science, Part Two

0 comments Posted by Kristine at 3/09/2011 07:39:00 PM

Part One: Units 1-3

Unit 4: Evolution and Change

Chapter 11: Evolution

Websites
Chapter 12: Earth and Life History
Unit 5: Structure and Function of Living Things

Chapter 13: The Diversity of Life
Chapter 14: Plants
Supplements
Botany Survey Set at Home Science Tools

Chapter 15: Animals
Supplements


Unit 6: The Human Body

Chapter 16: Human Body Systems
Supplements
Chapter 17: Support and Movement
Supplements
Chapter 18: Vision and Hearing
Supplements

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CPO Focus on Life Science, Part One

4 comments Posted by Kristine at 3/09/2011 07:35:00 AM

Very shortly, we'll be starting on a new year of science with CPO Life Science. The company publishes two life science textbooks, Life Science (ISBN: 1588924874) and Focus on Life Science (ISBN: 1588922537), the California standards-based edition. For whatever reason, it is much easier to obtain student copies of the California books (in fact, the entire CPO Focus on Life Science student textbook can be found online here as a .PDF), and teacher's editions of Life Science. At least, that's the case at the moment, as well as the most cost-effective solution.

There is also a wealth of free material available at CPO's website, but all of it is aligned to Life Science. To simplify things, I decided to match the two books up so that I could make better use of what we've got and what's available online. Fortunately, they match up fairly well. The chapters listed below are from Focus on Life Science and the corresponding student supplements are from Life Science. My list is still quite rough, but I will be improving upon it as I get further into my planning. A supply list for the entire course can be found here.

UPDATE: I've uploaded a copy of our CPO Life Science schedule for the first quarter to give a better idea of how I scheduled it, using the list below. The schedule can be found here.

Unit 1: Living Systems

Chapter 1: Studying Life
Chapter 2: Cell Biology
    Supplements
    Chapter 3: Interactions of Living Things
    Supplements
    Unit 2: Living Systems

    Chapter 4: Chemistry and Physics Connections
    Chapter 5: Cell Structure and Function
    Chapter 6: Cell Processes
    Chapter 7: The Microscopic World
    Supplements

    Unit 3: Genetics

    Chapter 8: Reproduction
    Chapter 9: Heredity
    Chapter 10: The Code of Life
    Supplements
    General Resources

    Part Two: Units 4-6

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    Retro-Futurism

    0 comments Posted by Kristine at 2/13/2011 07:11:00 AM


    As a spin-off to our year-long science fiction literature unit, we'll also be taking a look at retro-futurism, just for fun. This would also make a quirky tie-in to a study of technology or the history of inventions. Here's my reading list, though there may be some overlap between titles:
    Paleofuture is a terrific blog that explores "The Future That Never Was" and Dark Roasted Blend also has some amazing stuff.





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    Biodiversity Reading Challenge

    1 comments Posted by Kristine at 1/06/2010 05:47:00 PM

    This afternoon I found another reading challenge that somehow seems irresistible, though I'm not exactly sure why since I usually dislike reading anything too science-related. It is the International Year of Biodiversity Reading Challenge, discovered via A Striped Armchair and hosted by Classical Bookworm.

    Here's a breakdown of the challenge(s):

    • Basic: 3 books on any biodiversity topic.
    • Biomes: 3 books about major world ecosystems: open ocean; coral reefs; lakes and rivers; arctic tundra; boreal forests; temperate forests; tropical forests; savannah; grassland/steppe/ deserts.
    • Branches: 3 books on different life forms: plants; fungi; invertebrates (including insects); reptiles and amphibians; birds; mammals.
    • Bye-bye: 2 books about endangered or extinct species or about extinction or conservation.
    • Back yard: Buy 2 or more field guides to your local flora & fauna and get to know your neighbours.
    • Biodiversity Bonanza: One of each of the above!
    I'm aiming for the "Basic" challenge, but plan to read a few extra books. After hours of agonizing over my choices on Amazon, here's the list I came up with:

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    Butterflies at Botanica

    0 comments Posted by Kristine at 9/24/2009 06:59:00 PM

    Wednesday we attended a homeschool class at Botanica for "Monarch Week." During the class, the kids got to watch a monarch tagging demonstration, examine butterflies under a microscope, visit the butterfly house, and play a migration simulation game - in addition to learning all about monarchs.



    Our tagged butterfly


    In the butterfly house


    The kids enjoyed holding the butterflies...




    Butterflies trying to warm up








    Imaginging life with compound eyes


    Migration simulation game


    Feeding a Butterfly Koi

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    Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve

    0 comments Posted by Kristine at 9/22/2009 03:21:00 PM

    Last Friday, I found myself without a working computer - again - so I decided that we would take a field trip to the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve. Unfortunately, by the time we got there it was nearly 3 pm (we made quite a few stops to explore along the way!), so we had little time to enjoy the park. We watched a video, then took a wonderful guided tour and learned quite a lot. Next time I will plan to arrive early so that we can spend the day hiking some of the beautiful prairie trails.

    From their website:

    Tallgrass prairie once covered 140 million acres of North America. Within a generation the vast majority was developed and plowed under. Today less than 4% remains, mostly here in the Kansas Flint Hills. The preserve protects a nationally significant remnant of the once vast tallgrass prairie and its cultural resources.

    Once the hunting grounds of the Kansa and Osage Indians, the preserve's 10,894 acres are home to an astonishing variety of life: over 450 species of plants, 150 kinds of birds, 39 types of reptiles and amphibians, and 31 species of mammals. A cycle of climate, fire, and animal grazing - once buffalo, now cattle - has sustained this ecosystem. Much of the grassland flora and fauna is too subtle to be seen from a passing car, but careful scrutiny reveals the special beauty, wonder, and complexity of the prairie.


    Stephen F. Jones House (1881)

    Three-story limestone barn

    The view across the prairie

    Blue Sage (Salvia azurea)


    Common Collared Lizard (Crotaphytus collaris)



    Gayfeather (Liatris pycnostachya)

    Making sparks with flint

    "As to scenery (giving my own thoughts and feeling), while I know the standard claim is that Yosemite, Niagara Falls, the Upper Yellowstone, and the like afford the greatest natural shows, I am not so sure but the prairies and plains, while less stunning at first, last longer, fill the esthetic sense fuller, precede all the rest, and make North America's characteristic landscape. Even [the prairie's] simplest statistics are sublime." -- Walt Whitman, Specimen Days (1879)

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    Silkworm Update

    0 comments Posted by Kristine at 3/29/2009 12:08:00 PM

    Honestly I'm not sure what is going on with our silkworms these days. Yesterday I transferred them into a much larger box, hoping to end the rampant cannibalism that has been taking place. However, this morning we awoke to find fresh corpses, which is quite distressing (they're getting plenty of food, which makes it even more perplexing). Oddly enough, we also currently have several silkworms that are itty-bitty (about 1/4" long), while others are virtual giants - easily 3" long and as fat as 3 or 4 smaller silkworms put together. Then we have one short 'n chunky little worm that has already started spinning a cocoon, while the larger worms seem to have no interest in cocooning.

    This little zebra-striped guy is our favorite (and the only one of our worms that is striped):

    Cocooning action:

    As silkworms spin their cocoon, they move their head in a figure-eight pattern:

    Only 30 minutes later and a lot of progress has been made:

    This silkworm seems to be thinking about starting a cocoon:

    And these guys are molting:

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    In Other News...

    0 comments Posted by Kristine at 3/10/2009 04:35:00 PM

    As we've been busy planning our water garden and overall backyard, we've also been busy planning our vegetable garden(s). I finally got some seeds started, and the boys have busy with theirs as well. My husband is creating a 4' x 4' plot for each boy to [intensively] grow what they wish, and there will be a plot for a few "experimental" plants as well - mostly those cultivated from kitchen scraps and seeds/spices, à la "Don't Throw It, Grow It!"

    A few of the experiments:

    In other news, many of our silkworms have been busy molting. The period before and after each molt, when the silkworms are eating and growing, is called an instar. Silkworms go through a total of five instars in their life. When a silkworm is ready to molt, it stops eating and remains perfectly still, its head raised in the air, for at least a day or two. While they remain motionless, a new skin is forming underneath the old and when the new skin is fully developed, they begin to move and leave their old skin. According to Sylvia Johnson's book, often their first meal after the molt is the skin just shed, however few of ours have been doing this, preferring fresh food instead. This leaves us with bunches of dried-up old skin, attached to the sides of their box, ick. In the picture below, an old skin is shown on the left, while a molting worm is shown on the right:

    A group of molting silkworms:

    Lastly, we were recently alerted to a fun science project that we've signed up for called The Great Sunflower Project. Each participant will be mailed 'Lemon Queen' sunflower seeds to plant (or you may buy your own, as long as they are 'Lemon Queen'). Once the plants are in bloom, they will then need to spend some time on observation, recording the flowers that are open (and thus producing pollen) and each bee that comes visiting. The results are then recorded online or mailed in. The project is being coordinated by San Francisco State University's Biology Department, in an effort to understand the challenges bees are currently facing.

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