Say "Cheese"

For week two of our unit on Microscopes, Cells and Cell Transport, we are going to have another contest.  Your challenge is to find the coolest electron microscope image and decide if it is from an scanning electron microscope or a transmission electron microscope.  Be sure to give the image URL and tell which type of microscope was used in taking the image.

Below is an image of a scanning electron microscope image of the head of a human flea taken by retired scientific photographer, Steve Gschmeisser.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/picture-galleries/7397841/Creepy-crawlies-Amazing-Scanning-Electron-Microscope-pictures-of-insects-and-spiders.html

Here is a transmission electron microscope image of a human liver cell taken by Dennis Kunkel.  He even offers electron microscope calendars...how cool is that.

http://www.denniskunkel.com/

I will keep track of the favorites.  Whoever posts the image first gets credit for finding the image.  Good luck.

As Willie Nelson said, "the early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese."  

Veterans under the "Microscope"

Last week when I was watching the CMA's, I was really moved by the story behind Lee Brice's song "I Drive My Truck."  The story was based on a father who lost his son in the war in Afghanistan.  To summarize, when the dad misses his son, he drives his son's truck.  This week we will start our unit on Microscopes and to kick off the week, we will put Veterans under the microscope.

All of the boys in my family have no school on Monday, because it is Veteran's Day.  At Central, we still have school.  As a tribute to the Veterans that have served this country, I would like you to find a veteran story and tell your classmates.  Ask your parents and grandparents if any of your relatives have served in the armed forces.  Talk to your neighbors or former Crystal Lake Central graduates and ask them if they know any Veterans.  If you are not related to a Veteran or don't know a Veteran, I will attach a link that has video stories of Illinois veterans.

Take a moment to visit the United Service Organizations website:

www.USOmoments.org

Below is the Link to the Illinois Veterans History Project:

http://www.youtube.com/user/ilveteransproject

Perhaps, you can find a valuable link about Veterans that you can share with the rest of the class.

The Celebrated Jumping Frogs of Calaveras County

While doing research on frogs for this weeks frog dissection, I was slightly side-tracked by interesting frog facts.  Did you know that the world record for the longest jumping frog is Rosie the Ribeter?  Rosie reportedly jumped more than 2.1 meters in a single hop at the Calaveras County Jumping Frog Jubilee in 1986.  Holy cow!

When scientists tried to get their frogs to jump in the lab, the scientists could only get the frogs to jump about 1 meter.  Were the scientists doing something wrong?  Were the frogs nervous in the lab?  You are more than welcome to read the article below to find these answers.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/10/131016213042.htm

Your discussion assignment this week is to find an interesting fact about frogs and briefly describe it like I did above.  In order to receive full credit, I need you to provide the website or source where you found your interesting fact.