FINALS AND VACATION!!!!!!
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Almost done!! The chemistry students reviewed the Unit 4 material on Stoichiometry in earnest today. The AP Biology students looked at the results of the Transformation Lab with remorse and slight regard. It seems not to have worked.....yet. Hopefully, some transformed bacteria will show their beautiful faces tomorrow. We also did some review. I have some answers to selected review questions below. Maybe this will show you the importance of using the text as a review tool. It's still raining which is a really good thing. And it's almost Christmas! Santa is awesome.
The AP Biology students completed the Transformation protocol which sounds like something out of a Tom Cruise movie where military scientists remove his brain and put in a robot brain that makes him a super soldier and he rescues this really hot babe from the Taliban and his love for her changes his robot brain into something more human. That could totally be a movie! Actually, Transformation involves a series of steps to change the genetic make up of an organism, in this case, E. Coli. We'll check it out tomorrow to see if it worked. The Chemistry students started a comprehensive review of the material that will be included on the Final Exam, which is pretty much everything we did during the year so far. It finally looked like a normal day today at West Valley. I think there were only a couple of absences in my classes today. Good!
The AP Biology students got a very thorough overview of the Transformation procedures which will be followed to the letter tomorrow. A hugely important day to follow directions carefully. The chemistry students finished the written part of the rocket launching lab. We also started a review of the material (all 52 Learning Objectives) that will appear on the final exam. It happened again!! Tons of kids missing again because of infectious disease and sport games like that thing you do with the round bouncy ball.
The AP Biology students continued their review of genetics and stuff in order to prepare for the upcoming final exam. IT APPROACHES!! I think Gandalf yelled that during his senior year or at a Orc army. The chemistry students shot rockets again because so many kids were absent. I think there were about 15 absences during 6th period today. Well, well, well, well, well......what a day. Too much rain and not enough students. Obviously, school probably should have been cancelled, but oh well.
The AP Biology students started a final review and got a preview of the Transformation Lab. The 30% of the Chemistry students that showed up just played with gas-driven rockets and that was about it! Today we, the whole school, participated in the nation-wide activity called The Hour of Code. We learned some coding basics which is cool if you're into that kind of thing. The Chemistry students began the process of determining the best mixture of oxygen gas and hydrogen gas to fire their rocket into the stratosphere which is really just the air in our classroom. The AP Biology students completed the analysis of the simulated cystic fibrosis case of the fraternal twins. We got excellent results as evidenced below:  Right now, I'm watching Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. Hermie really bugs me.
The Chemistry students began the process of building a rocket that will be driven by the combustion of hydrogen gas in the presence of pure oxygen. My rocket will be called either "Santa Claus is Coming to Blow Up your Village" or "I'm Getting Off This Wretched Planet". I haven't decided yet. The AP Biology students ran the gels using the DNA from twins that may or may not have cystic fibrosis. Simulated. of course. We will analyze the results of the electrophoresis run tomorrow. I bet Santa is totally busy in his workshop. I wonder if the elves ever get all high and mighty about being good toy-makers? Hmmmmm......makes you wonder.
The Chemistry students got into groups of 2 types of students. One type were students were the ones that did really good on the Stoichiometry Quiz last Friday. The other group were students that don't quite get it yet. The first type of students tutored the second type in hopes of getting everybody proficient in Stoichiometry calculations. We'll see....... The AP Biology students got a preview of the second part of the Gel Electrophoresis Lab. We will be simulating the work of a lab technician trying to discover if fraternal twins have the gene that causes cystic fibrosis, the most common genetic disease in the United States. Tomorrow, we will analyze DNA samples from the twins using gel electrophoresis. |
Dan Button
Teacher at Archives
May 2015
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