Year 9 Sheep Heart Dissections

My year 9 classes finally got the chance to dissect pig and sheep hearts. 

9KEm and 9TMn got to do it as part of the new 'Me, Myself and My Environment' unit, and even though we have run out of time to finish that unit we didn't want 9PLa, 9PTt or 9RTd missing out on this fun and practical learning experience!

We had a look at the aorta, as well as the left and right atria, ventricles and chordae tendineae.

Students were really good at remembering which side of the heart is bigger and has thicker walls of muscle, and explaining WHY!  (The left side is bigger and more muscular because it pumps blood around the whole body, while the right side only pumps blood out to the lungs and back).

Here is the video of their dissections - listen carefully as James' from 9RTd gives an explanation halfway through:

PTt Begins the Web of Life

Evon would like to share her experiences from the beginning of the Web of Life unit:

Know how to make a cup grass thing.

1 part: was to get a cup.

2 part: to get a stocking.

3: fill it with seed and next fill it with soil and after wet all did that we decorate the cup and dress it up.  

Each day one person had to water the grass. 

A few weeks late we wondered and the grass grown and we could cut the hair of the grass, make it it into a boy or a girl.

Day 1: Loa is the water monitor on this day. The grass has started to grow from the grass seeds!

Day 8: Siupeli and Phoenix are surprised how much the grass grew over the weekend.

Day 8: Cameron and Jonive investigate the rest of the critters' growth.

Day 12: Cameron cut his grass critter's hair very professionally!

Day 12: Loa is holding her grass critter with it's new haircut.

Day 12: The critters all look great after their haircuts!

Movies! Migration and Skeleton Teeth...

The Web of Unit life has come to a close, and it finished with students creating, creating, creating! Most of 9PLa decided to work in groups to create three videos (1 on migration, 1 on the teeth of herbivore, and 1 about marine food webs), while 2 boys chose to create a comic strip each. 

Comic strip about pests and native animals coming along...

Students wrote their own scripts, practiced, told me which props they would like, and then off they went to film! Some groups were totally independent while some others did need me to come and film for them. I was really impressed by them as this is the first time some of them have made movies, and definitely the first time I've let them take full control.

Script for the food web video in progress...

Scripts for all the actors and the list of props required...

I did the editing for 2/3 of the videos (we ran out of time - exams are coming next week and my learners need to start revising!) and because I have them on my laptop already, here they are! 

Watch them in order - the middle video is a trailer for the last video...

Tremayne interviews Austin the Migration Expert

A trailer for The Skeleton Mystery..

The movie: The Skeleton Mystery

Students Getting Creative

Year 9 classes 9PLa and 9RTd have reached the 'create' phase of the Web of Life unit! 

There are a lot of different creation activities students can choose from, covering a wide range of content with different styles of creation for students to express their understanding.

Clicking on the picture below will take you to the class Web of Life Creation page, where you can explore the different activities available to the students, check out the criteria students have to meet for each activity, and view the links students have shared of the work they have finished :) 

Two groups of students chose to make a video about MRS C GREN yesterday; two boys chose to make a video in the last 5 minutes of class after they made a poster about trophic levels!  Here is their final product:

9PLa Making Food Webs

9PLa used these sets of cards to create a huge, complicated food web.

They worked in two teams and used the information on the back of each card to work out the relationships in the food web. There were arrows showing the flow of energy from prey to predator all over the place by the time they had finished!! 

If I was going to repeat this activity I would hand out a card to each student and make sure they know what their 'character' eats before letting them create the web. That way everyone will have information to contribute and involvement would be more equal. 

In the last 5 minutes of class I challenged 9PLa to see who could write down the most food chains based on the food web they had created. Then they posted their responses to me in the class postbox.  

One student was so keen to get the most chains that I agreed to photograph the food webs and email them to him - but I wrote this blog instead! I hope you can see all the different names in the pictures Tyrone - if not then you can open the cards here and make your own food web instead :) 

  

Awe-Inspiring Work by Year 9PLa

Year 9 has been learning about what makes living things alive, animal diets and adaptations that help living things survive. 

I have simultaneously been using the time to see how students learn during the Manaiakalani 'Learn,' which is a little passive but sometimes necessary to get content across. Students have listened, done research, watched videos, talked to each other, completed quizzes, played games, and commented on their learning. They have been keeping track of this in their Google Doc as a kind of learning log. 

However, students were getting a little bored with this. One brave student offered some quiet feedback to me and said there was "too much to learn" and we had been doing "too much writing," so we thought it would be a good idea to have a break from new content and 'Create' something that showed off how much they understood. Each student picked their favourite Mammal and set about creating a profile for them. 

We had some spectacular work produced. We let students choose what media they wanted to use to create... here is a freehand poster about Cats.

Most other students chose to use Google Presentations and two students chose to use Wix to create their own websites! 

Click the Garfield poster to be taken to all four great examples of student work, or click here to see a student-made site about lions, or here to learn about pandas from my class! 

Maybe I should try animation with this class of superstars one day soon...