Smuckers Round Robin and Isopod Lab ...

Friday in all classes, we did an animal behavior lab ... exploring taxis and kinesis.  Students tested pillbugs for their preference in wet and dry test chambers.  Students also designed a lab of their own using pillbugs.

Today we had four teams come in to play softball at our high school ... ACS, East Robertson HS (TN), Louisville Sacred Heart and Central Hardin HS.  We had wins over East Robertson and Sacred Heart but did not play particularly well.  Offensively, we still have work to do ... but, we did small ball better today ... squeeze bunt, and some fake bunt slaps.   Still a long way to go to District tournament ... Blackman HS (TN) away on Monday.

Behavior Lab tomorrow and Greenwood tonight!

Just got back from our softball games tonight ... we were ranked 2nd in the state and Greenwood 4th.  We won 2-0 in a close game ... a good win for us since, I think we will grow a lot during the season as we settle in with new starters.  A good start and a long way to go.

Tomorrow we have our behavior lab ... saw several students out looking for pillbugs this evening at the ballgame.  Should be a good lab to end the week.

In Selected Topics, we worked on the endocrine glands of the body and did some reading in our Current Science magazine.

Will take some picts of our lab tomorrow.   This weekend we have a big Round Robin Tournament at our school with Central Hardin, East Robertson (TN) and Louisville Sacred Heart.  Hope the weather is good.

Step Test, Chi Square Analysis and JV to Butler County

In AP Biology we wrapped up and handed in our data and the analysis for the Drosophila Lab.  Tomorrow we will prep up the Behavior Lab, AP Lab 11, some sample free response questions and review.  AP Lab 11 will be on Friday.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSKkecFzD50

In Selected Topics, we are studying organ systems and today, we did a fitness test in groups of three.  Almost half this class smokes ... we had a good lab and good discussion on life choices.  Tomorrow will be respiration and the endocrine system.

I had to drive the JV to Butler County for a double-header ... split 1-1.  Coach Carter stayed behind for varsity batting practice and Coach Bunton went with me.  A pretty drive ... dogwoods are out and beautiful!

Tomorrow the Greenwood showdown ... will be exciting!

Fly Count Video for the Mom!

Drosophila Lab winding down ...

Our AP classes continued on our Drosophila Lab today ... analysis of data, Chi Square Analysis.  Third block made their final counts.  We sorted and counted nearly 3000 flies in three crosses.  Some of our data was very good.  We should be able to wrap up the lab tomorrow and move on to organ systems.

In Selected Topics, it was Circulatory System today ... everything you wanted to know about the heart, arteries/veins and blood.  Tomorrow we will have the Step Test Lab to see who is good physical shape.

We had softball practice and hitting indoors after school today.  Our coaching staff spent about three hours edging the field ... a big job.

Below ... busy counting flies in AP!

Fly Nap Smells Great!

Both AP classes counted F2 flies today ... hundreds of them with fairly good results.  We will count again on Thursday if we have enough flies.

We have three crosses:
Monohybrid cross with wild (red eyes) and the sepia (brown eyes) mutant which is recessive ... 3:1 ratio

Sex-Linked cross using the white-eye mutation yielding a 1:1:1:1 ratio of phenotypes in the F2 offspring.

Dihybrid cross with apterous wings and sepia mutations both recessive yielding a Mendelian ratio of 9:3:3:1.

I took some picture but left my camera at school ... will put them on tomorrow.

In Selected Topics, we started our study of human organ systems with the digestive system.

We played Monroe County after school today and won 10-0 in five innings, played everyone ... big game Thursday against Greenwood at home.  Should be fun!

Cool weather tonight with a wind from the NE ... low in the low 40's which seems cold since we have had some much hot weather.  10 day forecast is for warm than normal weather.  Most of the trees have started putting on leaves.

Tomorrow - Fly Counting!

In AP Biology tomorrow, we will work on our Drosophila Lab counting the F2 flies from our crosses.  Plant Science continues on Tuesday.

Selected Topics moves back to Biology with Organ Systems study.

This weekend we lost our first softball game of the season at the Grayson County round robin ... we had a 23 game winning streak going from last year and the first six games this year ...  which can be a burden ... burden lifted!   Louisville Assumption (ranked 19th) beat us even though we had 5 hits and they had 4 ... KP struck out 13.  Just played not to lose ... second game was a turn around as we beat 14th ranked Green County, 7-2.  Played well against a very good team.

This week, Monroe on Monday and Greenwood on Thursday ...  both at home.

WKU vs UK, Transpiration Lab and Balancing Equations

Late night last night at the UK vs WKU softball game ... lots of familiar people there ... the Jolly's from Owenboro ... Coach Murphy and Coach Murphy from Cumberland County, both former Patriot softball coaches, Coach Woods and his son Wesley ... Coach Woods got his start in softball with the Patriots.  We took our team, Coach Carter and Coach Bunton to the game ... eating at CiCi's before the game.  It was fun.  Seven players on the UK/WKU teams were players we had faced in high school softball.  Picts of the Murphy's and Woods' below ...

Today in AP we did our Transpiration Lab ... exploring how water moves through a plant (cabbage today) under different environmental conditions.  Water loss was measured with a potometer.  We will finish this lab tomorrow.  Picts below ...

Balancing equations was the order of the day in Selected Topics ... a slow go!  Back to Biology on Monday!

We had a big rain just after school but, we had moved practice / hitting indoors.  After practice, I made it home for a late walk to Long Creek.  Lots of wildflowers blooming ... lots of frogs ... had to watch were I was walking to avoid stepping on them, ducks, blue herons, coyotes yelping, twinleaf just starting to bloom and clover blooming.  It was wonderful!


Coach Woods and Wesley ... I learned a lot about Angry Birds from Wesley!

Coach Murphy, Michelle and Corbin ... Michelle is the best hitter so far!  ... sorry Murph!

Wind Station ... Sandy is NOT asleep!

Jess checks out the mist station!

Lots of conversation at the light station!

Another pict for Vivien's mom ... she is doing great!  Potometers in the foreground.

Chemistry Bingo and another softball game ...

In AP Biology today, we worked on our lab for Thursday ... Transpiration Lab using potometers to measure water loss under different conditions ... light, wind, mist and room conditions.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEfmTok3OCo

Tomorrow we will miss first block again for registration ... first block takes a beating in the Spring semester, missing so far over ten days!

In Selected Topics after working on some technical quizzing problems, we played Chemisty Bingo to review elements and the periodic chart.

After school, we played Warren East HS and won in five innings 11-0.  We scored six runs in the first inning which took the pressure off!  JV loss 3-0.  We have won our first six games but will enter a difficult part of our schedule on Saturday.  Still lots of room to grow as we work with a new lineup.

Tomorrow we will not practice but attend the WKU vs UK game in Bowling Green.

rr

Busy Monday ...

In AP Biology we wrapped up the analysis on two labs ... the bacterial transformation lab and our restriction enzyme electrophoresis lab.  We also removed the F1 flies from their tubes as part of our Drosophila Lab.  Tomorrow,  plant science begins ...

Selected Topics wrapped up physics with a partner test ... tomorrow we continue on chemistry.

Softball at Bowling Green HS ... we beat them 8-0 in the regional final last year but squeaked out a win 1-0 tonight with only 7 hits.  Room to improve on our hitting!

Tomorrow we play Warren East at home starting at 5:30.

We are having beautiful weather with highs in the 80s and lows in the 60's  ... it has been a strange winter for weather ... too warm.

Weekend ... Rain, Softball, Rain, Bees and Redbuds

We got up early and left at 6:30 AM CT to Nicholasville to play in the West Jessamine Tournament.  It was raining when we took out.  We got a call on the way that the tournament had been backed up so, we stopped in Russell Springs for breakfast.  Played our first game against Danville at 2:30, West Jessamine at 5:30 and the championship game at 7:00 against a good Woodford County team.  We played well on defense but our offense needs work.  We won all three games.  Rained and stormed on the way home.

I got home after 1:00 from the tournament but got up to go to Sunday school.  In the afternoon worked through about half our hives ... rotated supers, added supers and queen excluders ... checked for brood and reset some hives on four blocks instead of two ... finished about 7:00.  Going to get some things ready for school and to bed early.

The Redbuds are in full bloom and this farm have several ... pict is from the one in Granny's yard.  Also. Shepard's purse is blooming ... pict below but not a good one!  It is everywhere and blooming ... a herbal remedy for bleeding ...

Capsella bursa-pastoris, known by its common name shepherd's-purse because of its triangular, purse-like pods, is a small (up to 0.5m) annual and ruderal species, and a member of the Brassicaceae or mustard family.

Capsella bursa-pastoris is closely related to the model organism Arabidopsis thaliana and is also used as a model organism due to the variety of genes expressed throughout its life cycle that can be compared to genes that are well studied in A. thaliana.   Wikipedia ...

ACS vs South Warren game on iHigh

http://www.ihigh.com/southwarren/broadcast_217421.html?silverlight=1

Friday ... no students but school for us!

Teachers had school today ... we met as a group to start the day, then worked with our departments the rest of the day.  Science worked on ActiveVision presentations and testing.  I also worked on our Spring Break trip and our new lesson plan format.

We had a short softball practice at 3:00.  We went over our defensive sets and signaling after throwing.

Tomorrow we play in the West Jessamine tournament if it does not rain out.  We will have to leave the high school at 6:30 AM CT to play at 11:00 AM CT.  Pool play will determine who we play in a single-elimination format.

Got home in time to mow the yard and earlier checked out the many types of bees in our fall turnip patch, which is blooming.  One strange bee looked a lot like a fly ... maybe a bee fly / Bombliidae? and the other maybe a hoverfly (top picture).

No School for students tomorrow ...

In AP Biology today, we wrapped up some of our labs from this week.  We analyzed our gels from our restriction lab.  We went over our Drosophila crosses we made earlier in the week.  Also, we looked at our plates from our bacterial transformation lab ... we had several groups with good results.  The lab write ups are due Monday.

In Selected Topics, we held our Daniel Boone - Best of Kentucky Gunpowder contest.  Congrats to Taylor, Mitchell and CJ ... making some great gunpowder with 5 grams of potassium nitrate.  Physics test on Monday to wrap up Physics and continue on Chemistry.

It rained at the end of the school day so we moved hitting to inside at 4:30.   Today was tee work, front toss, screwball off the machine and a fake bunt slap practice.

Teachers have school tomorrow ... Practice for those going to West Jessamine at 3:00 tomorrow.  Bus leaves for the West Jessamine tournament at 6:30 AM on Saturday.

Labs, labs, labs and first softball game of the season!

Even though we have had a lot of students out of school on trips, we have worked through several labs this week ... today was club schedule ... another distraction!  In AP Biology, we did our bacterial transformation lab ... one of our required labs.  Students treated bacteria in a procedure that caused E. coli to take up a plasmid (pGREEN, Carolina Biological) that had a bioluminescence gene (GPF from a jellyfish)  and a ampicillin resistance gene.  We will have results tomorrow ...  below some picts from fly sorting and our transformation lab.

We have started our fruit fly lab by making three crosses (an autosomal recessive cross, a sex-linked cross and a dihybrid cross) ... and, we will analyze our electrophoresis restriction lab tomorrow ... we did this lab on Monday and Tuesday.

In Selected Topics, we will have our Daniel Boone Gunpowder lab which goes along with our Chemistry unit.

Students do not have school on Friday.

Tonight we had our first regular season game with South Warren HS.  We won in five innings ... 10-0.  KP pitched a perfect game striking out 12 South Warren batters.  A good start to a tough schedule.  We had 13 hits which was good for our new 2012 lineup!

Labs, Mac Lab and some rain!

In AP Biology today we got our restriction started in third block but, not first ... so will start tomorrow.  We have a fly lab and a transformation lab to finish before Friday and we have club schedule on Wednesday.  It is a wonder we get anything done ...  I assigned some essential questions on plants, they are due next Tuesday.

In Selected Topics we are wrapping up physics.   Today we finished in the Mac Lab ... electrical circuits and electromagnetic spectrum ... dangers of UV light and X-rays to DNA ... visible light.

We had hitting starting at 4:30 after school ... tee work, front toss, curve balls and bunt practice.  Hopefully it will help our ability to bunt.  Tomorrow, we will have our scrimmage with Owensboro Catholic, then the season starts on Wednesday with South Warren, away.

I forgot to mention yesterday while I was down by Long Creek, the frogs were peeping in spring, it was so loud!  ... at school today too at the pond nearby.  Maybe spring is actually here!

Softball starts ... Restriction Lab tomorrow ...

On Saturday, we had our first scrimmage games at the Beech Play Day in Tennessee.  We beat Father Ryan HS 7-0 and lost to nationally ranked Soddy Daisy 3-2 in international tie-breaker.  Both teams are from Tennessee.  Soddy did not throw their #1 pitcher who has signed with the University of Kentucky ... they were the AAA (big school) state runner-up last year in TN.  We had twice as many hits but could not put them together.  However, we had a good start with several new people in the lineup.  We drove Bus 56 (my favorite bus ... many trips to the keys as well as several other trips to Gulf Shores and South Carolina) ... it has 220000 miles now but is still a great bus to drive!  Pictured ... our coaching staff ... front to back ... Coach Marr, Coach Carter and Coach Bunton.

Tomorrow, we have our restriction lab in AP ... be ready!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lg829Walc2o

In Selected Topics, we will finish our electrical circuit lab in the Mac Lab ...

Today John and Claire were here and had spent the night ... we went to Harper's Catfish for lunch.  Afterwards, I fed our bees ... we still have bees in 17 of our hives ... several of the hives are doing really well with tons of bees in this early spring.

Several flowers blooming ... Burl's Big Turnip Patch is in bloom and the bees were checking it out this morning.  Maples are blooming and lots of small flowers ... below turnip in bloom with one of our bees and a small field violet ... maybe arrow-leaved violet.

Lots of rain and late softball practice

Maxpreps has a good article about KP and our team today ... no pressure of course!

http://www.maxpreps.com/news/kDLJFD6a9kqy6m-oMO_yAA/kelsi-pardue-has-allen-county-looking-for-repeat-softball-title-in-2012.htm

We had practice from 5-7 this evening ... four station hitting ... tee work, front toss, machine and live pitching.  It will be great to get on the field against someone else besides intrasquad scrimmaging.  We need to get started ... scrimmage on Saturday afternoon.

In AP Biology, we worked on classification of bacteria today ... protists and fungus tomorrow and some review on general classification of organisms.

In Selected Topics in Science, we finished up our electromagnet lab but generated two labs on their own ... proving Faraday's Law and testing different brands of batteries. Tomorrow will be some reading time and some work on electrical circuits.

We had almost 2 inches, (5 cm) of rain today.  It was a great rain, slow and lasted all day.  Hopefully my clover seed will get started!

Busy Day ... Classification, Electromagnet Contest and Softball

In AP Biology, we worked all block on classification of organisms ... we are doing the six kingdom system before taking on the more modern version in our Campbell book.  We worked mostly in the Animal Kingdom. Tomorrow bacteria and protists.  Our flies should be in by Friday so next week we can get back to doing some of our labs.

Electromagnet Lab today ... Kristen was our winner with 78 paperclips using only one D battery.  We will finish the write-up and graphing for this lab tomorrow.  Forgot to take pictures today ... too busy.

We had softball practice after school today ... drill work and bunting.  Finished up late because of our difficultly bunting.  Scrimmage at Beech HS on Saturday afternoon.

Have to grade some papers ... so this is short!

ACT today and back to work ...

We had softball practice after school today ... 65 degrees and sunshine.   We worked on bunting, hitting live pitching with different defensive combinations, and a catcher drill.  We should get one more day of good weather outside before we move inside to hit.  Our first scrimmage is Saturday at Beech HS Playday ... playing Goodpasture and Father Ryan ... both from the Nashville area.

Today all our juniors took the ACT test as part of our schools assessment.  Most of the students I talked to thought is was a difficult version of the test this time ... especially math.  I do not have a lot of hope in science ...  science is tested last which is more work than most students want to do after over two hours.  Students reported a lot of chemistry graphs and tables to analyze in this test.  I always think we do better when there is more biology ... just a theory.

We had AP third block and continued to work on classification of organisms.  Tomorrow we will finish up classification.  Next week have several labs scheduled.

Selected Topics began their last physics lab ... the electromagnet contest using D batteries.  Will take some pictures tomorrow.

I got home about dark ... woodcocks are still making a lot of noise but they are too difficult to see that late in the evening.  The Bradford pear trees are blooming ... I hope we can avoid a late hard freeze!  Every morning before I go to school, I put feed in our bird feeders ... always greeted by a lot of chirping ... especially several dozen goldfinches.

Structure contest over ... ACT tomorrow!

We had softball practice after school on the field.  We worked on fielding, relays and baserunning.  It was cold but tomorrow should be warmer.  First scrimmage will be at Beech HS on Saturday.

We finally had a regular schedule today.  In AP, we worked on classification of animals and will continue our study of taxonomy after the ACT.

In Selected Topics in Science, we tested our structures ... 34 grams, 8" tall and a 2" center.  Congrats to the winning team of Kacy, Tasha and Hazel ... their structure held 102 lbs before breaking ... a little short of the record of 255 lbs.

Their structure is below with building scenes from last week.

Snow tonight and ACT on Tuesday ...

We are working through evolution and population genetics in AP Biology ... First Block is missing alot due to our ACT testing session ... third block is in review and ahead which is bad for timing labs after the ACT test on Tuesday.  Tomorrow we are going to start classification of organisms.

In Selected Topics, we will be testing our structures we built last week.  34 grams of wood, 8 inches tall with at least a 2" center.  Good luck to all, I will have some pictures tomorrow.

We did not have softball practice on Friday but I had to stay a school a couple of hours to submit stats, tournament information and pictures to MaxiPreps.  They are doing a special on our team and KP.

On Saturday morning, I had to mow part of the yard around the house ... and pruned some trees ...

We had a intrasquad scrimmage Saturday afternoon ... it was good to see everyone in action.  We have a ways to go offensively but, have a lot of time until District tournament time.  We will get better with the schedule we are playing!

This morning, I filled out bus forms for softball before church.  After church, I fed 12 hives of our bees ... 1/2 fructose and 1/2 water in ziplock bags.  After putting them in the hives, I cut a couple slits on top with a razor blade.  Still have a couple of week hives but most are adding bees ... probably a little early and on three hives I had to put on supers with foundation since the bees were making comb in my shim area where I feeding.

I should grade some papers but will do it on Tuesday since I have to be in the gym with seniors.

Next Saturday is our first scrimmage game ... at Beech HS in TN.

Calling for snow tonight but only 35 degrees ... less than an inch and won't stick ...

ACT Prep today for juniors ...

Today at school we were busy the first two blocks with ACT Review for our juniors.  Two 90 minute review for ACT Science ... types of questions and strategies.  The rest of the day was a regular day.

In AP third block, we wrapped up some odds and ends in evolution, Hardy Weinberg problems and viruses.  Tomorrow we will be working on classification and phylogeny.  We will miss AP Biology first block again.

In Selected Topics, we went outside for an experiment on falling objects before working on our structures the rest of the block.  These students will miss class tomorrow for a junior free time ...

Softball practice was after school ... bunt practice and we really need to practice!  We also worked with our catchers on a couple of drills.  No practice tomorrow but we will have practice Saturday afternoon at 1:00.

Weather has been very warm.  Some bad storms went north of Allen County yesterday but, we are expecting strong storms tomorrow ... the weather continues warmer than normal, many flowers are blooming already!  A strange winter!