It's been a while since I've been on here. Science Fair went well but was very busy. We sent many kids to Regional and then on to State. We had an awesome computer project at State! Our real excitement came when Gabby (of International SF) was selected to represent the State of Florida at a National Competition in Massachusetts. Very exciting stuff so I will be writing about that trip. Gabby and I travel very well together! Unlike Chris, who brings explosive looking material on his carry on, Gabby usually just brings food and entertainment. Getting through security is much easier with Gabby.
I also have another trip I am going on except I have to get permission about disclosing that. My students told me to "Blog about it" so I'm going to see what I can do. They probably have no intentions of reading it...they just want to feel good about themselves knowing that I am wasting my time! Is that right...A mod??? You're laughing aren't you!!!! I can feel it!!!!!!
It will be a busy June! There is always adventure and humor waiting for me! Right now it is my students preparing for final exams that await the adventure of finals...or are they watching TV?
Monday, May 28, 2012
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
And So It Begins....Science Fair 2012
Well Hello everybody...all 15 followers that is! And Russia, Ukraine, Netherlands, Singapore...wowsers!
I'm back to tell the story of the journey of science fair. The documents are done...Form 1, 1A, Research Plan, 1B, Risk Assessment, 1C, 6A, 6B,...if students aren't excited about science fair NOW...maybe they'll be excited about becoming attorneys! OR NOT!
Now that Christmas break is upon us, it's time when students plan a wonderful break with their friends and family and squeeze in a science project...plants will be grown, electric current will measured, saws will cut wood, tests strips will test...sounds like a scientific Santa's workshop but with cursing and very angry elves....especially when they discover things aren't going as planned! Welcome to the world of REAL science!!! Just because you "think it" doesn't make it so...the forces of physics and the invisible world of chemistry are working hard to test your ideas in other ways! Ha! Ha! It's like the Grinch of Science!!!
Well, I won't say anything else for now. I'll just let the kids make their scientific observations then when they come in complaining I will refer them to this web site and laugh in their face! Actually, not on the outside...just in my head! It's more professional that way...and I like my job.
Merry Science to All...and to All a good light! (I couldn't rhyme with much else.)
I'm back to tell the story of the journey of science fair. The documents are done...Form 1, 1A, Research Plan, 1B, Risk Assessment, 1C, 6A, 6B,...if students aren't excited about science fair NOW...maybe they'll be excited about becoming attorneys! OR NOT!
Now that Christmas break is upon us, it's time when students plan a wonderful break with their friends and family and squeeze in a science project...plants will be grown, electric current will measured, saws will cut wood, tests strips will test...sounds like a scientific Santa's workshop but with cursing and very angry elves....especially when they discover things aren't going as planned! Welcome to the world of REAL science!!! Just because you "think it" doesn't make it so...the forces of physics and the invisible world of chemistry are working hard to test your ideas in other ways! Ha! Ha! It's like the Grinch of Science!!!
Well, I won't say anything else for now. I'll just let the kids make their scientific observations then when they come in complaining I will refer them to this web site and laugh in their face! Actually, not on the outside...just in my head! It's more professional that way...and I like my job.
Merry Science to All...and to All a good light! (I couldn't rhyme with much else.)
Monday, July 18, 2011
NOAA PhytoplanktonTesting - Summer Update
Well today we - Jan, Jeff, and Michael, Ms. W and myself - completed the last of our summer NOAA testing. I'm so lucky to be surrounded by smart, hard working people! (Makes my life easier!!!) We did get a surprise visitor to our net today...a jellyfish mom and child...after we looked at them for a while we sent them on a "new journey"...
Anyway...Matt Brim, the NOAA coordinator for the East Coast, says we are an "exciting monitoring site!" And we are...we have hit 5 confirmed blooms in 3 months! No "late bloomers here!" Is that exciting or what...actually my "investigators" get very excited when they DON'T hit a bloom! Less than 9,000 please!!!
But we do like a little skeletonema, ditylum, and cosinidiscus in the sample.
We have now been PUBLISHED to the official NOAA monitoring website. COOL BEANS!!! I'm so excited I might need to celebrate with a Neutron Energy drink...or just take a nap?
Anyway...Matt Brim, the NOAA coordinator for the East Coast, says we are an "exciting monitoring site!" And we are...we have hit 5 confirmed blooms in 3 months! No "late bloomers here!" Is that exciting or what...actually my "investigators" get very excited when they DON'T hit a bloom! Less than 9,000 please!!!
But we do like a little skeletonema, ditylum, and cosinidiscus in the sample.
We have now been PUBLISHED to the official NOAA monitoring website. COOL BEANS!!! I'm so excited I might need to celebrate with a Neutron Energy drink...or just take a nap?
Sunday, July 10, 2011
Half-way through summer!!!'
Hello! I hope all are having a great summer !!!
Me...I've been to the Arch, did a sod delivery,did some "planking",was at Busch Stadium for a Cards game, played some Dominos with Real Cubans,and spent an awesome
e 3 days at a family reunion! Good stuff!
Tomorrow I hoped to be joined by my awesome "other" kids at school for some
NOAA time! 12:00 my room! Yes that means you ...Jeffery, Jan, Michael, and Caroline! All welcome!
If any of you are not avaiable because your out skydiving or sharkfeeding...no worries!
Me...I've been to the Arch, did a sod delivery,did some "planking",was at Busch Stadium for a Cards game, played some Dominos with Real Cubans,and spent an awesome
e 3 days at a family reunion! Good stuff!
Tomorrow I hoped to be joined by my awesome "other" kids at school for some
NOAA time! 12:00 my room! Yes that means you ...Jeffery, Jan, Michael, and Caroline! All welcome!
If any of you are not avaiable because your out skydiving or sharkfeeding...no worries!
Thursday, June 9, 2011
NOAA PhytoplanktonTesting
Ok...I did do something cool yesterday! My students have been participating in water testing for a program call the Phytoplankton Monitoring Network (PMN) that is a part of NOAA (the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration). Think of phytoplankton as little water animals that you can't see with your eyes! During the school year, there have been 3 primary student investigators (Jan, Michael, and Caroline)...they have detected 2 confirmed "blooms" in our river. This is how it works...we get a sample of the river water, we analyze it under the microscope by determining how many and what phytoplankton is in our water sample. We then report our data into the official NOAA PMN website. We are considered an OFFICIAL TEST SITE...cool beans! If there are a bunch of the little animals in the water (over 9,000) we have a BLOOM. Blooms DON'T mean toxic or bad. They can...but they don't have to be bad. Ours have not been "bad."
Yesterday, Mark (a former student from Northeastern University, chem Major...awesome science nerd!), Jan, and Jan's brother Jeff, came to school to do the analysis (geniuses!). We also met with Matt the NOAA guy we report to and his assistant Andrew. Matt and Andrew came from South Caroline! Joining the fun was Ms. Kristy (Butterfly Princess!)
We spent some time by the river talking about the process with Matt and Andrew. Then after they left we went back and got a sample and proceeded to analyze the water. We had a BLOOM of oocystis...which is not toxic but we also had some other cool guys in the water...we had Pleurosigma, Odontella, Ditylum, Entomoneis and Coscinodiscus... The Coscinodiscus is super cool looking...it looks like a beautiful pizza made up of little circles with a hole in the middle. Unfortunately, I was not nice to a Coscinodiscus...when I discovered one under the microscope I got so excited that I wanted to focus and get closer to it...and got so close and so focused... that I squished its guts out...now it looked like a pizza with its sauce spilled out on the outside. Sadness! You should do a "Google image search" to see these interesting animals! Any way, Mark, Jeff and Jan were much nicer to their little animals...right before we threw them all out! Mark, Jan and Jeff worked hard, for about an hour on one slide grid...did I mention that the grid on the slide is about 1/2 inch square in total area and contains 64 squares within it? And that they have to count each type of animal in each of the 64 squares? Pretty intense work !!!
Anyway, we got our numbers entered it into the NOAA database and then had pizza in honor of the Coscinodiscus! Now I'm off to the pool...next testing in 2 weeks.
Yesterday, Mark (a former student from Northeastern University, chem Major...awesome science nerd!), Jan, and Jan's brother Jeff, came to school to do the analysis (geniuses!). We also met with Matt the NOAA guy we report to and his assistant Andrew. Matt and Andrew came from South Caroline! Joining the fun was Ms. Kristy (Butterfly Princess!)
We spent some time by the river talking about the process with Matt and Andrew. Then after they left we went back and got a sample and proceeded to analyze the water. We had a BLOOM of oocystis...which is not toxic but we also had some other cool guys in the water...we had Pleurosigma, Odontella, Ditylum, Entomoneis and Coscinodiscus... The Coscinodiscus is super cool looking...it looks like a beautiful pizza made up of little circles with a hole in the middle. Unfortunately, I was not nice to a Coscinodiscus...when I discovered one under the microscope I got so excited that I wanted to focus and get closer to it...and got so close and so focused... that I squished its guts out...now it looked like a pizza with its sauce spilled out on the outside. Sadness! You should do a "Google image search" to see these interesting animals! Any way, Mark, Jeff and Jan were much nicer to their little animals...right before we threw them all out! Mark, Jan and Jeff worked hard, for about an hour on one slide grid...did I mention that the grid on the slide is about 1/2 inch square in total area and contains 64 squares within it? And that they have to count each type of animal in each of the 64 squares? Pretty intense work !!!
Anyway, we got our numbers entered it into the NOAA database and then had pizza in honor of the Coscinodiscus! Now I'm off to the pool...next testing in 2 weeks.
Friday, June 3, 2011
Now up to 19 Countries!
We have two new players on the field...El Salvador and Ukraine. I've had 624 hits...and Russia is going strong with 11! I even have a "follower" that is Russian or Polish...how cool is that? I'm going to get a globe to locate all these places! I notice that the colder countries like me more than the warmer countries???? Cold countries...warm hearts....oh, wait...that's about hands.
Anyway... I was going to turn this off for the summer but many students and teachers said I should continue...I guess I will....but my summer stories aren't so interesting...about house cleaning, yard work, cleaning closets, 5 foot gators walking down the middle of my street, the two black snakes that live under my front porch, sky diving, and race car driving. (The last two added for interest since the first three were so realistic and boring!)
To my students: get OUT of the house...go to the beach, pool, state parks, nature trails, go fishing, go boating, go to museums, go to libraries, go to concerts, go do etchings of headstones at cemeteries, volunteer your time at a nursing home, get out there and enjoy your summer!!!
I will write from time to time if there is something worth writing about. My lawn chair is calling my name...
Anyway... I was going to turn this off for the summer but many students and teachers said I should continue...I guess I will....but my summer stories aren't so interesting...about house cleaning, yard work, cleaning closets, 5 foot gators walking down the middle of my street, the two black snakes that live under my front porch, sky diving, and race car driving. (The last two added for interest since the first three were so realistic and boring!)
To my students: get OUT of the house...go to the beach, pool, state parks, nature trails, go fishing, go boating, go to museums, go to libraries, go to concerts, go do etchings of headstones at cemeteries, volunteer your time at a nursing home, get out there and enjoy your summer!!!
I will write from time to time if there is something worth writing about. My lawn chair is calling my name...
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
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