Investigations in Science 7 – February 23, 2018

Announcements:
Next week we will also begin frog dissection. The purpose of the frog
dissection: now that we have learned about all of our systems of the body, we are
going to be able to see them first hand inside the frog. No child will be forced to
dissect. I will let them do whatever they are comfortable doing. The first day,
there will not be any dissecting. The students are first getting comfortable with
their frog and looking at the external features. Below are some things we will be
doing throughout the week.
 The first day, students are predicting if it is a male or female by looking at
the size of the eyeball compared to the tympanum (ear). We won’t know for
sure the gender until we open the frog up. Females are filled with eggs.
 They will observe and touch the tongue and see that it is attached at the
front of the mouth and is quite sticky to help it catch its prey.
 Students will get to open up the stomach and see if there is any food the
frog had eaten and observe the muscles that make up the stomach.
 They will take out the heart, cut it open to see which chamber has the
thickest walls.
 Some groups might even be able to try to locate the brain of the frog.

Graded Assignments Turned in this week:

 Warm Ups: February 12-23
 Lab: Heart Rate and Breathing Lab
 Grade Reflection Sheet
 MiniQuiz: Circulatory and Respiratory System

Coming Up:
Topics:
 Endocrine System
 Excretory System
 Frog Dissections
Dates:
 February 28 – RETAKES @ Lunch – DIGESTIVE SYSTEM
 March 2 – Early Release Day
 March 13 – PTA Meeting 7:00 pm in the Media Center
 March 16-18 – School Play - Shrek Jr.
 March 20 – Band Trip Parent Meeting at 7:00 pm in the Band Room
 March 22 – Career Day
 March 26 - April 2 – Spring Break

What we did this week:

We then learned about the circulatory system. We began with lots of

explanation of how the heart, blood, and blood vessels function to take oxygen and
nutrients to our body, and get rid of the carbon dioxide our body produces as
waste. We then went over the four chambers of the heart and their function. The
atrium is the upper chamber of the heart that receives blood. The right atrium
receives blood lacking in oxygen while the left side receives oxygen rich
blood. The ventricles are the lower chamber of the heart that pumps blood
out. The right side pumps blood to the lungs to get oxygen and the left side pumps
the oxygen rich blood to the body cells.

Today we did a lab examining how exercise affects our heart rate and
breathing rate. We were able to get on our feet and jog/run in place for 1 minute,
then we took our heart rate and graphed the changes between exercise and
resting. This lab led us into the discussion of how important it is to have a healthy
respiratory and circulatory system. As our systems of the body unit comes to a
close, we are taking a lot of time to discuss how all of the systems of the body
work together to keep us functioning properly. Students are expected to make
connections to past material, and have been fairly successful in remembering the
content. It is always good for them to take some time to review what they have
learned at the end of the day, even if they don’t have homework.

We related what we learned back to cellular respiration which is a topic we

covered in unit one. Cellular respiration is when we use oxygen and glucose (from
the food we eat) and turns it into energy. As a result, our cells also produce water
and carbon dioxide, which we breathe out. Throughout the week, we have talked
about how we breathe in oxygen with our respiratory system but a number of
students were struggling to make the connection of how we use the oxygen.
Today, we will be taking the assessment on the circulatory and respiratory
systems. Retakes for the digestion assessment will also be offered at lunch on
Wednesday.

Have a great weekend!