The chestnuts are sprouting!

Last year, I talked about the American chestnut, enormous trees that were once the cornerstone of the eastern forests until it was wiped out by a fungal blight, and how after a hundred years of attempts to bring them back, researchers finally managed to genetically engineer a tree that was immune. We naturally backed the fundraiser, and were sent three wild-type chestnut seeds to plant.

Each of the science classes planted one of the nuts, and they've all sent up shoots!

These sprouts, beautiful as they are, are doomed.

They're not the genetically engineered nuts and have no immunity to the deadly blight. But with luck, they'll last several years before dying, long enough to crossbreed with the new breed of chestnut and preserve their genes. And we'll learn a lot about growing chestnuts from them, so we'll be ready to care for the immune chestnut seeds when they're ready.

Bye for 2014, McAuliffe!

Our first semester of Web Design and Scratch are over!

Check out the kids' websites! (And a reminder to Scratch kids, send me your programs if you want to show them off!)

Also, check out this guy using two robotic limbs at once! Technology is amazing.

More Heredity

Some new links! Soldier on, heredity students, the end is in sight.

Vocab:
http://www.biology.arizona.edu/vocabulary/mendelian_genetics/mendelian_genetics.html

Quiz stuff:
http://www.biology.arizona.edu/human_bio/problem_sets/human_genetics/human_genetics.html
http://www.biology.arizona.edu/human_bio/problem_sets/color_blindness/color_blindness.html
http://www.proprofs.com/quiz-school/quizshow.php?title=genetics-practice-test&quesnum=1
http://www.biologycorner.com/quiz/qz_advanced_genetics.html

Also, you can brush up on epistatis if you feel up to it: http://www.csun.edu/~cmalone/pdf360/Ch04-2extensions.pdf but it won't be on the regional test.

Science Olympiad Heredity

Hey, heredity groups!

(If you need a refresher, check out http://www.siskiyous.edu/class/bio1/genetics)

http://www.quia.com/quiz/806830.html
http://www.proprofs.com/quiz-school/story.php?title=block-4group-2
http://www.biology.arizona.edu/mendelian_genetics/mendelian_genetics.html
http://www.ksu.edu/biology/pob/genetics/intro.htm
http://www.ksu.edu/biology/pob/genetics/dragons.htm


If you feel like a challenge, try out http://biology.clc.uc.edu/courses/bio105/geneprob.htm and see how far you get.

If you run into difficulty, you can comment here or email me and I'll do my best to help.

Hello Everyone

Welcome to the SET School blog!

Here we'll be posting weekly updates on what we're doing in each class, as well as further reading for students. Remember to bring a three ring binder to class.

The blog is divided into sections for each class:

Lower Elementary - Grades 1 through 3 Class begins September 17th.

Upper Elementary - Grades 4 through 6 Class begins September 11th.

Middle School - Grades 6 through 8  Class begins September 17th