Blog Archives - Button's Place

Day 100

1/31/2018

Happy 100 Day! That means the school year is 5/9ths of the way done! Only 4/9ths left to go!
The Chemistry students saw the results of the Acid & Base Exam today. Looks like some make-up exams will be in order. We also began the Nuclear Chemistry Unit by taking a 39 question quiz to check out how much we know about radiation, nuclear power and other stuff like that.
The AP Biology students wrapped up the discussion/movie on the evolution of the human brain which is pretty remarkable when you consider humans are responsible for the following: peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, submarines, Labrador Retrievers, hopscotch, basketball, the Mona Lisa and ice cream. Pretty good, don't you think?

Day 99

1/30/2018

Day 99? That means the school year is 11/20ths of the way complete. Only 9/20ths of the way to go!
The Chemistry students took the Acid and Base Exam today. Next stop, Nuclear Chemistry!
The AP Biology students had the annual Hardy-Weinberg Quiz today. We also discussed the evolution of the human mind and the advent of culture, art and cool human stuff like that. We're almost done with this unit by the way.

Day 98

1/29/2018

Jeez, January is almost over! This year is flying by.
The Chemistry students finished their of the Acid and Base material in preparation for the exam tomorrow. We talked about titrations, pH and other stuff like that.
The AP Biology students discussed what makes a species a species and that means we must have talked about the biological species concept which we did. We also talked about the prezygotic and postzygotic barriers to inter-species tomfoolery.

Day 97

1/26/2018

Friday during Spirit/Pink Out Week? Yup, it's here!
The Chemistry students continued their review of the material that going to be represented on the Acid and Base Exam which is happening next Tuesday. We actually went to the library to use the computers. I made a Quizlet thing for the students' edification.
The AP Biology students discussed extinction a little bit more. We also did other stuff that involved thinking, biology and, yeah, stuff like that.

Day 96

1/25/2018

More science today. Of course, that's like everyday, isn't it?
The Chemistry students pretty much wrapped up the Titration Lab today. We began the review stuff for the Acid and Base Exam which will be next Tuesday! Yay! We'll continue this review thing tomorrow.
The AP Biology students did this cool thing where they explored what happens to a real population when you slap some selection pressure on them. What is selection pressure, you ask? Well, I don't really believe you're asking that so I'm not going to answer. I will say that the simulation we did today was something from Mastering Biology.

Day 95

1/24/2018

And Pink Out/Spirit Week continues..............................
The Chemistry students continued the Titration Lab today. Filling burets, getting hydrochloric acid from the stock room, adding indicator to the flask, calculating concentrations.....you get the idea. People were getting after it today!
The AP Biology students turned in the Chapter 23 Reading Guide and the Population Genetics Lab today. We also checked out how extinction can be a huge driving force for evolution. I mean, look at mammals. There's a lot of different ones, aren't there? How come? The dinosaurs couldn't cut a little extinction event like a comet hitting the Earth so they died off leaving all that room to the mammals and, whammo, here we are.

Day 94

1/23/2018

I really want to go camping. Don't you? And I mean today. I don't care about the weather. Just to get out there.
The Chemistry students began Day One of the Titration Lab. Each student group is going to determine the concentration of 5 different samples of hydrochloric acid. Many groups got off to a good start by calculating (successfully) the concentration of 2 different samples.
The AP Biology students completed Case 1,2 and 3 in the Population Genetics Lab with the help of the Math III Honors students that increased the number of participants to 40 which makes for a lot of mating which is what the whole lab is about. Kinda. The lab is due tomorrow.

Day 93

1/22/2018

Well, this is the start of the first full week of the second semester. It's gonna be rough.
The Chemistry students spent the period doing some practice titrations. This is important for obvious reasons but for those of you who think it isn't so obvious these skills are needed for the big titration for real lab that starts tomorrow.
The AP Biology students started the Population Genetics Lab today by doing the Mating Game with just the class members which should show genetic drift which, of course, it did. I mean, we only had 17 people participate which is a real small population. We will have a much bigger population tomorrow when another class joins in the mating stuff.

Day 92

1/19/2018

Did you hear how many teachers are retiring after this year? At least 5 from West Valley alone.
The Chemistry students finished up those practice problems on Molarity that I mentioned in yesterday's entry. We also had our first look at a titration, that technique that allows you to calculate the concentration of an acid like hydrochloric acid. Next week is the big titration week.
The AP Biology students did a couple of practice problems using the Hardy-Weinberg equation which is the way you get good at them. We also discussed directional selection, disruptive selection and stabilizing selection. These are examples of how evolution can drive change within a population. Stabilizing selection, by the way, can be used to explain the absence of a .400 hitter in baseball for the last 77 years.

Day 91

1/18/2018

Welcome to the first day of the second half of the school year. You know we have to go 180 days, right?
The Chemistry students we introduced to the concept of concentration and molarity. We also did a bunch of calculations using this equation: Molarity = moles/liters really easy stuff (at least it should be). We also started a worksheet with several practice calculations. This will be the second thing turned in this semester.
The AP Biology students were introduced to the good ol' Hardy-Weinberg equation which can be used to predict a bunch of stuff about populations that happen to be in Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium. We did a bunch of practice problems today too.