fandomhigh | Entries tagged with biology

"Uh, hey guys," Zack said, looking a little bemused as he stood at the front of the room with a small fleet of polar bears flanking him. "So... today is our final, I guess? But there were bears outside, so none of the animals from the shelter wanted to go out, and I wasn't going to stress any of them by forcing it. But these guys," he paused to accept a bottle of Coke that was graciously offered by one of the bears, "seem friendly enough..."

Another one offered him a bottle from the other side, so now he had one in either hand and was kind of blinking at them.

"... They're friendly enough," he continued, trying to remember where he'd left off. "So, uh... polar bears? Biggest bears on the planet, they live far up north and, um." He was now attempting to hold three open bottles in his hands withot spilling. "They're perfectly adapted for cold weather. They're not at all a domesticated species, but these ones seem to..." Hooboy, he was up to four and grimacing a little. "... to at least be a little... tame, maybe?"

The bears that were up front with him looked amused. Oh, they knew exactly what they were doing up there, the big, playful, carnivorous scamps.

"So... come and get to know them. And maybe take a Coke? Please take a Coke."

And here came number five.

[OOC: Open!]

puppy_fair

If you thought you had escaped Carol of the Bells outside, Zack kind of actually felt a little bad, because today students would enter the classroom to find...

Yeah. Birds. One for each student, and they were all enthusiastically chirping the tune as well.

Oops.

"So, uh, this week we'll be meeting some budgies," Zack offered, a little sheepishly. "They're the third most popular pet animal in the world, so I figured we should probably learn about them before this class is over, right? In the wild in Australia, these birds are naturally green and yellow, and they travel in flocks. Sometimes really, really big flocks, if food and water are plentiful. So people who keep these little guys should either be willing to socialize with them a lot, or be willing to keep at least a pair so they don't get bored and lonely."

The chirping was kind of starting to make his left eye twitch, so Zack decided to wrap this one up.

"They can be taught a few words, if their owner is patient and willing to teach them, and they've been bred into plenty of colors, and... here... just meet the budgies, okay? These ones are pretty hand-tame, they'll step up for you if you want them to."

And then sing in your face.

[OOC: Open!]

puppy_fair

Zack walked into the classroom today with a small puff of fur in his arms, smiled at the classroom, and then immediately set the little creature down on the floor.

Immediately, it took off in a tangle of legs, with its long, fluffy tail trailing along behind it.

"So, foxes," Zack said, smiling wryly as the little guy went trotting around the room, looking for mischief to get into. "They've been domesticated for a while, generally for fur. This little guy was from a different line of domestication, though, brought up as the result of an actual experiment on domestication in Russia that started... sixty years ago or something? Where they were bred specifically for traits like friendliness."

Anybody who wasn't moving around too much was going to have a fox sniffing at their feet. And then possibly pouncing at them playfully, looking for somebody to wrestle with.

"So far as temperament goes, they're..." Zack watched the fox trot off to jump up onto a chair, and then up onto the teacher's desk, where it proceeded to try to abscond with a stapler. "... Kind of like cats on caffeine. Constantly. You need a pretty particular setup to keep a fox, because they'll want to get into everything, which includes chewing wires and... trying to bury staplers, I guess."

The little guy was going to get that sucker into that corner if he had to battle with it all day.

"Today we're going to play with this guy," he continued, watching those antics for a few moments before shaking his head in bemusement, "and maybe when it's time to take him back to the shelter, he'll be ready for a nap."

Probably not, though.

[OOC: Open!]

puppy_fair

Zack was absolutely looking just as cheerful as ever as he stood in front of the class today, a box in his arms and a grin on his face.

It was always the perfect cover for crushing disappointment. He still hadn't gotten over the runaround that Portalocity had given him when he'd just tried to book a portal earlier in the week, and he still hadn't managed to make his way there to discuss that problem in person.

And so, today?

"Bunnies!"

Bunnies.

"So, these little guys were domesticated by the Romans for food and fur, but they've been kept as pets since the nineteenth century!" Whichever that one was. "They're smart, too. They can be trained to use the litterbox and to come when called, so they might be a good alternative for people who don't want, say, a carnivorous pet."

And Zack had so many other words for folks who thought it was okay to put their dogs on vegan diets, but he'd save that for another time.

"Like with cats and dogs, it's a good idea to spay or neuter your pet rabbit; it decreases aggression and territorial behavior, and it prevents certain health problems, especially in the females." Not to mention the whole, 'not ending up with a billion rabbits' thing. "They will chew on pretty much anything, so if you get a rabbit, you'll want to rabbit-proof your space."

A pause, and then he added, "And they're really, really cute. Just try not giving them out as gifts around that Easter holiday. Shelters end up full of these guys in the weeks after because of unexpected pets that people weren't equipped for in one way or another. These guys and chickens both."

Hence the chicken coop on the shelter roof.

"So, now that the lecture is out of the way..." He set the box down in the playpen in the middle of the room and started transferring bunnies from the box to the floor. "Let's play with some rabbits!"

[OOC: Open!]

puppy_fair

Zack looked mildly perplexed as he stood at the front of the classroom, accompanied by a cow.

Just one cow. A perfectly normal, black and white spotted cow.

"I, um, have no idea how this got here," he admitted. "We were going to cover domesticated foxes today, but when I got to the classroom to set up before going to get them, she was already here."

He glanced at her sidelong for a moment, and then shrugged.

"I'm going to just mark it up to Fandom thinking it's funny, but she really shouldn't be here." So long as she wasn't a giant cat and he wasn't getting stuck in walls again, he'd take it. "So, um. Cows. Apparently they've been domesticated for at least ten thousand years, and people use them for meat, milk, and leather. Bulls are sometimes used for sports, like bull riding, and there's this thing called bullfighting which... is actually pretty cruel." He frowned a little. "Apparently it's illegal in a lot of countries, so at least there's that." He leaned his head back a little in thought. "There are also oxen, which are cattle that have been trained as working animals, pulling loads and things like that."

He glanced at the cow.

"Today's class, I guess we can just... um... try to coax the cow out of here. Maybe go outside and get a handful of grass or something?"

This place was weird.

puppy_fair

Zack was tired. He was still cheerful, don't get him wrong. But between the Halloween party last night and the late, late night run that had alternated between herding cats and gathering chickens, he hadn't slept a wink.

Ditto the night before. And dreams had messed with him the night before that. So he had a coffee today.

There was a lot of sugar in that coffee.

"Hey, guys," he said, stifling a yawn and gesturing to a big plastic tub with a bunch of good little buddies in it. "Today, we've got hedgehogs! They were domesticated by the Romans for their meat and quills and skins about a billion years ago," Fourth century BC. He didn't have the brains to math today. "But that was the Algerian hedgehog. These guys are African pygmy hedgehogs. They're small and cute and they eat bugs and things, and if they get scared they'll roll into a ball and present as all spikes. They still take some handling to get used to being around people, but these ones are pretty well socialized, so you're welcome to play with them so long as you're gentle."

They weren't exactly 'fetch' pets.

And with that, Zack sat himself down and drank some more coffee.

Eugh.

[OOC: Open!]

puppy_fair

"Heya, guys!" Zack was grinning as he stood near an inflated kiddie pool full of water and little, yellow, black, and white fish. "I'm sorry I missed last week, I was kind of, um, a puppy? I mean, it wouldn't have been a terribly educational lecture. But Sidon did a great job-" he assumed, he had been a puppy at the time "-so thank you, Sidon, for filling in. I'm sure the chickens had a great adventure."

Cuccos, Zack.

"This week, we aren't going to be playing with anything terribly cuddly, I'm afraid. We have a pool of goldfish, though. They're the most commonly kept aquarium fish, members of the carp family, and were first bred in China after people started noticing that the silver carp they were raising for food would sometimes have gold-colored offspring. Then all bets were kind of off as they started raising the gold fish for their decorative ponds. At some point, people outside of the imperial family were forbidden to keep the gold variety for themselves, which is probably why there are so many orange goldfish today instead."

He tapped a finger to his chin.

"Right! They're opportunistic feeders who'll eat basically anything, so, crustaceans, insects, plant matter. Or," he held up a little can and grinned crookedly. "Fish flakes. But don't overfeed them. They'll just keep eating until there isn't any food left, which can give them tummy trouble."

... Intestinal blockage, Zack.

"Today we're going to play a carnival game that's popular in Japan," he added, holding up little rings with paper stretched across the inside, and a bowl. "Goldfish scooping! You take a bowl, put some water in it, and then use the little paper scoops to try to catch a few goldfish before the wet paper breaks. You have to be gentle, since the paper tears really easily once it's wet. And because we don't actually want to stress out the goldfish," he assumed, anyway. "If you like, you can keep any of the fish you catch. We can set you up with a tank and filter and stuff at Furnado - my treat. But if you'd rather not, they can just come back to the shelter with us after class, too."

in_sidon_we_trust

Sidon was having quite the week, it would seem, which was nice, as he felt he could easily say the same about the last week. In addition to being a good big brother by taking care of Norman, he now also got to take his duties as a teacher's assistant to the next level by running Zack's class today! To say that he was excited would be, of course, an understatement, and he hoped he did a good job, especially considering that there hadn't been any lesson plans for him and he was going to make something up on the spot.

Naturally, it would have made sense to do something on the Scales side of the class, something with fish or maybe take inspiration from Norman and do something with crabs.

But of course that wasn't what he was going to do.

"Cuccos!"

Chickens, Sidon. They were called chickens. And he had gathered them all up from the coop on the roof of the shelter into a crate, brought them to the classroom, opened up the crate and let them out into the world and onto the class, chuckling proudly.

"Greetings, everyone! Zack is, unfortunately, unable to make it to class today on account of him having fur and paws that he's not quite accustomed to having, and so I hope you'll not be too disappointed that I shall be stepping up to teach the class in his place. And I thought it would be fun if we talked about these little feathered friends, cuccos," chickens, Sidon, "who we have a special little coop for and everything over at the shelter. According to my research, cuccos," chickens, Sidon, if you researched this, you should know this!, "are one of the most wide-spread and domesticated animals in the world! There are more cuccos," chickens, "in the world than any other bird of domesticated fowl! Isn't that amazing? Most people seem to raise them for food and sustenance, as their meat is very popular, as are their eggs. They are relatively easy to care for and make for excellent pets! Sometimes, they can get a little temperamental or violent, especially the males, called roosters," sure, you get roosters right, Sidon, but still not chickens??, "but these ones are all quite lovely and used to people, so you should have no trouble at all, as long as you're kind and good, which I know you all will be.

"I've brought some food for them if you'd like to feed them, but I figured we could just spend the class getting to know all these feathered friends! And if there are any questions, I shall try my very best to answer them!"

puppy_fair

"Hey again, guys," Zack said, smiling as he settled in at the front of the classroom today. "We've got some interesting ones for you today. Apparently someone had a litter of pigs they just couldn't keep, which kind of begs the question of who keeps a fertile breeding pair of anything if they don't want babies in their home, but..."

Zack shrugged. Life running the shelter was apparently making him think about these sorts of things now.

"In any case, today we're going to talk about the Lon I, more locally known as the Vietnamese pot-bellied pig." The little piglets zoomed around in the playpen, and Zack smiled at them. They were kind of cute when they were little like that. "They're traditionally reared for meat, but... less, these days, as a faster-growing pig with a larger meat yield started to take its place. Which, in the case of domesticated animals that are mainly reared for food, is..." He grimaced a little. "It's not great. Their continued survival as a breed depends on a farmer's continued interest in raising them, and keeping genetic stocks diverse is hard to do as fewer people continue to raise them. Farmers are running businesses, after all, and an animal with a slow yield can't keep up in a market where other stock is being selectively bred to be bigger, meatier, faster-growing. Where there were hundreds of thousands of these guys about twenty years ago, they're endangered, now."

Little tiny piggies trotted around in the pen. Just focus on the cute, guys.

"A few were marketed here in America and up in Canada as pets, but that fad didn't last long. A purebred I pig only gets about half a meter tall. But other pig stock, which most 'pet' breeds were interbred with, tends to get considerably larger. You probably don't want it living in your house." He nodded toward the piglets in the pen. "These ones are purebred, mostly a quirk of the multiverse, but the shelter will be sending them to a zoo on the mainland to help increase genetic diversity in their stocks here. In the meantime, you might as well play with them."

A pause.

"Just be aware that they're kind of quick and wiggly if you take them out of the pen. I mean, you're welcome to, but," he gave an amused little smile, "you have to catch them again if you do."

[OOC: Open!]

puppy_fair

Today, Zack had, alas, asked the students to meet him in the danger shop. Today's animal demonstration was going to be no less fluffy or cuddly, nah, but there was a bit of a dearth on fully-grown versions of today's particular animal on the island, and so Zack was going to make do with that he had.

And what he had, apparently, was a simulation of a ranch, populated by large, yellow birds.

"Hey, guys," Zack said, grinning and waving to the students from where he had settled, sitting on the edge of the fence with one of those big yellow birds nuzzling its beak into his hair. "The vet at the shelter told me that maybe I should take a class to explain a bit of the difference between domestication and taming, today. And since I don't know many tamed Earth animals, I figured I'd use an example from home. These guys are chocobos."

( Kweh! )

[OOC: Open!]

puppy_fair

Today for class, Zack had his dog with him. No, she wasn't actually part of the lesson, but she seemed kind of plastered to the side of his leg as he set down a box full of kittens on the floor in the playpen all the same.

His head hadn't really been in the process of finding something new and cool, but if he was being perfectly honest, he'd sort of been holding kittens in reserve for today anyway.

"Hey, guys. Not much of a lecture today. You probably all know cats. They're small, they meow, apparently they domesticated themselves? I don't know, I think I heard that somewhere." He gave the class a smile that was lacking most of the wattage of his usual. "They're also soft and extra playful as kittens, so..."

He waved a hand at the box of kittens. A sort of quiet, 'have at it,' before he stepped back to let the students play and took a seat with his dog instead.

puppy_fair

Zack was totally giving that little, 'well hello to all of you how good to see you today!' grin that he was prone to giving to basically everyone in the world, because Zack, when he came into the classroom today, holding a baby goat in his arms.

Tip had mentioned that they were cute at some point, and today he just so happened to have one.

... He had no idea why anyone was keeping goats on the island in the first place, but it was terribly cute, even if it did keep trying to lean up to eat his hair.

"Hey, guys. Today's class is about goats!" Because why not? How often did a small town animal shelter get something like this in anyway? "Goats were another animal that were domesticated for meat, and for milk, fur, and skins. They are also," he set this particular goat down, and it took off at a prance across the room like nobody's business, "really bouncy."

It was the cutest thing, okay?

"So today we're going to play with the goat. Maybe set up something for it to climb on? They love climbing!"

This class was so educational, weren't you glad you were taking it?

puppy_fair

Today when the class came into the room, they would see the pillows-and-a-playpen setup had remained, the playpen full of a bunch of little round marshmallow balls, just warbling and going about their business.

"Hi, guys," Zack said, grinning brightly at his students. "Today we're going to meet a slightly smaller animal that I'm pretty sure you're going to like anyway. Today, we're going to meet the guinea pig!"

He leaned into the pen and scooped a little cream-colored one up, and then held it close to his chest as he spoke.

"These guys," he continued, "were domesticated on Earth thousands of years ago, probably less for companionship and more for meat. But, uh, please don't eat these guys. They're definitely more the 'companionship' sort. They're rodents, not pigs, and they're pretty easy to hand-tame. They're actually happiest with companionship. Little guinea pig colonies. This group here is a bunch of girls and boys, called sows and boars respectively, but the guys have all been neutered, since, uh... the shelter really doesn't need more guinea pigs."

They didn't need more of most things. Guinea pigs, chickens...

The little one in his hands was making a soft bubbling chattering sound, and Zack smiled a little.

"That sound means she's happy," he shared. "Go on, meet the guinea pigs, and maybe one will make that sound for you, too."

[OOC: Open!]

puppy_fair

Class this week had been told to meet in one of the classrooms, which, like several other classes this year, had been stripped of desks and chairs in order to haul in a large assortment of cushions. And a couch. You better believe Zack moved that couch in all on his own, too.

It also had a playpen in the middle of the room, occupied with about a dozen wrestling, wriggling, happy little puppies.

The much larger puppy at the front of the room wasn't wrestling or doing much wriggling, but he certainly seemed pretty happy about the situation. Even if he had been told to leave his sword at home today.

"Hey, guys!" Zack grinned at the students as they made their way into the room. "I'm Zack Fair, and this is Biology!"

It was so not biology.

"This semester I'm going to pick a new animal every week that people have brought into their lives on the regular, either as companion animals, working animals, or food animals, and we're going to spend some time getting to know them! This week I figured I'd start with the pretty straightforward one. Probably the first thing anyone thinks of when someone says the word 'domestication' is dogs, right?" He moved his hand to the side, his palm resting lightly on the head of a sheltie-type breed who was sitting very politely beside him. "At some point in time, people took a look at an apex predator and said, 'hey, I want to have that wolf as part of the family.' And so... dogs!"

There you go, kids. That was your history lesson. Zack gestured with his free hand toward the playpen.

"We're going to take things pretty easy today," and every other day, "so let's do introductions. Your name, any animal allergies if you have them, why you took this class. And if you aren't allergic to dogs, you can totally introduce yourself while playing with them. They don't get nearly enough love or affection, really."

They got so, so much.

[OOC: Open!]

blonde-doctor.livejournal.com

There are platters of Christmas cookies and a pitcher of punch on a table in the front of the room, and Elliot is wearing a green elf cap and earrings shaped like Christmas tree balls. "Hey, happy final day, happy four-days-until-your-break day. Have some cookies."

"There is a test at each of your seats; you have 30 minutes to complete it. After that, please turn to the pamphlet and pick a lab you would like to do. You don't need to complete it -- the time's really tight -- but I do expect you to show off proper lab technique as you choose and set up the experiment."

"Next semester I'm teaching an anatomy class, in case any of you want to keep going with me. If you don't, think of me next time you carve up a defenseless animal. Either way, I'll try to post your grades by Saturday."

blonde-doctor.livejournal.com

Elliot is sitting on a lab table at the front of the room as students come in, and there is a laptop computer set up at each workstation.

"Hey! So I was going to do a dissection today, but then I realized some of you were vegetarians and others might just find it really icky. And? There are, like, dozens of neat Web sites now that let you pretend to cut up an animal without having to actually handle animal guts or smell like formaldehyde all day. So we're doing that instead."

"The whole reason for dissection is that it gives you a hands-on -- or, this time, mouse-on -- view of what an animal's internal organs look like. All of the stuff that we've learned about genetics and how animals work kind of comes together when you're looking at a pig or rat or frog's innards."

"Your computers have bookmarks for virtual dissections on a fetal pig, a frog and an earthworm, or you can run a search if you really want to find something else to pretend to cut up."

"Our final -- gosh, time flies -- is next week; it's a test, half multiple choice and half practical lab, on everything we covered this semester. Stop by my office hours Thursday if you have questions. "

blonde-doctor.livejournal.com

Elliot looked subdued as she waited for the students to gather. "Hi. I listened to the podcasts from the radio, and I know most of you spent the weekend either fighting trolls or stuck with me in Efferton. So, um, setting the weirdness of the entire thing aside? Easy class today, we're reviewing something you probably did in middle school, the food chain, which is a way of showing the transfer of energy inside an ecosystem. Basically, everything eats something else to survive, and I'm glad humans are not just troll buffets. A more complex and realistic system is called a food web or a food network."

She turned to the blackboard and began to sketch with multicolored chalk. "I can't draw, but this -" she added a ray to the sun and reached for white chalk -- "is a simple food chain. The sun makes the grass grow, the bunny eats the grass, the fox eats the bunny. Everyone is happy. Except the bunny. And the grass, if it has emotions."

She pushed her hair back. "Here's a handout of the concept. To show me you have it, you can either go back to the computers and play a game to put food webs together, or use the colored pencils and paper at your desks to draw your own food chains."

"A quick reminder, next week is our animal dissection, and the week after that is the final."

blonde-doctor.livejournal.com

Elliot handed out a thick packet as the students walked in.

"Hi. Today is botany day, which I know you have all been out of your minds with excitement for. It is the scientific study of plantlife, from the structural level to their purpose in the universe. Today, you're going to be looking at the structures." She explained the structural components and physiology of plants, only blushing a little as she talked about plant reproduction.

"We did a kind of casual dissection last week -- and thanks for cooking turkey for everyone, Jamie, it was only sort of gross -- but this week you're going to do it more seriously."

Elliot started tossing large hibiscus blossoms and small apples at the students, wincing if any hit their marks. "I want you to pair up, and we'll walk through dissections of the flower and the fruit. You're going to be looking at, um, the reproductive structures and kind of comparing and contrasting them. Make sure to fill in your lab reports."

blonde-doctor.livejournal.com

Three large, plastic-wrapped fowl -- and one smaller bundle -- sat on lab tables, and a variety of knives, scalpels and other tools were arranged around them. Elliot appears slightly manic as she greets the class.

"Hey everyone, I know today is supposed to be ecology but that's kind of boring and it's two days before Thanksgiving so I know none of you are paying attention anyhow and we haven't done any dissection yet and we only have a few classes left, soooo we are going to dissect turkeys. Butterball turkeys." She thumped on the one closest to her, which might not have been as thawed as it could be and resounded with a dull thud, for emphasis.

"You would not believe how hard it is to find specific guidelines on dissecting turkeys, but here's a general outline on bird dissections and here's background information about the turkey. One big difference with these from your average dissection will be that the innards will be in a little wax bag, which is really cool but not exactly how it is in most animals. You should find a heart, a liver, the neck and 'gizzards,' whatever those are, in there. You want to look at the bird's bone and muscle structure and how the organs would serve their purpose. Oh, and obviously, these don't have any heads, but I figure you can live without looking at turkey brains."

"No cooking the turkey over Bunsen burners and eating it, unless you want to make enough for the whole class, but, really, it's not that yummy. And if you have ethical problems with dissection, we have a tofurky for you. Which probably will not teach you much about biology except biology of the soybean, but it's a chance to play with knives. You'll be working in groups of three to five, depending on how many of you opt for the vegetarian choice; I'll let you pick your own partners today."

"Any questions?"

blonde-doctor.livejournal.com

Coffee, donuts and juice were set on a table at the front of the class, and Elliot handed out the lab as the students walked in.

"Hey, guys. Today we're going to learn about blood types, which is kind of like DNA but with training wheels on, in that they used to be used for identification back in the dark ages before we had DNA testing. Or, you know, 15 years ago.

"In the human population, there are four major blood types -- O, A, B and AB, and then each can be Rh-negative or Rh positive. In a typical human population, roughly a third each will be A positive and O positive, and the other six groups will split the final third."

Elliot continued with her lecture, explaining antigens, transfusions, and other factors relating to blood type.

"Two activities today, one serious -- well, graded, anyhow -- and one completely goofy. First, I want you to pair up and do one of the activities in your lab handouts. It's your choice whether you do the one with the baby or the one with the murder.

Second, if you have time I want you to look at this handout about the Japanese blood type theory of personality and see how it applies to yourself. There's a test on the bench that will let you type your own blood if you don't know. Like, I'm AB, which makes me, 'Cool, controlled, rational. Sociable and popular. Empathic.' Huh.

"That's it for today, so please get to work."

blonde-doctor.livejournal.com

Elliot looked like she was rather glad she wouldn't have to do a lot of talking this class period.

"Midterm projects," she said simply. "I hope you all enjoyed your breaks more than I did mine, and spent tons and tons of time on this so I won't have to give you a bad grade."

She gestured to a bin on her desk. "Your choices are to either just turn in the paper about your experiment's design or, for extra credit, spend this class period working on doing the experiment. (I know some of them won't fit into the hour, but you can assemble supplies or whatever.) Remember, if you want these are for the science fair in December."

"Next week, we're studying the biosphere."

blonde-doctor.livejournal.com

Elliot looks a tiny bit devious as she waits for students today. "Hi, guys. We're still on natural selection, so I hope you at least pretended to read that chapter in your textbooks.

"I have a couple reminders before we start on the lab for today. First, remember, no class next week; you're going on a field trip with Ms. Frizzle next Thursday instead. And then the week after that is your midterm break. Which means you should have plenty of time to work on your midterm projects that are due November 7. Those should be a design for an experiment based on something we covered in class; if you want to enter the experiment in the school science fair in December, that would be extra awesome. Come see me after class or during my office hours if you have questions about any of this."

"As for today --" Elliot paused to hand out worksheets -- "You guys have five minutes to find all the poker chips you can around the room. When I call time, take your seats, and we'll spend the rest of class discussing both which chips were well-adapted to the classroom environment, and which students were the best hunters, then fill out the lab reports."

"That's it from me, so go for it and happy hunting."

[OOC: The room has white walls, a white acoustic ceiling, a tan tile floor, black lab tables and olive-drab plastic chairs. There are a few multicolored posters on the walls and a small, mostly full bookshelf in a corner of the room, and the rat cage is largely clear with some neon plastic appendages. You can mod the number of chips you find and where they were, within reason; Elliot didn't hide exactly 25 of each, so you don't need to worry about what your classmates found.]

blonde-doctor.livejournal.com

The students have gotten an e-mail telling them to meet in the Danger Shop today -- and to dress for warm weather; when they gather, the doors open on a tropical rain forest scene, with trees rising high above their heads, frogs leaping from leaf to leaf, and the occasional black-and-white streak of a badger rushing through the undergrowth. Elliot's tied her hair back into a ponytail, and she's dressed casually, in a T-shirt and khaki slacks.

"Hi, guys. Today we're talking about evolution and natural selection, and I thought that to show it off, we'd take a little fake trip to one of the most genetically diverse environments in the world -- the Amazon Rainforest.

"I want you to have most of the class to explore, so I'm going to keep my lecture short. The natural selection chapter in your textbook has a lot more information and you should probably read it before the midterm. But basically, natural selection is the way that animals or plants that are well-adapted to their environment get to live to the next generation and pass on their traits."

She reached down and scooped up two frogs, one red and one greenish-yellow, only wincing a little as she did so. "For example, these frogs are very differently colored, because they fill different niches. But if they were suddenly in an environment that was all red or all green, one would be able to camouflage itself and the other would probably be someone's dinner -- not mine, ew -- pretty fast. And the one that isn't dinner gets to have more tadpoles and pass on its genes."

Elliot released the frogs and wiped her hands on her pants. "What I want you to do today is to go into the rainforest -- alone or with a partner -- to observe and pick an animal or plant that's adapted to this environment, and write down 100 words about why the being might survive in the rainforest. Look at everything about the being, from structure to size to diet to coloration. And don't worry about getting lost; I'll hit the button to make the whole rainforest go away at the end of class."

She leaned against a tree trunk and waited for the students to disperse into the rainforest.

blonde-doctor.livejournal.com

There were muffins and juice set up for the class on a table at the front of the room, and Elliot was smiling as she waited to address the class. "Hey, everyone. As I promised, your first quiz is today. On the upside? Free food. It's only five questions so it shouldn't take that long.

"After you're done with the quiz, I'd like for you to read the chapter in your books on biotechnology, which technically means, quote, 'any technological application that uses biological systems, living organisms, or derivatives thereof, to make or modify products or processes for specific use.' In the U.S., though, we mostly say it to mean combining DNAs or tissues of different animals or plants -- things like making tomatoes that have enough firefly DNA to glow in the dark. I'd like for you to come up with a biotechnology project you think could be neat -- or an argument against all uses of biotechnology, if you swing that way -- and share it with the class."

"Finally, Ms. Frizzle and I are working on a couple of things together. For one, no class on the 24th -- you're going on a field trip with her class on the 26th to learn about anatomy instead. Meet on the stairs in front of the school before seventh period. If you can't make it, that's cool, but please let me know in advance so we don't wait for you.

Second, there will be a school-wide science fair on December 14. Participation is completely voluntary, but if you want to enter something, your experiment design will count as your midterm project. That's due on November 7. "

"I think that's it; time to get quizzy with it."

blonde-doctor.livejournal.com

An arrangement of muffins and juice sat on a table near the door, and a rather wobbly drawing of two dragons -- one with wings but not horns, and one with horns but not wings -- decorated the whiteboard. Elliot waited for most students to be in their seats before beginning

"Hey, people. Today we're going to talk about genetics, which is the science of genes, heredity, and the variation of organisms. ( Lecture behind the cut. )

She passed out the lab. "You'll be working in three groups, each with different dragon parents. Work together to set up a table to figure out how likely it is the dragon babies would have wings or horns. I'll be around if you need help. Oh, and quiz next week, so studying would not be the worst idea you could have."

blonde-doctor.livejournal.com

Elliot sipped from a very, very large cup of coffee as she waited for her students. A TV and DVD player had been wheeled into the classroom, and a mound of socks was on each lab table.

"Hi, people. Today you're going to learn about cell reproduction through mitosis and meiosis. They're both processes that cells use to make more cells. The deal is, every living thing begins as one cell. To get the number of cells that are needed to make up, say, Ronnie the rat or you or me, cells need to go through a cycle of division many, many times. And they never stop -- as long as you're alive, cells will keep dividing and growing. Think about skin cells, for example.

The two cells that come from the division of one cell are called daughter cells -- even in boys and men. Each of the daughter cells needs to have a complete set of chromosomes, or genes. The two distinct ways they make those copies are mitosis and meiosis. I have short little movies showing both of them,, because they're kind of complicated to explain, but it's really pretty when you see it."

She cues up the movies, one on mitosis and one on meiosis.

When they're done, she hands out an explanation of the lab. "Go forth and experiment, and try not to throw too many sockosomes at each other."

blonde-doctor.livejournal.com

Elliot grins at the class as they file in, and four lab stations are arranged in the back of the room.

"Hi, guys. We need to do a little bit of chemistry this week before we get into the serious biology. The kind of chemistry used in biology is called biochemistry, or the chemistry of life. There's a whole long chapter in your books about it, but basically it's the study of the chemical processes and chemical transformations in living organisms. Since life forms alive today are believed to have descended from the same common ancestor, they naturally have similar biochemistries -- even for things you'd think might be random, like the genetic code or handedness of various biomolecules.

"Biochemistry is the study of the structure and function of cellular components, such as proteins, carbohydrates, lipids, nucleic acids, and other biomolecules. The biochemistry of cell metabolism and the endocrine system has been extensively described. Other areas of biochemistry include the genetic code -- DNA and RNA -- protein synthesis, cell membrane transport, and signal transduction.

"Today, you're going to split into four groups of three. Each group will test an everyday food for three common kinds of organic molecules -- sugars, proteins and fats. Before you do that, let me show you the experiments you need to do to test for those things."

She proceeded to manipulate a series of vials through experiments to test for sugars, proteins, and fats before waving the students back to the lab tables. " Each group should test one kind of food. I'm not going to assign groups this week, but I might start to in the future. Let me know what you guys would prefer."

blonde-doctor.livejournal.com

Elliot was bouncing on her toes a little as she waited for her class to file in. There were long tables for students to sit at in the front of the room, and a cart with several microscopes and prepared slides near the back. On the side near a window sat a cage with two cheerful rats, Ronnie and Nancy.

Once more or less everyone was here, she started talking.

"Hi! I am Elliot Reid -- you can call me Dr. Reid or Elliot, it doesn't really matter -- and welcome to Biology. I'm going to start by passing out your syllabus.

"Biology, as some of you may know, is the branch of science dealing with the study of life. It talks about things like the characteristics, classification, and behaviors of organisms, how species come into existence, and the interactions they have with each other and with the natural environment.

"Biology tries to explain things like birth, growth, aging, death and decay of living organisms and why organisms look like their parent. And it studies other things too, such as lactation, metamorphosis, egg-hatching, healing and tropism. On a wider scale of time and space, biologists have studied domestication of animals and plants, the wide variety of living organisms-- biodiversity -- changes in living organisms over time -- evolution -- extinction, speciation, social behaviour among animals, and so on.

"This isn't really a subject I can cover in 14 50-minute sessions. A lot of people study it their whole lives. But I'll do my best to give you guys at least a basic overview of the subject, okay?"

"I'm going to have you introduce yourselves, and then I have a handout about cells. Please try to read is sometime this week. The microscopes have been set up to do look at onion root cells to show you guys the life cycle of the cell. You can do the experiment in pairs or alone, and I'll be around to answer questions."

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