Tuesday, November 17, 2015

Grade recovery

The grade recovery process for Biology consists of:
  1. signing and having a parent/guardian sign the grade recovery agreement,
  2. watching 6 videos and taking notes on the videos,
  3. reading Chapter 1 and Chapter 2 in the textbook, and answering questions #1-9 on page 31 and questions #1-10 on page 59, and
  4. earning an 80% or higher on a multiple-choice test. The test will not be open-book.

You must meet all those requirements by Dec 11th in order to have your first 9-weeks grade raised to the next highest grade. If you currently have a 64% for the first 9-weeks, your grade will be raised to a 70%. If you currently have a 68%, then your grade will be raised to a 70%. If you have a 75%, your grade will be raised to an 80%.

If you do not achieve a score of 80% on the test, you may attempt it one additional time, although the second test will be different than the first test. The questions on the test will come from the textbook and the videos. The test can be taken after school on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays or Fridays. And the other requirements must be met before a student can take the test.

Here are the 6 videos:

Chapter 1






Chapter 2

Watch these videos:












Tuesday, November 10, 2015

Vocabulary Test 4

Here's the vocabulary that could be on Vocabulary Test 4, which will be Mon, Nov 16.

Vocabulary
  • biomass - the total amount of living tissue within a given trophic level
  • carnivore - organism that obtains energy by killing and eating animals
  • chemosynthesis - process in which chemical energy is used to produce carbohydrates
  • consumer - organism that relies on consuming other organisms for its energy and food supply
  • decomposer - organism that chemically breaks down and obtains energy from dead organic matter
  • detritivore - organism that feeds on plant and animal remains and other dead matter
  • herbivore - organism that obtains energy by eating only plants
  • heterotroph - organism that obtains energy by consuming other organisms
  • omnivore - organism that obtains energy by eating plants and animals
  • primary producer - first producer of energy-rich compounds that are later used by other organisms
  • scavenger - animal that consumes the caucuses of other animals
  • transpiration - loss of water from a plant through its leaves
  • trophic level - each step in a food chain or food web
  • aphotic zone - dark layer of oceans where sunlight does not penetrate
  • benthos - organisms that live attached to or near the bottom of lakes, streams, or oceans
  • ecological succession - series of gradual changes that occur in a community following a disturbance
  • limiting factor - factors that cause population growth to decrease
  • photic zone - sunlight region near the surface of water
  • pioneer species - first species to populate an area during success
  • plankton - microscopic organisms that live in aquatic environments
  • primary succession - succession that occurs in an area in which no trace of a previous community is present
  • salinity - the amount of dissolved salt in water
  • secondary succession - type of succession that occurs in an area that was only partially destroyed by disturbance