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Showing posts from March, 2013

Floral morphology and Ohigan

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Floral morphology always involves flowers on students. Plumeria obtusa. Spathoglottis plicata. March 21 was a class day, so Ohigan happened on the day of observance. The Haruki garden was in the worst shape it has been in for over ten years. Misako and Cheryll work on the reh padil, Roxann is cleaning around Hoshino Noritake's memorial stone. Jasper was a grass cutting machine. Brenda is using a local tool made of Hibiscus tiliaceus to pull back the grass. Hoshino Noritake's stone. Jasper also took out a small guava with a single cut. Roxann cleans around the ketieu (Ixora casei).

Cloud drawing judging

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The team judging the cloud drawings noted that overall quality and effort were both down this term, with only three drawings be judged a 5 in accuracy and only 4 drawings rating a 4 in accuracy of depiction. The two noted that none of the drawings were truly amazing renderings of clouds. Usually one or two drawings each term rise to that level. The best of the cloud pictures, such as they were this term.

Leaf morphology

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Roxann, Mae, Cheryll, Brenda, and Joey amidst the ferns on the vegetative morphology hike. Metroxylon amicarum, oahs, has the largest leaf on Pohnpei. The oahs the class visits was severely harvested, leaving the tree at an energy deficit and prone to disease. The climbing pole that was used to harvest the giant leaves for thatch can be seen in the image. Portions of the fronds. Jaefrey sits amidst the discarded fronds. Karmi, Joey, Apaisang, Frauleen, Roxann (front), Mae, Sallyann, TJ, Brenda (turned away). Virginia, Liona, Permaleen, Roxann (front), Mae (behind Permaleen), Sallyann (far back), TJ, Brenda, Frauleen, Cheryll, Terson (back beyond shrub behind Cheryll), Melsina, Jasper, Chenniva. From here in the middle of the forest I dismiss the class. The route we have taken is indirect, I enjoy watching to see who has a sense of direction in the forest and realizes that there is a more direct route back to the campus. Permaleen was among those who knew which way t

Speed of sound

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The speed of sound laboratory began with steady rain. By 9:00 the rain had eased to a light enough rain to be able to hear an echo. The eight o'clock section then ventured out to find sheltered echo launch locations from which to make measurements. The extra time provided an opportunity to cover the speed of sound in detail including an analysis of how far sound can travel within the span of human reaction times. During the fastest double click of the stop watch, 0.09 seconds, sound travels 31.5 meters - the length of the A building. The dry bulb temperature at 8:00 was 25 Celsius, the wet bulb was 25 Celsius, thus the wet bulb depression was 0 Celsius. The humidity was 100%. There was fog on the ridge and rain in the air, little wonder that the humidity was saturated humidity. The rain also permitted coverage of how the laboratory works and a short primer on significant digit The long echo to the women's dormitory. Tough to time at the distance.  The stud

Ethnogardening

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Midterm ethnobotanical garden gardening. This term I requisitioned a passel of whetstones. The students all managed to sharpen machetes without cutting themselves or each other. I passed the camera off to Mae Felix, she took all the photos except the first two. Not exactly what one would normally wear when heading out into the garden. Still, if agriculture is to become really popular, glamorizing the field and making it a stylish endeavor is sure to help. Another smartly dressed student. Do not let the stylish clothing and accessorization mislead, Roxann knows how to handle a knife. Maybe a course should be offered, "How to cut down trees without breaking a sweat." Mavrick works behind Roxann. Apaisang working in the tall grass. Chromolaena odorata is called odorata for a reason. The local name for the plant is a reference to a smell that ought not be published in a family-safe blog. Chenniva reacts to the offensive odor. I can always find an excus

RipStik sine wave

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Physical science chapter nine wave forms began with a RipStik run as in prior terms. This term, however, I did not walk down to A101. A brand new, week old piece of new cement on the east side of the library caught my eye. A contract has been let to re-top the sidewalk from the LRC to the A and B classroom buildings. About 8 meters is complete, seriously smooth new concrete. The poster pad was still in my office from the Gymnosperm presentations, so I opted to run the swizzle first, go to class later. A few students walked that way, so I had some help, but no photographers. The first run was downhill, which did not work well. The pass was fast with a small amplitude, long wavelengths. I reversed direction and went uphill. That pass can be seen above. I then used the swizzle wave to explicate wavelength, amplitude, period, and frequency. The homework was to graph y = 3 sin (0.1611 x) where 0.1611 is 2*pi/39 cm.

Foods of Micronesia

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Pirain en uht made from uht Ruk is a favorite local food: fried bananas. Markina and Brenda presented the fried bananas. Melsina, Jasper, Roxann, and Rockyner teamed to present a pair of foods. Melsina prepared uht idihd, Rockyner handled the presentation. Idihd means "grated". Roxann presented rotama made from sawahn awai (awai is Pohnpeian for Hawaii, the plant is Xanthosoma saittifolium according to the Pohnpeian dictionary). Mwoakillese jam made from wus in piji, presented by Chenniva. Chenniva noting the use of Fijian bananas to make the Mwokillese jam. Pound four cups of bananas. Add six cups of water and 2 cups of sugar. Cook while stirring continuously for five to six hours until you have jam. Remove from heat. Add shredded lemon leaves for flavor. TJ, Sallyann, and Mchiver presented Kosraean fafa fiti with el sauce, made from soft taro. TJ, Sallyann, and Mchiver. Misako proudly displays uth sukusuk: pounded cooked banana with coconut milk on top.