Human Body Webquest

Muscular System

Muscles are attached to your bones to help them move. Without muscles you couldn't move at all! Muscles also give us strength. Muscles are constantly doing simple things like helping you blink or breath. They also do harder chores like help you run, jump, and play. So how do they work?

Explore Your Multi-talented Muscles. Then look at Muscular Introduction , and Your Gross & Cool Body: Muscular System and answer these questions:

1.     Do you have more bones or more muscles? How do you know?

 

 

2.     How do muscles work? List and describe the job of each type of muscle.

            a.

 

            b.

 

            c.

 

3.     Write 10 interesting facts about muscles.

 

4.     Draw and label the different muscles and describe what each type does.

 

 

Respiratory System

What's a respiratory system? Breathing and the way your body uses oxygen is called respiration. We must breath to live. The organs used to help you breathe and use oxygen make up the Respiratory System.

 

Learn about your respiratory system at Thinkquest and at the Franklin Institute. You may want to also look at the video at How the Body Works - The Respiratory System at KidsHealth and the drawing for Asthma. You also may want to watch the video at this Asthma website.

1. Draw and label your Respiratory System.

 

Investigate coughing and sneezing at Washington Post Health.

2. Compare a cough and a sneeze. What are the similarities and differences?

 

 

 

Look at The Respiratory System.

3. What is the Respiratory System ? How does it work? Share at least two interesting facts about the Respiratory System.

 

 

4. Describe how the air passes through the respiratory system, the four major areas it travels through, and what happens in each place.

 

 

 

Take the Respiratory System Quiz. Show me your results at the end for a process score.

7th Grade Ecology Activity Predator Prey Cycle

7th grade is enjoying the Ecology Unit in science. We have been able to play many simulation games to help us better understand difficult concepts. In this activity students started with 20 rabbits (pink paper squares) and 5 coyotes (white index card). They spread the rabbits on the table and then they were to flip the coyotes on top of the rabbits to capture and eat them. The surviving rabbits and coyotes at the end of each round then would double (reproducing). The students recorded their data on a Predator/Prey table, and later graphed their information. This activity showed us there is a predictable pattern if the amount of prey increased the predators would increase also, but then when the prey (rabbits) decreased so did the predator population (coyotes). The students worked together in groups of 3 to 4 and everyone enjoyed cooperating and sharing in this activity!

 

Students working together to figure out

 the next generation of predators and prey

 

Fun flipping coyotes

 

A group working really well all focusing on the task

 

Adding the next generation of rabbits

 

 

Our graph

Rabbit and Coyote Populations Over Time!

 

Recycle, Reduce, Reuse...Create!

The 7th and 8th grade collected and repurposed used milk cartons and pop bottles to create bird feeders. We spent days painting, decorating, cutting and creating our bird feeders! All the students enjoyed being creative and making their own designs. We practiced cooperation, sharing, and following the decorations. After we completed our bird feeders we hung some of them around the school for us to observe on Jeffers Journal Fridays. We look forward to seeing what types of birds and other critters visit our feeders. The other bird feeders that were not hung outside the school will be brought home with students, who will then make weekly observations and report back to the class. I will also be bringing some home with me and since I live in a different area I will take pictures of  the critters that eat from those feeders and share and compare them to the birds and critters that we see around our school.
After we hung our bird feeders we took a 2 block walk and cleaned up our neighborhood since the snow melted there is a lot of trash. The students did a great job and even one of the neighbors came out to thank us for cleaning up the trash! I thought this was a great way to kick off the start of spring and get us ready to think about the up and coming EARTH DAY!

                                              Our Bird Feeders

                                           
                                  7B hung theirs near our front doors!

 

More of 7B's feeders hung near back doors

 

8th grade hung theirs on our big oak tree near front play area

 

7A hung theirs on the north side of the building in some pretty pines

 

Neighborhood clean up with a smile!

 

7th & 8th grades Invention Convention

The 7^th and 8^th grade students have been working on projects that are part of the technology and inventions unit. Students were introduced to the world of inventions and how the  development of these inventions carry on to affect all parts of living—in both good and potentially , bad ways.

At the beginning of the unit students learned that inventions are created to solve problems or improve the way things are done. The revolutionary invention of the light bulb by Thomas Edison was used as an example.

During the second part of the unit students focused on the process of inventing, particularly on what short, and long-term issues inventors have to consider before developing an invention. They examined a number of other revolutionary American and foreign inventions, then created posters about the inventors, their inventions and presented them to the class.

While students were taking part in this simple design project it gave them interesting opportunities to solve problems, use tools , measure things carefully, make practical estimations, calculate correctly, and communicate clearly. They were also given the opportunity to consider the effects that their inventions or projects might have (on?) others. They were asked to consider who their invention was intended for and who may benefit overall from their creation.

The students were all very excited for this project and many of them commented they enjoyed working on this project because it was their idea and they got to bring it to life. I am encouraged to see our students take control and show an interest in their learning. I noticed when given the right tools and guidelines they will not only reach their personal goals but exceed them. It was wonderful to watch their creations come to life and we are all looking forward to many more project-based learning opportunities in the future.

Finally after all the hard work the students will hold an “Invention Convention” to present their inventions to their class. During this convention half of the students will present one day and the other half the following day. The students will show case their work and read out loud their scientific report to a small group of peers. During this process the students who are listening to the presentations are evaluating the other groups’ work, everyone is fully engaged in the process and they will give and receive feedback not only from me but from their peers.

                                         The Invention Convention

 

Students Presenting and Listening

 

8th grade

Student Invention: The Gecko Glove

7th Grade

Student Invention: Tilt Chair

8th grade

Student Invention: Plus One

 

8th grade

Student Invention: Net Gear

 

8th grade

Student Invention : Window Washer

8th grade

Student Invention: Squishy Bumper

 

8th grade

Student Invention: Hero-SB (super bag)

 

7th grade

Student Invention: (inner) Boot Pocket

7th grade

Student Invention: Air Scooter

7th grade

Student Invention: Eye catcher

(jewelery holder)

 

 7th grade

Student Invention: Art Belt

 

8th grade

Student Invention: Oven 2000

(w/working sliding door)

 

 

 

Paper Pet Project

In this unit students learned about heredity and the ways that traits are passed from parents to offspring. We discovered ways scientist study heredity. We used information that we learned in previous chapters about cells and their functions to help us further understand meiosis, genetic probability, genotypes, and phenotypes.

The students worked hard on a project that tied all this information together. They created families (paper ones) and used probability to determine the traits that would be passed on to the offspring. They also created Punnet Squares to show scientific proof of the genetic possibilities.

My students were very creative and I believe they gained a solid understanding  of genetics and heredity through this project!


                                    Creating the Paper Pets

Writing the genotype and phenotype

Creating the Parent generation

A finished Parent

The Other Parent!

Some More

The family tree

The pets are hinged so one can

read the back to check

Phenotype and Genotype

Notice the

Punnet Squares

More Paper Pet families

Notice the Probability Chart

Punnet Squares

P-generation

f1- generation

 

Base Camp

We had the fabulous opportunity to go to the Base Camp at Fort Snelling! We got to rock climb, practice archery and did cooperative learning activities! The 7th and 8th graders had a blast, we were broke into 5 different groups and learned problem solving strategies and were fully engaged in learning the whole day! Here is the link to the Base Camp website http://www.explorebasecamp.org/.

                                     Here are some pictures of the activities we participated in!

Rock climbing (with the girls!)

Problem Solving (you had to figure out the path kind of like mine sweep)

Instructional Learning Climbing Vocab!

That's me in the middle (first time ever rock climbing

 I had the best cheering section)

Archery (I wasn't so great at this

 but my students were awesome!)

Problem Solving (the ship is sinking how to we get

everyone on an ever shrinking platform?)

"This is harder than it looks"

 (I heard my students say this a lot that day)

 

Jeffer's Journal Day: Activity Building a Nest

On this outing I decided we would focus on birds. We were talking about what birds we were seeing and the ones we no longer see in the late fall. We learned that birds are magnificent builders and their beaks are all unique for making different kinds of nest. Our objective for this activity was to build a nest out of natural materials we found in our school garden. We could only use the materials that were natural to the environment and  the nest must be able to hold 3 eggs (marbles) without falling through the nest. I have to say that my students were very creative and made some unique nest and most all of them were successful in the task. They all had a lot fun trying and testing new ideas. At the end of our activity we recorded information about our nest. We listed the materials we used, we recorded what we enjoyed most about the activity, was it hard to build a nest? and why? And we also discussed what we would do differently if we would try it again!
                                                  
                                              Here are some examples of their work!

nest in a bush

 

A use of multiple materials

 

Solid foundation

 

Great engineering

 

                                                                 with a roof :)

another in a bush

 

 

recording our data (along with a drawing of their nest)

Team Work!