AP Bio Test tomorrow and Wildflowers ...

Today, we finished up our Transpiration lab with some microscope work ... looking at cross-sections of monocot and eudicots ... and counting stomata on a couple of plant samples.  Tomorrow, we have a test over Chapters 12-26.

We did some student generated labs in Selected Topics today using our electromagnets we made yesterday ... which brand of D batteries were the strongest and tested Faraday's Law.  Tomorrow, we will write up our classroom data.  This concludes our physics unit.  On to Chemistry after Spring Break.

After school I had time to take a walk ... surprisingly, some wildflowers are blooming in spite of the cold weather and snow.  Also,  the turnip patch is starting to bloom ...

I think the wildflower in the second picture is cut-leaf toothwort (Dentaria laciniata).

Transpiration Lab

In AP Bio, we started our transpiration lab which is like last years lab with a microscope activity added to quantify the stomata on different species.  We did the potometer part of the lab today ... to calculate water lost under different conditions ... additional light, wind, room conditions and mist.  Students will recalculate their results as water loss in ml per meter squared tonight and we will present classroom data tomorrow.  A few student groups got started on counting stomata.  Several parts remain in this lab to do tomorrow including,  slides on monocot and eudicot stems and root cross-sections.

AP Bio Test II is moved to Thursday.

In Selected Topics, we finished our circuit lab in the Mac Computer Lab and started our Electromagnet contest.  Students will design an electromagnet using a single D battery to transport paperclips between locations.

I moved 14 flats of wildflowers out to the school greenhouse today ... part of our Patriot Pollinator Project.

Two days remain before heading out for Spring Break ... still lots to do.

Snowing today ...

I snowed off and on all day but, ... no accumulation with temperatures in the mid-30's.  It is suppose to snow tonight into tomorrow before warming up through the weekend.  Sue Neal hoping for a snow day tomorrow ... of course!

Today in AP Biology, we finished our mathematical modeling population genetics lab using Excel.  The inquiry parts of these labs really takes a long time!  Tomorrow is our transpiration lab and we will use a variety of cruciferous plants under various environmental conditions.  Test II on Wednesday and a review day on Thursday before we take off for Spring Break.

We were in the Mac Computer Lab today in Selected Topics doing a simulation lab studying electrical circuits.  Tomorrow is our electromagnet lab studying Faraday's Law.

Turkey time ...

On Friday, AP Biology reviewed for our test coming up this Wednesday, continued our Artificial Selection Lab and prepped up our Transpiration Lab which is scheduled for Tuesday.  Tomorrow, we will wrap up the inquiry part of the Excel Modeling / Hardy-Weinberg lab.  Four days until Spring Break and lots to do.

Selected Topics crunched their structures in the field house on Friday ... Team Brandon and Brandon held nearly 200 pounds with a structure made of popsicle sticks (34 grams - about 24 sticks / must be 8 inches tall) held together with wood glue ... We wrap our physics unit with a lab on electromagnets this week.

Several turkey in the field behind our house Saturday ... you can tell what they have on their brains!

Structure Lab, Excel Modeling and a Lockdown

Today we had a lockdown second block to allow the drug dog to sniff around the school and in classrooms.  I don't know if they found anything but there were a few strained bladders at the end of the block.

In Selected Topics tomorrow we will wrap up our building project by crushing students' structures in the field house.  Students could only use glue and wood pieces ... 34 grams.  Good luck tomorrow... the record is 255 pounds.

In AP Biology, we were in the computer lab working on our Excel models to study population genetics ... Hardy-Weinberg.  Most students finished the main part of the lab but, we will return on Monday for half the block to finish their inquiry.  We have some review tomorrow and Chapter 40.  Our test is moved to next Wednesday and Tuesday, we will conduct our transpiration lab.  After transpiration, one lab remains of the 14 we scheduled for the semester.

Some of the seed I planted last week are up ... coneflower, butterfly plant and big blue stem.  Our flats of milkweed should be ready for the greenhouse later next week.

I had time this evening to work in the yard for a while ... cold but sunny.

Mathematical Modeling with Excel

Today in AP Biology, we finished up our BLAST lab with and independent study of a protein ... student's choice.  We also constructed out mathematical model for Hardy-Weinberg using Microsoft Excel.  Pretty tough for those that have never programmed or have had an Excel course.  We will use this model to investigate the relationship between allele frequencies in populations.

Spreadsheet below is from NABT but like the one students generated in class today.  We will finish this lab tomorrow.

AP Bio Test II will be on Monday.

Patriot Pollinator Project starts ...

Today we had club schedule at school.  Our environmental club helped out planting flats of milkweed (common and butterfly weed) ... about 20 flats ... should yield about 1000 plants.  We will plant more after these germinate and we move them to the greenhouse.  We also have some other wildflower seed to plant ... partridge pea, illinois bundle flower, cup plant, rattlesnake master, two types of coneflowers and bee balm.

Students will take these plants to locations in the county to transplant later in the Spring.

Blast Lab, Structure Lab and Monarchs

In AP Biology today, we started our BLAST lab which is new to AP this year's new curriculum. Students looked at four genes from and prehistoric animal and tried to decide where this organism fit on a cladogram.  We will return to the computer lab to finish this lab Wednesday ... club schedule tomorrow and we will use this time to review since several students will be out of class.

In Selected Topics we started our building project ... a tower weighing 34 grams and is 8 inches tall to hold the maximum weight ... record is 255 pounds.  This amount of wood is 24 popsicle sticks ...  Tomorrow a study of gravity and more work on our structures.

Rained three inches of rain today.

Good articles about the demise of the monarchs ... Patriot Pollinator Project 2013

http://monarchwatch.org/blog/

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/03/130318-monarch-butterflies-animals-science-environment-nation/

http://www.usnews.com/science/news/articles/2013/03/14/monarch-butterflies-drop-ominously-in-mexico

BLAST Lab tomorrow ... some picts

On Friday, we started our Artificial Selection Lab using Fast Plants.  Students started their plants and went over the procedure for this lab that takes several weeks to complete.  Tomorrow is our Blast Lab - AP Bio Investigation #3.  Club schedule is on Tuesday.

We finished our catapult lab on Friday in Selected Topics Friday ... next week in physics we are working our our super structure lab which will focus on the physics of building houses.

This weekend I was able to bushhog a lot ... it was 74 on Saturday.  I saw over a dozen of rabbits, three red-tail hawks hunting at the same time, a coyote checking out my mowing and a four foot snake getting out of the way of my bushhog.  I fed our bees today (sugar water in zip lock bags / a couple of slits cut on the top side of the bag)  and numbers are increasing significantly in most hives.

Catapult building in the first two pictures and the last two are students doing a Napless fly transfer (outside of course to keep fruit flies out of my room).  We will use these flies for a behavior lab later.

A coyote, woodcocks and a rabbbit ...

In AP Biology today, we took a couple of quizzes, finished our study of evolution and population genetics with a review of bacteria. Tomorrow, we will start a lab using Wisconsin Fast Plants - Artificial Selection Investigation.  On Monday is our BLAST lab.  Also today, my 4th block class expanded Drosophila crosses so we will have flies for our behavior lab later.

Selected Topics are ready for the catapult lab tomorrow ... marshmallows away!

I started some grass in flats today ... big blue stem.

After school I bushhogged again ... I am estimating about two weeks to finish the farm on evenings only.  It was cold and it rained a little while I was working.  During the evening a coyote came up to see if I would flush out a rabbit from the briar patches.  I yelled at him and he trotted off the the woods and sat there thinking I could not see him.  I also scared up three woodcocks and a rabbit while mowing.  I am finished around the house and was working on the long field late this evening by my turnip patch.

Warmer tomorrow ... and long-term forecast calls for temperature in the 50's and 60's but some rain.

Biotechnology review today ... BLAST

Today in AP Biology, we went over our Bio Math problems from Tuesday ...  this year there are six grid in math problems so we are practicing for these questions.  We also went back over tools of biotechnology ... bacterial transformation lab, plasmids, restriction enzymes, electrophoresis and PCR.  We also started to prep up our BLAST lab which is scheduled for Monday.

In Selected Topics, we wrapped up our pHET physics simulations.  We started to work on our catapult lab which will conclude on Friday.

I got home in time to continue my bush-hogging project which is doing this only in the early Spring to maximize wildflower production.

BLAST link below:

BLAST: Basic Local Alignment Search Tool

blast.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/

Only teachers today at school ...

Today was an inservice work day at school.

We worked on unit plans and for me lots of work on Keynote presentations for the new AP Bio curriculum ... each presentation takes a minimum of 2-3 hours to prepare but, you only have to generate them once.  I have done several this semester.

Also, I worked on Bio Math today and generated sample problems students might see on the 2013 AP Bio Exam.

My sister and nephew are down tonight before going to Belmont University tomorrow to visit their pharmacy school.

Rained all day but, tomorrow we will get back to work ... and we should see some sunshine!

To Danville, Cold Night and Fish

Friday Mr Bryn and I took 34 students to Danville for an AP Review session at Danville HS.  We left school early and toured the National Fish Hatchery at Wolf Creek Dam in Russell County.  We camped at Pioneer Playhouse in Danville.  It was a chilly night and hard to get everyone in their tents and they were up way too early ... heaven forbid they would forego a shower (not Peace Corps material!) ... We did get our sessions in for AP Biology and AP Environmental Science.  In AP Biology ... replication, transcription, translation, genetics, endocrine signaling and the immune system.

Monday we do have students but a PD ...  A day off to review AP Biology!

Today I feed our bees after church ... sugar water in ziplock bags with slits cut in them for the bees to feed.  It was a warm but cloudy day ...

Pictures from the fishery below ... they had a pet skunk that was very fat!

Speciation and physics ... illinois bundleflower

Selected Topics started our physics unit with some work on PhET simulations from the University of Colorado.  Today we worked through the simulations Projectile Motion and Springs / Masses.  Tomorrow, we will finish these simulations and data collection in addition, we will create our solar system model outside if sunny.

http://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulations/category/new



In AP Biology, we went over discussion questions in Chapter 24 - Speciation.  We also did several Hardy - Weinberg calculations and took a review quiz.  Tomorrow ... more review or to the National Fishery in Russell County.

Remember, students do not have school on Monday but, our faculty does.

Starting next Friday morning, we are going to have Breakfast Club starting at 6:45 AM ... AP Review on steroids!

We are planting some of our wildflower seeds at school now ... tomorrow, common milkweed and illinois bundleflower.  This is part of our Patriot Pollinator Project for Allen County this Spring.

Hardy-Weinberg problems and more ...

Selected Topics in Science today had their final test in Astronomy.  Tomorrow we will build our solar system model outside and then off to Physics for a few weeks ...

In AP Biology we had a review quiz, updated our review cheat sheet, went over some concepts in evolution and worked through some Hardy-Weinberg problems.  Tomorrow, evolution and population genetics continues.

This weekend many of the AP Science students will be going to Danville for an AP review session.  We will leave on Friday, going to the Wolf Creek National Fish Hatchery in Russell County.  On Saturday we will be at Danville HS for the review sessions.

http://www.fws.gov/wolfcreek/

Wolf Creek National Fish Hatchery Raceway Cam

wcnfh.com/cam1.php

Evolution and Population Genetics ...

Today was a testing day at school ... juniors taking a real ACT in a state of Kentucky event and sophomores taking a practice ACT ... freshmen an end of course practice test ... test, test, test ...

My AP Biology students did meet ... we checked our culture plates for bacteria growth over last night.  Results were better than expected with every group getting some transformations.  This lab write-up is due on Thursday.  We started our study of evolution which will continue tomorrow ... How populations change genetically over time.  Also, we introduced the Hardy-Weinberg equations and conditions.  More H-W problems tomorrow.

Selected Topics did not meet today because of testing.

Snowing some this evening ... but, a warmup is on the way the rest of the week.

Less than 70 days until the AP Biology test ...

ACT tomorrow ... Transformation Lab picts ...

In Selected Topics today, we finished up some odds and ends in Astronomy ... HR diagrams and five constellations you should know.  We will not have class tomorrow because of the ACT test.

We had our bacterial transformation lab today (pGreen).  In this lab, students used a procedure that included a heat shock to transform bacteria with a plasmid containing a bioluminescence gene and an ampicillin resistance gene.  We are allowing our culture plates to incubate for 24 hours at 37 degrees.  We will analyze our results tomorrow.

Hannah and I took a walk at the Barren Lake Lodge 2.5 hiking trail this evening ...

Picts from the lab today ...

Snow and clover seed ...

On Friday at school, we had school-wide ACT prep second block for juniors so I missed my Selected Topics Class.  I was one of the three science teachers doing ACT science review ... types of questions and format with some sample questions.

In AP Biology, we tallied up our fly lab data before moving on to gene regulation ... lac and trp operon, eukaryotic regulation and more.  We have sample MC questions for Monday and we are going to start quizzes to force students to review ... it is a long haul on content and labs for a single semester.  We have our bacterial transformation lab scheduled for Monday.  My juniors in fourth block missed half the class for at review award ... we pressed on without them.

Snowed last night so I got up early and walked on some clover seed on our turnip patch and elsewhere.  I also walked put some grass seed on our lawn.  Lots of birds at our feeders all day ... goldfinches, cardinals, juncos, sparrows, chickadees, red-bellied woodpeckers and many more!

John and Claire in for the weekend and Hannah is on her way down from Ann Arbor for a few days ... her Spring Break is next week.  Snow this morning in our backyard below as I fed our birds.