Last week before Fall Break ... Programming and Physics!

We are finishing our unit on computer science using SCRATCH programming in Selected Topics in Science.  We completed 5 programs, including a simple PONG game.  Students had to enhance their game with some more ... extra sprites or some kind of modification.  Tomorrow we will do a walk around and try out the games.  We have started our physics unit with the physics of motion.  Students are using pHet software to simulation projectile motion.  Our mousetrap catapult for accuracy is on the horizon this week.

https://scratch.mit.edu/



In Introduction to Computer Progamming we have taken a break from SCRATCH to work in qBASIC for a couple of weeks.  Not as visual but a step away from scripted programming.

Computer Programming II students are hard at work in python programming.  We have finished up a graphics and animation program.  Next up are classes and sorting.

A few picts from our earth science unit in Selected Topics ... map reading of Kentucky ... Black Mountain and KY trivia.

Busy and back ...

Back to blogging after a busy start to the school year.

In Selected Topics, we have wrapped up Earth Science and Astronomy Units.  Our Space Truck competition and modeling of the solar system both turned out great!  We are now in a computer programming unit using SCRATCH from the Lifelong Kindergarten Group at MIT.  Students have done a graphics program and a program created to ask a multiple choice question.

In Computer Programming I, we have been doing SCRATCH programming.  We have completed five programs but will switch to qBASIC this week.

Computer Programming II has been programming in Python.  We are finishing a graphics program ... The Ol McDonald Farm problem with animation.

The Academic team played in the 22nd Annual Ezell-Harding HS Quick Recall tournament last weekend.  One of our team made the finals and we finished 3-8.  There were 48 teams in the tournament including several top 10 teams in the state of Kentucky.

Ezell-Harding Academic Tournament

A picture from after the academic tournament at Ezell-Harding last weekend.  Bus left at 6:00 Saturday morning ... many slept on the trip home.

A couple of pictures from our porch below ... frogs visit regularly and a Monarch caterpilar decided to hang out on a rocking chair the last two weeks.  Sue Neal kept an eye on it to get a picture when it emerged by missed it while on a trip to the grocery.  Off to Mexico ... good luck!

Genetics, SNAP and Karel

Today we started the second full week of school.  In Selected Topics in Science, we worked on Genetics ... Punnett Squares and the CitiBank Genetic Problem.  We have two long-term labs going on ... Regeneration Lab using Planaria and The Great Plant Growing Contest.  We start nearly every Monday with "5 of Everything".  Today was 5 trees you should know ... Tulip Poplars, White Oaks, Shagbark Hickory, Sugar Maples and Sassafras.
Tomorrow our study of genetics continues (sex-linked traits like red-green colorblindness) and ABO blood types. We have a separation science lab to do tomorrow ... The Waldo Lab (A forensics simulation using chromatography).

Pictures below are of our modeling lab last week.

In Computer Programming II we started programming our Snappy Bird project.  In Computer Programming I we are still working on Karel the Robot ... using if/then, if/then/else and while/do statements ... We are finishing our Grand Prix of Karel tournament tomorrow.  Good luck to all!

A small buck from a walk this week for my hunting students!  Best butterfly picture of the weekend (Easter Tiger Swallowtails ... female and male) and a pict from the walk in the woods.

First days of school 2015-2016 and butterflies ...

Has the Monarch migration started?  While bush-hogging today, I saw eight.  This one was in a zinna flower bed at our house.

After two days of PD last week, students arrived on Wednesday.  Lots of housekeeping work with tons of forms the first day but, we got a start in all classes.  By Friday, we were able to get some projects rolling.

Computer Programming I started with a graphical logic trainer ... Karel the Robot.  We have worked  through some problems (five) without decision statements.
    Around the Block
    Pick Up the Package
    Take Out the Trash
    Pick the Corn
    Grand Prix with Karel
All these problems can use the define-new-instruction and iterate commands.  We are hoping to have Grand  Prix finished toward the end of next week and we will do a solution check at that point.  Students working on their Karel problems below in the Media lab (new Dells this year!)

https://www.cs.mtsu.edu/~untch/karel/

In Computer Programming II we finally got started after some login problems to the Cloud via the Snap website.  We are starting the year with Snap (UC Berkeley).  It is similar to Scratch (MIT) but, is one of the perferred languages for the AP Computer Science Principles class (scheduled to be offered for the first time in 2016-2017).  We have started our first problem set.

http://snap.berkeley.edu/

Selected Topics in Science started the Regeneration Lab using Planaria on Thursday.  Planaria are freshwater flatworms found locally.  After a light/dark test, student cut their planaria into two parts.  In about 10-14 days, the posterior ends will grow and head.  Next week we will start the Great Plant Growing Contest and study biochemistry.

On the farm this weekend ...

Most of the Tiger Swallowtails have started to show some wear and tear.  Below, a Question Mark (an Anglewing eating deer scat) ... with a fly in the background. Below the Question Mark is a Black Swallowtail. 

A few of the Tiger Swallowtails look like they recently emerged ... on coneflowers and cupflower.

First Week of School 2015-2016

Last week, I attended a bus drivers PD on Wednesday.  I drove with Chris Prock, a shorter in town route.  We caught up on old softball trips. We had parent-teacher conferences on Thursday evening.  I had over 70 students/guardians stop by for classroom information.  Also, several former student came by to visit.  It is always good to hear their stories.

We have teacher PD on Monday and Tuesday.  First day for students will be on Wednesday.  Lots to do before then.

Below is a picture of our honeybees cleaning up the honey from wax cappings after we extracted honey last week.  Below that for my hunter boys I have and have had in class, a group of bucks behind our house eating clover.  Took this picture tonight about dark ... poor quality.

 

Computer Science Principles and last days of summer!

School begins on August 5 for students.  Get off social media and get outside and see some beautiful swallowtails.

Last week, I attended a two-day Advance Kentucky workshop sponsored by KSTC (Kentucky Science and Technology Coorporation).  Ten educators from across state worked on the upcoming AP Computer Science Principles course, scheduled to start 2016-2017.  It is rare that AP offers a new course and this course would have less coding.  The scope of this course would emphasize computational thinking practices ... global impact of computer science, abstracting, computational artifacts, forms of communication and project collaboration.  Students will take an multiple choice exam that counts for 50% of their AP score and they will generated two performance events for the remaining 50%.  The link for this course is below.  We have been preparing to launch this course next year.  Computer Programming II is this effort.  Last year, we got a good start ... Scratch, Python, Arduino, Finch Robots, Raspberry Pi computers and more.

https://advancesinap.collegeboard.org/stem/computer-science-principles
https://scratch.mit.edu/
https://www.python.org/
http://www.kstc.com/

I have been taking a MOOC for this new course through the University of Alabama.  The link is below.  Most of you know how I feel about online courses ... especially if they are all like this one!

https://csp-cs4hs.appspot.com/preview

Finished a book on Ada Lovelace this week.  Lord Byron's daughter that became a very good mathematician (when nearly all women were not allowed to participate in science and math) and a friend of Charles Babbage.  A good historical read from an interesting time during the early 1800s in England.



First semester in our return to the 4 X 4 block, where we should have stayed ten years ago, I will be teaching Computer Programming I (Karel, Visual BASIC and Scratch), Computer Programming II (Scratch, SNAP, Python and a project rotation) and Selected Topics in Science for juniors (Biology, Astronomy, Earth Science, Chemistry, Physics and Computer Programming).  This is a maker class with an abundance of labs.
Second semester I will be teaching AP Computer Science A (Karel J Robot, Greenfoot, BlueJ ... all JAVA) and two Selected Topics in Science classes.

Get outdoors and check it out!