Term 1, Week 4

 1 chapter of Understanding Scripture.

Work on the Ancient Egypt post from the history blog.

Story starter: Jam.


Geography:

1. Watch this video about the layers of the Earth.  It's made by goofy college students from MIT and involves a "layers of the Earth" cake and a Lego minifig.  Draw and label your own diagram of the earth's layers (using a picture from a book or by googling one online) and put it in your notebook.  (Or bake an earth cake.)  

2. Color the page: "Volcano Sites/Earthquake Zones" in The Geography Coloring Book.  This is why a knowledge of plate tectonics is relevant to most people.  Check out the USGS Earthquake Hazards site for real time earthquake maps and other data.   

3.  Read chapter 4 of Why Greenland is an Island: "Not So Trivial Trivia".  She has a long list of geographic facts she's put together for her own edification.  The last item on her list is "poorest countries".  Because this was written in the 90's, she talks about Somalia, but also says, "When you read this, another nation may be suffering more than Somalia... I'd encourage you not to ignore this final item just because it seems out of date.  Rather, substitute the latest information, or part of the world where suffering concerns you the most.  And finally, ask yourself what you can do in the way of contributions, lobbying, or volunteer work to relieve the anguish of those who live there."

Here's a project that will be due next week: Try to find out what the poorest country in the world is, or at least make a list of very poor countries.  Choose one to research further using Geography of the World, National Geographic, your atlas, and the Internet.  Investigate Catholic missions to that country and the country's saints and any Marian sites (if any).  (Food for the Poor may be good place to look, also.) Set aside some time to pray for the residents of that country, see if there are any programs for us to help with, and prepare a report about your findings.  It should be 2-3 pages long, typed.  

Zoology:

You are now working on the Protozoan section of The Zoology Coloring Book. Allow two weeks for this.

1.  Color all protozoa through the Malarial Cycle in The Zoology Coloring Book.  

2.  Look up your protozoa in The Guide to Microlife and see examples of what they look like in real life.

3.  Find instructions for culturing protozoa in the life science kit and culture your protozoa.  (I think that the instructions are the same as for this kit.)  For at least three days sample your culture and view under the microscope.  Make sketches of what you see and try to identify using The Guide to Microlife.  

4.  Choose one of the "ideas for science projects" given in the link above.  Set up an experiment and keep track of it in your notebook.  It should last for 3 days to a week.  When you are done, write up your results in the form of a lab report.  Here is a guide to "how to write a lab report".  We also have a guide to lab reports from Kolbe which is pretty comprehensive.  Garrett may have it in his backpack.  A lab report doesn't necessarily have to be typed, but you can type it if you want to.  If you do type it, you may need to figure out how to add a table in your word processing program, which I can show you how to do.

5. When you color the malarial cycle, read ch. 10 in The Microbe Hunters, "Ross vs. Grassi".      

Wildlife Biology/Conservation:

1.  Keep reading The Aye-Aye and I.  Depending on how much you have to read, either plan to finish this week or next.  See me about this.  

2.  Watch another episode of Last Chance to See. 

3.  Wrap up your Young Birder submissions.  Think about what kind of an ongoing bird project you would like to do once you have everything submitted. 
 

Term 1, Week 3 - Sept.16-20

Don't forget the SAT Question of the Day!

Finish your pernicious kumquat essay.  Your one word for an essay this week is... expedient.  

Geography:

1. Review the continents, oceans, and major seas on a world map.  Then you can take the World's Oceans and Seas Map Quiz. (Let me know how you did.  You can retake the quiz until you get them right.)
2. Read the rest of ch. 3 in Why Greenland is an Island.  Find all the rivers in the list of major rivers in an atlas.  Then take the World's Longest Rivers Map Quiz. (Let me know how you did.  Again, you can retake the quiz until you can get them right.)

3. Do some research on river science and major rivers:
            The USGS Water Science School site.  Check out some of the sidebar links after reading the
            article.  You can access current water data for the US, as well as the current state of all US
            rivers and the US river flood watch.  

            There's a good introduction to the Nile River at How Stuff Works.
 
             Here's a short video on the Amazon.

             The Nature Conservancy site dedicated to the Mississippi River has lots of information and   
             links to explore the river and see what efforts are being made to preserve it. 

4.  Complete the "Map the Mississippi Watershed!" activity I printed out for you.  Follow the directions to color the map.  I have a completed map and answers for you to check your work.  (If you need to print another copy of the activity for whatever reason, it's located here.  You'll have to print it in two sections: Page Set Up - Portrait -- for pages 1 and 2 and Page Set Up - Landscape -- for pages 3 and 4.  All you need to do the activity are pages 1 and 4.)   


Zoology:

1.  Color the Animal Kingdom page in your Zoology Coloring Book and know the major divisions of the animal kingdom.

2.  Redo your slides and view.

3.  Read chapter 18 in the Prentice Hall Biology textbook about classification.  Look up any unfamiliar vocabulary in the glossary and write it down with the definitions.  

4.  Try the Quick Lab on p.453: "How is a cladogram constructed?"


Keep up with your math.

Finish your history readings/lectures for Mesopotamia.  The writing project is posted, too.











3. 

5. Keep reading The Aye-Aye and I ( and let's watch another episode of Last Chance to See.  

Term 1, Week 2: Sept. 9-13

•  Don't forget the SAT Question of the Day!

• Latin class starts this Tuesday!

•  Your one word essay topic this week is... pernicious.  (If you don't know what it means, look it up!)

Geography:   

You can file any geography papers in your history/lit notebook, or you can start a new notebook.

1. Tell me what you learned about Syria and find it again on a map.
2.  Read ch. 3, pp. 34-37 (stopping at "The Romance of the Rivers") in Why Greenland is an Island.
3. Read "How to Color and Use This Book" in The Geography Coloring Book.  Then color the "Glossary of Geographical Terminology" on the next two pages.
4. Find all the places mentioned in the chapter and the glossary on a map, at least to country and state. (The level of detail may not be such that you can pinpoint an ocean inlet, but you can find the country it's in.)
5. On a blank map of the world, color and label the continents and oceans.  (We can either find one to print online or copy the included blank world map in Uncle Josh's Outline Maps.)




Zoology:

You're going to need a zoology notebook, too.  Fortunately, I bought extra binders.

1.  Read ch. 2  of How to Use a Microscope.

2.  Use the microscope to view the prepared slides we own.  Then you can check out the cool virtual microscope images at Microbe Hunter.  If you have time, you can also see some electron microscope images at the MicroAngela Electron Microscope Image Gallery and the SEM Gallery at the Museum of Science in Boston.

3. Read ch. 3 of How to Use a Microscope and follow the directions for making simple preparations to view. (You can do table salt, potato starch, cotton, cheek cells, and human hair easily.)  Print out some copies of the Microscope Observation Worksheet to record your findings. We have a package coming with some stuff to play with for making slides, as well as a large set of prepared biology slides.  There is also a big surprise in the package that I think everyone will find interesting.

(You can also use these slide-making ideas at Home Science Tools.  The important thing is to get comfortable using the microscope.)

4.  Color the Animal Kingdom page in your Zoology Coloring Book and know the major divisions of the animal kingdom.

5. Keep reading The Aye-Aye and I and let's watch another episode of Last Chance to See.

History/Lit:
Set up your notebook and write it in it.  Remember that you're not just reading Gilgamesh; there are history readings and audio lectures, too.  (You need to listen to 3 lectures and you only have this week and next week to finish Mesopotamia.)

Religion:
Chapter 2 of Understanding Scripture.  Remember to read the Bible verses at the beginning and write about your reading in your notebook. 

Math:
Keep up with your class. 


 
    

Term 1, Week 1: September 2-5

Term 1, Week 1: Sept. 2-5

I'll be putting up some zoology and geography links in the sidebars for you to have handy as well.  We'll try out this weekly list format and see how it works.  In general -- every Friday night you'll need to report to Dad on what you did during the week.  I'm sending him the link to this blog, too, so he'll know what you're up to.  This week is a short one, but I think you ought to be able to handle this amount of work.

Don't forget the SAT Question of the Day!

Your one word essay topic this week is... kumquat.  (If you don't know what a kumquat is, look it up!)  

Music Appreciation:  
For your project... check out our books Kids Make Music (a section on "Musical Toys")  or My First Music Book (Has instructions for a set of pan pipes, among other things) or google. Do This Before Tuesday at Dinner!!! Just in case a run to Lowe's or Michael's needs to be made.  

Geography:
Why Greenland is an Island and Japan is Up for Grabs -- ch. 1 and 2.  There's a "Try This" project at the end of chapter 2 that involves finding out the geographical facts of a region currently in the news.  Right now the country being talked about in the news the most is Syria.  See if you can follow her "geographical method" to learn about Syria.

Zoology: 
Keep reading The Aye-Aye and I.  I think the books in your basket fall mainly under "wildlife conservation", which is certainly part of zoology, but we need to add in some of the science underlying animals, too.  We're going to be following the outline of The Zoology Coloring Book to add in the science while you keep reading about wildlife conservation and biology.  The first sections in The Zoology Coloring Book are about the use of the microscope and microscopic animals.  So this week we're going to work on figuring out how to use the microscope.  

1. Color and label the diagram of the microscope in The Zoology Coloring Book.  You can also do the Virtual Urchin Microscope Tutorial, which will help you learn the parts of the microscope and their functions.  Or check out this video about how to use a microscope.   
2.  Read ch. 2  of How to Use a Microscope.
3.  Use the microscope to view the prepared slides we own.  If you have time, you can also check out some electron microscope images at the MicroAngela Electron Microscope Image Gallery and the SEM Gallery at the Museum of Science in Boston.   

History/Literature:
Check the history blog.  You should complete the Mesopotamia unit in about 3 weeks, so this week you need to start your reading and your notebook and check out some of the links.

Religion: 
It says this on the History blog, but I'll just repeat it here: you need to read chapter 1 in Understanding Scriptures this week.  Read the Bible verses given at the beginning of the chapter first, then the rest of the chapter.

Math:
Just keep on with your assignments.