Monday, February 18, 2013

Life of a Bee

Bees have been around for millions of years and they have helped us in a way that we humans needed them badly. They provide us with food that we need and one of these is honey. Scientists have long discovered that modernization is killing these helpful insects and drastic measures are needed for them to survive. But, what if bees were gone?

A single worker bee has to visit 2,000 flowers each day to deliver back to the colony where a house keeper bee receives the honey and pollen to feed it to their larvae. They mostly live for 6 or 7 weeks which is automatically replaced just after its death. The queen bee lays an egg a second when it reaches her fertile state.

Older worker bees are the ones which do the foraging and travel using the sun to guide them where they are going and how to return to the colony. They travel for about 3 miles to find flowers and when they get exhausted they land and rest for a while, they do this to prevent dying from exhaustion because of the heavy load they have which is either pollen or honey. Worker bees work every day light and they are born to work their entire life.

When one finds a good spot of flowers, it sends a message through a waggle dance. It provides the exact area and distance of the flowers. The nurse maid workers are the ones responsible in feeding and taking care of the larvaes. They receive the pollen and honey from worker bees and then feed it to the larvaes.

When the larvae grow it is first fed by a very special jelly which is the royal jelly. Each larvae is fed 2,000 times and kept at a temperature of 35°. The queen gets this magical jelly from bees that are 3 days old and is fed with it. It's the key for the survival of the entire colony, because it helps the queen to maintain its power and helps the entire colony to replenish by the thousand.

They are very vulnerable when they are out of the hive. They sometimes get plagued by a deadly louse called verroa destructor. The louse attaches to their body and feeds hemolymph and often cause death to the entire colony. There is also their nemesis which are the bee eater that are masters of aerobatics in the air.

The power of the queen will eventually vanish and worker bees are then ready to make new chambers of new sets of queen. After the queens have hatched, they fight to death and the only one left will then rule the kingdom. When a bee is born it treasures each time it lives by serving and doing their one true purpose: keeping the colony alive.

Monday, February 11, 2013

Feb. 12th, 2013

1st Hour Bio A
     Today students were to take the test over the water cycle but due to the numbers of students who were gone on Friday and I felt the forgetfulness to study may have occurred over the weekend, I have chosen to put the test off until tomorrow. We will take the test Tue. Morning and first hour students should plan to go outside on Wed. morning. Come dressed to participate in outdoor activities on Wed.

Below is an example of how a controlled experiment should be written.

Notes over Controlled Experiment


3rd Hour Bio B


4th Hour Anatomy

     We will be going over the youtube video part II of the facial muscles. The test over this material will be on Thursday.


Friday, February 8, 2013

Feb. 8th, 2013

Bio A 1st Hour

Biology students were gone today or there were only a few of us left in class today. Students were to work on the controlled experiment we discussed yesterday. The notes from yesterday are on the previous blog post under Scientific Process Vocabulary. I turned on the share option yesterday after class. Today I am including an example of the controlled experiment that I produced over the production of burnable bricks made from paper and leaf litter. This is an example of how student experiments should be written. Remember, this is a hypothetical experiment and no data should be collected but you should have a data collection chart or table and an explanation of how it will be used.

Mr. Finch's Controlled Experiment  This experiment is lacking the data collection sheet. I will have it done on Monday. Your experiment should have a data collection table and an explanation of how it will be used.


3rd Hour Bio B

     Students will be submitting their attempts at producing the brochure for the QUWF. We decided that we would let members attending the banquet on Saturday cast their vote for the best brochure. Students will have the hour to complete the project.


Anatomy

     Today in class we will be viewing two youtube presentations over the muscles of the face and head. We will go through them stopping every little bit to allow students to build their sheets for origin, insertion and action of each of the muscles described in the presentation. Students will have time to work on projects once we get finished with the video.



Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Feb. 7th, 2013

Bio A 1st Hour

Attached as a link below are terms that you can use to study and understand the controlled experiment. Today in class, we will be covering an example of a controlled experiment and you will be developing your own hypothetical experiment which will be due next Thursday, a week from tomorrow.

Scientific Process Vocabulary

Bio B 3rd Hour

We worked on our Brochures for Saturday at QUWF again although we did not get much time due to mentoring. We will work on them all hour tomorrow and the projects are due at the end of the hour.


Anatomy.

Facial Muscles  This document can be used again to keep track of the origin, insertion and action of the muscles of the head. This is not an assignment, but rather a study tool.


Feb. 6th, 2013

Bio A 1st Hour

     Today I want you to look at the study statements over the water cycle. These statements will provide the bulk of the questions that will be on next Mondays test. Several of you will be gone on Friday with your career and life planning class, so we will have to put the test off until Monday. You should bring up the document and begin looking at the information individually. Possibly during the latter part of the hour, you may use time to review with a partner to see if you have gotten the information on the study sheet.
     Tomorrow, we will be working on how a controlled experiment works and what the parts of it are. You will begin to design a controlled experiment which is hypothetical, but will be written as though you were going to do it. We will cover the parts of a controlled experiment and the scientific process in class tomorrow.

Study Statements Water Cycle


Bio B 3rd Hour

Today we are going to be working on a team activity over creating a brochure for the Flint Hills Youth Quail and Upland Wildlife Federation group. We will select team members at the beginning of the hour and then teams will begin looking for pictures to upload, and statements to be made. All brochures will use the template below. Add pictures and text to the brochure to complete it. The winning team and its members will receive the A 100% on the assignment, all other teams will receive at best a 90% or lesser grade depending on the project.


Science Brochure Template




Anatomy & Physiology 4th Hour

Muscles of the scalp  This is a website created from Grays Anatomy of the Human Body. It is a pretty simple read and several of the terms will be discussed again through the other documents. I just wanted to use it as an intro to discovery of the cranial muscles.

Muscles of the Face
     1) youtube video part 1
     2) youtube video part 2

Muscles of Mastication  - This powerpoint goes over the muscles of mastication or the chewing of food and jaw movement. Go through this powerpoint on your own, make notes from it and come to class prepared for questions and answering of this material. I have created a spreadsheet below titled muscles of mastication and you may want to use it to put in the muscle name, origin, insertion and action that the muscle has. We will be using several of these spreadsheets over the next several weeks.

Mastication Spreadsheet


Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Feb. 5th, 2013

A & P 4th Hour

Here is a set of questions you should be able to answer from the first 20 slides we presented on the first day of lecture. These questions should allow you to do well on tomorrows quiz. Following the quiz tomorrow, I will have a site up for cranial and facial muscles and their functions. We will be looking at origin, insertion and action of each of the muscles listed on the blog site tomorrow after our quiz.

Quiz Questions- Muscle introduction

Monday, February 4, 2013

Feb. 4th, 2013

Bio A 1st Hour

Today we will be working our presentations over the water cycle. We will be drawing numbers to see when we present.

Trey Langvardt Prezi

Justin Terry Prezi

Justin Skerce Prezi

Saturday, February 2, 2013

Oak Pit Scale, a New Pest?

Oak pit scale is a non-native oak pest introduced into the United States from Europe, now well established throughout California. As a Consulting Arborist, I have observed populations of this pest to be increasing in many parts of Sonoma County, particularly Sonoma Valley and may be on the increase in other bay area counties. While not a new pest, there has been an increase in both the number of trees affected and the severity of infestations.

Oak pit scale is a small sucking insect that creates donut shaped cratering on the bark tissue of twigs and small branches. All of our native oaks can be a host to this insect, however, Oak pit scale seems to be most prevalent on valley oak, Quercus lobata, and this is the tree I have observed the most significant damage. Blue oak, Quercus douglasii, and white oak hybrids can also be heavily infested.

When oak pit scale is present on a twig or small branch, their feeding can cause the infested part to die. When twigs die in the summer, the leaves that are present also die but they don't drop off in the fall like otherwise healthy leaves. However, I also see similar symptoms on oaks with numerous small branch cankers caused by Diplodia quericna, another fungal disease.

During the winter, potentially infested valley oaks are easy to spot because they often have areas of the crown that still retain brown dead leaves. I've seen individual valley oaks so severely infested by oak pit scale that they exhibit signs of severe decline.

Clients often call believing there oaks are dying but upon inspection, I discover the primary reason for the die-back is oak pit scale. If left untreated, these oaks may continue to decline.

The good news is that this pest can easily be controlled. There are systemic insecticides available that when applied to the soil or through trunk injections will kill oak pit scale. Treatments may have to be applied for several years to assure complete control and before the tree to shows signs of recovery as dead and injured twigs and branches are replaced.

While it may seem easy to diagnose this pest, it's not always that simple. Many other pests and diseases have similar signs and symptoms, which can cause the oak decline. Additionally, there are human activities that can cause tree decline. Any stress factor that weakens a tree may make it more susceptible to pests and diseases.

When oak pit scale is present on a tree, it may not mean it is the primary cause of decline. It is important to get an accurate diagnosis and identify all the factors affecting a trees health before undertaking treatments. Improper diagnosis can lead to a partial or complete failure to control the problem as well as unnecessarily introducing potentially toxic chemicals into the environment.