Fly Lab Done ...

Flurries this evening and a cold spell for here ... in the 30's for the next couple of days.

Today we finished our F2 fly count in AP Biology ... 3000+ flies in two crosses.  Students will wrap up this lab with a Chi Square Analysis of the data tomorrow.  We have some work to do on gene expression and viruses tomorrow.  Monday will be our bacterial transformation ... I poured the LB plates for this lab today.

http://basepair.library.umc.edu/sri/Carolina_transformations_manual.pdf

Selected Topics finished up their Deep Space Trucks and helped me separate some milkweed seeds from stored pods.  We will not have class tomorrow because of the junior's ACT review second block.

ACT Prep Up tomorrow! - fly count starts ...

In AP Biology today, we returned to restriction analysis with some plasmid mapping.  We prepped up our bacterial transformation lab which will now be scheduled for Monday.  In this lab, students will transform bacteria with a plasmid (pGreen) and use selective agar containing ampicillin to isolate the bacteria that take in the plasmid.  We started our fly count and will finish that count tomorrow.

Selected Topics students continued their study of space with star life cycles, nebular theory, speed of light and our famous Deep Space Truck drawing.  Tomorrow, astronomy continues with HR diagrams.

Today, I got some seed in from Roundstone Seeds... mostly wildflower seed.  We are going to use some of the seed in our environment project - Patriot Pollinator Project, scheduled for this Spring.  Roundstone is located in Kentucky.  Buy local, buy USA ...

https://www.roundstoneseed.com/

Gels read and counting flies tomorrow...

In AP Biology, it took us all block to read our gels, graph our results and estimate the size of unknown fragments.  Students were able to finish their lab questions and hand it in before leaving. We pushed our fly count until tomorrow with our Chapter 18-19 review of concepts ... gene expression.  Hopefully we can get out bacterial transformation lab out of the way on Thursday and Friday.  

In Selected Topics, we continued our study of astronomy.  Tomorrow is star life cycles, H-R diagrams and the Universe.  Too wet to do our solar system model outside ... will try on Thursday.

Got home and put a tire back on our bushhog.  I was able to bushhog a little before dark.  I am going to an early Spring bushhogging schedule in hopes of restoring habitat for pollinators.

Restriction Lab and Astronomy begins ...

In AP Biology we ran our restriction enzyme electrophoresis lab today.  Tomorrow we will analyze the results as we let the gels destain overnight.  Also tomorrow, we will make our F2 fly count.  Students working on this lab below.

In Selected Topics we started our Solar System Modeling lab and next good day will be outside to construct our model.  It will be astronomy all week this week in Selected Topics ... nebular theory, star life cycles and constellations every American should know.

Ordered some seed potatoes from Johnnies and Seed Savers today.  No softball this year means back to the garden where I belong!

Norovirus or something...

Recovering from a norovirus something like it!  Missed two days of school which is rare for me.  I did get back today and was able to wrap up some assignments before the weekend.

In AP Biology, we went over our discussion question for Chapters 15-17.  We scored our Crick's Central Dogma questions and went over examples of DNA mutations and the consequences to their proteins.  We concentrated on frame-shift mutations.  On Monday, we have our restriction lab using electrophoresis.  We are also working on selected questions in Chapters 18-19. 

In Selected Topics, we wrapped up our Seven Days of Weather assignment and finished up some earth science to finish our unit.  We will start astronomy on Monday with our solar system model outside on Wednesday or Thursday. 

Our girls basketball team is playing in the District 15 final tonight ... good luck against Glasgow!

Looks like a good weekend to work here on the farm!

Replication and more ...

Today in AP Biology we worked through Replication, Transcription and Translation with some examples for students to work out.  We looked at the outcomes with changes in the DNA sequence to see what happens in the resulting proteins.  Tomorrow, we will continue to work on these concepts.  We have assigned questions to go over.

Also today, we removed our F1 flies from our culture tubes.  Our F2 count should be in about 8 days.

In Selected Topics we did some map reading on our official Kentucky maps ... distances between points/parks, Black Mountain, points of interest and calculating speeds on various trips.  Tomorrow, we will wrap up earth science before heading to our astronomy unit.  Tomorrow, we have weather maps, rock cycle review and rock layer interpretation.

Our girls' basketball team won their first round game in the district tournament tonight ... congrats!

John, our son, was at the high school today representing WKU - Glasgow.  It was good to see him!

Crick's Central Dogma tomorrow ...

President's Day weekend is over and it is back to work tomorrow.

In AP Biology, we will be working on Crick's Dogma ... Replication - Transcription - Translation.  Our Drosophila Lab will continue tomorrow but we will not count F2 flies until week after next.  We will also be reviewing concepts we have covered so far this year tomorrow.

In Selected Topics we will be working on superposition of rock layers, weather and reading a weather map.

We have a teachers meeting after school on Wednesday and this is District basketball week ... our boys are playing tonight at Barren against Monroe County in the first round of the District 15 tournament ... go Patriots ... it is time to release "The Drone"!

This weekend, Sue Neal and I went to Indianapolis to watch our nephew play basketball ... Marian University vs. Bethel ... they lost by one on a last second shot.  Then we drove over to Champaign, IL to see our daughter and son-in-law.  We had a long drive back today with a few stops along the way.

I got to take a walk on Sunday afternoon in the prairie restoration project near Champaign ... Buffalo Trace.  Not much growing there now but,  it is where I harvested some of my wildflower seeds last fall ... rattlesnake master, compass plant and prairie dock.  Websites below are the prairie restoration projects near Champaign, IL.

http://grandprairiefriends.org/stewardship.html

President's Day Weekend

President's Day Weekend ... we are off school on Monday.  Hopefully, my AP students will do a little work over the weekend.  In the past, three times we have taken students to NYC for President's Day weekend ... great trips with some great students!

Today, we continued our study of earth science with a Rock Lab in Selected Topics ... geodes, density testing and many types of rocks from several states.  We also continued our 7 days of weather ... day 5.

We had our final review of genetics problems today in AP Biology ... all modes of inheritance and Mendelian ratios.   We also prepped up our restriction enzyme lab for next week.  Tuesday we will be working on non-disjunction and replication of DNA.

Walked down to Long Creek today after school.

Drosophila Lab begins and Rock Lab tomorrow!

AP Bio - Drosophila Lab begins ...

Both AP Biology classes started their Drosophila Lab today.  Third block is working with sex-linked white-eyed mutants while fourth block has the apterous wing mutant.  We ordered F1 flies so all we have to do are sort males and females, prepare culture tubes and distribute the flies.  Our F2 flies should be ready to sort and count in about two weeks.  Above, some serious sorting with the aid of a hand lens.

For data we collected during our genetics class last fall, we did a Chi Square analysis.  Tomorrow,  we wrap up genetics and head on to Crick's Dogma - Replication / Transcription / Translation.

In Selected Topics, we are continuing 7 Days of weather.  Also, tomorrow we have our Rock Lab with density calculations.  Today, we worked on plate tectonics, convection and the USGS website.

Today was Valentine's Day ... a barrage of flowers to the high school last block.

Drosophila Lab starts tomorrow ...

In Selected Topics today, we worked on Kentucky Geology ... meteor strikes in Kentucky, geodes, crinoid fossils, Chattanooga shale and Fort Payne Limestone.  Tomorrow our weather study continues and we are researching the Oil boom of 1915-1919 in Allen County.  We will also prep up our Rock Lab for Friday.

AP Biology worked several genetics problems in class on our individual white boards.  We went over genetic vocabulary and prepped our Drosophila lab which starts tomorrow.

We will be working tomorrow with a white-eye mutant (sex-linked) and an autosomal mutant, apterous wing. Last of our genetics problems will be reviewed tomorrow before going on to replication.

Took a walk after school ... frogs and the woodcocks are still out of control!  I was sitting in the woods just below the house at nearly dark and a fox went by about 30 feet away.

Modes of Inheritance - Genetics

Yesterday evening, Sue Neal and I went to see Carmina Burana at SkyPAC in Bowling Green.  The choral groups from University of Louisville and Murray State University performed with the Kentucky Orchestra.  It was fun!

Today was club schedule so a lot of students were in and out of class.  We were able to get a little work done.

In Selected Topics today after recording the weather for the day and across the country, we did some work on plate tectonics.  Tomorrow we will be studying Kentucky geology and the rock formations in Allen County.

http://www.uky.edu/KGS/

In AP Biology we are working on genetics ... modes of inheritance and pedigrees.  We will continue this work tomorrow and if we have time, we will make our F1 Drosophila crosses for two traits ... white eye and apterous mutants. We are working on Chapters 14-15 in Campbell. 

Took a long walk late in the day to Holland, back to Long Creek then to home.  The American woodcocks were making their weird sounds and I am sure making their acrobatic mating flights but, it was too dark to see.

Hepatica americana - blooming

Took a couple pictures yesterday after feeding our bees of the first woodland wildflowers I have found in 2013 ... Hepatica americana (Hepatica nobilis).  They were on a south facing rocky slope near a woodland road to what we call the goat field.

A perennial in the buttercup family ... it was as a treatment for liver ailments because the leaves look like the three lobes of the liver.

http://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=HENOO

Mitosis and Meiosis Lab, Day 1

We finished most of our Mitosis and Meiosis Lab on Friday in AP Biology ... onion root slides and a Sordaria asci analysis for calculating map units using crossing-over.  We will finish the analysis, including Chi Square of our results on Monday before starting our study of genetics.  We will be in genetics for most of next week and start our fly cultures mid-week.

In Selected Topics, we are doing a evolution lab simulation (population genetics lab) and will finish this on Monday ... Biology II test on Wednesday but most of the week will be spent in our earth science unit.

Below AP students working with their microscopes ...

Mitosis and Meiosis Lab

Today in AP Biology, we wrapped up our study of mitosis/meiosis, mitosis checkpoints and crossing-over in Prophase I.  We prepared for our Mitosis and Meiosis Lab which is scheduled for tomorrow.  This lab is similar to last year's lab with an added a case study and inquiry.

In Selected Topics in Science we worked on pedigree construction and started our Logal Genetics computer lab.  We will wrap up genetics tomorrow.

Our new work station computers are coming along ... a few bugs and we still cannot print.

I will try and take some pictures from our lab tomorrow ...

First Spring Wildflower ...

Today on my walk after school I walked to the goat field to check the beehives.  On the way up the hill I saw our first wildflower of the spring ... a hepatica .... Hepatica americana.  I have not be taking my camera on walks but will later this week for a picture.  It's bloom was just opening.  Really early for the start of wildflower season!

In AP Biology, we prepped up our mitosis / meiosis lab.   Classroom discussion today centered around mitosis and the checkpoints that control cell division with its connection to cancers.  We also went over spermatogenesis, oogenesis and crossing-over.  Tomorrow, we will wrap up our preparation for the lab Friday and start genetics.

In Selected Topics we reviewed modes of inheritance with sample problems ... tomorrow,  LOGAL genetics lab.

My ancient DELL computer was replaced today ... hopefully it will be fully functional soon.  Luckily most of my important programs and presentations are on my Mac.  Love those Macs!

Mitosis Meiosis tomorrow ... HeLa cells

We took the first of three exams in AP Biology today.  We are ready to move into cell division tomorrow ... mitosis followed by meiosis.  Our mitosis lab is schedule for Friday but, we will get a head start with some work on Thursday.  This lab has changed a little for 2013 with a case study added about Henrietta Lacks.  I have the book but not enough time for a classroom read in AP Bio so, we will read a summary and an additional short reading about HeLa cells.



We are wrapping up genetics in Selected Topics in Science.  Tomorrow, the Logal Genetics lab.

Bummed a ride with students home today since Sue Neal took Granny to the doctor and we rode to school together.  Check some hives and took a walk.   I will check the remaining hives tomorrow but, bees were moving in and out of the hives today.

American Woodcock ... Spring?

Today, we worked on cell to cell communication in AP Biology with questions from Chapter 11.  We discussed signal transduction ... G proteins and cyclic-AMP ... steroid hormones, transcription factors and apoptosis.

We have our first AP Test of the semester tomorrow ... mostly ecology, cell science, enzymes, photosynthesis and respiration.

We will be working on mitosis and meiosis the rest of the week with our lab on Friday.

Selected Topics continues to work on genetics ... several modes of inheritance.  Our problem to solve at the end of the class was called "Can you Find My Baby?"

Took a walk when I got home from school and changed the tire on my truck.  This evening I could hear woodcocks calling and making a lot of noise ... but, it was too dark to see them flying.  A sign of Spring!

not my picture ... http://www.allaboutbirds.org

First AP Bio Test Tuesday

We teach AP Biology on a single semester block schedule.  Our first test over Ecology, Biochem, Cells, Photosynthesis, Respiration, Photosynthesis and our first four labs will be on Tuesday.  We really don't have time to test in this class since we are on a tight schedule for time.

We finished up Friday by wrapping up and Photosynthesis and Respiration.  We started our study of cell communication (especially signal transduction) and finish this tomorrow.  Photosynthesis Lab write up is due tomorrow and we will review some for our test.

It appears we might get in a full week without interruption ... Mitosis/Meiosis Lab is scheduled for Thursday.

Selected Topics will continue to work on genetics this week.  The Who's my Daddy genetic problem will be tomorrow.

This weekend was the Allen County Beekeeper's 2013 Bee School held at our high school.  It was attended by about 150 beekeepers representing a few thousand hives.  Dr. Grey from WKU presented a class on genetics and the state apiarist - Sean Burgess was on hand and conducted two classes.  Retired state apiarist - Phil Craft was the featured speaker.  All told, there were sixteen classes over a variety of topics.

Snowed Saturday during bee school and Saturday night about 2 inches but it all melted off today ... a warming trend appears to be on hand this week.  I noticed some daffodil buds but none are open yet.

Sue Neal and I spent the afternoon at school working.