Ma Nature is increadible

"The earth is going to be just fine. The earth is going to shake off our species like a bad case of fleas..." Comedian George Carlin.

Scientists investigating the flow of blood-red water from beneath the glacier discovered the bacteria, which have survived for millions of years, living on sulfur and iron compounds, they report in Friday's edition of the journal Science.


This planet is so perfect for life that life has found a way to flourish in every possible place on it! I often wonder what life exists on Earth that we do not even know about. Blows my mind!

Strive to be happy!
Mugan

Shifting Gears

The creative portion of our mulitmedia construction is complete. Next, we will be learning from the best of the student produced creations from the last three years.

I never cease to be impressed by what the students can do. Some presentations are different than I have ever seen before. It is something that given the same tools and information, that someone can build a different product that those that did the same project before them.
Our goal this spring is to add some more hands on activities to the animal kingdom investigation. I have ideas for incorportating flatworms, crayfish and maybe the fish from our room into new lab activities.
Strive to be happy,
Mugan

A student at the door to the world

April in Biology class brings our multimedia powerpoint project. Students will work in small groups, or alone to produce a powerpoint project that details the structure and behavior of a group of animals that was assigned to them.
This changes the way class is being conducted. This effort will greatly increase the classtime spent on student creativity and in turn, reduce the number of pieces of homework. Therefore, grades will also change. To say alot is riding on the production of this presentation is an understatement.
Successful presentations have the chance to be published on www.mugansbiologypage.com for all of the students to learn from.
I find this to be a completely engaging method of teaching. Highly student centered and constructivist, this activity has evolved over the years into a well developed and expertly guided experience for my students.
Strive to be happy - Mugan

Mugan's Core Group to monitor IOWATER streams

Mugan's Core group will be using their time on service day to monitor the two streams that WSR has been monitoring for the last 8-10 years.

Current WSR math teacher Pat Fox and retired WSR science teacher Deanna Walvatne began monitoring these two streams some years ago. I got in on the action in about 2001, assisting with the evaluation of the Benthic Macroinvertebrates.

Efforts on these streams has evolved over the years. Mrs. Fox and Mrs. Walvatne originally combined their math and science classes, to create a small army of stream workers. After Mrs. Walvatne retired, my advanced biology classes took over the efforts, with Mrs. Fox still working by our side. Most recently, the Science Issues class, with Mugan and Mrs. Peth monitored both streams during the 2008 service day.

This year, we are going to try something different. Mugan's Core group will be learning how to monitor the streams in the Core meetings leading up to service day, and then actually going out to these streams on service day.

I am eager to get a chance to share something I love with my Core group. I hope they see the IOWATER program as something worthwhile to do on service day.

Strive to be happy,
Mugan

Mugan's Biology Blog... a renaisance...

Seems fitting that I am restarting this blog around Easter time... Perhaps spring and seeing all of the "unlocking" of winter has me feeling a need to reawaken.

I began this blog in January 2008 as a project for one of my graduate classes. After it had served that purpose, I let it go. Now I wonder what other purpose it might serve for me as an educational tool.