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Saturday, August 8, 2015

First days of school 2015-2016 and butterflies ...























Has the Monarch migration started?  While bush-hogging today, I saw eight.  This one was in a zinna flower bed at our house.

After two days of PD last week, students arrived on Wednesday.  Lots of housekeeping work with tons of forms the first day but, we got a start in all classes.  By Friday, we were able to get some projects rolling.

Computer Programming I started with a graphical logic trainer ... Karel the Robot.  We have worked  through some problems (five) without decision statements.
    Around the Block
    Pick Up the Package
    Take Out the Trash
    Pick the Corn
    Grand Prix with Karel
All these problems can use the define-new-instruction and iterate commands.  We are hoping to have Grand  Prix finished toward the end of next week and we will do a solution check at that point.  Students working on their Karel problems below in the Media lab (new Dells this year!)



https://www.cs.mtsu.edu/~untch/karel/

In Computer Programming II we finally got started after some login problems to the Cloud via the Snap website.  We are starting the year with Snap (UC Berkeley).  It is similar to Scratch (MIT) but, is one of the perferred languages for the AP Computer Science Principles class (scheduled to be offered for the first time in 2016-2017).  We have started our first problem set.

http://snap.berkeley.edu/

Selected Topics in Science started the Regeneration Lab using Planaria on Thursday.  Planaria are freshwater flatworms found locally.  After a light/dark test, student cut their planaria into two parts.  In about 10-14 days, the posterior ends will grow and head.  Next week we will start the Great Plant Growing Contest and study biochemistry.

On the farm this weekend ...

Most of the Tiger Swallowtails have started to show some wear and tear.  Below, a Question Mark (an Anglewing eating deer scat) ... with a fly in the background. Below the Question Mark is a Black Swallowtail. 



A few of the Tiger Swallowtails look like they recently emerged ... on coneflowers and cupflower.




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