Tuesday, January 27, 2009

York High School Bio Club

Hi From Illinois!

Our Bio Club has done Phagehunting (we found a virus), extracted our mitochondrial DNA and had it sequenced, and we are now on to trying to breed zebra fish. We bought genetically modified fish (orange, red and yellow GloFish) and regular wild type fish. The members want to know if the genetically modified will mate with the regular, and if they do, whether the babies will be GloFish or all wild type. Of course, we have to get them to mate first! We also bought some bullfrog tadpoles and they happily set up habitats for them. If they mate, we hope to be able to do some embryology studies. Our next project is to experiment with gene silencing (RNAi) using C. elegans.

We are a small but motivated group and we are having a lot of fun!

Friday, January 16, 2009

Darwin Day

Hi Everyone,

Happy 2009! NABT has received a lot of compliments on the BioClubs and all your hard work. Thank you all for making this adventure to much fun.

As we enter the Year of Science, I'd like to promote what certain clubs are doing for special events like Darwin Day (February 12). You can get more information about the YoS at http://www.yearofscience2009.org/home/

I try to check the blog daily, but if you club is doing something extra special, please email directly at jreevespepin@nabt.org

Thanks,

Jacki at NABT

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Notes From George

The BioClub is off to a great start with over thirty chapters now in existence, and one of those is in Canada! It is never too late to form a chapter, so please consider forming one right now—remember the great rewards that await you and your students as members of the BioClub adventure. Please take a look at all the postings on our blog to see what great things our members are doing with their students—they are impressive. Another impressive piece of information is that our BioClubs are reaching out to approximately one thousand students at this time—now that is really exciting; think of the impact the BioClub adventure is having on students.

Charlotte, NC is an interesting city, and I was lucky to visit it recently when I attended the National Science Teachers Association Area Conference. I presented a paper on the construction of respirometers to use in the classroom, and for some reason the BioClub adventure was incorporated into my presentation! I wonder how that became part of my presentation? This brings up another good reason for becoming a BioClub adviser. While there BioClub advisers Judy Jones from NC, Leann Iacuone from SC, and I had dinner at a local Italian restaurant. We had a great time, and Leann and I made plans to get our two chapters together for a field trip and some other functions during this school year. Judy and I made plans to co-present at next year’s NABT Conference in Denver, CO. It is nice to know that you have instant BioClub adviser friends no matter where you go to a meeting. If you have questions about the BioClub please e-mail me at georges1524@gmail.com, and I will quickly answer them. Of course if you would like to save time just complete the BioClub application and send it in—it could not be any easier! I hope to receive your application very soon. Till next time—George Sellers

Monday, January 5, 2009

Minnetonka Biology Club

Minnetonka Biology Club in Minnetonka, MN has been active for about a year, but also existed in the past over a 5-year period. "The focus of Biology Club is academics....learning more about scientific techniques and applications...and having fun learning about science through field trips, speakers, and hands-on experiments. Students also have the opportunity to do individual or small group experiments to submit into scholarship competitions."

We have been busy in a collaboration with the FreshWater Society of Minnesota constructing a Rain Garden and creating adult and children's brochures about how to use/construct rain gardens. We occupy ourselves with quite a variety of activities, but this year's focus/theme has been water. Our next big project is to participate in the Fresh Water Society's "Water is Life" art contest; students are working on both still art and multimedia projects [some of which are being done in collaboration with our grade 5 partner classroom and a local senior living facility]!

Visit our web site: http://field.bio1.googlepages.com/home
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Other Activities planned this year:
*Water quality testing
*Drinking Fountain Project/s
*Collaborative Research-Grade 5/Mr. Frank!
*NABT Biology Club
*Phagehunting
*Omnifest/Great Lakes
*Winter Camping
*Spring Canoe-Hike-Bike Trip
*Carleton Observatory/Sustainable Housing
*Organic farming tour/field trip
*Mitochondrial DNA Analysis
*Yeast Hyphal Growth
*Fresh Water Society Rain Garden
*Individual Research
*Science Lectures

Incarnate Word Academy - Houston

IWA Team Takes a First Place at Winston Science in Dallas, Texas





A team of six seniors from Incarnate Word Academy won first place on November 22 at the annual Build-A-Dinosaur competition at the national Winston Science event in Dallas.
The team competed against 18 other public and private high schools to create a scale model of a dinosaur using only cardboard and duct tape in eight hours. The purpose of the competition is to provide an opportunity for contestants to better understand how paleontologists assemble and mechanically support a large dinosaur. Members of the IWA science and engineering club, headed by teachers Daniel Bryant and Mary McGivern, participated in the project, which focuses on teamwork, problem-solving, concepts of scale and mechanical engineering.


The first-place winners at the Build-A-Dinosaur Winston Science event, all from the class of 2009, include (left to right) Andrea Romero, Simarjeet Grewal, Lindsey Stryk, Allison Schimelpfening, Nataly Rodriguez, and Erica Williams.

Find out more about Winston Science at the following URL: http://winstonscience.org/wsci/

Sunday, January 4, 2009

Helena High BioClub

Greetings from Helena, Montana

The Helena High BioClub was formed in the fall of 2008.  We hold regular meetings during lunch on the 1st and 3rd Wednesday of the month.  We have invited a number guest speakers to talked about their careers and porfessional interests.  This has included local infectious disease specialists, hydrologists, wildlife rehab specialists, bear researchers, physical therapists and others.  We are also raising money to fund field trips, designing a native garden at Helena High and helping to fund international clean drinking water projects with our local high school Green Group.