[The term] Biology was new when Lamarck first used it, but the pieces he used to construct it were not new: bio- is from the Greek bios, meaning “life”; and -ology was familiar in the endings of many other words (theology, for example). It is also Greek, connected with logos, which means “word”. The whole word biology may be translated as “words about life”, or “the study of living things”.
-John and Joan Levitt, The Spell of Words

Hopefully you found your etymology hand-out interesting.

Your Turn:

• Try to figure out (and comment with possible answers) the words below.
• Remember you may disagree with another class member/poster but it must be done in an appropriate and respectful manner.

Good Luck!

Some tricky Biology words

1. Hydrophilic
2. Spermatogenesis
3. Abiotic
4. Cytology
5. Endocytosis

Bonus word (Take a stab at it!! Come on, give it a try! You will have to use a word origins dictionary to figure this one out.  You can find them online OR I also have one in my room that you can check out.)

Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis

If you find that you really like this, you may want to look into buying the following book.

Dictionary of Word Roots and Combining Forms

Welcome to Ms. Theobald’s BioBlog!

Can you believe that the summer went by so fast?? Me either!

As you can see – we will be using a Biology class blog this year.  I’m not sure how familiar you are with blogs but hopefully throughout this year you will get used to all is has to offer.

• First just explore the site to see what features it has to begin to become comfortable with the functions of the page.
• Now for your homework I want you to post a comment about this entry.
  • I want your comment to list at least one topic that you want to learn about this year and tell me at least one interesting thing you did over your summer break. You are more than welcome to list more than one for each of those categories.

For my end of it–

I’m looking forward to learning from all of you particularly through discussions.  I know you have lots to say and many opinions on Biology topics and I can’t wait for you to share them.  As expected I enjoy teaching all parts of Biology but particularly can’t wait to expose you to genetics (especially modern), evolution, and of course the anatomy of a pig!

Over my summer break I did many exciting things.  I took a trip to Maine, taught summer school, took a grad school class, read some great books, and did some good old fashioned laying out by the pool.  What more could you want?

Ok, now it’s your turn! Start commenting!