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To Do for Monday 31 March 2008
- In the "tiger" book, read pages 291 to 299 in Chapter
29 about Option D (Evolution). Ignore any text marked HL for
higher level students only.
- If you have my red book, you can also read the first
half of the Option D chapter (chapter 10) pages 302 to 321.
- Remember, as stated in the yellow box above, you
should be keeping up with learning vocabulary words every week.
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Exam Revision
- Good news for Paper 1 (multiple choice) - it looks
like we will probably be able to get a room during the Bac Blanc week.
This will allow us to use the class time this week for any revision
questions you have.
- For the exam, we have all of Topic 2 (sections 2.1 to
2.5) and almost all of Topic 3 (Sections 3.1 to 3.6).
- Remember, when you study, first look at the program
guide. Use that as a checklist. Then look at the book
and your class notes. Be sure to memorize all your
flashcards (you should have between 200 and 250 by now)
- Don't forget to memorize the list of Command Terms
which are found in your Biology Guide. You should know the
difference between Define, Describe, Discuss and all the others...
Have a look at my guide to
preparing for and taking the compositions groupées which is for
all my students younger and older but which certainly applies to the bac
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To Do for Monday 21 January 2008
- Read all of Chapter 6 except the sections for
HL. Be sure to keep up with flash cards and memorizing at least a
dozen science terms each week.
- If you have not made a study schedule for yourself yet,
click on the link to getting organized above.
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To Do for Monday 14 January 2008
- If you have not done so already, be sure to print out
the part of the Biology Guide which shows the assessment statements for
Topic 3. It is recommended that you paste or clip the pages into
your notes.
- Read (almost) all of chapter 5 in the course companion
book. You do not need to read the sections marked HL 'for higher
level students only). Remember that "to read" means reading, understanding,
taking notes and making flash cards. Be sure to read the side boxes
and consider the photos and diagrams in your review.
- If you are having trouble finding definitions for some
of the words you come across, remember that typing "define: ___" and
putting the word in the blank will give you a list of definitions.
Also, the school library has subscribed to an online science reference
site which you can use - the librarian can help you access it.
To Do for Monday 7 January 2008
- During the holidays: students who got 5 or more
can relax and enjoy their well-deserved break. Students who got 4 or
lower need to go back and learn what they did not learn in the first term.
Everything we have done will be used throughout the 2 years so you will
need it.
- You have a lab report to do about Diffusion and
Dialysis:
- Have a good holiday and a happy new year.
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To Do for Monday 17 and Tuesday 18 December
- Bring your lab coat for an experiment on both
days.
- If you have not returned your exams, bring them back
in.
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To Do for Tuesday 11 December
- Bring your lab coat for an experiment.
- Read the following pages in the Biology Course
Companion: 41 to 47.
- Be sure to learn the molecules we have been working
on.
- Either on Monday or Tuesday, bring back your exams.
- Students who were disappointed in their results for
the November exams are encouraged to contact me
about ways in which they can improve. You can start improving by
following the instructions in the yellow box and in the "getting organized"
link above.
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On Monday 26 November
- We will have Paper 1 in class. Paper 1 is
the multiple choice exam. The revision is the same as for Paper 2 (see
box below). There are 30 questions and you will have 45 minutes to
do the exam. There is no reading time and no calculators for Paper
1.
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To Do for Monday 12 November
- Read the following pages in the Biology Course
Companion book
- 25 to 35 about membranes - much of this is
material we have already covered in class
- 36 to 40 about cell division - although this
is mostly "new", we have mentioned it briefly in class and most of you
have probably already done this in a previous biology class.
- if you still do not have a copy of the book, email
me. I have scanned chapters 2 and 3 and can send them to you while
we are waiting for the real book.
- work on your revision for the November exams (see
white box below)
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Revision for BB 1 in November 2007:
- All of Topic 2:
- 2.1 Cell theory
- 2.2 Prokaryotic cells
- 2.3 Eukaryotic cells
- 2.4 Membranes
- 2.5 Cell division
- All of Chapters 1, 2 and 3 in the Biology
Course Companion book. These are the chapters which cover the
material from Topic 2
Have you seen my compositions
groupées revision guide? Have a look at some of my suggestions
for successful revision and test-taking skills.
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To Do for Monday 15 October:
- Bring in your results of the cell-measuring
investigation. You should have calculated the sizes of several
different cells that you saw. It is recommended that you print out
the explanations of the
micrometer
eyepiece on a microscope.
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To Do for Tuesday 9 October:
- We will be continuing our lab work with microscopes so
bring in your lab coat.
- Check out the
micrometer
eyepiece on a microscope page and try to calculate the size of the
cells you observed last week using the values we got for X and Y.
- The next reading assignment will be pages 25 to 30
(about membranes) for the following Tuesday if you want to get ahead on that.
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To Do for Tuesday 2 October:
- We will be doing our first lab work with microscopes.
Bring your lab coat. Check out this page about
how to use a microscope.
You are expected to know the names of the parts of the microscope and the
proper technique for focussing.
- In addition, we will be using the
micrometer
eyepiece on a microscope so be sure to check out that page, too.
To Do for Monday 24 September:
- Continue reading up through page 24. Reading
means the following:
- reading to understand the content
- searching for scientific vocabulary terms
- making flash cards for the important words (about 14 a
week)
- Bring in at least 28 flash cards that you have made.
That way I can check that you are doing them correctly.
- Print out pages 45 to 50 of the Biology Programme
Guide and include them in your biology notebook. Also, have a
look at the page I showed in class showing the definintions of the command
terms (state, define, explain, discuss...).
- There is a possibility (depending on the availablility
of microscopes) that we will be able to do a first experiment on Tuesday
25 September so bring your lab coat on Tuesday.
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Week 2:
- I forgot to mention that you will be needing a
scientific calculator for biology over the next 2 years.
It should be a TI-83 or TI-83 Plus. As far as I know,
the TI-84 is OK but the TI-89 is not an acceptable IB calculator.
Double check with your math teacher for the model you need in math - it
should be the same.
- There will be some reading to do in the book (soon).
I am still waiting for my copy to come in before I can see which pages to
assign. If you want to jump ahead, just find any pages with
correspond to Topic 2's section on Cell Theory.
- OK -I found the page numbers:
Read pages 7 to 14 in the Oxford Course
Companion for Biology: As you read, if there are any words which
look 'scientific' or 'technical', make sure you know them. As I
glanced through the 8 pages above, I found over 50 terms, most of which
you should know already such as 'cell membrane' or 'excreted' but others
which you may not know such as 'hyphae' or 'cavity slide'. Be
careful: just because you have heard the word before does not mean
you could define it on an exam!
- Start making Flash Cards. I will be
checking them soon so start as early as you can - one scientific word on
one side, its definition on the other. The quickest way that I know
of to obtain a definition is to type the word into Google after typing "define:
". For example, define: hyphae will give you a list of a
half-dozen definitions that Google found on various web sites.
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At the beginning of the year:
- You will need the Oxford IB Biology book (the one with
the tiger's face on the front). If you want to wait to buy all your
books together; you do not need this the very first week but try to get it
by the 15th of September. Note that the book store is not open all
year but only at the beginning of September. Since it's a new book
for the new program, I do not know the price - you will have to ask at the
book shop or ask your classmates who have purchased it.
- You will need a lab coat (soon).
- You will need a science binder or folder. It is
up to you to decide how you want to organize your papers. There will
be notes, lab reports, photocopies, homeworks and quizzes to keep
organized.
- Each student should have a USB thumb drive. Be sure your
name is on the outside somewhere. If ever I collect them, I need to
know whose is whose! Also, if you lose it, we know who to return it
to. If you are buying a new one, I do not recommend the U3 Smart
drives in class. For the moment, they are not compatible with Mac or
Vista. Also, 1 or 2 Gb is enough - do not spend more than 25€ for
this.

- Copy onto your USB drive the IB Programme Guide for
Biology, first exams in 2009. This is a new program so do not take
the old one which finishes in 2008. You should also have the
Academic Honesty guide and the Extended Essay guide on the USB drive.
I recommend that you create a folder for each subject: Within the
Bio folder, have a subfolder for lab reports.
- You will need to buy a pack of
Flash Cards. These will help you to
learn the estimated 700 technical terms you will need to know by May 2009!
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