Groton Public Library Presentations

Below are the presentations for student solutions to "Mitigate the Groton Food Desert."  A special Congratulations to William, Mackenzie, and Chelsea for coming out to present theirs to an audience. Theirs are posted first followed by the rest of the presentations.








The following will require you to log in with a GCS Google Account and will not be accessible to people outside of this domain.

 Meadow and Shania

Dillon, Kyle, Michael

David, Kathleen, Sabrina, Jacob

Wednesday night at 7pm, the Groton Public Library will be hosting a night of presentations from members of the class "Food, Land, and You" as they present ideas to "Mitigate the Groton Food Desert". The above Prezi is from a group that is unable to attend. Please join us!

Influencing the rate of photosynthesis!

A nice Voicethread from a group in 7th period...

Cell Resources

Use the following resources to develop your Voicethread on Cellular Organelles:
Utah Genetics Site
Cells Alive
Ask a Biologist

Voicethread Login:
Period 1
Period 7
Period 3

I want to share this amazing presentation by a group in 5th period Food, Land, and You! The topic is on CSAs and Farmers' Markets. The link is below but you'll have to sign in with your Groton Google Account. https://docs.google.com/a/groton.cnyric.org/presentation/d/1h-JSIuFQ0q_G0HqTusZISg57JVQG1B5aVnVg7lG-iAg/edit?usp=sharing

This week I ordered a genetic testing kit from 23andMe and am excited to see if I am a carrier of any inherited genetic disorders! I'll also see if I am at risk of any potential diseases/disorders in the future. On top of that, it'll also track my human heritage back several thousand years...excited to share the results with the classes. $99 well spent!

Cool Virtual Microscope Lab - http://virtualurchin.stanford.edu/microscope.htm

Alex and Joel record their slug observations using the dissecting microscope during Day 1 of the slug lab.

After a somewhat-frustrating year last year (mainly because of technology problems) I am excited about the potential this year holds. I went to a couple workshops this summer around the idea of Project-Based-Learning and 21st Century Skills. I've always been an advocate of these ideas, but I've learned more about how to successfully implement these into the classroom. Now in its 9th year, I will continue to publish stories, student work, and all things science from this blog. This year I will be teaching 2 sections of 9th grade Biology, 2 of "Food, Land, and You", and 1 of 7th grade Life Science....so there should be plenty to report out! Looking forward to a good year!

Excellent Prezi on the Emerald Ash Borer by Tristen!

The Biology Regents Exam is the afternoon of 11 June!

I will hold review sessions on Bdays during lunch in my room starting after Memorial Day Weekend.  Hope to see you there!

Amazing video on DNA that we watched today in class:

BBC Knowledge Explainer DNA from Territory on Vimeo.

Yesterday, members of 9th period roughed it in the rain to help plant about 50 native wild-life sustaining trees behind the school. The trees were a part of the NYSDEC's Free Trees for Schools program to help celebrate Earth Day. We planted American Plum, Highbush Cramberry, and Silky Dogwood.

Today we started the fetal pig dissection to learn more about body systems. It's a great way to wrap up the human anatomy unit.

For the last 5 or so years, I have really thought a lot about the role of schools in shaping society in the future.  My overall conclusion:  the traditional public school as we know it will not last - it CANNOT last.  Lecture-textbook-exam type approaches are for the 19th century.  Here is a list of my favorite TED talks on the topic of Education.  They're in no specific order, except for the first one!

Sir Ken Robinson:  http://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_changing_education_paradigms.html

Another Sir Ken Robinson:  http://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html

Gever Tully:  http://www.ted.com/talks/gever_tulley_s_tinkering_school_in_action.html

Logan Laplante:  http://www.tedxuniversityofnevada.org/2012/12/12/logan-laplante/

John Hardy:  http://www.ted.com/talks/john_hardy_my_green_school_dream.html

Jaime Oliver:  http://www.ted.com/talks/jamie_oliver.html

Sugata Mitra:  http://www.ted.com/talks/sugata_mitra_build_a_school_in_the_cloud.html



So what do you do if you're stuck in a broken system??

Very well-done time-lapse footage of a temperate deciduous forest over a year's time.  Shot by Samuel Orr:

a Forest Year from motionkicker on Vimeo.

Check out his kickstarter page for old and upcoming projects!


http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/motionkicker/new-york-year

New York Youth Institute - The World Food Prize - Improving the Quality, Quantity and Availability of Food in the World

Any takers for this awesome essay contest? Let me know if you want more info.


http://www.worldfoodprize.org/en/youth_programs/global_youth_institute/new_york/


Sent from my iPad

Beautiful Poetry

How does temperature influence respiration rates in goldfish? That's what we're trying to figure out today in lab. Can this experiment help us become better fishermen/women?

More mammalian diving reflex action

Trystan tests his mammalian diving reflex during today's pulse rate lab.

Amazing opportunity for the right plant-loving individual to work at Cornell Plantations this summer:

http://www.cornellplantations.org/learning/teen.education/peeps

Naked Mole Rats.....awesome!

http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/32136/title/Underground-Supermodels/

Student Contest

Visit http://www.earthday.org/journalismaward to learn more about a student competition.  It “is designed to bring the hard facts about school food to entire school communities – in the students’ own words.” According to the link, this is “a competition for student journalists … Articles submitted for consideration must be about the need for healthy, sustainable school food and must have been published in a school newspaper.” The top prize is $1500!

Let me know if you want to collaborate on this!

Today we started a unit on Kingdom Plantae. Here, we start our seed germination lab to study the effects of hormones on newly-germinated plants.

Groton Students Grow Food - Ithaca Times : Groton

Check out the news story on our student-run CSA!

http://www.ithaca.com/news/groton/article_d1f7eba6-4bab-11e2-9279-0019bb2963f4.html?mode=image&photo=0


Sent from my iPad

Fwd: 2013 National Youth Science Camp

Applications to attend the 2013 National Youth Science Camp (NYSC) are now available online at http://2013.nysc.org/. Two graduating high school students will be selected to represent New York at the all-expenses paid honors program which will be held from June 26 through July 20, 2013. To apply, please download the application packet from http://2013.nysc.org/ and follow the enclosed instructions. For more information about the NYSC, please visit http://www.nysc.org. For questions about the application process, please contact Mr. Anthony Jaacks at 518-474-5922 or by e-mail at ajaacks@mail.nysed.gov. The NYSC is hosted and operated by the National Youth Science Foundation (http://www.nysf.com/). Applications must be received by the New York State Education Department no later than February 15, 2013.