Stomatal densities and PD today ...

Tomorrow in AP Biology, we will finish our lab on stomatal density of three milkweed species (part of our Patriot Pollinator Project - 2014).  Last Tuesday, students made stomatal peels using fingernail polish and counted the number of stomata in three fields of vision at 400X.  This is part of one of our 13 required labs for this year.

Stomata are openings in leaves that allow water to leave the plant by evaporation (transpiration) and are controlled by two guard cells.  These openings also allow plants to take in carbon dioxide to make glucose (photosynthesis).  Picture of stomata below (not mine):

      worldofbiology09.wikispaces.com

We also will wrap up our regeneration lab tomorrow.  Other items on the agenda will be a review activity on biochemistry.  It will be off to cells next week, Chapter 6 in our Campbell book.  Will include some pictures from our activity tomorrow.

In Selected Topics we finished our review of important molecules of the human body and played a few hands of Biochem Poker for review.  It was an exciting competition and we learned that no one from our classroom will ever be a professional poker player and probably not get a PhD in biochemistry!  We had a great time and learned how monomers are combined to make polymers!

In Computer programming today we did a sample problem called Go Stop Turnaround Go Stop.  In this sample problem, students had to use a WHILE DO statement to control Karel the Robot.  Then we rewrote a programming solution using IF-THEN.  We are still finishing up our Grand Prix of Karel problem before going on to decision statement problems.

Faculty PD after school today.