Blog Archives - Button's Place

Day 117

2/28/2019

The last day of February. Is that a complete sentence? Is that? Is that?
The Chemistry students learned today about the disaster at Fukushima and how nuclear power plants work. If there was no danger in radioactivity, they'd be great! Alas, thy glow belies the devil within. I just made that up. Pretty good, right?
The AP Biology students did not have their quiz today. We will have it on Friday. We checked out one more cladogram problem from an AP Biology Exam of the past. 2014, I think. We also watched the first little part of Contagion.

Day 116

2/27/2019

Alex Honnold. Greatest athletic feat ever. Look it up.
The Chemistry students completed the Uranium-238 decay series which, of course, ends at Lead-206. Don't know what we're talking about? Look it up, man. You're online right now. Google "uranium-238 decay series". Better yet, open a book for once.
The AP Biology students did a cladogram problem from last year's AP Biology Exam. I think it was pretty easy for most of the students. We're gonna have a quiz tomorrow.

Day 115

2/26/2019

We're almost to March, the worst month of the year. October is close though.
The Chemistry students were introduced to half-life problems today. Once you get the hang of it and especially if you use the table I showed in class, they're not too bad.
The AP Biology class re-visited BLAST one more time and we wrapped up the activity we had started before Snocopalyse which is what I call the whole snow thing that happened to us.

Day 114

2/25/2019

We are back!! What a break! I went to LA and New York City! It was so awesome!
The Chemistry students tried to remember where we left off during the Half-Life with pennies lab. We kinda remembered and we finished up the graph and the question. And guess what?? The power went out during 6th Period so we have to finish tomorrow.
The AP Biology continued their work with cladograms. There is a bunch of things due this week. The Chapter 26 Reading Guide and the Cladograms online work. So get on it!!

Day 111-113

2/15/2019

I have been at West Valley for 25 years. I have never experienced what we all did this past week. It snowed!! A lot!! No school for 3 days and those 3 days happen to lead into a week off of school. Just a crazy and awesome time to chill at home in front of a roaring fire which is pretty much what I did. Monday the 25th will be weird. I'm not sure what we will do about the school-wide write.

Day 110

2/12/2019

The big school-wide write is tomorrow. I'm soooooooooooo excited.
The Chemistry students started the Half-Life activity today with the 100 pennies. You know the one. One group got all the pennies to decay in 4 half-lives. That is incredible! All 100 pennies went to tails in a mere 4 tosses of the cup. We'll finish up the analysis tomorrow.
The AP Biology students worked on the online activities regarding cladograms and relationships. I think this will help a lot with the AP Exam which will happen in good time.

Day 109

2/11/2019

This is the last week of school until the first ever "Ski Week" vacation in West Valley History!!
The Chemistry students did a quick and fun little activity today regarding isotopes. Students tried to figure out how many pre-1982 pennies and post-82 pennies were in a sealed container. A nice way to start the week.
The AP Biology students continued their work on cladograms and the evolutionary relationships among living things. We will dedicate this week to this endeavor.

Day 108

2/8/2019

Day 108?? That means the school year is 60% of the way done!! Only 40% left to go!!
Hey AP Biology students!! Check out these activities (in order) to better understand cladograms and their usefulness.
The Evolution of Flight in Birds

What did T-Rex taste like?

Journey into Phylogenetic Systematics

Day 107

2/7/2019

Is 107 a prime number? Is there a fast way to figure that out? I bet some weird 11-year old knows how. Is that bad? I probably shouldn't say stuff like that even though you all think it.
The Chemistry weird week of classes not quite in sync is coming to an end. And yes, it is impressive that I know how to spell 'sync'. The remaining difficulty involves figuring out what 5th and 6th period will be doing tomorrow. It's a long story.
The AP Biology students annotated their article regarding what Generation Z people can teach someone like me. Hmmm......let's see. Short of learning how dumb SnapChat is, I can't think of anything.

Day 106

2/6/2019

The strange week continues.........
The Chemistry students worked on one of the following things: blowing up cities with nuclear weapons, talking about radioactivity or doing that article thing to get ready for the school-wide write which happens next week. Some of these articles, BTW, are written worse than this blog. Seriously.
The AP Biology students partook (which I think is a word but probably not) in the annual Evolution Exam today. I was seriously (second time I said seriously in this blog) considering retiring during class today. Not sure why. Just happened.