Tuesday, April 1, 2008
Sunday, March 23, 2008
Time lapsed seeds growing
Radish seeds
Now it is time for you to observe your own seeds. What do you observe?
Yeast Balloon- Respiration produces carbon Dioxide
The purpose of any leavener is to produce the gas that makes bread rise. Yeast does this by feeding on the sugars in flour, and expelling carbon dioxide in the process.
While there are about 160 known species of yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, commonly known as baker's yeast, is the one most often used in the kitchen. Yeast is tiny: Just one gram holds about 25 billion cells. That amount of fungi can churn out a significant amount of carbon dioxide, provided it has the simple sugars it uses as food. Fortunately, yeast can use its own enzymes to break down more complex sugars—like the granulated sugar in the activity below—into a form that it can consume.
We made a yeast-air balloon during one of our lessons. Here are some pictures captured during our activity. Enjoy!
Reproduction in Plants
Just a quick revision about helping plants grow well. Give it a try!
Learn about the different parts of a flower.
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Reproduction in Animals
Many of you are really curious about this unit because I've noticed many kept flipping to the pages of this chapter. Well, here are some interesting insights into this topic :
1. Why living things reproduce?
All living things will die some day because of old age, illnesses, diseases, accidents or attack by predators. So reproduction in living things helps to ensure their own kind to continue to exist on Earth. What happens if living things can no longer ensure their survival? Yes, they become extinct.
Let's take a look at some of the animals that are already extinct.
What is the difference between extinct and endangered?
2. From parents to young
A family tree is a good way to show how people who are not our immediate family are related to one another.
When living things reproduce, some characteristics or traits of the parents are passed on to the young. So the young inherit these characteristics from their parents. When traits are passed from the parents to their young, that is called heredity. This traits are passed through structures called genes.
Let's learn more about genes. This will be great for out trip to the DNA laboratory.
What are genes?
Let's look at some of the traits that we can see:
Some of these traits are
- colour of our eyes, hair and skin
- height
- dimples
- ability to roll the tongue
- attached or detached ear lobes
in animals,
- colour of their fur
in plants.
- colour of the flowers
Asexual Reproduction vs Sexual Reproduction
We've discussed the differences between the two.
Here's a picture of one of my cats Bobo and look at picture when she's a tiny kitten. Can you spot her belly button? Remember we discussed about what umbilical cord is? Take a look.
Friday, January 18, 2008
The Unit of Life
1.The Cell
All living things are made of one or more cells. A cell is the smallest unit of life and all living things begin with a single cell.
Single-celled or unicellular organisms
Paramecium is a microscopic unicellular organism that moves using hair-like structures called cilia and flagella.
Amoeba is a microscopic unicellular organism that moves using pseudopods(false legs)
Bacteria is also a microscopic unicellular organism that comes in various shapes such as spherical, rod-like or spiral and can live in clusters. Also check out how big they are.
Yeast are very economically useful organism used in baking and brewery industries. They need food to eat and produces carbon dioxide, which causes dough to 'rise'.
Many-celled or multicellular organisms
These organisms are made up of more than one cell
For Example: Plants, Animals, Fungi such as mushroom
2. Parts of a cell
You have observed an example of an animal cell-the human cheek cell.
You have also observed 2 different types of plant cell: the onion cells and Elodea cells. One is photosynthetic because it contains chloroplasts.
3. Producing New cells
Cells increase in number by a process called cell division. Both unicellular and multicellular organisms undergo cell division.
Unicellular organisms reproduce either by cell division or budding.
In cell division, the nucleus and the cytoplasm of a parent cell divide to form 2 identical daughter cells which then in turn divides further to form more cells.
For example yeast undergo budding.
Notice the parent cell buds and forms another, smaller daughter cell.
Astro Adventure
Hi all! Here are the instructions.
- Click on Games below.
- On the website, click "a giant leap into Astro Adventure"
- Click "Click here to launch the game"
Have a blast!
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Cartoon Concept 1
What do you think?
Look at the picture below. Click on the picture to enlarge it. Who is/are correct?
Post your comments by clicking 'comments' under your respective class.
Post your comments by clicking 'comments' under your respective class.
Concept Cartoon 2
What do you think?
Look at the picture below. Click on the picture to enlarge it. Who is/are correct?
Post your comments by clicking 'comments' under your respective class.
Post your comments by clicking 'comments' under your respective class.
Concept Cartoon 3
What do you think?
Look at the picture below. Click on the picture to enlarge it. Wh0 is/are correct?
Post your comments by clicking 'comments' under your respective class.
Concept Cartoon 4
What do you think?
Look at the picture below. Click on the picture to enlarge it. Who is/are correct?
Post your comments by clicking 'comments' under your respective class.
Post your comments by clicking 'comments' under your respective class.
Concept Cartoon 5
What do you think?
Look at the picture below. Click on the picture to enlarge it. Who is/are correct?
Post your comments by clicking 'comments' under your respective class.
Concept Cartoon 6
What do you think?
Look at the picture below. Click on the picture to enlarge it. Who is/are correct?
Post your comments by clicking 'comments' under your respective class.
Concept Cartoon 7
What do you think?
Post your comments by clicking 'comments' under your respective class.
Concept Cartoon 8
What do you think?
Look at the picture below. Click on the picture to enlarge it. Who is/are correct?
Post your comments by clicking 'comments' under your respective class.
Post your comments by clicking 'comments' under your respective class.
Monday, January 7, 2008
The Solar System
Hello to one and all! I'm sure you are really excited about this new chapter about the Solar system. As you explore this segment, there are key questions you could reflect upon. Enjoy the trip in the solar system! Blast-off!
Let's learn about the composition of our solar system and discover more about each planet.
What makes up our solar system?
Do planets move and how?
How many planets are there?
How can you remember all the planets?
What is an orbit?
How long does it take for the planets to move around the Sun?
Why does the Sun and the Moon appear to e similar in size?
Earth, Sun and Moon
Movement of the Earth: Rotation and Revolution.
What is the difference between the two types of movement? Read on.
Does our Earth move or is it the Sun?
How do we get day and night?
How do we know how many days makes a month and a year?
Rotation
The Earth rotates on its own axis. This axis is an imaginary line that passes through the North Pole and the South Pole.It takes about 24 hours or one day to complete one rotation.
Explore a model of Earth's rotation : View Earth's rotation
Revolution
The Earth also revolves round the Sun in its orbit. This process of moving around the Sun is called revolution.It takes about 365 days or one year for the Earth to complete one revolution around the Sun.
Explore a model of Earth's revolution: View Earth's revolution around the Sun
Satellites
What are satellites?
A satellite is an object that revolves round a larger object in space. There are natural satellites and man-made ones.
Find out more about satellites.
Is the moon a satellite?
Are there other moons in our solar sysyem?
What is a solar eclipse and a lunar eclipse?
Why does the moon appear different at different days of the month?
Examine the phases of the moon.
Check the actual phase of the moon now and compare to your own sightings of the moon in the sky.
Hmmm...going further into space.
Find out more about these: (no, they are not chocolates!)
milky way, galaxy, shooting star, asteroid belt, meteor showers
Can we see other planets from Earth?
Discover how technology has helped us to learn more about our solar system.
Let's take a short quiz and see how much you've discovered.
QUIZ
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