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Days 81 and 82

12/17/2015

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Let's see.....180 days in the school year. Today is the 82nd day.  The year is just 45.5% over.
FINALS!!!  I LOVE THEM!!!
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Day 80

12/15/2015

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Have you figured out yet that the end of the first semester does not mean the year is half way over??
Yeah, too bad.......
Everyone continued their preparation for their final exam.
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Day 79

12/14/2015

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It's Finals Week!  I love it!!
All classes reviewed material associated with their respective final exams.
That is one helluva sentence.
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Day 78

12/11/2015

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Day 78 means that the school year is 13/30ths of the way done.  Only 17/30ths to go!
The AP Biology students checked the results of the Transformation Lab and, yay, it totally worked.  The E. coli strain now has the ability to de-activate ampicillin and cut X-GAL which will turn the colonies blue.  If you can understand that and you're not in my class, you must be smart. Or lucky.
The Biology students watched an autopsy on a 5300 year-old guy.  He had a arrowhead in his chest. Next week, it's Final review time.
The Chemistry students wrapped up the rocket launching lab without sending anyone to North Korea.

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Day 77

12/10/2015

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Only one more week of school until Winter Break!
The AP Biology students completed the difficult and super-important Transformation Lab protocol which is a cool way to say directions. The whole idea is to change the genetic make up of an organism (in this case, a strain of E. coli) and give it new characteristics.  I hope it works.....
The Biology students took the Genetics Exam today.  I hope it works.....
The Chemistry students launched rockets for pride and prizes.  Darren, Nicole, Ruben and Marlena proved they are worthy of a prize which was not a ticket to North Korea.  It was candy.

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Day 76

12/9/2015

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Day 76 means that the Warriors still haven't lost.
The AP Biology students reviewed the Gel Electrophoresis Lab.  Among other things, we determined DNA fragment length by interpolation, learned with Child had cystic fibrosis and learned how a mutation at a recognition site can change the amount and size of DNA fragments after restriction enzyme digestion.
The Biology students finished up the review for the Genetics Exam which is tomorrow. We will also have a genetic cross review during Achievement before the exam tomorrow.
The Chemistry students started launching rockets today.  Tomorrow, we will have a contest on rocket accuracy.  The winner will receive a airline ticket to North Korea.

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Day 75

12/8/2015

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Only 7 more days until the end of the semester! And only 17 more days until Christmas! Jeez, I got a lot of work to do....
The AP Biology students saw the results of the gel electrophoresis run from yesterday.  Looks like Child #1 is totally healthy and fine.  Wish I could say the same about Child #2.  We also used interpolation to estimate the base pair length of each DNA fragment from the restriction enzyme digestion. We did that. I swear.
The Biology students began a review of genetic stuff in order to prepare for the Genetics Exam which will be on Thursday of this week. We also discussed sex-linked traits.
The Chemistry students completed the first part of Rocket Lab today.  We made sure the rockets were divided into 6 separate volumes. We also tested the explosive power of different mixes of hydrogen and oxygen gases.
What did you do today?

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Day 74

12/7/2015

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Abraham Lincoln once said, "I hate Mondays". I think he said that this morning.  Well, he would have if he lived to 206.
The AP Biology class started the cool part of the Gel Electrophoresis Lab today.  That means they injected actual pieces of DNA into gels and, using electrophoresis chambers, separated the different fragments of DNA.  Based on size, of course.
The Biology students finished their discussion on mutation. Specifically, we saw how Krishna and Trishna make it out of their 32 hour surgery that separated these previously conjoined twins. We also finished the Analyzing Karyotypes lab activity.
The Chemistry students really helped me out today.  The Gel Electrophoresis Lab that the AP Biology students were doing (see above) went overtime, as it were.  The students allowed me to do very necessary work to complete this activity.  The rocket lab begins in earnest tomorrow.

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Day 73

12/4/2015

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Despite having 2 days between themselves and Monday, I still think Fridays are OK.
The AP Biology students finished and turned in the Fly Lab.  We also did some practice injections into gels in preparation of the Gel Electrophoresis Lab which we will begin next Monday.
The Biology students saw how physicians in Australia were able to separate conjoined twins that were connected at the top of their heads! A truly inspiring look at the miracle of modern medicine. We were so into the movie that we forgot to complete the chromosomal mutation activity.  We will finish it up on Monday.
The Chemistry students turned in the Stoichiometry Lab and then turned their attention to the rocket lab. We divided the rocket into 6 separate volumes which will be necessary to achieve the appropriate mix of gases.

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Day 72

12/3/2015

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Today was really weird.  I was viewing a webinar on grading systems so we had a sub. A bunch of kids missed class too.  There was the ASVAB test for all the students that will be entering the armed services.  Hahahaha.....And there was a meeting of all juniors and seniors during 6th period so Chemistry was missing a lot of students too.
Really, just a bunch of review stuff in all classes.
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    Dan Button

    Science Teacher at West Valley High School

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