Wednesday 9.1.10

Soo what did we do in class..? Well we finished up the microscope lab and did a little before the quest (test+ quiz like thing) review.

For the first 20 minutes, we finished up the microscope lab and if we had time we could finish the pages in the (up) packet which were 33-37. We did not go through all of the organisms but went through the microscope lab questions.                                                                                                                                       

 1. It is best to go low power to high power.

2. The organism is always going/ or is in the opposite direction. 

 3. Times the lens power with the low/medium/high power to get your total power 

  4. Sometimes perfect circles could have air bubbles. So you should push down on it.

 5. If it is too dark then adjust the diaphragm.

  6. If you can’t see the object in high power then adjust it back to low power.

 7. If you do everything right but still can’t see the specimen then try moving the stage.

 For the test there are tons of quick method practice problem and what I mean is independent, dependant variable and also control group. There will be a situation where you will need to figure out the   independent, dependant variable and also control group. Also there will be graphs for the quest. Then there should be a conclusion of the graph.

1. There should be a title
2. Bottom should be independent variable.   3. The left side should be the dependant variable.   
4. You should put titles for them both. 

In summary of this all, you should STUDY for the quest. Also look at page 1 for the chapter objectives so you can see if you need to study something, if you don’t know how to. Finish pages 33-37 and test is tomorrow!

Tuesday 8.31.10

First, Mr. Paek talked about the microscope lab that we were going to be doing later on in the class and finishing on Wednesday. He also talked about the “quest”(quiz/test) we were going to have on THURSDAY about microscopes and making graphs.
Second we looked in out UP (unit packets) page 33 and it was about the microscopes (compound) were going to be using. Then, we were taught the do’s and dont’s of handling a microscope. Such as
1. Start with the lowest power (smallest lens) then work your way up to the strongest.
2.Mr. Paek talked about how the microscope lens and how the eye piece already magnifies whatever you’re looking at by 10 times. (pg 41 in packet)
3. And the different types of various knobs that moved the stage, focused on what you’re looking at, or made it more defined. And the knob that lets more light in to see your slide.
The class got into groups of 2-3 and started the lab, looking at a lot of different slides, such as; a wet mount slide with pond water, a wet mount slide also but with yeast culture, and another wet mount slide with a fish scale.
Taking out the microscope, and making the wet mount slide (that we learned how to by putting whatever you’re looking at on the slide and putting a drop of water on it, then putting a plastic cover over it) and then drawing a colored picture about what you saw, then answering questions that corresponded to what you just looked at.
When you were done with the mandatory slides to look at, turning to page 39 in your UP, and getting a dollar bill from either Mr.Paek of your own, you looked at the dollar bill with good ol’ George Washington’s facing you, then answering the questions on the page.
We didn’t have time to finish the lab, so that was all we got up to for today.

Chapter 1.1 - What Is Science?

In chapter 1.1 the main idea about what science actually is. literally science is an organized way of gathering information about the natural world. the book is trying to get us to think of science in a different way. Most of us think of science as a bunch of facts that were thrown together and never change, when actually science is always changing finding new ways to explore things.

There are a few main features of Science . One is that science only deals with the natural world. it does not go into supernatural phenomenon's or conspiracy's. two, scientist collect and organize data in a way in which is easiest to understand. Three, science only deals with evidence not beliefs.

Science is not something that only scientist participate in. you probably engage in science everyday without knowing it. science can be done through many ways. there is not one single way to go about conducting a science experiment but there is one frequently used method and it is called methodology. Methodology is a process in which you first observe and ask questions, then make inferences (which basically means to make an educated guess based on the evidence) and then test your theory's and make a conclusion.

I am not going to go much into detail about independent and dependent variables and qualitative and quantitative data since we have discussed those in class. one thing that the book does go into detail about is drawing conclusion. Conclusion is the last step in any theory or idea that you are testing, and it normally takes many tests and hypothosies before you can come to a conclusion.