Australia's Science Forum

Pleas help,
We (teachers and I) are searching for new ideas for yr 11 Bio Prac assessment task. Previously we have done the Rate of reaction with liver, phenol.. agar and looked at certain slides of cells. We are now thinking that siblings are coming through and using notes from elders so we want something we never done before or to do something a little different.
Please any ideas will help.
Trish

What topic do you need this for??

WE do the grosser than gross urine analysis EEI!

The focus question is: Does the type and quantity of liquid intake affect the quality and quantity of liquid output in the human body?

The little cherubs have to spend a week (usually the first out of our 2 week April hols) assessing the Q&Q of their own urine. They work in groups, so some compare intake by having one child drink only coke another only OJ and another water. The group that had a diabetic kid compared quantities of water intake. Some kids went to Bunnings and got paint strips to create a colour chart. Some tested pH, others used Uristix.

Then they had to write up, noting that other factors of human activity can affect liquid output, including perspiration (in Cairns - surprising eh?), respiration, etc etc. Lots of scope for margins of error etc.

Once they got over the "grossness" factor, some of our darlings got right into it. Hope this could be of interest.

Trish, this siblings issue is I think, of concern in most schools.

We are always ont he lookout as well. It works ok if there is a "pool" of pracs that are rotated at random.

Sorry, the topic that we do is patterns in nature. Thanks.

I thought using bodily fluids was illegal.
We can't even use spit for emzymes!

Ah, but you see they don't do it at school, and they aren't exchanging fluid - - luckily!!!

Most, if not all, cherubs bought gloves & $2 measuring jugs from cheapo shops and disposed of everything at the end of the experiment. We even asked them to photograph the test sticks, rather than include the actual stick in their journals .

Isn't modern technology great,Gosh I feel old!