Science

Parents/Guardians/Family,

This semester your students have been learning about comparative anatomy. They have examined the similarities and differences between different organisms. They have done this by examining skulls, skeletons, hunting and foraging techniques, heredity, and DNA. Now it is time for them to do their own study, comparing organisms of their choice. They have all chosen animals to compare, four in all. One pair has a common ancestor more than 500 million years ago (MYA) and the other has a more recent common ancestor (100-200MYA).

So far, over the last two weeks, your students have chosen their animals, found the most recent common ancestor for each pair, and are now researching the traits that make their animals what they are. These traits should be specific, for example I could say that a bald eagle has feathers, and that is true. But for this project I would want to say that a bald eagle has long feathers for soaring. I would also want to describe the color of the feathers. I would also add that in the juvenile stage, their feathers are a mottled brown, mixed with gold. These are the specific details that will make their presentations really interesting for the audience, and for the researcher.

I was hoping that the presentation of this project would happen before spring break, but it will now be happening the week after. Your students are showing such dedication to the project, and paying close detail to all that they are learning (and are also so excited to tell each other each detail about the organism that they are studying) that the research is taking more time than I thought. Your students are learning about science, and I am learning about how to give the necessary time for a well-studied project. This project will be finished the week after spring break, and I would like to invite all of you to attend the Tree-of-Life. I have to work out the scheduling with Jon. Please be prepared to help encourage your student to work on their research and rough drafts over this weekend, and over break.

Thank you for your support and encouragement,
Renee