Stem

Milestone 1

We first made a concept map about the Animal Kingdom.  We wrote about the  guiding questions, and the things we know.  Our guiding questions are:  Why are there so many animals and how do they change, how we connect to animals, and why we need to help if animals become extinct. 

Milestone 1

Then we learned about 2 types of squirrels, the Red squirrel and the Grey squirrel.  They are very similar, but one type of squirrel is less abundant than the other type of squirrel. We wrote a guess of why this is and then we watched a video and read why one type of squirrel is endangered.  
 

You can see my response here!  

Milestone 2

We looked deeper into the different ways natural selection takes place. To show our understanding, we showed the 4 different ways (overproduction, variation, competition, and selection) of natural selection in 4 different ways. We used stories, stop motion, posters, comics, and any other method we were comfortable with to demonstrate our knowledge.

Milestone 3

In the Milestone 3 we learned about DNA, genes, alleles, how parents give traits give to children and other things. In part 1 of Milestone 3 we made a wanted poster for alleles, why and how a person has green hair from brown haired parents.  We needed to write about the alleles and also show a Punnet Square of how it is happened.
In part 2 of Milestone 3 we chose a mutation from 3 mutations and made a power point about it.  I chose the Cri du Chat syndrome.  We researched about the mutation we chose and made a PowerPoint. We needed to answer how the mutation happens, the symptoms of the mutation, and any diagnosis.  Then we had a presentation.

Click here to see my Mutations PowerPoint

Milestone 3

In our third milestone, we were introduced to the world of genetics and how DNA defines us. We looked at the different roles of chromosomes, alleles, and how to use Punnett Squares to solve genetic trait outcomes. Lastly, we learned about mutations and how they could lead to the birth of an entirely new species! We showed our knowledge of mutations through a presentation that was presented to a panel of judges.

Chinese Project