Grade 9 Biology - Term 1 Final Assignment

Note: Students who attend the Gorgona Island Trip will be completing this final assignment based on their experiences on the island. They will use the organisms that they see on the trip as the inspiration for their work. While we are at school this week, we will be using the school grounds, internet research and documentaries as inspiration instead.

1. Participation / Attitude / Effort in class (20 marks)  You will be graded on how well you participate in the activities and how much effort you make to learn and work during the last week!

2. Biology Journal entry  You must write a journal entry describing one ecosystem in Colombia (but not found one found on Gorgona Island). Your description must include the following: o Names and drawings of living organisms found in that ecosystem o Explanations and drawings with labels about the non-living parts of the ecosystem o Interesting facts or surprising information about that ecosystem o Where you could find that ecosystem and why it is important to Colombia  Each journal entry must make a connection with one or more of the following themes that we discussed at the beginning of the year: Information and Heredity, Matter and Energy, Growth, Development and Reproduction, Homeostasis, Evolution, Structure is related to Function, Unity and Diversity, Interdependence in Nature  How it will be graded: o Thorough notes and drawings required – the more complete it is, the better your mark will be o Worth 15 marks

3. “Design your own experiment”  Come up with a question about the local environment at school (e.g. Do the lilies (the yellow flowers by the path) on the school grounds grow better when they are cut each year or when they are left alone?)  Design an experiment that you could use to test this question (it can be a long term experiment – you aren’t actually going to do it!). Your experiment must: o Explain how you would do your experiment (with a written description AND a diagram showing what you would set up to test your question) o Identify the following: Control group, Independent Variable, Dependent Variable and Constants o Make a hypothesis on what you expect to see and why  How it will be graded: o Experimental Design – The experiment is controlled and could actually be used to test your question. This includes the correct identification of the parts of the experiment (10 marks) o Question / Hypothesis – Your question is based on your experience and your hypothesis on what will happen is clearly explained. Good reasons are suggested for why you think this will be the case. (5 marks)  Due: First day back in class - Oct 18th

4. Presentation on one organism / ecosystem  You will begin to prepare this while on Gorgona and do the presentation when back in class. You can use one of the organisms that you talked about in your journal to focus on (details included below) After the break: (at GI School in class) 5. Presentation on an organism and its ecosystem - may be done individually OR in groups of up to three students. Your presentation must explain the main points below:  Characteristics of the ecosystem  Importance of the ecosystem to other types of ecosystem (on the island or in the world)  Minimum 3 characteristics / adaptations of the organism in that ecosystem (three different adaptations)  Role of the organism in that ecosystem  Your presentation must include pictures of the organism and ecosystem You will hand in:  One page (minimum) summary of the points above How it will be graded:  Summary: o Includes all parts of the presentation and is completed thoroughly with many details (10 marks) o Includes excellent spelling, grammar and punctuation (writing quality) (5 marks)  Presentation: Oct 19th o Time limit: 4-5 minutes o See the rubric

Presentation Rubric: 0-1 points 2-3 points 4 points 5 points Speaking / The presenter was difficult The presenter spoke The presenter spoke The presenter spoke Engaging to understand and did not clearly and loudly but did clearly and loudly and clearly and loudly and / 5 look at the audience not look at the audience looked at the audience looked at the several the sometimes places in the audience audience many times Explaining The presenter did not The presenter read some The presenter explained all The presenter gave explain the information of the words off the slide the information without excellent explanations that / 5 and read the slides and explained some reading off the slides were easy to understand for all slides Timing The presentation was more The presentation was more The presentation was 30 The presentation was than 2 minutes over/under than one minute seconds – 1 min exactly the right length / 5 their time over/under their time over/under their time limit Total / 15