Rose-breasted Grosbeak and planting corn ...

Last week at school had a lot of distractions with several students out of class on any given day... field trips and more.  Next week, we have testing (End of Course) on two days ... hard to review for the AP Bio Test ... we will continue with the students that attend.

We examined the data for Investigation 10 - Energy Dynamics in AP Biology on Friday ... a lab on calculating the flow of energy through a short food chain.  We will finish this (our last required lab) on Monday and review will begin in earnest.

In Selected Topics, we are working through human organ systems before our amphibian dissection.

I have not been to the bottom, but I think Rex has finished planting corn there.  His planter is a long way from our six row corn planter 30 years ago!

I still have a couple of feeders up.  Below is a rose-breasted grosbeak and its mate ... first I have seen here.    They winter in South America, Caribbean and Mexico.  Summer range is a little north of us so might they might be just be stopping by for a meal.

BeeWeaver and wrapping up AP Bio!

Today we finished the content for AP Biology with the Chapter on Plant Responses ... plant hormones, phototropism, photoperiodism and a review of signal transduction.  Tomorrow, some additional odds and ends over plant hormones, daily quiz on this chapter, calculating standard deviation and standard error so we can finish our last labs.  Also, the first ten questions and the first grid-in question on a sample test. Lots of students missing school each day ... not good for getting ready for the test next month.

In Selected Topics, we are working on vertebrate science and will take a quiz on this tomorrow. After that, human organ systems and a dissection.

I stayed at school to transplant some plants for the greenhouse.  Several students have taken milkweed to plant at their farms ... Patriot Pollinator Project.

Rained today nearly an inch and has turned cool.  Queens from BeeWeaver did not come in today (good since the weather is bad) ... they are having trouble getting queens shipped because of weather problems in Texas.  Maybe next week.

http://www.beeweaver.com/

Dwarf crested Iris, jack-in-the-pulpit and wildflowers ...

Today was Earth Day and we planted some wildflower seed in flats to transplant later.  Some students took milkweed home to plant for Monarchs and other pollinators.  I rarely show a video but, today we too some time to watch and discuss YERT, a documentary.  Back to work tomorrow ... plant science and review.

In Selected Topics we took a practice invertebrate test ... tomorrow the real thing and off to our study of vertebrates.

This weekend, I installed some RWeaver bees, two packages of Buckfast bees.  They came in the mail on Saturday.  Also, put on supers in anticipation of the nectar flow from the tulip poplar trees.  Our potatoes are coming up in our garden.

http://www.rweaver.com/
http://www.rweaver.com/buck.php










Yesterday,  Sue Neal and I returned to the woods behind our house to seed the wildflowers.  Great White Trillium is in full bloom ... hundreds! ... the dogwood trees are blooming and a few jack-in-the-pulpit. Picts below ... jack-in-the-pulpit (2), dwarf crested iris and a dogwood bloom

Big Bird Test Tomorrow ...

The Selected Topics class has been working all week on taxonomy and animal science.  Tomorrow, we will have our Big Bird test.  All week we have been learning about birds in the eastern part of the United States.  Good luck tomorrow!

AP Biology finished nervous system and will wrap up embryology and animal behavior tomorrow.  This only leaves a chapter and a half on plant science to finish up the content.   Our animal behavior lab is due tomorrow with a mini-poster.

We are starting to distribute our milkweed plants in the Patriot Pollinator Project.  We have about 500 plants started.  The Mammoth Cave Sierra Club took a flat of milkweed plants to give out on Earth Day next week.

I saw a couple of eastern tiger swallowtails flying around this week along with a couple of bumblebee queens.

Giant White Trillium, rattlesnake fern and more ...

Today at school,  AP Biology worked on their Drosophila behavior lab.  We also started on our study of the nervous system ... especially, neuron anatomy and neurotransmitters.  Tomorrow is club schedule but, we will try to get some work done ... nervous system and review questions.

Selected Topics started their study of animals and taxonomy.  We did a quick review of all major animal phyla and worked on our bird survey.  Tomorrow we will start on invertebrate phyla in detail and continue on our bird ID ... 100 common birds.

After school, Sue Neal and I were able to take a walk in the small valley behind our house.  Below are some of the plants we saw ... the Giant White Trillium (Trillium grandiflorum) is starting to bloom ... there are hundreds of them.  Wood poppy and foam flower are blooming ... many others.  Also below, a picture of a rattlesnake fern ... a very interesting small fern

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trillium_grandiflorum

...http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Botrypus_virginianus

Natural Bridge, Wildflowers and Serviceberry trees

Natural Bridge and Red River Gorge ...
This weekend, Sue Neal and I traveled to Natural Bridge / Red River Gorge to celebrate my birthday ... a surprise gathering then assembled with our children and spouses, my sister and part of her family and our friends Gaye and Franklin with their children from Scottsville.  A good time with some hiking was had by all!  Below is a early morning picture of natural bridge, red trillium and our unknown blooming tree from the top of natural bridge ... serviceberry tree (June Berry) ...

Sierra Club Wildflower walk ...
Today several members from the Mammoth Cave Sierra Club came out to our farm for a wildflower walk.  Below are nodding (or white ??) trillium and twin leaf.  We saw many others!

Drosophila Behavior Lab

In AP Today, we conducted our Drosophila Behavior Lab exploring their preference to a variety of fruits and substances.  Each group were responsible for four tests.  Write up will be due next Tuesday.  We have a Test II retest tomorrow.  Below, JJ hard at work with the blender preparing samples.

In Selected Topics we continued our Chemistry unit with balancing equations and our gunpowder lab ... using only 10 g of potassium nitrate ... Will have picts of the winners tomorrow.  Below the winner of Chemistry Bingo on Wednesday ... Zack had 8 wins!

Rained about two inches today with some lightning and thunder ...

Chemistry Bingo and the Immune System...

In AP Biology, we went over the immunity system today ... humoral and cell-mediated responses.  We went over review questions also.  Tomorrow is our animal behavior lab using Drosophila.  I will take some picts.  Retest of Test II on Friday.

In Selected Topics, we played some Chemistry Bingo in review of studying the periodic table.  Tomorrow is our gunpowder lab and balancing equations.

Finished planting potatoes today ahead of the rain and planted some strips of grass and wildflower seeds ... big blue stem, little blue stem and switchgrass.

Human Organ Systems ...

In AP Biology, we started our study of human organ systems.  This year in a new AP curriculum, there are only three organ systems covered ... endocrine, immune and nervous.  All other organ systems are out ... to my regret and unfortunately for most of our AP students in terms of life after HS and college.

Today was endocrine system ... handed in our transpiration lab and worked on a little review.  We have our Drosophila behavior lab scheduled for Thursday and a retest on Friday.  Tomorrow is the immune system ... cell-mediated and humoral responses, antibodies and more.

In Selected Topic, we continued on our chemistry unit with some work on the periodic table.  Tomorrow, chemistry bingo and we will start our gunpowder lab, part of understanding how to balance chemical equations/reactions.

Nearly finished planting potatoes tonight.

I have seen some bumble bee queens over the last week ... looking for nesting sites.  Spring is starting up in full swing ... several trees greening up!

Asparagus and Spring Break is over!

During Spring Break I tried to catch up on farm work from the last five springs.  This was the first Spring Break we have been home without taking students on Spring Break trips (MarineLab, Gulf Shores, Texas, South Carolina and more ...).  It was great to have some time to work at home and on the farm.

I planted an asparagus patch for Sue Neal ... 50 plants, 25 Jersey Supreme and 25 Purple Passion ... all from Johnny's Seeds in Maine ... Johnnyseeds.com.  Below the crowns laid out before I covered them up with soil.

We went back to school today.  We started a Chemistry unit in Selected Topics and in AP Biology we went over our last test and worked on our transpiration lab.  Tomorrow in AP we will work on the endocrine systems, hand in our transpiration lab and do a little course review.

Allen County beekeepers met tonight with the program on swarming.

 I am still planting potatoes in our garden rebuilding our raised beds from the neglect for 5 years.  The sign is still in the dark of the moon for another day ... good for root crops if you believe in planting by the signs.

Spring Finally here!

I appears we have turned the corner on springtime ... just in time for Spring break.

We finished up school last Thursday before letting out for good Friday.  We took our second test in AP Biology ... big test with problems (genetics, Hardy-Weinberg, probability, plasmid mapping and lab reviews).  I have looked a couple of them over and at least some students did well ... it was a hard test.  We will go over this test on Monday when we return as well as finish the write up on our transpiration lab (we will have do redo our stomata data).  We have a spring break assignment in AP Biology ... immune, endocrine and nervous systems.  Selected Topics will start their chemistry unit when we return.

I am still working our Spring bush-hogging project and I am about 70 percent done ... will start again today hoping to finish on Wednesday.  Even though the sign is not right ... will plant potatoes later this week.

We have a lot of milkweed started in our pollinator project in addition to purple coneflower, grey-beard cone flower, bee balm, rattlesnake master, Illinois bundleflower, prairie dock, cup flower and more.

I am taking down some of our bird feeders this week when it gets up toward 70 degrees ... The male finches are starting to turn yellow.

Sue Neal and I are going to Campbellsville University on Tuesday to watch some of our former players play softball ...