Photo-of-the-Day: Heart in a Box

A photo by Robert Clark  shows a human heart ready for transplant. The machine can keep the heart warm and viable for up to twelve hours by delivering oxygenated and nutrient enhanced blood throughout. Check out the video below for an explanation as well. 

Photo-of-the-Day: Anatomical Cross-Sections in Paper

Today I happened to come across this fantastic artist named Lisa Nilsson. She constructed various cross sections of the human body using pieces of rolled paper - yes, rolled paper. Check out her work below as well as her site: Lisa Nilsson

Photo-of-the-Day: Periodic Table of Gummy Bears

I stumbled across this image yesterday; however, my Internet did not work (all day) and so I had to wait to share this with you - The Periodic Table of Gummy Bears. Do you like it?

By: Kevin Val Aelst
(hopefully I spelled that correctly - it was hard to see with the black background and faded font)

Photo-of-the-Day: Melting Ice

Here is a time-lapse animation of ice cubes melting in a glass (50 minutes). [Source: Mysid]

Video-of-the-Day: Invasion of the Body Snatchers?!

I'm not going to spend too much time on this post as I should be prepping for bed. If you watched the video above then you really need no explanation. I am intrigued by the awesomeness, yet horror of Cordyceps. It reminds me of two movies - Invasion of the Body Snatchers and John Carpenter's: The Thing; these are probably the reason why I sometimes have nightmares involving this organism. Anyway, I watched it again today and thought I would share it with you. Enjoy and I apologize for any nightmares this may cause you in the future. ;)
--Bond with James--

Artistic Classroom Ceilings

One of my earlier blog posts highlighted a decorated classroom ceiling.The pictures shown below are from a school in Austin, Texas named Travis High School. It is one of the campuses I support. Travis HS was also where I completed my student teaching experience.  The ceiling art (pictures 1 - 4) has to be over 10 years old because that's how long ago my student teaching experience was. I know other classroom ceilings have recently added art (pictures 5-6).

This was something I wanted to do in my own classroom but never got around to it. However, one of my goals is to return in a few years and I plan to have my students decorate my room. Anyway, enjoy the pictures and I hope they inspire you to create something similar or unique in your classroom.  
-Bond with James-

Human Body Systems Interactive Graphic Organizers & Activities

After the success of my interactive chemistry graphic organizers, I decided to branch into biology (it's what I received my degree in). I immediately wanted to create a human body systems graphic organizer set based on human body clip art I purchased a few months ago (I used several of the images in my chemistry task cards series). However, the set was missing a few of the body systems and caused the project to be put on hold. I contacted another clip artist on TpT to determine if she could expand her set. Unfortunately, I never heard back after a few messages between us. I decided to ask the artist whose set I used in my task card series to expand her original set (check her out here). Anyway, she came through as promised and now I have this fantastic addition to my TpT store. 

There are 11 Interactive Graphic Organizers (IGOs) that incorporate all the human systems and 1 Human Systems Interactions activity (seen in the bottom right of the above picture). I plan on expanding the product to include more activities and graphic organizers for classroom use. As with all my sets, I've included color and black & white versions. While the IGOs are okay in black & white, I highly recommend the Human Systems Interactions activity be printed in color.

Includes:

• The following human systems are represented: integumentary, digestive, lymphatic (immune), endocrine, excretory, circulatory, reproductive (male and female), skeletal, muscular, nervous, and respiratory.
• The following human tissues are represented: epithelial, connective, nervous, and muscle.
• All IGOs come in two versions: color and black/white
• Directions, ideas, pictures, and suggestions are included for immediate classroom use

Finally....
Happy New Year! This is my first blog post of the new year. I took a break from creating new items, Pinterest, and a bunch of other things. Now I'm back and ready to add new ideas for 2014. :)