Last post 2013 ... School Thursday!

Heading back to school on Thursday.  Happy New Year to all!  AP Biology Exam will be May 12, 2014 ... Monday morning 8:00 AM ... keep working!

AP Biology - We have several labs to do when we return, starting with the Drosophila Behavior Lab and followed by our Osmosis/Diffusion Lab.  We have six labs scheduled for January.  We will also finish up our study of population genetics, speciation and evolution inbetween labs.

Selected Topics -  Both classes are still in our physics unit and we will work on electricity and computer science when we return.

Computer Science sections will be finishing their graphics programs and starting on arrays / sorting.

Below, one of the Chattanooga Shale outcrops on our farm ... looks like pages in a book ... clay and silt particles cemented together during the Devonian Period ... +/- 375,000,000 years ago.

Frogs Croaking in December!

Yesterday on a walk down to Long Creek, several frogs were croaking in the wetlands there.  It was in the sixties and I suppose they thought it was a harbinger of Spring.  Today, it was much cooler and near freezing when I took my walk just before sunset.  A couple of frogs were still trying to make some noise ... it was pitiful!

Getting ready for Christmas today ... lots of cleaning and Sue Neal is cooking up a storm.

Flexmas, Semester ends and Full Moon pict ...

Today was the last day of school for the semester.  We had our midterm exam in Selected Topics and made our last entry in our comp books before handing them in to be scored.  Computer Programming is still finishing their farm scene with animation ... I was able to check off a couple of students that finished early ... one student had a great UFO added to their programmed farm scene that picked up an apple with a tractor beam ... nice!

My homeroom (juniors) met during flex period and we celebrated Flexmas ... exchanged gifts and had some refreshments.  Below, are a few pictures taken by Dashia at our end the semester party.  After that is a full moon picture from last night ... have to work on my picture taking ability at night!

Hope you all have a safe and fun Christmas break ... back to work on January 2nd!

Midterm Exams and full moon!

Today was the first day of midterm exams.  AP Biology took their test this morning, mostly questions from former AP Bio exams and from the Campbell / Reece test bank.  Students worked the entire block in each class and appeared to have done well.  We had study sessions before school and after school on Monday.  AP Biology will be doing the Diffusion and Osmosis lab after Christmas break.

Tomorrow, we will have an exam in Selected Topics in Science.  Mostly physics questions on this exam.

Computer programming fifth period finished the semester programming a custom screen saver.  We peer scored the programs and most of the students were much more critical than I.  My other programming class is further behind and are still showing me their animated farm scenes.  Several will not get finished and we will have to wrap up this program after Christmas break.

Tomorrow is the last day of the first semester.  My homeroom will be having a small party during flex period.  We are exchanging gifts and will have refreshments before we head out for the break.

We will return to school on January 2nd.

Happy Holidays to all and I hope you have a save and happy Christmas break!

Last full moon of fall and of 2013!  It was beautiful this evening!

rr

Winners ...

Friday was the Selected Topics mousetrap catapult shootout.  Ten marshmallows launched from 12 feet from one table to another over a 5 minute period.  In the bucket setting on the second table was 5 points, hitting the bucket 3, top of the table 2 and any other part of the table 1 point.  50 point maximum.  The all time classroom record is 41 points ... Lucas and JC below was the best score this year in both classes with 33 points ... congrats!  All other teams below had 22 points each.   We finish the analysis and graphing on Monday ... last class before Christmas will be on Wednesday.

Fly Lab Ends ...

After a snow day on Tuesday, my AP Biology classes met today.  We worked through several Hardy Weinberg problems, worked on our test review and finished our Drosophila Lab with the last count of our flies.  We will do the Chi Square analysis on the data and will hand this in after Christmas break.  We will have our second exam of the semester on Tuesday ... mostly genetics, Crick's Central Dogma and Evolution.  We have several labs scheduled after we return from Chrismas break.

Tomorrow, we will wrap up or physics / catapult lab in Selected Topics in Science.  A few student groups competed on Wednesday and the rest of our groups will go tomorrow.  Some of the entries below ...

Monday ...

Today was our eight-period Monday and club schedule.  About half of my AP Bio students were out of class ...  In their absence, we worked on population genetics and sample Hardy-Weinberg problems.

Tomorrow is AP Bio day and we will be working on concepts in evolution, more Hardy Weinberg problems, a review for a test Thursday and our last fly count.  We have scheduled review sessions for Wednesday before school.

Selected Topics worked on their catapults today and we are wrapping up programming animation in qBASIC.

Got home in time to take a walk to Long Creek and back ... wet and quiet, not much stirring.

Tree Silhouettes

The cloudy and rainy weather we have been having is good for reading and taking pictures of tree silhouettes.  Below are a couple of pictures from this weekend ... Hickories ... shellbark, shagbark, and one of each under ice,

No School Friday and Pileated Woodpeckers ...

We did not have school on Friday because of and ice storm that never really materialized.  The counties west of Allen County did have ice and snow but most of the storm stayed west of I-65.  Friday was a Selected Topics in Science day so we will move our study and work on mousetrap catapults to Monday.

We will have club schedule on Monday which is our 8 period day.

AP Biology students will continue to work on concepts in evolution,  population genetics problems and will make their final fly count.  Computer programming students will finish up their farm animations this week.

Yesterday, it rained nearly all day instead of the predicted ice storm.  But, this morning early I took a walk on our farm. It was cloudy but not raining.  Pileated woodpeckers and red tail hawks would get the award for biggest noise-makers.  I saw three red tail hawks hunting the bottom and several pileated woodpeckers were flying around and making a lot of noise (as usual).  Check them out at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology website below ...

http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/pileated_woodpecker/id

MouseTrap Catapult ... Made in the USA

Today, after wrapping up some graphing of data from our PhET simulation lab, we started our mousetrap catapult lab.  These catapults must be designed with a triggering device and shoot a marshmallow a distance of 12 feet into a bucket.  Students will get ten shots ... classroom record is eight marshmallows in the bucket.

Students had a choice of three types of mousetraps.  Mouse Guard and Tomcat traps both made in China and Victor traps made in the USA.  I bought all the traps and gave out the Made in China traps for free but students had to pay 50 cents for a Victor trap.  After a pep rally talk from their teacher, most chose to shell out the 50 cents for the Made in USA trap ... which by all opinions was better built.

Students experimented today with different designs.

Tomorrow is AP Biology day ... evolution, natural selection and the Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium.

 

First Fly Count and Evolution ...

Today in AP Biology, we checked some homework then sorted and counted our F2 flies.  First block students are working with a X-linked mutant, white eyes and the second block students are working with the autosomal mutant, apterous wings.  We had time to review gene regulation ... lac and trp operons and eukaryotic gene regulation (transcription factors, TATA box and enhancers/activators).  We ended the class starting our study of evolution ... starting with Darwin and Wallace and proofs of evolution (fossil record, embryologic evidence, molecular evidence and more).  We will continue this on Thursday, adding some Hardy-Weinberg problems.

In fifth period computer programming, we will be finishing our farm scene with animation and music!

I got home late ... checked on Granny before coming home to grade papers.

Fly counting picts below ...

Gene regulation and flies ...

Today was our last 8-period day of first semester.  We have one next week for it club schedule but most students will be out of class that day.  We have 11 days left before Christmas Break.

In AP tomorrow we will continue our study on gene regulation and homeotic / HOX genes.  We checked our fly cultures and they will be ready to county soon.  Tomorrow we will begin our study of evolution and natural selection ... we may get to some Hardy-Weinberg problems toward the end of class.

Computer programming will be wrapping up their farm scene with animation this week.

We had our faculty dinner tonight at the Lyric ...

Back to work ... winter solstice nearing!

Tomorrow, we will start the push to Christmas vacation ... and more importantly winter solstice!  We will be on our 8-period Monday so, all classes will meet.  Club schedule will be next Monday.

In AP Biology, we will be working on gene regulation ... lac operon,  trp operon and eukaryotic gene regulation.  Students has Biozone worksheets for tomorrow ... we are working in Campbell - Chapter 18 - 19.  Other topics for tomorrow are post-transcriptional regulation of genes, homeotic genes and viruses.
We have a lab scheduled for Thursday ... Diffusion and Osmosis lab.  Students have the lab handout and we will prep up the lab tomorrow and Tuesday.  Also, our Drosophila Lab continues this week.

In Selected Topics in Science, we are still working on PhET simulations and we will start our Catapult Physics Lab on Tuesday.

In Computer Science, students are working on programming animation in qBASIC.  Our graphics unit will continue to near Christmas vacation.

We had a good Thanksgiving vacation in Holland.  Sue Neal's extended family was over on Thursday and our oldest daughter and husband were home until today.  Ms. Foster's family was over on Friday for breakfast.  We took several walks and Rachel found some white planaria to take back to Champaign.  This morning, I took a walk shortly after sunrise and heard two barred owls fighting (sounded like cats) with the loser flying off from the battle.  Barred owls look like a loaf of wheat bread with wings.