Apologia Biology | Mindful Ramblings

Apologia Biology: Module 1

Posted by jlsgrant in Apologia Biology on August 28, 2010

Yesterday we met for the first official class session and I thought it was quite fun myself! I hope the “Highly Intelligent Highschool Students” that are joining me for this journey enjoyed it too! First and foremost you should enjoy learning, right? We compared notes, so to speak, on how the week went. The pace was quite quick for their first full study week, but no one complained, as least not to me, and everyone thought it was a do-able schedule. There were 27 vocabulary words to learn, along with Experiment 1.1 Using a Biological Key. (Chart for Exp. 1.1: Biology Exp1.1 Form)

At this session, we reviewed the results for Experiment 1.1 which was done at home, and proceeded to complete Experiment 1.2 together. To start with, we reviewed the parts of the microscope from our Introductory Session. We are working with a single microscope, so it was helpful to be able to hook it up to the laptop and view the specimen together. Here are some of the things we looked at this week:

We started out by looking at some bright colors of thread. (Click image for larger view.)

Then the “Highly Intelligent Highschool Students” made up their own slides of cheek cells, primarily for practice in making up slides and using Methylene Blue stain. We didn’t take the time to look at everyone’s slide, but the “HIHS” had a lot of fun finding interesting things in the specimen we did view….sort of like finding an elephant in a cloud formation. We were able to find such things as a llama, two kids on pogo sticks, and some sort of rare species of fish! Wish I would have got the image capture then, I’m sure you’d love to see a llama made of cheek cells, but you can see some ordinary cheek cells here:

Of course that experiment got us all curious so we had to check out some other things….we started with hair:

Then we got to wondering how it compared to cat and dog hair; and since there is no shortage of either one around here, we were able to check out their differences. Once we were satisfied with that, we moved on to dust; which I unfortunately had to search high and low for (NOT!). Dust is very interesting and I’m sure there could be a whole course on that alone. We’re pretty sure we saw the carcus of a dead dust mite!

Before you go, here are a couple things you may find helpful….

Study Link: Flashcards & Games at Quizlet.com

Here is an interesting video about Louis Pasteur’s Germ Theory….you may want to mute the music, it’s just a wee bit distracting!:

So that was pretty much it for this session. Next week, they’ll complete the Study Guide for Module 1 and take the Module 1 Test at home. Then it’s on to Module 2, Kingdom Monera….that’s Bacteria to you and me! 8)

Verse to Ponder:“..because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world, His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse..” Romans 1: 19-20