Welcome to Ms. Arak’s Biology Class!Date: 08/11/15Agenda: Class Intro + Diagnostic Test/GameHomework: get a spiral notebook

You need:- Biology Textbook- Spiral Notebook – EVERY DAY- Pen/Pencil - Student questionnaire (collected)- Lined Paper for diagnostic test (collected)

Before we get started:

• Please let me know if you do not yet have a Biology textbook so that I can order one for you NEXT WED

• Please make note of the Tuesday schedule (school starts at 9 AM; classes are shortened to 81 minutes)

• Please make note of the important dates listed on the class calendar

So, what exactly is Biology?

The root word “bio” means life.

Biography: the story of someone’s lifeBiodegradable: broken down by living things

The root word “logy” means study.

Geology: the study of the EarthZoology: the study of animals

So, Bio + logy = study of life.

Study of Ecosystems: Ecology

Study of the Body (Physique): Physiology

Study of very small life forms: Microbiology

But what does “the study of life” actually mean?

And didn’t I already take Life Science in middle school?

In Life Science, you learned facts about the natural world.

For example, you learned the fact that plants can make their own food using sunlight.

But what does that actually mean? How, exactly, does a tree turn sunlight into an apple?

In Biology, you will learn the explanations behind the facts that you learned in middle

school.

Yeah…but why do I need to learn this stuff?

I’m not going to be a scientist.

Because Biology is integral to our survival. Our survival depends on our ability to understand the living world – which we are able to do because we study it systematically.

To demonstrate how important Biology is, I want you to put yourself in the shoes of someone who would have used Biology on a daily basis to stay alive: an ancient human.

During this activity, I am going to ask you six questions. You will have a few minutes to discuss each answer with the person sitting next to you. Please be ready to be called on to share your answer out loud.

I want you to imagine that you are a hunter during the last ice age. It is 30,000 years ago and most of the northern hemisphere is frozen.

You are standing atop a cliff looking out over a wide, frozen valley. An icy wind blows in your face, and in the distance you hear the cry of a dire wolf.

You are scanning the valley for mammoths, the main food source for your village. Since there are very few plants available, the villagers are depending on you to bring home enough meat to survive.

Sadly, you have been out hunting for weeks without seeing a single mammoth. This is puzzling, because the last hunting trip had been extremely successful.

Thinking about it, you realize that there is a pattern: mammoths are plentiful for a few years, then seem to disappear for a while, only to reappear again a few years later.

Popu

latio

n Si

ze

Time (years)

= Mammoths

Each time the mammoth disappear, it leads to periods of starvation for the village, when many people die and few babies are born.

Popu

latio

n Si

ze

Time (years)

= Mammoths = Humans

1. Explain to the other hunters why the number of mammoth keeps going up and down. (Hint: use the graph!)When there are more humans, there are fewer mammoth.

Popu

latio

n Si

ze

Time (years)

= Mammoths = Humans

When there are fewer humans, there are more mammoth.

Hunt fewer mammoth (but then some humans will starve)Don’t hunt the females or babies

Popu

latio

n Si

ze

Time (years)

= Mammoths

2. Tell the other hunters what they could do differently to keep their food source more constant.

When you return to your village, you find that several people have become seriously ill. The sick people are vomiting, have diarrhea and are rapidly dehydrating. Most of the sick people, unfortunately, are children.

The village shaman tries to save the people with smoke magic, but most of them die during the night. And the next morning, several new cases of the mystery illness appear.

You now notice another pattern: people seem to get sick after eating scavenged meat (meat from the carcasses of animals that have been left behind by wolves.)

There are germs in the meat that are making them sick.

3. Explain to the villagers why this behavior is making them sick.

Don’t eat the scavenged meat (but then they will starve)

4. Tell the villagers what they could do differently to avoid getting sick.

Cook the meat to kill the germs.

One terrifying night, the village is attacked by raiders from the other side of the valley. You grab your spear and do your best to fight off the attackers in the darkness.

During battle, you notice yet another pattern: a spear in the right side of the chest seriously disables your enemy, but a spear in the left side of the chest kills the enemy completely.

R L

R L

Because the heart is located on the left.

5. Explain to the other warriors why they should aim for the left side of the chest.

Everything you just did was Biology. Biology has been with us since the beginning of humanity, helping us survive.

Physiology

6. What branch of Biology was used to figure out how to kill enemies during battle?

7. What branch of Biology was used to manage the food resource?Ecology

Microbiology

8. What branch of Biology was used to prevent villagers from getting sick?

This is why we require every high school student to take and pass Biology. Without the study of life, our species faces extinction.