Happy New Year and on to AP Bio ...

Over the last few days,  Sue Neal and I went up to Ohio for a late Christmas.  We were joined by our children and had a great night opening gifts and visiting at my sister's house.  The next day we went up to eat lunch with my Dad ... at the famous Old "Y" restaurant (at the junction of US 62 and OH 321 in Highland County) known for their Y Fish Sandwich!

That afternoon, we went up to see our nephew play in the Charles B. Zimmerman Memorial Classic Basketball tournament held a Wittenberg University in Springfield, OH.  Jess plays for Marian Unversity (IN) and they beat Olivet College (MI) in the first round of the tournament.  On our way up, we went through Cedarville College.  Wittenberg has a beautiful campus in a great small city, located half way between Columbus and Dayton.  A Lutheran-affiliated university founded in 1845.  Great NCAA D-III school with a very good academic reputation.  Their volleyball team was the D-III national champions last year.

http://www.wittenberg.edu/

http://www.cedarville.edu/

First cousins break it down after the game!

Yesterday, we got up at 3:00 AM to take Hannah to the airport ... she was the last to leave, heading back to San Francisco.  It was great to have our children home for a while!  Also, finished up bush-hogging ... saw lots of rabbits, deer and a coyote.  Cleaned off the bush-hog and put it in the barn for the winter.  Finished in time today for a walk to Long Creek and back.  It was unseasonably warm the last few days but suppose to cold (by Kentucky standards) starting tomorrow.

SCHOOL ...
Finishing some odds and ends grading this evening and will go in to school to prepare the algae for our lab on Wednesday or Thursday.  Keep working on the Ecology reading for Christmas Break ... we will be going through that material quickly.  See you all on Tuesday ... looking forward to getting back to work!

Most important AP Bio - Ecology concepts ...

Symbiotic relationships ... mutualism, commensalism and parasitism ... with examples!
Two types of populations growth ... exponential (J curve) and logistic (S curve) ... logistic leads to carrying capacity!
Life strategies ... K-selected and r-selected ... with examples!
Defense mechanisms and mimicry ... Batesian and Mullerian mimicry, aposematic coloration and cryptic coloration ...
Biomes ... especially the tropical rainforest, desert, freshwater and marine!
Biogeochemical cycles ... especially nitrogen (nitrification, ammonification, denitrification and nitrogen fixation) and carbon-oxygen (photosynthesis and respiration)

other ... food webs and succession.

Commit to working all semester ... as in sports in is not about the test (game) it is about preparing everyday to be the best student (player) you can be.  A work habit that will make you successful in AP, college and life ... DO IT!

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