BIOLOGY 101: Frog Dissection

We finished Biology 101 this week by doing a frog dissection with a kit from HOME SCIENCE TOOLS. (None of us had any interest in doing the grasshopper or the worm, but David helped JJ and his cousin Jon work on the frog, while I stood by and took pictures.)

Gloving up for the operation.

"Scissors please."

Hard at work with David giving directions and helping navigate.

 

 Looking inside the mouth. (Don't you love those faces? Hee hee)

 

A peek at the tongue.

 

Identifying the organs.

I don't think either one of the boys would beg to do this lab again, but at least they got the experience.

BIOLOGY 101: Egg Experiments & An Owl Pellet Dissection

As we studied Flying Creatures with our Biology 101 DVD curriculum, we added activities from Kit #29 (Eggs), and Kit #30 (Owls) from The Young Scientist Series - Set 10. 

What happens to a raw egg when it is placed into a bowl of hot tap water? Bubbles begin to form, due to tiny spores in the egg shell. See the short video below for an example.

When you have a hard-boiled egg, and a raw egg, which one spins faster and longer? Take a look at this next video. The hard-boiled egg is white, and the raw egg is brown. 

In this photo, JJ is getting ready to dissect an owl pellet. In case you were wondering, an owl's stomach cannot digest the fur, bones, teeth, feathers, and insect shells that come from the critters it eats. So, these “extra” parts are formed into a tight PELLET inside the owl, and are later spit up. The pellet JJ is about to dissect has been disinfected and wrapped in aluminum foil until it is ready for dissection.

The unwrapped pellet. It is mostly dark brown, but you can see a small white spot, which is either feathers or fur.

He found this small skull inside of the pellet.

After he gathered all the bones, we put them in bleach water to clean them up, and JJ began to place them on this diagram of a rodent.

He was able to find about 90% of the bones that can be found in a rodent. He also found some very tiny skulls, which we think may have been unborn babies from inside the rodent's mother. It was interesting to see.

Now that we've finished the Flying Creatures section, we are moving on to learn about Land Animals. 

BIOLOGY 101: Aquatic Creatures & A Brine Shrimp Hatchery

In our Biology 101 course, we finished the section on Aquatic Creatures.

To supplement the video lesson, JJ also read the material in the Guidebook, and watched videos on You Tube about different aquatic animals, such as whales and sharks. We also took a virtual You Tube field trip to a pond and identified the living creatures in it, such as tadpoles, water bugs, and mosquito larvae.
 

For a LAB, we hatched some brine shrimp, using Kit #29 in The Young Scientist Series.

Here, JJ is cutting an empty sodapop bottle in half to use as the hatchery.

Following the directions, he added the tiny shrimp eggs to the prepared salt water.

We placed the hatchery on a kitchen counter under a light to help keep the water warmer.

In a few days, the shrimp hatched and began to grow. This is a photo of some of them a couple of weeks after they hatched. 

The shrimp are drawn to the light for some reason. Here is a short video of them swimming towards  a flashlight in a dark room . . .

That concluded our Aquatic animal study. We also just finished the section on Avian (flying) creatures, and will post about that soon.

BIOLOGY 101: Plant Life

For High School Biology, we are using the Biology 101 DVD curriculum as our core. It is a 4-DVD set which covers biology (a.k.a. the study of life) using the 6 days of Biblical creation as an outline. Each segment (a total of 9) runs from 20-45 minutes each, and include plant life, aquatic (water) creatures, avian (flying) creatures, land animals, mankind, and genetics. On the 4th disc, there is also a printable guidebook (reading material), quizzes, answer key, and an accreditation booklet (lesson plan.

This curriculum can be used in a variety of different ways, depending on your needs. I know of a couple families who watched the DVD segments, and then used them as a starting point for further research on a topic of interest. Others only use the DVD as a supplement to a textbook.

As for us, I have made my own lesson plans and we are doing the following:

1. Watching each of the DVD segments (sometimes twice)
2. Reading the included Guidebook (2-3 pages at a time)
3. Taking the Quizzes (but doing them open-book)
4. Using some of the recommended Labs in the lesson plans
5. Additional Science kits (Labs) from The Young Scientists Club
6. A frog dissection kit (coming in the mail from Home Science Tools)
7. Watching videos on You Tube about topics mentioned on the DVD
8. Doing some additional light reading from books on each topic

So far, it is going well. This week, we finished learning about Plant life and we worked on a plant lab about seeds, fruits, and other plant parts (Kit #28 from Set 10 of The Young Scientists Series)

We made a small "terrarium" with charcoal, soil, seeds, and water.

  

A few days later, you can see the condensation forming which waters the growing seeds.

We put celery stalks in water with food coloring.

A couple days later, you can see how the "veins" in the celery absorbed the colored water.

We put a garlic clove in a glass with wet cotton balls and observed it for a week. After several days, it started to grow little white roots.

 

A couple days after that, a green root was sprouting on the other end.

We also learned that cucumbers are not a vegetable, but a fruit. If it has seeds, it is a fruit. So, tomatoes and pumpkins are also fruits. A vegetable is a part of a plant that can be eaten, such as a stem (celery), leaves (lettuce), or roots (carrots).

Now that we are done with the PLANTS section, we are moving on to Aquatic animals.