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