Current Assignments
Energy (begun 21 Mar 2007 continued until the end of the trimester June 2007)
Exam: Wednesday, May 9, 2007
Subject: Motion & Newton's Laws, mechanical energy, work, heat, temperature, the kinetic theory & the laws of thermodyanmics. You can download the studysheet or some practice questions.
Here are some of my notes on Heat Engines & the Laws of Thermodynamics.
Homework assignment: applying the kinetic theory of matter to various problems such as why a gas expands when heated.
Determination of Absolute Zero Instructions.
You can download a set of introductory energy problems that we did in class. Also I have an additional sheet of simple energy questions (we have not used these this year, but they would be good review questions). I alos provided you with an explanation ofsome Difficult Newtonian Concepts (acceleration, weight & Newton's Laws).
Homework: Review of Units and Acceleration.
EXAM: Wednesday 14 February 2007
The second trimester exam will occur Wednesday, 15 February in class. You can download the study sheet here.
The Vertebrate Phylogeny Project: (31 January 2007)
DUE: Feb 5 (Sections A & C); Feb 6 (Sections B & D)
We visited the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) in New York City with the purpose of studying the phylogeny (evolutionary history) of the vertebrates. The Vertebrate Phylogeny exercise contains background information as well as the assignment. You can access the names of the clades and the lineages, and also a completely labeled cladogram (although it is difficult to make out the names on this due to the low quality original). You can also print out an unlabeled cladogram. You can also visit the Museum's website to see the vertebrate cladogram with the clades and animal groups filled in.
***UPDATE (2 FEBRUARY 2007)***
Additional instructions were e-mailed to all students today.
The Phylum Project (15 January 2007)
We have begun our study of various animal phyla. During the next month we will become fanmiliar with the following phyla: 1. Porifera, 2. Cnidaria, 3. Platyhelminthes, 4. Nematoda, 5. Bryozoa, 6. Brachiopoda, 7. Mollusca, 8. Annelida, 9. Arthropoda, 10. Echinodermata, 11. Chordata. Details can be found in the Phylum Assignment.You may also need extra Phylum Sheets.
Other important resources include the lecture notes on Geologic Time and the History of Life and Various Topics for the Phylum Project, both of which can be found on the Powerpoints page.
I have added a considerable amount of information to the Various Topics for the Phylum Project. This information will help answer important questions about the following phyla: Cnidaria, Nematoda, Plathyhelminthes and Porifera. For example, you should now be able to answer the question about the fate of the blastopore for each of them, as well as whether or not each is diploblastic or triploblastic.
***UPDATE (8 February 2007)***
The final assignment for this project is to build a phylogeny of the animl phyla. Instructions and extra character tables are available here.
The Sexual Selection Simulation Lab
In this lab you demonstrated that increased mortality rates can evolve if the adaptation also increases reproductve output. Instructions for the sexual selection simulation can be download here.