Blog Archives - Button's Place

Day 140

3/31/2015

Happy PayDay Teachers everywhere! March is a long month.
The AP Biology students continued their work on the second part of the Physiology using Daphnia and designing their own experiments in order to see what environmental factors can change the heart rate of the poor invertebrate.
The Chemistry student continued work on the combined Gas Law word problems. We are looking at wrapping up this Unit of study during the first week when we come back from the break.

Day 139

3/30/2015

The last week before Spring Break! Yayy!
The Chemistry students worked on some combined Gas Law problems where all three parameters are analyzed; volume, pressure and temperature.
The AP Biology students began work on the second part of the Physiology Lab, using Daphnia, our favorite invertebrate, as an organism that we will manipulate like the Pharoahs did with the pyramid builders.

Day 138

3/27/2015

Another Friday! And guess what? Half of my student are missing today. Track, baseball and assorted absences have once again made a Friday, basically, learning deplete.
The Chemistry students who were missing yesterday made up the quiz and that was about it. I was missing 50% of my students.
The AP Biology students finished work on the first section of the Physiology Lab. Half the kids were missing from here too.

Day 137

3/26/2015

Finally, a normal day with good attendance. Sort of.....
The Chemistry students reviewed the worksheet from yesterday and took a quiz on Boyle's Law and Charles' Law problems. Pretty sure it was easy.
The AP Biology students continued their work on the Physiology Lab. We should be through the first section after today's work.

Day 136

3/25/2015

Today, I made a decision. I made the decision to stay home with my daughter who is home on Spring Break from Cal. It was totally worth it. We spent the whole day together talking about her upcoming graduation and what lies ahead. Do it again in a heartbeat.
The Chemistry students did a bunch of practice problems regarding Boyle's and Charles' Law.
The AP Biology students started the written work on the Physiology of the Circulatory System Lab.

Day 135

3/24/2015

Day 135 signifies the beginning of the last one quarter of the school year. We are officially 3/4ths of the way done.
The Chemistry students learned about Boyle's and Charles' Law today. These 2 laws explain the role of pressure and temperature on the volume of a gas. Good stuff. We also learned about the Kelvin scale when applying temperature to the behavior of a gas.
The AP Biology students learned how to take someone's blood pressure and pulse in preparation of the Physiology of the Circulatory System lab, we starts tomorrow.

Day 134

3/23/2015

Man, the year is cruising by. 67/90ths of the way done!
The Chemistry students were introduced to the ideas of force and pressure. We talked about why it isn't a good idea to get hit in the arm with an axe swung by Lily from Modern Family but it probably wouldn't be much of a bonus to get hit in the arm with a Madison Bumgarner fastball. This continues our work on the Gas Laws.
The AP Biology students took the Biodiversity Exam today. Next stop, Animal Structure and Function.

Day 133

3/20/2015

Friday and March Madness?? This is like the Hot Rod of school days. A bunch of kids were gone in all 3 classes. Track, baseball, a play in Ashland, and some other thing decimated my classes. I was missing over half in all of them.
So, you know what we did? That's right! Watched hoops and chilled.

Day 132

3/19/2015

It's here!! March Madness!!! Every year of my teaching career, I have allowed students to watch the basketball games as they are a great way to see how awesome college can be with all the pomp and circumstance surrounding this tournament. And that's what we did. I don't think my 5th period class will ever forget the Georgia State game. Wow, that was great!
The Chemistry students worked on their posters while watching the games today.
The AP Biology students reviewed the Biodiversity stuff while checking out the games.

Day 131

3/18/2015

Another dumb day doing the CAHSEE thing with the 10th graders. The good part was that they finished the 8th grade math test pretty fast and we watched Hot Rod. Great movie or greatest movie? You decide.
The Chemistry students went to the library again to work on their extra credit college assignment. As most of my students are sophomores, this was a nice change from the CAHSEE stuff.
The AP Biology students continued their rudderless review of the Biochemistry stuff. We'll continue that on Thursday and Friday.