Apologia 15.1 Flower Anatomy

We gathered several different types of flowers to dissect and study.

While following the lab's instructions to dissect the flower, the students looked for various parts of the flower and tried to examine the pollen under a microscope.

Apologia 11.1 Observation of the Spicules of a Sponge

Specimen from Phylum Porifera

Look for spicules.  They make up the structure or support.  When you look for them, you may see them needle shaped, "multipronged jack" shaped, hooked,or even barbed.  This is what is used to classify sponges.

You should have drawn what you saw on the sponge slide.

You should also have seen a sample of the natural sponge in class on a slide.

Apologia 4.3 Molds and Mildews

In this lab the students gathered mold from tomatoes and lemons.  Curious thing about science is it doesn't always work.  I set jelly, apples, and bread aside with moisture according to the instructions and they did not mold.  But a quick look in my fridge and citrus basket yielded samples to work with.

Molds on the tomato were both black and white.  Textures were fuzzy and powdery.
Mold on the lemon was GREEN and very powdery with a tendency to "poof" if manipulated too much.

Apologia 5.3 The Fragility of an Enzyme

Nothing like teens and food to make for a fun experiment.  Group 1 learned a valuable lesson in the difference between a cup as an object and a cup as a unit of measure.  They ended up with 12 oz of water instead of 8 and it made a difference in their results. Group 2 had better results.

They started by cutting and blending the pineapple.  they made 3 bowls of gelatin all from the same preparation.  One bowl was gelatin only, one with room temperature pineapple pulp, one with heated pineapple pulp.

the purpose of this experiment was to demonstrate how easily enzymes could be damaged.

Pineapple contains an enzyme that will prevent gelatin from setting.  The bowl with gelatin only is our "control".  It demonstrates how gelatin should turn out and that the experiment is working.


Our students should have found that the bowl with the room temperature pineapple pulp did not set. The enzymes in the pineapple prevent the gelling.

When heated, the enzymes in the pineapple would have been damaged.  the third bowl should have set, demonstrating the heat damaged enzyme.

Apologia 3.1 Pond Life Part C

A week after collecting and feeding the cultures, we looked to see how the cultures changed.  Which ones thrived?  Which ones choked off their living creatures?

First we look at the straw.  When we sample the culture from near the bottom of the jar, none of the groups found any life form. Then we noticed we could see small swimming critters towards the top of the culture.  We tried to use some cotton to sort of "dam" the water sample and trap the critter so we could see it.

Straw:

40x

100x

Egg (boy did this one stink the place up):

40x

100x

400x

Dirt:

40x:

100x

400x

Rice

40x

100x

400x

Were you able to predict the outcomes?

Apologia 4.2 Yeast and the Fermentation Process

IBy mixing yeast with water and feeding it with sugar, it grew.  The process is referred to as fermentation.  Bubbles form in the top layers.  The bubbles are made with carbon dioxide produced as a result of the fermentation process.  

In order to observe the bubbles, we looked at a sample under the microscope.  We also looked for yeast cells budding/ reproducing.  Also methylene blue stain helped to observe these.

standard sample

(Internet image)



blue stain

(Internet image)

(Internet image)

Apologia 4.1 Phylum Basidiomycota

This lab was for exploring mushrooms and other fungi found outside.  The only readily available fungi I found in the wild was shelf fungi.  We used mushrooms from the store.

They separated the parts of the mushroom as instructed.  Then, using the gills on the large mushrooms, they tried to shake out spores. A spore is a reproductive cell with a hard,protective coating.

A few of the students found some on their slides.
They looked a little like this:

Edited May 06, 2017

As I walked through the tree grove this afternoon, I found a mushroom in the wild.  Aren't you excited?  Haha. 

I took some pictures and recreated the spore slide.  Take a look and see what you see if anything.

Some sort of bug.  Ick!