Blog Archives - Button's Place

Day 71

11/30/2018

And.....Friday. I wake up everyday saying this which is depressing because most of the time I'm wrong.
The Chemistry students tried to hit a target or Army men to win a prize. Hit with their rocket. Hopefully filled with a 2:1 mixture of hydrogen gas to oxygen gas. Respectively. Do you like my use of periods in those sentences? I. Do.
The AP Biology student continued their discussion of DNA replication today. On Monday, we will all learn about leading and lagging strands. And Okazaki fragments. I like those things.

Day 70

11/29/2018

Once again, this week seems to be going fast.
The AP Biology students began their discussion of DNA which, generally, is pretty darn important for Biology students. We talked about semi-conservative replication, 5' to 3' direction and other science stuff like that. We will continue this on Friday which is tomorrow.
The Chemistry students continued testing their rockets and, more important, their gas ratios for the launches tomorrow which is a huge contest for pride and candy.

Day 69

11/28/2018

Hahahahahaha. Yeah, that's funny.
The Chemistry students began testing their rockets and their corresponding gaseous mixtures today. The volume of the rockets is super important to know. And the ratio of those gases is real important. More testing tomorrow.
The AP Biology students went to the library today to work on the latest online assignment which is called DNA. Oh yeah, the Fly Lab is due today.

Day 68

11/27/2018

The history of the Apollo program is something that interested me. Just thought you should know.
The Chemistry students checked out the launch of the mighty Saturn V which lifted astronauts into a lunar transit orbit which I just kinda made up but it could be right. We went over the reactions that produced the oxygen and hydrogen gas which is used to propel our rocket into Room 1204 orbit. Sort of.
The AP Biology students finished up the Fly Lab by checking out the famous Chi Square test which can confirm the reliability of data gathered in any experiment but is particularly useful for genetic crosses like we did in the Fly Lab. This lab will be due tomorrow.

Day 67

11/26/2018

Back at it after a nice and well-deserved week off.
The Chemistry students went to the library today to research some basic research questions regarding rocketry and the capability of hydrogen gas and oxygen gas as a rocket fuel. Tomorrow, we begin the launch of the rockets!!
The AP Biology students got all the data from the Fly Lab. Where did the data come form? It came from me because I had to count a bunch of flies during the break because the flies decided to emerge into their majestic adult forms during the aforementioned break. Yup, we did that. Most predictions came true even though I had to help with those predictions.

Day 66

11/16/2018

The last day before Thanksgiving Break and, yes, I capitalized Break. The football game got postponed until tomorrow because of this stupid smoke.
The Chemistry students continued their look at Stoichiometry problems. We worked pretty hard for this being a Friday before a much-needed break. We will do a couple of labs based on stoichiometry when we return.
The AP Biology students took a quiz on genetic problems today. Statistics can tell you a lot. Like the odds of having a kid who is colorblind which probably isn't that bad unless you're a pilot who is trying to land a plane.

Day 65

11/15/2018

I knew this week would go fast and, look, it's already Thursday.
The Chemistry students got back into Stoichiometry pretty heavily today. We did a bunch of problems, carefully working through the important 5 steps of solving these problems. They're not too tough if you know how to convert moles to grams and vice versa and if you know how to balance equations.
The AP Biology students reviewed some genetic crosses from Chapter 14 and 15. There is a big quiz tomorrow. Oh yeah, we also finished GATACA which is a gloomy look into the future of genetic engineering.

Day 64

11/14/2018

Hey, hey Collaboration Day!
Let's see.....today was the school-wide write where all the little children of West Valley gather together and are given a writing prompt on INTEGRITY and write for about an hour.
The staff met after school and graded these writing efforts by the students.
Oh, and we talked about college because it's a Collaboration Day. Today was Cal Poly and Harvard!

Day 63

11/13/2018

I bet this week goes pretty fast because it's only 4 days and then we have a week off!
How crappy have these fires been this year....destroyed homes and destroyed lives. I'm donating money today and you should think about it too. Red Cross is a good place to give. Maybe but some gift cards and get them to shelters in Chico.
The Chemistry students had the Balancing Equations quiz today. And that was about it. Not enough time left in the period to do some stoichiometry problems.
The AP Biology students went over some genetic problems from Chapter 15 in their text. We paid special attention to recombinants, parentals and crossing over.

Day 62

11/9/2018

Sorry (not sorry) about not being at school today.
Hey Chemistry students!! Here is the deal..... if you are having trouble with balancing equations, try these:
http://www.sciencegeek.net/APchemistry/APtaters/EquationBalancing.htm

http://education.jlab.org/elementbalancing/

https://www.khanacademy.org/science/chemistry/chemical-reactions-stoichiome/balancing-chemical-equations/e/balancing_chemical_equations

http://phet.colorado.edu/sims/html/balancing-chemical-equations/latest/balancing-chemical-equations_en.html

http://funbasedlearning.com/chemistry/chemBalancer/

If you're having trouble with converting grams to moles or moles to grams, try these:
http://www.softschools.com/quizzes/chemistry/mass_mole_conversions/quiz1122.html

http://www.chemteam.info/Mole/Grams-to-Moles.html

http://www.sciencegeek.net/Chemistry/taters/Unit4GramMoleVolume.htm

And finally, if you're feeling confident, try some stoichiometry problems:
https://www.quia.com/cb/33492.html

https://www.wisc-online.com/learn/natural-science/chemistry/gch1504/stoichiometry

http://www.purposegames.com/game/stoichiometry-game

http://www.softschools.com/quizzes/chemistry/stoichiometry_mass_mass_problems/quiz1196.html

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