Why is the scientific method (SM) important?

The above presentation is a quick overview of the major parts of the scientific method.  As you work through your lab simulations on the Campbell website, think about what steps your are focusing on.

Most students have a hard time with making conclusions.  It is a difficult task because you have to put together so many different pieces into a logical explanation.

Here is a short online game that tests your ability to look for key pieces of information, make small inferences and come to conclusions.  The questions get tougher the higher the dollar amount.

In class we will be applying what we know about the scientific method to our own experiments.  Our experiments will fall into four categories.  Each type of experiment will have its benefits.  1 and 2 are designed to give all students a common experience and develop your prior knowledge and are typically what you may have had in previous courses.  3 and 4 are higher levels on inquiry where the student is more in control of how they want to approach the question and experiment.  These types of experiments are often more challenging for students because there isn't "one right answer".

1.  Confirmation - we know the expected outcome of our experiment and we try to confirm the principle or idea

2.  Structured - a question will be presented for you and you'll use a guided procedure

3.  Guided - a questions will be presented for you and you'll create your own procedure

4.  Open inquiry - you begin with the question and create your own procedure

Section One - Graphing Response

Two weeks down!  Congratulations to everyone who turned their first e-mail response in on time and earned their 10 points.  Since this is your first response and its purpose was to give me a baseline on your writing skills, everyone earned 10 points for work turned in on time.  That being said, lets look at what we came up with.

First, lets look at the ideas you and your classmates came up with.  Below is a short Prezi presentation summarizing the ideas your classmates described in their e-mail responses.

So, what do we need to work on in terms of the structure of our essays?
1.  Answers that were only two or three sentences long - not enought to elaborate on your thoughts and include good detailed examples.
2.  Punctuation - please capitalize and punctuate your writing!  If AP reader struggle to follow your writing they won't read what you wrote.
3.  Examples - a good example needs to be more than a sentence.  You need to state your example and then elaborate on it by adding supporting details and explaination.
4.  Formatting - remember to organize your ideas.  Don't waste time with several sentences of an introduction.  Get right to the point and begin answering your question.
5.  Run-on ideas - It's ok to seperate your ideas into a couple of sentences rather than one long confusing sentence.  (Hint - re-read your answer before you submit it.  Better yet, have someone else read it)

What did we do well that we need to keep doing?
1.  Begin with a quick restating of the question and the beginning of your answer.
2.  Give MULTIPLE examples!  The more examples with details, the easier it is for your reader to understand your arguement.
3.  Ending your response with a re-cap of our initial arguement.  This quickly reminds your reader of what you are trying to explain to them.

Summer e-mail and website updates

Greetings AP Students and welcome to section 1!

I've created a Google spreadsheet that lists each of the e-mail assignments (remember to visit http://milliga9.weebly.com/ap-bio-summer.html to get the topic for each section) and grades.  This will help you track what you have or haven't done and your grade.  This will allow you to notify me if there is anything wrong with your scores as soon as possible since we don't have access to Zangle and Student Connect during the summer.  As soon as the semester starts your grade will be entered as one assignment into Zangle.

I will allow re-writes on e-mail questions as long as your first attempt was turned in ON TIME :) 

I was told today that the login and password for Campbell Biology wasn't working properly.  A new set was e-mailed out to everyone on 6/20.  Please let me know immediately if you have any problems.

Graphing - remember to use the graphing packet to review.  We're all going to be at different levels when it comes to making and reading graphs.  If you need a little boost above just the packet, you may want to use the Campbell website (www.campbellbiology.com).  When you login, look towards the bottom of the page for Concept 1.5.  The first link below it is called Graph It:  An Introduction to Graphing.  This practice will do the graphing for you and ask you to do more analyzing.  Check it out.

AP Bio Summer Work.....dun dun dun

Ok next generation of biology dorks, here's the scoop on your summer work.

 1. Pick it up :) If you didn't pick up your packet before June 14th, you can stop in during summer school registration or the first week of summer school (more details will be posted).

 2. You can do as much or as little as you want, but the work has been divided into 5 2 week sections (actually the last one is only one week). E-mail questions must be turned in by the listed due date.

 3. E-mail questions - they are listed on the class website under the AP Bio Summer tab and are due every two weeks. These are the only assignments that will be grades and the grade will be a part of your 1st marking period grade.

 4. Now that might make it sound like you don't need to do the rest of the work, but that's not the case. The work assigned (notes, practice, reading, quizzes) are designed to help you focus your ideas and review your content knowledge.

 5. To help you with your summer work and ensure that you are on the right track, answer keys will be posted AFTER the due date. Suggested answer keys for chapter notes will be posted all summer. I would recommend reading the chapters and taking your own notes - then using my notes to add anything you missed or didn't understand during your first read.

 6. Please contact me if you have questions - go forth this summer and use your powers for good!