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 I'd encourage you not to ignore this final item just because it seems out of date.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.