We are 1/20th of the way done with school. Is that good or bad?  You decide.

AP Biology completed the first lab activity of the year, the Diffusion and Osmosis Lab. It took awhile but I think we learned a lot. Water potential was the main topic today.  Water potential, if I could simplify it, is a measure of the tendency of water to diffuse from one area to another. Fresh water has high water potential compared to, say, a 0.4 M sucrose solution because of the presence of the dissolved sucrose in the solution. Fresh water would diffuse into this solution.  Wow, sounds complicated doesn't it?  Not really.  I think all the students got it today.

Chemistry got a little messed up today because a fire....................just kidding.  It was weird today though because the 10th graders were called out of class for what must have been a super important meeting because it was unannounced.  And it was! The Josten's ring guy was here selling rings and stuff like that.
As a result, our first assessment of the year will now be on Tuesday, September 3rd. We did use the limited class time to put some finishing touches on the Measurement Lab which is due tomorrow at noon.  Students are encouraged to submit it electronically if possible.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot.  Congratulations to Kodi Kumpula for winning this week's prize for correctly calculating her age if the age of the earth was 24 hours. Kodi is only about 3/10,000 of a second old.  She seems older though, doesn't she?

Now we're rollin'.  7 down, 173 to go.
Chemistry had the longest class time dedicated to the measurement lab. This lab can be tough.  For example, the students have to figure out how thick a piece of aluminum foil is. I only told them that the density of aluminum is 2.7 grams per milliliter. So how do you do it? First, make sure the foil is either a square or rectangle and measure its length and width. Make sure you measure in centimeters! Then find the mass of the piece of foil. OK, Now take the mass you found and divide it by the density.  You will see masses are cancelled and you are left with volume of the piece of foil. Now take that volume and divide it by the 2 dimensions you already found (length and width) and that will give you the third dimension, thickness of the foil.  Hurray!!
AP Biology began Activity C in the Osmosis and Diffusion Lab.  We took potato sections and immersed them in different concentrations of sucrose solution. Some of these potato sections will lose weight while others will gain weight.  This depends upon the concentration of the sucrose solution. We will analyze data tomorrow to determine the concentration of the sucrose inside the potato cells.
I also began the second lecture of the year. Water and its behavior was the star. Now everyone should know why you can skip a stone across the surface of a pond.

The end of our first week and it was a good one.
The chemistry class continued the Measurement Lab.  We reviewed the definitions of volume and mass on Friday and most student groups finished the Part 1 measurements.
AP Biology flexed their intellects during the Osmosis and Diffusion Lab.  We were time some serious time constraints on Friday but the students came through and finished Activity B in the lab.  Really impressive work for the first week of class.

Day 3.  That's a strange title for a post.  It sounds like it should be the beginning of a diary entry for someone lost in the Everglades.
Anyway, the third day of the school year saw the AP Biology class finish their notes on Chapter 2, a review of Chemistry.  Tomorrow they will begin the first lab activity of the year, Osmosis and Diffusion. I showed the students how to use dialysis tubing, a key component in the lab. We also looked at a practice AP Biology Exam.  Boy, does it look tough but we'll get there.
The Chemistry class finished a discussion about the Nature of Science.  In particular, they tried, through indirect observation, to discover the identity of an object hidden in a small box.  They tried and tried but to no avail. Of course, even if they were correct I wasn't going to let them know.  Not to worry; they will find out the identity of the object on December 10th.  We did this exercise to illustrate how much data can be collected through indirect observation much like past scientists have done with objects like electrons.
We also began the Measurement Lab, a rather lengthy activity reviewing the metric system and scientific measurement.

The second day of classes was much like the first.  Everybody was really attentive and respectful.  Of course, my students always seem to be that way; I don't know what I'd do if they weren't.
My AP Biology class went over some Chemistry review material and checked out my website and the online text in greater detail.
My Chemistry class reviewed some material from the first day of school and then completed an activity on the nature of scientific inquiry.  The students made some preliminary guesses about me: my age, my family, education, all the important stuff.  They then examined photographs from my life history beginning at birth and continuing to the present day.
They found out:
I'm 53
I'm beginning my 20th year of teaching at West Valley
I've been married to Jamie for 28 years
Roy and Olivia are my kids
I went to San Francisco State University
I love the Giants (despite their record)
and a bunch of other stuff

Congratulations to Uriel Nieves-Cruz for correctly naming those people pictured above.  They are, in order from right to left:
Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain - Medal of Honor winner and Hero of Gettysburg.  Led the 20th Maine at Little Round Top.  Google him. Really an incredible man.
Olivia Button - Seen here in Rome. She is, without a doubt, the greatest daughter in the world. She continues to be the most diligent student I have ever met and that's saying something. She is a junior at UC Berkeley.
J. Robert Oppenheimer - known as the Father of the Atomic Bomb. An American hero and a very complex man. Among his achievements that is often overlooked is his development into a great educator.
Roy Button - the smartest person I know.  We once got into a discussion about whether or not Shakespeare would have liked cartoons. We had this talk at Holiday Market and we were loud.  People around us were understandably impressed. Recently awarded his Master's Degree from Ole Miss.
Neil Armstrong - when I was a kid, I wanted to be an astronaut like Neil Armstrong. An inspiration to millions of American children in the late '60's.
Jamie Button - the most passionate and hardest-working teacher I know. She is my inspiration. Just knowing her has made me a better person.