Happy New Year to All!

It was wonderful having snow for Christmas ... a pict from our hives on the goat field north of Holland.  Most hives seem to be doing okay.

We had a good Christmas.  Our daughter, Hannah, was in for a few days from San Francisco.  Our oldest daughter and her husband Kyle was down from Champaign, IL to visit on two weekends.  Our son, John, went with us up to Ohio to see my sister's family and my Dad.

I visited my Sunday school teacher while in Ohio ... he was a WWII veteran and life long dairyman.  I ate and stayed at their house on several occasions visiting his son (my cousin) when I was young.  It was so good to visit and talk with him.  I was spell-bound by his stories of WWII when I was young and I still love to hear them.

I got some good presents for Christmas, including some great books, seeds to plant in the garden next summer and clothes.  I am reading one of my books and hope to finish before returning to school ... "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" by Rebecca Skloot.  It is about the HeLa cell line that is used all over the world in cell research ... these cells originated from Henrietta Lacks over 60 years ago from cervical cancer cells.  A very interesting book!

Today I worked with students preparing for the protein structure problem in Science Olympiad.  Went to the basketball games yesterday and stopped by the tournament for a sandwich today ... lots of hard work and dedication from the softball booster club to put the holiday tournament on ...

Tomorrow is suppose to warm up enough I can check some hives and I have a couple of student recommendations to write.

Wishing you all the best new year in 2011!

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First Semester is OVER for most!

We had some students take off early so will have their finals and presentations to make up before they can pass ... especially in Selected Topics.

We went over our final in Genetics this morning ... then danced out to Second Block.  Most students are going on to AP Biology ... make sure you do your reading assignment on Ecology during Christmas ... Lab 12 when we return!

Computer Programming ended with Josh being awarded best Final Project.  I will post his pict later this week on www.patscience.com ... that was sure a fancy trophy!

We had several students present their exit projects in Selected Topics in Science today.  A few failed to make it to school and we will have to make that up on return.  For many it was not easy to get up and talk in front of the class ... a skill to work on!

Hope you all have a great Christmas and Happy New Year ... be careful driving over the holiday ... I know that some of you don't pay much attention ... drive slow!

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Half way finished with finals and a Christmas pict ...

Today, we had finals in first and third blocks.  Tomorrow, our final day of school in 2010, we will have finals second and fourth blocks.

Genetics had a cumulative final this morning ... it is hard to remember all the that science from August on but, at the next level in college you will have to be able to do just that!  I am grading them as we speak and it appears they are above what I expected after hearing all that moaning and groaning this morning.  Tomorrow we will go over our last two tests in class and talk a little about our AP assignment for the Christmas holiday.  Students moving on to AP already have their textbooks, syllabus, first lab (Dissolved Oxygen and Primary Productivity Lab) and our first set of discussion questions ... all over the reading assignment - Ecology - Chapters 52-56.
Make sure you keep up or stay ahead in AP it is much more demanding than Genetics!   I have a lot of that material on www.patscience.com

We reviewed two projects today and will finish the remaining final projects tomorrow in Computer Programming.

We took our Big 100 Final today ... 100 questions over the junior CATS assessment ... Congratulations to Kellie for having the highest score and setting a new all time Big 100 high score for any Selected Topics class at the high school!  That is BIG!  Tomorrow we will finish our exit projects then head to the house for vacation!

Ms Roberts and I had our children home for the weekend ... Hannah lives in San Francisco and can only come home a couple of times a year.  Rachel (our oldest daughter) and her husband (Kyle) live in Champaign IL and John is doing a Master's program at WKU ... it is rare to have them all home at one time and those times are special ... They all went to school at ACS a few years back and I am including a picture ... Shown below ... Roberts family, Franklin and Gaye Foster and Ms. Conner (Granny, Sue Neal's mother an ACS teacher of 39 years)

See you on Monday!

We will now be going to school on Monday and Tuesday of next week to make up snow days.  Finals are scheduled for those days ... First /Third Blocks on Monday and Second / Third blocks on Tuesday.

More personally ... my own children are headed home for a early Christmas since Hannah has to work during Christmas ... she is flying in from San Francisco today ... Rachel (oldest daughter) and her husband Kyle is driving down from Champaign, IL and John will be over from WKU/Bowling Green.  We rarely have them all home at one time so it will be a great weekend for Ms Roberts and I.

Today in Genetics we took our last regular test over Chapters 15-22 and some of the labs we have done with mixed reviews.  On Monday we will have a Cumulative final for bonus and maybe get a head start on AP on Tuesday before we depart.

We started review our final Microsoft Visual BASIC projects today and will continue on Monday.  All have be good and a couple were above that.  All students should have some basic skills in programming and logic ... at least enough to know if they want to pursue it as part of their career.

In Selected Topic in Science, we started or exit projects .. John T has a good one on the Science of Muscle Fibers ... the difference between high twitch and slow twitch fibers and how they work. David gave a good summary on The Science of Black Holes.  For many of these students it is difficult to get up in front of people to speak but it is a skill that is required in most jobs.  A good time to practice that skill.

Hope you all have a great weekend and be careful!

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Back to School! Yeah!

Back to school today finally ... we had club schedule today and our last softball conditioning session / open hitting at BSA was after school.  Preseason conditioning starts on January 4th and our tryouts will be open to all students and from February 15-18.

In Genetics today we handed in our AP Biology test for practice ... lots of scores in the 3 range without doing all the labs and much of the AP content which is a good sign.  Tomorrow we will have our last test over Chapters 15-22.  We will have a cumulative Final for bonus before heading to AP.

I hope to the have the first installment of AP docs on google docs by tomorrow and links to my website by this weekend ... www.patscience.com

We are ready to start our assessments of our final projects in Computer Programming tomorrow.

In Selected Topics we begin our presentations tomorrow ... Next Monday is the Big 100 final and on Tuesday we will finish our exit project presentations.

I will get some picts of our posters and presentations and post them over the next few days.

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??? No school tomorrow ... again!

No school tomorrow, Wednesday ... I guess in anticipation of the forecasted ice storm.

Warmed up in Holland today and some of the snow melted.  Sue Neal and I spent some time getting the house ready for Christmas ... I suspect we will be going to school next week.  Our youngest daughter is flying in from San Francisco on Friday and our other children are coming in for an early Christmas.

I bottled the rest of our honey from last summer so we could we give it away for Christmas.  Graded some papers and typed our final test in Genetics.

Took a walk this evening down almost to Long Creek.  Not many animals moving around ... a couple of deer.

Finished our Christmas letter this evening and worked on my website and will publish and update tomorrow.

Hope you all are having fun in the snow and be careful driving!  Hopefully, we will get back to school on Thursday and put together a game plan to finish off the semester.

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Snow and No School today!

About three inches of snow in Holland and cold ... fed birds this AM and sweep the snow off the porches.  Working on some odd jobs and will grade papers after lunch and enter some grades.

Our Patriot Softball Booster Club meeting will be postponed until next Monday evening.

No Allen County Beekeepers meeting today ... I checked my hives on Sunday morning without opening them.  Made sure the bottom boards were completely in and duck taped the ventilation holes.  It is a long way to February but they all had significant honey reserves with the exception of one hive and I will continue to feed them through the winter ... hopefully they will make it.

As for schedule changes ... I don't know if they will have club schedule tomorrow but, our schedule is set ...

Genetics - we will now be having our test on Thursday if we have club schedule tomorrow.  I will finish handing out AP books to non-genetics students for second semester and giving them their Christmas reading assignment in Genetics.  Your sample AP exam is due on Tuesday still.

Computer Programming - Hope your project is getting close because we will begin checking them on Wednesday and finish on Thursday.

Selected Topics in Science ... we will start our Exit Project presentations on Wednesday ... Poster or Powerpoint, verbal summary (3-5 minutes), and written summary in the form of an article for a school newspaper or website.  Be ready to go!

Hard to predict if we will go to school next Monday or Tuesday in which case, we will move some of our project deadlines back a day or two.

Hope you have a great day ... be careful if you have to drive!

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Have a good weekend!

Basketball at Cumberland tonight ... good luck!

Several BETA from my first block class were in Louisville to a state meeting today.  In Genetics, we reviewed for our test on Monday.

In Computer Programming we continued to work on our exit project.  I checked several of the programs today and they look great so far ... some of the best Microsoft Visual BASIC programs we have ever had!

Selected Topics in Science - We did some reading in Current Science then worked on our posters for presentations that begin on Tuesday.

I have a Kentucky Softball Coaches Association meeting tomorrow ... softball is just around the corner!

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Starting to wrap up activities for the semester!

This morning our Genetics class had our monthly breakfast in first block.  Barnyard, biscuits and more with Sourwood Springs honey.  Afterwards we went over our review sheet for our last chapter test on Monday. We also handed out and started on a sample AP Biology exam to see where we stand ... the last 20 questions are lab set questions and will be good practice for Saturday's ACT exam.  Tomorrow we will have 5 students out to the BETA convention.  We will continue on our practice AP Exam and do a practice test of Monday's real test.

My Introduction to Computer Science continued to work on the exit projects ... appears to be some of the best ever!  We had some volunteers in this class clean up the leftovers from our first block breakfast.

We finished our population genetics lab in Selected Topics in Science and wrote up the lab report.  Tomorrow we return to our Exit Projects with some computer time and making our posters.

GSP applications were due today so a lot of teachers were writing recommendations ...

Club Schedule has been moved to Tuesday of next week with finals on Thursday and Friday.

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Population Genetics Lab and more ...

Faculty meeting after school today and softball conditioning was conducted by Coach Bunton.

ILP day for my home room ... IMHO I don't think most students get much of a vision where they stand and where they can go from a piece of software.  In any case, my homeroom missed class to update their ILP - Individual Learning Plan.   Someone in some country made a boat of money with this software .... maybe that is the lesson.

Class review for today ...

In Genetics we finished out book today with discussions questions on human reproduction treatments for infertility ... IVF, GIFT and ZIFT and questions centering around the human genome program and model organisms.  We finished our class with our review game.

In Computer Programming we started a web search on the history of computer science and the people that made it happen, early home computers and programming languages.  Several students continued to work on their exit projects.

In Selected Topics in Science we added a population genetics lab to understand how the changing of organism over time (evolution) works ... natural selection.  We will finish this lab tomorrow and give students time to work on their exit projects.

Don't forget that the ACT test is Saturday at the high school ... good luck to all!

Next week will be busy ... Genetics test on Monday ... Club Schedule on Tuesday ... Finals on Thursday and Friday next week before leaving for Christmas vacation.

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Cold, Cold and ACT on Saturday!

Good luck to the Patriot basketball teams at Barren this evening!

Students received their PSAT scores today ... you need about 207 to qualify for national merit semi-finalist in Kentucky out a possible 240.  You can only qualify as a junior.  Hopefully we will have someone qualify ...  being a National Merit Semifinalist is a BIG honor and results in $$$ when you apply to college!  Something every serious student should work toward from their freshman year on to junior year.

Good luck to all our students taking the ACT on Saturday.

In Genetics today we finished our lab report and graphs for the data we collected from our mini-lab using a spectrophotometer yesterday.  We did some research on the absorption peaks of methylene blue across the visual spectrum of light.  Our transmission of light data fit perfectly with the absorption rates of methylene blue ... data was perfectly inversely proportional.  We also started on our last set of discussion questions and should finish them tomorrow.  Mostly genetic testing and human reproduction problems today.

Our projects in Introduction to Computer Science continued today.  Projects are coming along well.  Tomorrow we are going to take a break from our program to do a little history of computers and computer science.

In Selected Topics, we did a graphing problem in our comp books.  Following this we finished the write up of our Super Structure Lab.  Tomorrow we are going to do some ACT practice and our weekly reading.

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Super Structure Contest ... 207 pounds!

We had softball conditioning after school today ... free weight station work and our wall ball (Allen County Handball) tournament began.

Genetics - We did a spectrophotometer lab today ... since we have only two specs it took some time.  We are going to analyze our results tomorrow class and work on Chapter 20 discussion questions.

Introduction to Computer Science - Exit projects are coming along really well ... several students have animated objects as part of their projects.  All projects are in Microsoft Visual BASIC.

Today in Selected Topics in Science we tested our super structures build of popsicle sticks ... 8" tall structures weighing only 34 grams.  Our winners ... Ben White, Tyler Bullington and John T Williams built a structure that held 207 pounds ... students learned about laminations, load bearing members and other physics/building principles.  We will finish this lab tomorrow and work on some ACT practice questions.

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Great Game - You did well!

Having coached in many state competitions I know the pressure on both the coaches and players.  AC-S comes to state competitions as the country kids and we never have some of the opportunities the suburban and urban school and communities can provide.  What has been the case for our teams and the football team last night is playing as a team.  Not wanting to let your teammates down. That team dynamic was in the mix last night and it got ACS to within on big play of a state championship.  It was an inspired game and I for one, was proud of you!

Regardless of classes or lack thereof ... there has never been a state champion or a state runner-up at our high school.  You can now mark off state runner-up.

For Monday -

Genetics - Chapter 20 and 21 questions ... we plan to finish the book by midweek and have a final test.  We have a Spec lab sometime next week ... maybe Monday or Wendnesday

Genetics - We are doing an extra animation problem on Monday but most of the week will be dedicated to your exit project.

Selected Topics in Science - Super Structures will be tested on Monday in the field house ... Good Luck!

Next week there is a lot of distractions  ... Club Schedule on Tuesday ... ILPs the middle of the week and more.  We may juggle some assignments around.

Christmas Parade today ... Girls Softball will be the Grand Marshall ... The team was third in the state tournament last year, losing in the finals of the winner bracket to the eventual state champion ... as I have said, we know your pain.

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Big Football Game Tomorrow - Good luck!

In Genetics we went over Chapter 19 Discussion Questions and prepped up a lab with out spec-20s which will now be pushed back to Monday ... We are working to finish our book by Wednesday next week ... ACT practice and some AP questions tomorrow ...

Computer Science projects are coming along ... several will add animation which is new for our exit projects.  Work on these project continue tomorrow ...

Final full day on our Super Structure Lab/Contest today ... several look like they will hold over 25 lbs ... we will test these on Monday.  Tomorrow we are in the computer lab for half the block then wrapping up our structure building efforts.

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Projects continue

In Genetics, we are wrapping up the last few chapters of our Ricki Lewis textbook.  Today the discussion questions centered on Chapter 18 - Cancer ... oncogenes, proto-oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes.  Tomorrow Chapter 19 Discussion questions are on the tools of biotechnology - bacterial transformations (a lab we have completed), PCR, and more.

Computer Science - We are spending the week working on our final projects ... today we worked on animation of objects in Microsoft Visual BASIC, an area we usually do not get to ... will help some of our gaming development programs.

In Selected Topics in Science, we are wrapping up our structures to test on Friday ... several are really taking shape after a few failed efforts.

Tomorrow we have softball conditioning after school

Friday is the big game at WKU - the 4A state football championship - Go Pats!

Saturday is the Christmas Parade - the 2010 Pat Softball Team are the Grand Marshall.

Closed done some of my hives this evening in the dark ... most of the hives have lots of honey for the winter ... hoping for the best!

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Super Structures taking shape!

Lots of meetings after school and getting home late ... 2" of rain over the last 24 hours ... snowing this evening.

Selected Topics in Science - We continued our lab / contest to build a structure weighing less than 34 grams that will support at least 50 pounds ... some great ideas and several restarts.  Tomorrow we are going to the computer lab for some research time and will spend half the block continuing our super structure lab.

We spent the day in Computer Science working up a storyboard on student's exit projects.  These are due tomorrow.

In Genetics, after our morning quiz, we reviewed again the biochemical pathways of photosynthesis and respiration.  We then tested water for the amount of dissolved oxygen present in the sample using LaMotte kits and the winkler method which included a titration and endpoint color change.  We resupplied all the kits which we will use in our first lab after Christmas in AP Biology ... The Dissolved Oxygen and Primary Productivity Lab.  Tomorrow we are going over our discussion questions on Cancer - Chapter 18.

Pats first basketball game tonight against South Warren ... hope all went well ... Go Pats!

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Super Structure contest starts today!

We will be having school on Friday since the game is late ... pep rally at 1:45.

In Genetics today, we continued to work on the immune system questions ... secondary response and some work on the structure of antibodies.  Also we will be doing a lab on dissolved oxygen in water tomorrow using Lamotte kits. This is in preparation for AP second semester.  We handed out AP books today with the syllabus (posted on patscience.com).  In AP, we have a Christmas reading assignment on ecology.  Trying to get a head of the snow days!

We peer evaluated our tutorial programs today in Computer Science.  Most used WWII as a subject area and our audience for this program was fifth graders.  There were some disappointing efforts along with a couple of excellent programs.  Congrats to David Rutledge for programming the best tutorial program.  This week we are going to work on our exit projects.

Finally, in Selected Topics in Science, we started our Super Structure contest ... the structure, made of popsicle sticks (34 grams max, must be 8 inches tall) will be tested on Friday. We have a list of the world's biggest and best structures we are using as a background study.  Maybe we have an up and coming Frank Lloyd Wright!     ...   We have several other projects we are working on this week as the glue dries ... junior exit projects and ACT prep.

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Saturday - a little shopping and ...

Congrats to the football team on their advancement to the state finals ... the only team ever in the history of ACS and Scottsville to be in the final game.

Shopping with Ms. Roberts today ... Hobby Lobby had tons of stuff made in the USA ... you know how I feel about this.  The other night, I could only find seven items in the whole LL Bean catalog made in the USA.  Remember this holiday season to buy local first, the CommonWealth second and Made in the USA.  The job you save may be your own!

Worked on the farm this afternoon, moving brush and burning a brush pile (not very environmentally sound).

One more day of deer hunting - modern gun ... be careful!

Winter softball conditioning starts on Tuesday ... we will go Tu and Th next week, may be out of school on Friday?

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Have a great Thanksgiving Break! ... and a pict!

Pep rally at school today ... lost considerable time in both First and Second blocks.

Yesterday we had the Amazing Race to finish off fall conditioning in softball.  Congrats to Keanna, Kellie and Katelyn for figuring out the riddles and bringing in all nine clues.

We did a quick overview of the immune system and Chapter 17 to start the day in Genetics.  Afterwards, got a quick AP review game be before heading to the Pep Rally.  On Monday, we will go over our discussion questions for Chapter 17, hand out ... AP Books, AP Lab 12 and the AP syllabus ... time to get to work and we can work on both Genetics and AP before heading to Christmas break.

We only had a few minutes in Computer Science so checked our programs to review on Monday.  Most of next week will be spent generating our final student generated programs due the last week of school before Christmas.

In Selected Topics we did an overview of the Structure Lab - The Tower we will begin on Monday ... an engineering problem.  We also went over most of the questions in the Big 100 - our final for the semester taken later.

Hope you all have a great Thanksgiving vacation ... Good luck to the football Pats in Louisville ... don't get distracted by the hoopla ... the next play is the most important play ... Go Pats!   rr

Monday of a short week / Last Fall conditioning day for softball!

Today in Genetics, we finished our second and last restriction enzyme / electrophoresis lab.  We went over the discussion questions and handed the lab write up in during class.  We also went over the discussion questions in Chapter 16 - Human Ancestry and assigned a few discussion questions in Chapter 17 - The Immune System (an important chapter for AP).  Tomorrow we will start Chapter 17 with an overview ... humoral and cell-mediated responses ...   We will also play our review game instead of having a morning quiz.

We finally finished our tutorial program and we plan to peer check it tomorrow ... allowing all students to test each others programs during class.

In Selected Topics, we finished our unit on Human Anatomy and we have a take home test for tonight ... open resource and open note.  Eighty questions, most of which we had on our daily quizzes.  Tomorrow we are working on our exit projects which are due the last week of this semester.

Today was our last softball condition session of the fall and we played our annual Amazing Race game ... congrats to Keanna, Kellie and Katelyn ... a few miles of running and some tough riddles but you prevailed!  Again congrats!

Tomorrow is a pep rally ... we will parts of first and second blocks.

Patriot Football Showdown tonight ... Good Luck!

Rematch with Lone Oak tonight ... good luck!

Today in Genetics and Biotechnology, we continued our second restriction lab ... measuring gels and plotting the information on log paper to estimate the size of unknown fragments cut with different restriction enzymes. We did not completely finish and will finsh up on Monday along with going over our discussion questions on Chapter 16. 

We finished our tutorial problems today and will conduct our peer review on Monday.  Next week we are working on our final projects.

In Selected Topics today we discussed topics in reproduction and took a quiz on human organ systems.  Tried to watch the Friday Show but the internet was off ... so finished working on our Human Organ vocabulary.  Next week we will finish organ systems on Monday and review.  Test on Human Organ systems as well as, Osmosis/diffusion on Tuesday before we head to Thanksgiving.

Hope you all have a great and safe weekend ... rr.

Restriction Lab II today ...

Today in Genetics we completed our second and last electrophoresis lab to cut and analyze lambda DNA.  The gels are destaining tonight and tomorrow we will make some calculations to determine the size of DNA strands after cutting the DNA with different restriction enzymes.

We have one or two students to complete their tutorial program ... hopefully we can wrap this us tomorrow and have some peer evaluations.

We are in our fourth day of human anatomy study of organ systems ... today was the human brain and we finished our muscle identification activity.  Tomorrow is reproduction and sense organs.  We hope to wrap up this anatomy unit tomorrow or Monday before we leave for Thanksgiving vacation.

Tomorrow the softball team is hitting at BSA ... schedule is by my classroom door.

Restriction Lab II tomorrow ...

Busy week ... faculty meeting / PD after school today so late getting to this blog update.

In Genetics, we finished our Chapter 15 discussion questions today and started our chapter on Human Ancestry and Evolution, Chapter 16.  Tomorrow however, we will be doing our second Restriction Enzyme / Electrophoresis Lab.  This lab is a step up from our first lab and is also an AP Biology lab.  Students will cutting a viral DNA (Lambda) with three restriction enzymes (enzyme found in bacteria that cut through specific DNA sequence) ... BamHI, EcoRI and HindIII.  We will the load these samples into an agarose gel and to separate the DNA fragments.  We will analyze our gels on Friday after we stain them with Methylene Blue and destain overnight.

In Computer Science, we continued work on our tutorial programs for 5th graders.  Most students are generating programs using World War II as their subject area.  We should finish be Friday.

We continued our study of human body organ systems ... today the immune system, types of antibodies and the importance of breast feeding from an immunity standpoint.  Toward the end of class we worked on our identification of bones and muscles of the body.

Tomorrow there will be a change in softball conditioning because of predicted rainfall ... check my room for the update tomorrow.

Also have updated our Genetics page with the data from our Drosophila Lab.

Be careful driving to school in the morning ... appears it will be raining with fog.

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Homeroom tomorrow AM ...

Students will be going to homeroom during first block tomorrow.  Grade updates will be handed out to each student, students will vote for basketball homecoming candidates and some housekeeping tasks for juniors and seniors.

In Genetics today, we finished our restriction enzyme analysis lab.  This included calculating fragment size of Lambda DNA cut with EcoRI using a Lambda / HindIII standard.  This is half of AP Lab 6.  We will be doing a more extensive version of this lab on Thursday and Friday of this week.  This technology is common in many fields of biotechnology ... including forensics.  We started our discussion questions for Chapter 15 ... Population Genetics.

In Computer Science this week, we have a Microsoft Visual BASIC problem to create a program that will quiz fifth graders on one of three topics ... World War II, Astronomy or Geography.  This program will give the correct response for wrong responses and give the student a score after 10 questions.

We continued our study in Organ Systems today with the circulatory system in Selected Topics today.  We studied the flow of blood through the heart, differences between arteries / veins and the components of blood.  We had a quiz on this information afterwards.  We finished the day with a practicum over the major bones of the body.  Tomorrow we will be continuing on human organ systems ... endocrine and immune systems and practice ACT questions in science.

Wouldn't want to be a deer today!!!

Congrats to the Pats last night in football ... one game at a time.  Krisston is running at the state AA championship this morning in Lexington ... good luck and a sub-20 minutes to her!

Yesterday we had our last fly count in Genetics ... I left the data at school but will post it on Monday.  We counted almost 4000 fruit flies by sex and mutation then ran a Chi Square Analysis on the data.  Everyone did a great job and will be able to breeze through this lab in AP later.  We are going to go over the results of our restriction electrophoresis lab on Monday and cover the discussion question in Chapter 15 (I will post these on our website ... www.patscience.com

In computer science we worked through some difficulties with our Casino problem.  Checked off a couple of students ... will check the rest of the class on Monday.  We are working on our final projects ... lots of good ideas!  We are making some good progress in Microsoft Visual BASIC.

In Selected Topics in Science we started our unit on Human Anatomy.  Friday was the digestive system.  Circulatory and bones of the body on Monday.  This mini-unit will last five day.

Hope you all have a safe start to deer season!
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What is on the stove for Friday ...

Genetics - We will finish our Drosophila Lab ... last count (1500+ flies) and Chi Square Analysis ... Caption Friday tomorrow also ...

Introduction to Computer Programming - We will finish and check our casino problem tomorrow.

Selected Topics in Science - Tomorrow starts our 5 days of Human Anatomy ... digest and circulatory systems tomorrow!

Electrophoresis Day!

Late getting home ...

Genetics - Today we did our electrophoresis lab using Lambda DNA (viral) cut with two restriction enzymes ... HindIII and EcoRI ... we are destaining the gels tonight and will analyze them tomorrow.  Don't forget caption Friday ... have those ready to go!

Introduction to Computer Science ... We continued on with our casino problem ... slow go in the coding section ... will work on this problem again tomorrow ... all in Microsoft Visual BASIC.

Selected Topics in Science ... Today we finished our Osmosis Lab and handed it in.  Tomorrow we start 5 days of Human Organ system study.  Starting with the digestive system.

After school - softball conditioning at the Barren River Dam ... winning team was the Smoochers ... 8 players in 45 minutes ran 16 miles and 26 Dam hills ... pretty good!  All together the 16 participants today ran for a total of 31 miles and 40 Dam hills.  Of course, we refreshed at Ranger Bob's afterwards ... a well deserved stop!

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Diffusion and Osmosis Lab today ...

Club schedule today so we had a lot of people out of first block and few out of second.  The rest of the week looks good.

Genetics and Biotechnology - Today we finished our Chapter 6 discussion on the genetics of intelligence and did some prep on our Restriction Enzyme lab for tomorrow.  This electrophoresis of DNA lab is a required lab in AP so our genetic students are getting a head start.  We will be running an agarose gel to separate fragments of DNA in order to estimate their size ... will try and get some picts of our gels on my website.

Introduction to Computer Science - Our class worked on a Microsoft Visual BASIC problem to make a math tutorial for an elementary school student.  A step up from what we have been programming.  We will finish this problem tomorrow.

Selected Topics in Science - Today we finished and checked our biome study and biome vocabulary.  We had a lab over diffusion and osmosis today and will finish it tomorrow.  In this lab, we measured osmosis between a 0.0 molar solution, a 1.0 molar solution of sucrose and a soft drink to calculate the molar equivalency of the soft drink.  We collected data today and will analyze it tomorrow.

1800 flies and counting ... Club Schedule Tomorrow!

Genetics and Biotechnology - We made our Drosophila crosses two weeks ago ... Sepia (autosomal brown eye mutants) and White (X-linked white eye mutant) crosses ... we counted out 1800 flies and will count again on Friday ... Drosophila (fruit fly) life cycle is about 14 days.  We gave the flies a dose of Fly-Nap and that puts them asleep for about 40 minutes. We finished the day with reading groups discussing Ridley's Genome book.

Introduction to Computer Programming - We started two problems in Microsoft Visual BASIC ... A math tutoring program and a casino slot machine simulation.  Everyone is off to a good start in Microsoft Visual BASIC.  Also talked about our final in this class which is designing a program in an area of interest ... will update this later

Selected Topics in Science - Today we began the day with a graphing problem and later finished our study of terrestrial biomes. We are just starting out second Biology Unit which includes a lot of CATS testing review and a junior exit project.

After school ... late night!
Softball Conditioning
Softball Booster Club Meeting
Allen County Bee Club Meeting

Tomorrow is Club Schedule so many people will be out of class.

Fly Count on Monday! They are ready!

Genetics and Biotechnology - Today we started class with a little breakfast buffet ... finished Chapter 13-14 discussion questions ... We are reading a couple chapters out of Matt Ridley's book Genome. This book has 23 chapters (one for each chromosome).  We are reading Chapter 6 on Intelligence, and another of their choice. Also, APES participants need to hand in their responses to our discussion questions over Chapters 13-14.
We will be counting out our fruit fly crosses on Monday ... two mutants ... Sepia eye (autosomal recessive) and white eye (sex-linked trait) ... normal eye color in fruit flies (Drosophila)

Computer Programming - We finished out fourth Microsoft Visual BASIC problem today by designing a Graphical User Interface for a game that allows the user to guess a number between 1-100.  We will check problems on Monday and introduce our next set of problems.

Selected Topics in Science - We talked about 5 types of bacteria and read a CNN article about the cholera epidemic currently in Haiti.  We started our study of major biomes of the world.  We will finish this study on Monday.

Tomorrow will be the CC regionals ... GO PATRIOTS! ... this is the 21st year of CC at ACS ... some great runners this year and many throughout those years ... check the history of Pat CC out on www.patscience.com

Blue People of Kentucky

Selected Topics in Science - After our BGTC field trip yesterday, we started our final Biology Unit with an article about the Blue People of Troublesome Creek.  This was a case study of a family that had methomoglobinemia (caused by an enzyme deficiency) which is an autosomal recessive trait. Tomorrow we will be studying biomes of the world and biogeochemical cycles ... especially the nitrogen cycle.

Genetics - With over half the class gone, we went over our discussion questions in Chapter 13 (will try and attach a link to these questions).  We will finish these questions and those in Chapter 14 tomorrow.  Next week will be our fly count and a lab on electrophoresis of DNA.

Posted under Genetics on www.patscience.com

Introduction to Computer Science -  We made good progress on our first four Microsoft Visual BASIC problems today.  Spent over half the block showing ways to program the Graphical User Interface.

Back from BGTC ... rain, but a good day!

Our Selected Topics field trip to Bowling Green Technical College went well today ... we saw 5 former Allen County - Scottsville students while we were there.  BGTC offers alot ... your general education classes at half the price of WKU, certificates and 2 year degrees so you can get out and start making money sooner, job placement ... lots of different courses ... affordable and flexible ... check it out on their website.

http://www.bowlinggreen.kctcs.edu/

We visited all three Warren County campuses ... two more are in Glasgow and one in Franklin ... it is a good option for students with limited resources ($$$) and want to stay local!
Tomorrow back to work in our final biology unit!

Computer Science - Microsoft Visual BASIC programming continues ...

Genetics -  Tomorrow - Quiz on the Blue People of Troublesome Creek, KY  //  Discussion questions for Chapter 13.  APES students will be out the rest of the week.

BGTC - Field Trip on Wednesday

Election Day ...

We have the APES program for the rest of the week which will remove about half the class from first block ... we will be working on discussion questions on our next two chapters  on Thursday and Friday with a reading assignment.

Computer Science - We are now into Visual Basic ... four new simple problems we hope to have done by Friday.

Selected Topics to BGTC tomorrow then starting our final Biology unit on Thursday with lots of CATS and ACT review.  If you do not have your permission slip tomorrow be prepared to stay at school ... remember a small amount of $ for lunch.

A beautiful fall day today ... hope you all got outside to enjoy it ... my cover crops have germinated ... especially the Austrian Winter Peas.  I worked nine hives today preparing the bees for winter ... all nine colonies looked strong with lots of honey stored for the winter.  The bees (Buckfast) I brought back from Texas (RWeaver Bees) have done really well.  Subsoiled some places where I will plant trees and blackberry plants next spring.

APES Program 3, 4 and 5

Genetics and Biotechnology - We finished our transformation lab Friday.  Congrats to Lauren and Hannah for the most bacterial transformations ... also, our flies are doing well.  Tomorrow will be the only day we will have enough people for class ... the rest of the week over half the class will be gone to APES ... depending on scheduling ... tomorrow, discussion questions for Chap 12 and dump parent flies from our tubes.

Introduction to Computer Programming - Starting Visual BASIC tomorrow ...

Selected Topics in Science - Back to Biology tomorrow for our final CATS unit ... Don't forget our Field Trip to Bowling Green Technical College on Wednesday!

Selected Topics Chem Test Tomorrow ...

Selected Topics in Science - We will be having our chemistry test tomorrow.  We reviewed today, worked on graphing and analysis of data and reviewed for the CATS test. This test is open note and open handout.  Be ready!

We are well underway on our Powerball analysis program using 2-D arrays.  We should finish tomorrow and be millionaires by Sunday ... if it is not random ... which it is!

We did our bacterial transformation lab today in Genetics.  This lab is one of the required AP Biology labs in which students subject E. coli bacteria to a procedure that causes the bacteria to take in a DNA plasmid  and express the genes on that plasmid.  The results are that some of the bacteria are ampicillin resistant.  We have our bacteria incubating over night and hopefully have some great results tomorrow!

After school driving the bus for the CC to practice on the regional course in Bowling Green. Will be back late.

Bacteria was not ready!

We had to hold our Bacterial transformation lab for a day since our bacteria starter plates did not have enough bacteria for this lab.  Strange outcome and in nearly 20 years of doing this lab I have never had bacteria fail to be ready in a 24 period.  We will see tomorrow.  In Genetics we went on to Plan B ... checked our F1 flies from the transfer from yesterday, they seem to be doing fine.  We went over the fly crosses again and the transformation procedure one more time.  We also went over the first seven discussion questions in Chapter 12 ... mostly over types of mutations and the problems they cause.  Most mutations are bad ... occasionally a mutation can be good!

In our Computer Programming class, we are hard at work with our Powerball analysis program.  Lots of data and some serious programs with 2-D and single dimension arrays.

We spent some time in our Selected Topics in Science class getting ready for our field trip next Wednesday (November 3) to Bowling Green Technical College.  We also did some in class reading in our Current Science magazine.  Don't forget to get your permission slips signed.

We had softball conditioning at the Lake today ... our best runner finished the 2.5 mile course in 25:20 ... a good time for a non-CC runner!!!

Sorry I missed blogging yesterday ... did not get home until late from a Softball booster meeting.

BETA gone today - Raining AM - Yeah!

After weeks of no rain, we got about an inch today ... too late for fall wildflowers but not two late for cool weather grasses and some fall plants ... at least until frost which appears won't happen for at least a week!

Genetics and Biotechnology - Today most of our class was gone to BETA District ... with the students that were still in class, we prepared our culture tubes for our fly crosses (tomorrow) and we poured our luria broth plates for our transformation lab ... we will do this lab on Wednesday (The bacterial transformation lab - a required lab for AP).  We will be doing a transformation lab using pBLU, a plasmid that has an ampicillin resistance gene and the beta-galactosidase gene (used as a color marker) that turns the colony blue in the presence of the x-gal (a lactose analog ... this protein would break lactose into galactose and glucose).  Lots of good labs this week!

Introduction to Computer Programming - This is lottery week ... a week of programming to analyze patterns of numbers.  We are using the Josh - Pick 3 problem as a warmup and then will analyze the Powerball picks over the last year to see if there are any patterns for predictions. We are building and using 2-D arrays in these problems.

In Selected Topics, we finished and handed in our gunpowder lab. We worked on Periodic Table Bingo cards to use tomorrow in our review of the periodic table.  Chemistry unit is wrapping up and we will have a chemistry test later this week.

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Weekend about over!

Sue Neal and I went to our 35th year reunion at Centre College this weekend.  The campus has changed a lot since then ... Centre lost the football game ... our class of 1975 reunion party saw a lot of DEKEs, Phi Delts, Betas with a sprinkling of Phi Taus ... lots of good ol' frat boys (emphasis on old!) so we stayed for the pict then left.  We did see a couple of our old classmate friends, the Fosters, as well as, our oldest daughter and her husband, Rachel and Kyle (Kyle - Centre Class of 2003) ... it was great to see them!

Tomorrow at school BETA is going to District so only a few will be left in first block Genetics ... Drosophila cultures are ready to cross but we may wait until Tuesday with everyone on board.  We will analyze our data from our osmosis lab.  I have updated some info on www.patscience.com ... put on contest winners!

Below two or our genetics students in action ... Part-time and Ernesto filling dialysis tubing.

Labs and Labs today!

Genetics and Biotechnology - Today was biscuit day in Genetics ... hot biscuits, honey from Holland, fresh molasses, and sausage.  After a little breakfast, we worked through an osmosis lab in which we tried to calculate the amount of sugar in a retro Mountain Dew.  We did this by graphing osmotic data from sugar solutions of 0, 0.5 and 1.0 molar concentrations and that of Mountain Dew.  We will expand our Drosophila (fruit fly) cultures for the start a genetics lab next week ... Sepia X Wild and White-eyed X Wild (a sex-linked trait).
     Congratulations to Cole, Olivia, Hannah, and Lauren (2) for winning the superlative gamete contest ... cards used in our population genetics lab last week.

Introduction Computer Programming - Today we checked the two problems we worked on this week.  Next week is the Josh Pick 3 problem and another data analysis problem analyzing the Powerball picks over the last 50 weeks.

Selected Topics in Science - In our Chemistry Unit - today, we completed our Gunpowder Lab ... this included a historical review of gunpowder making in Kentucky and using the gunpowder chemical reaction to make up a small amount.  We took these samples outside and to see them burn ... congratulations to Louis and Josh for the best gunpowder today.  We all agreed that sulfur stinks!
     Chemistry Unit winds down next week with some additional balancing equations on Monday, periodic table study, a review and later in the week our Chemistry test.

Hope you all have a great and safe weekend!   rr

Work and Work!

Genetics and Biotechnology -  Tomorrow we have a diffusion and osmosis lab ... determining the molar equivalent of Mountain Dew using data we collect from samples of sugar water.  We finished our Chapter 11 discussion questions today. 

Introduction to Computer Programming - Today we finished our 2 dimensional sorting problem.  We will check it tomorrow.  Tomorrow we start a program using 2-D arrays called Josh's Pick 3.  We will be writing a program that will analyze a lottery scandal and find the way Josh is cheating.

Selected Topics in Science - We worked on ACT graphing and analysis of data today using a problem on photosynthesis at different temperatures and colors of light.  We finished our chemistry review sheet by practicing balancing questions ... randomly checking to see how students are doing!

Tomorrow is Biscuit Friday in Genetics ... I am bringing the Holland honey!

Wednesday - Parent/Teacher/Student Conferences !!!

Today we had a faculty meeting after school.  From 4-6 was Parent Teacher Conferences ...

Genetics and Biotechnology - We had several students out today for a DECA trip and for seniors to Jostens.  However, we did start our Chapter 11 discussion questions ... the difference between fetal and adult hemoglobin was a good discussion and the pancreas as an exocrine and endocrine gland ... how it develops in the fetus.  Tomorrow we will finish these questions, start on Chapter 12, and start prep on our next lab.

Introduction to Computer Programming - The address program was finished today ... now we know how to program a computer to send junk USPO mail.  At least the addresses!  Tomorrow is a problem using a 2-dimensional array/table and how to sort from it.

Selected Topics in Science - We started our Chemistry worksheet on atoms, compounds and mixtures ... periodic charts and subatomic particles ... a little dry but, we should finish tomorrow with balancing equations.  We went over and discussed the two most important chemical reactions on earth ... photosynthesis and aerobic respiration.  Don't forget ... the Daniel Boone - Best in Kentucky - Gunpowder making contest is Friday ... not to worry, each student group gets only 3g of potassium nitrate!

Hope we see you tonight!
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Tuesday - Parent/Teacher Conferences tomorrow.

Genetics and Biotechnology - Today we finished our Population Genetics Lab ... we will have some people out of class but will go over our discussion questions in Chapter 11, a study of the genetics of cancer.

We are working on an address program in the Introduction to Computer Programming ... learning to store and sort addresses for mass mailings.  We should be able to finish this problem tomorrow.

In Selected Topics in Science we did our Chromatography Lab ... studying ways to separate mixtures of molecules.  This lab is called "Who Killed Waldo" and students had to analyze the inks of black pens to discover the killer.  Tomorrow ... balancing equations and the periodic table.

Softball conditioning after school today as our team ran at the Barren River Dam ...

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Club Day Today ...

Today we had Club Schedule which means we had people out of class almost every block / skinny.

Genetics and Biotechnology - During the first half of class we had most students present so moved ahead practicing Hardy-Weinberg problems.  Students appear to have an understanding how to use the equation to calculate the heterozygotes or carriers in a population which would be important in understanding the dynamics of a genetic disease and its treatment.

Introduction to Computer Programming - We started an address problem which simulates setting up a sortable database you could use for mass mailings.

Selected Topics in Science - Today we started our Chemistry Unit.  This included a study of the chemical reaction that is gunpowder firing and a little Kentucky history about mining nitrates in caves.   We have a lab tomorrow on separation science ... the methods of separating molecules using chromatography ... Gunpowder Lab is Friday ... in between we are working on balancing equations and the periodic table.

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This Monday in 509

We have club schedule today which significantly impacts my first block.

We will finishing our Population Genetics Lab on Tuesday since many people will be out of class.  We will work on our Hardy Weinberg problems that were assigned.

Introduction to Computer Science will be assigned our last problems before going on to Microsoft Visual BASIC ... these problems will be single and 2-D array problems with sorting. Congratulations to Alex for winning the Farm graphics with animation contest ... maybe the be program for this ever!

In Selected Topics in Science we are moving into our Chemistry Unit ... Daniel Boone - Best in Kentucky Gunpowder Contest will be on Friday.

See you all on Monday!  That includes two I know called it an early week by skipping on Friday ... you know who you are!
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In 509 today ...

Genetics and Biotechnology - Today we went over our last test and put the problems we had on the board. We started our study of population genetics and the Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium.  Tomorrow a lab / simulation in population genetics and selection.

Introduction to Computer Programming - We started checking our final graphics and animation projects today ... I have some video of some of the projects with their coding and will post it this weekend on our website page ... www.patscience.com

Selected Topics in Science - We are finished our Physics Unit and reviewed today ... analyzing graphs and data from physics simulations and labs.  Test tomorrow concludes our physics unit and Chemistry starts on Monday.  I have a couple of students that are missing a lot of school and labs ... since we do several labs, it is important to be in class everyday!

Club Schedule on Monday ...
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PSAT Day!

We had about 70 students take the PSAT today ...  To be good at taking big tests, you have to practice taking big tests.

Genetics - Most students were out taking the PSAT ... Tomorrow we will hand back and go over our last test and begin our next unit ... Chapter 11, the genetics of cancer.  Our discussion questions tomorrow.

Introduction of Computer Programming - Tomorrow we will start checking out farm scene with animation programs.

Selected Topics in Science - Today, we finished our Electromagnet Lab.  Taking and graphing data in two student generated labs.  Tomorrow will be review for our Physics Unit test on Friday.

Softball players will have their physicals tomorrow at 5:00 ... we will hit at BSA after school.

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PSAT tomorrow!

Good luck on the PSAT tomorrow ... the National Merit Qualifying Exam ... that's BIG!

In Genetics today, we took our test over Chapters 9-10.  Two important chapters dealing with replication, transcription and translation ... how to make a protein.  A quick look over the tests look like you all did well. Tomorrow we will begin Chapter 11 ... depending on the number of students we have in class ... also Caption Friday is on Transgenic organisms ...

In Computer Programming, Alex is tearing it up with a tractor as an animated object with a farmer that dismounts and walks across his field ... lots of lines of code and tough programming.  All projects seem to be coming along well.  Will post some of the efforts later on www.patscience.com.

We went over our physics problems before making electromagnets in Selected Topics in Science.  It was a great competition.  Best efforts took into account Faraday's Law. Tomorrow we start our review for our Physics test on Friday.

First day of softball conditioning today ... a good 2.5 mile run at the Lake ... leaves were beautiful!

Back to Work - PSAT Wednesday!

Remember that the PSAT is on Wednesday.  This test is the National Merit Qualifying Exam for juniors.  Last year it took a 209 out of 240 to qualify.  We had no qualifiers.  It is without a doubt one of the most important achievements you can put on your resume!  More important that your ACT score and much more important that your GPA.   Cost is 13 dollars but, there are fee waivers for juniors.  If you are a bright freshman or sophomore you should take this test !!!  ... for too many reasons to list here!  Just do it!

http://www.collegeboard.com/student/testing/psat/about.html

Today in Genetics we reviewed for our test tomorrow on Chapters 9-10, Chi Square Analysis, Plasmid Mappiing and the reading of gels.  Study tonight and Good Luck tomorrow!

In Computer Science we got back to work on our graphics project of a farm scene with animation.  We have some great programs!  Maybe best ever for animated objects.

In Selected Topics we calculated Hang Time of individuals in our class ... Mr. Vernons standing jump was exceptional!  And five physics problems for tomorrow on speed and acceleration.  Also tomorrow, the Great Electromagnet contest and lab!  Faraday's Law is the key to a win! 

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Back to school tomorrow! and some bee picts

Fall Break is about over ... In Genetics, we will be reviewing for a test on Chapters 9-10.  Our computer programming class will be working on our Ol' McDonald Farm Scene with animation ... due Thursday. We continue to work on Physics problems tomorrow ... Newton's Laws and falling objects.  Electromagnet Contest on Wednesday.

Today, I finished checking my beehives ... the bees have put away a lot of honey for the winter and most of the hives are strong ... still gathering nectar or pollen ... from where I don't know since, it is so dry.  The last two days, I removed empty frames and put in the second treatment of Apiguard (menthol) to control mites.  Added water to a few open containers I have near the hives.

Pictured below is a frame (ten to a super with honey on both sides) from one of the top supers (boxes of a hive) ... the frame is over half full of capped honey and some bees are working on the open cells in the corner ... notice the shape of the cells ... if you are into geometry, the cells are interesting!

Planting cover crop ...

I planted a small field in a legume cover crop - Winter peas, hairy vetch, oats, turnips and upland cress (creasy).  Too dry to germinate until it rains ... which does not appear to be in the near future!
Including a picture of my "old school" equipment for the front row of my Selected Topics in Science class ... Tuck, Tuck and Company ...

Back to Holland

Ms. Roberts and I took some time during Fall Break to visit my father and sister in Ohio.

After our Ohio visit, we went to see our oldest daughter and her husband in Champaign, IL ... at the University of Illinois.  We went to a local orchard (Curtis Orchard) to pick apples.  Two interesting things at the University of Illinois are the Morrow Plots (oldest soil/crop agriculture test plots in North or South America and The Pollinatarium (pollination of flowers by all insects and other animals) which is part of the Entomology Department.

Back to school soon ... hope you are enjoying your Fall Break!!!

Department of Entomology

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

http://www.life.illinois.edu/entomology/

http://www.life.illinois.edu/pollinatarium/

The Morrow Plots

http://cropsci.illinois.edu/research/rdc/urbana/morrow.cfm

Thursday - One more day and then ...

Genetics and Biotechnology - After our quiz today, we worked on our discussion question on transcription of mRNA from DNA and started on our study of translation.  We will finish Chapter 10 Discussion Questions tomorrow ... We had a great two weeks with plasmid mapping, Chi Square Analysis, and Crick's Central Dogma ... Daily Quiz tomorrow is on transcription and translation.  We will be going to Mac lab for some research.

Introduction to Computer Programming - Tomorrow we will check our first three graphics and animation programs.  Most students are working on the farm scene and the animated objects in this scene.  We will continue this for a few days upon returning after fall break.

Selected Topics in Science - We finished our lab today after selected readings from Current Science magazine.  Tomorrow we are going to the Mac Lab for a Phet simulation on waves, amplitude and wavelength.  Also we are reviewing the electromagnetic spectrum and relating it to photosynthesis.  We will be working for about a week and half on physics when we return from fall break.  After we return, The Electromagnet Contest on return also!  Tomorrow we are handing in our comp books for a check.

Wednesday - Catapult Championship!

Genetics and Biotechnology - We finished constructing our paper plasmids today and worked through questions about the lab.  Tomorrow, we will hand in our lab and work in Chapter 10 - Transcription and Translation.

Introduction to Computer Programming - Today, we continued our study of animation and creating objects that can move across the screen.  Most students are working on their animated object and getting ready to start our contest problem - Old MacDonald's farm scene with animation and a theme tune.

Selected Topics in Science - We finished our catapults and tested them.  Our contest was ten shots at a bucket 12 feet away from the launching table.  Kellie, Breanna and Brittni won the contest with 34 points ... the fourth highest score ever in the history of the contest! Congrats to all ... we had some great entries! Tomorrow we will finish the lab write up and complete an "in class" reading.

Tuesday in 509

Genetics and Biotechnology - We started the day taking a quiz on replication, linkage and Chi Square Analysis ... we had 13 10s !!! Wow! Better!  
We spent the rest of the block starting our Paper Plasmid Lab by going over procedure and making our plasmids and cellular DNA (gene of interest). This preparation for our transformation lab later next month.
Tomorrow we will finish this lab and start our study of transcription and translation (protein synthesis) in Chapter 10.

Introduction to Computer Science - Today we did a simple example of animation using a simple circle.  Most students worked on their screensavers today.  Tomorrow we are moving on to animated objects using
For/Next statements.

Selected Topics in Science - The entire block was dedicated to building our mousetrap catapults.  Tomorrow is the Mousetrap Catapult Championship in which students will launch 10 marshmallows 12 feet into a bucket ... 5 points for in the bucket, 3 if it hits the bucket, 2 if it hits the top of the table where the bucket is sitting and 1 point for hitting any part of the table.  World Record is 40 points! Lots of interesting catapults made today!

Went to the Middle School Softball games (last home game).

Still recovering from a couple of nasty stings ... next time, I will put on my gear and gloves instead of trusting my honeybees.

Monday ... Fall Break Getting Closer!

Genetics and Biotechnology - Today we added Chi Square Testing to our tools to analyze genetic data. When given a genetic cross and the results from this cross, students now apply a statistical tool to see if the data is valid.  We also worked AGAIN or DNA, replication and replication forks ... all the players in this event.  Tomorrow Paper Plasmid Lab, Quiz on Replication and DNA and another Chi Square problem for practice.

Introduction to Computer Programming - We started on graphics and animation today.  We did a sample program on the board then went on to Prob 16 ... working toward the famous Ol' MacDonald's Farm on Friday.  In this low end graphics endeavor, students are manipulationg 64000 pixels on a 320X200 grid.

Selected Topics in Science - After going over the graphs generated in our Phet/Physics simulations, we start over some physics problems on speed and acceleration.  Also map reading of KY today.  Tomorrow we build and test our catapults ... remember to bring a standard mousetrap.

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Friday!

In Genetics we went over the discussion questions in Chapter 9 and checked out plasmid mapping problems generated by students in our class.  Next Monday, we will finish Chapter 9 and practice Chi Square Analysis.

In Computer Programming, we checked our problems for the week.  Everyone did well and next week we will begin our study of graphics and animation generated using Microsoft QuickBASIC.  Ol' McDonald problem on the horizon.

We continued you Phet software simulations on Masses/Springs and Trajectory.  Next week on Tuesday, we will be building and studying our Mousetrap Catapults and the data they generate.

Today we had a Pep Rally 4th Block.

Our Patriot Softball Camp ended on Thursday evening.  We had over 50 campers attending.  Below, are pictured our 9 and 10 year old Patriots with Brooke and Sandy. Go Patriots!

Thursday - Harvest Moon

In Genetics, we went over our Chapter 4-8 test, each student designed their own plasmid mapping problem and started on Chapter 9 / DNA - Replication.  Tomorrow, Chapter 9 and more Plasmid work.

Introduction to Computer Programming ... worked on single dimension arrays and our Gradebook problem ... will check week's problems tomorrow.

Selected Topics in Science - Went over our test on Astronomy and worked on a physics simulation.  Will finish these simulations on amplitude, period, and trajectory tomorrow.  Next week we have our mousetrap catapult lab ... remember to get a mousetrap this weekend.

Drove CC team to the lake after school and last night of the Patriot Softball Camp ... Thanks to all for making it a great camp for over 50 future Patriot players.
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Wednesday - Jupiter close by this week!

In Genetics today, we took our test over Chapters 4-8 ... mostly classical genetics and Mendel ... also a linkage problem.  Graded and going over the test tomorrow, most students did okay.  Chapter 9, discovery of DNA and plasmid mapping continues tomorrow as well.

In Computer Science we did a simple array problem as a demo before starting a gradebook problem tomorrow.  A lot of students out ... seniors to WKU and t-shirt handout.

In Selected Topics, we started our unit on physics with a Phet simulation software, energy skate park.  We collected data from running an experiment on earth, moon, jupiter and in space.  We will use that data and graph it tomorrow.  Also working on ACT tomorrow and will go over our recent test on Astronomy!

Want to wish Christian a quick recovery ... hurry back ... the geeks in second block are missing you!
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Tuesday - Patriot Softball camp continues

Just getting in ...

We have a test on chapter 4-8 in genetics tomorrow ... we reviewed today.  There will be on linkage problem on the test.

In computer science we finished Problem 8 and start our sorting problem - the Sumrall Prob.

Today in Selected Topics in Science, we took our Astronomy Unit test.  It was open note and open handout.  Lots about the life cycle of stars and an HR Diagram to analyze.  We will be starting our Physics unit tomorrow using the PHED software from the University of Colorado.  The first simulation is called Energy Skate Park.  Our catapult contest is just around the corner ... students need to get a mousetrap by next week to power their catapult.

Second day of the Patriot Softball class for ages 5-12.  Lots of fun!  Last day for the camp is Thursday.
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Monday and 10 more days until Fall Break!

Monday ...
In Genetics this morning we continued working on mapping of DNA, turning our attention from linear DNA to plasmids. We also reviewed for the test on Chapters 4-8 and linkage which is now scheduled for Wednesday.  We will continue our review with practice problems tomorrow and will try a difficult plasmid mapping problem.

In computers, we began a new set of problems of intermediate difficulty in Microsoft QuickBASIC.  Today we worked on Problem 8 ... The problem is to design a program for a fifth grader to drill and practice their countries and capitals.  Our next problem, which will probaby be underway for most students on Wednesday, is a data analysis program using counters.

Tomorrow we have a open note test in Selected Topics, concluding our Astronomy Unit (Life cycle of a star, HR diagrams, and our solar system).  We reviewed today and went to the Mac Lab for some research time.

The Patriot softball camp begins tonight and goes until Thursday (6-8 PM)

Friday!

Genetics and Biotechnology - Today, we continued our study of gel analysis, using the standard lambda DNA cut with HindIII and calculating the fragments of an unknown fragment of DNA (12Kb).  With these calculations, we constructed a map of the restriction enzyme sites found on this DNA fragment.  We also went over the discussion questions of Chapter 8 / Ricki Lewis / Human Genetics.  This chapter dealt with the genetic basis for behavior ... eating disorders, sleep, mood disorders, and more.
Monday will be review day for our second test over Chapters 4-8, Linkage maps and classification of organisms.

Introduction to Computer Science - Friday is problem checking day.  The best problem I checked from last week was called Problem Little League in which students made a simple baseball stat program for a little league team.
Monday will begin a new set of problems that includes Prob8 ... a program that will generate a multiple choice game for elementary students on countries and their capitals, keeping score and giving appropriate reinforcement to the user.

Selected Topics in Science - Today we finished our Astronomy Lab with a study of Comets, Space Travel and the creation of a Space Truck.
On Monday we will begin our review for our Astronomy test on Tuesday.  Important concepts include the life cycle of stars and HR diagrams.

Hope you all have a great weekend.  This weekend I am going through my beehives and applying medication for mites.

First Post ...

Starting this blog ahead of launching my iWeb 09 site on Bluehost.  I am going to use this blog for daily updates and assignments.  I know that many of our students do not have internet access, so this will only be supplement to our class activities.

All school rules will apply and this blog is for our students and their families at AC-S HS.  Go Patriots!

Today in class:
Genetics ... after an exhausting practice ACT test by our juniors and an on demand writing by our seniors, we opted to start our study on analyzing DNA cut with restriction enzymes.  We worked through our first problem measuring fragment bands, plotting that information to analyze an unknown fragment of DNA cut with EcoRI and HindIII ... time-consuming but required knowledge for AP Biology.  Also, took our morning quiz ... with two tens ... congrats!

Tomorrow ... a more advanced analysis problem and discussion questions for Chapter 8.  Friday!!!!!

Introduction to Computer Programming ... Finishing our first set of problems in qBASIC using Read/Data and counters.  Checking those programs tomorrow.

Selected Topics in Science ... Today we made a model of our solar system to scale outside using a softball for the sun and distributing the planets (all to scale).  With the sun at the roadway gate going to the football fieldhouse, Pluto (not an official planet these days!) ended up in the middle school practice field (Pluto on this scale was the size of 1/5 of a period)!  Tomorrow we are finishing our Astronomy Lab with HR Diagram practice and the drawing of a Space Truck!        rr