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Showing posts from November, 2017

Cultural ceremony with Piper methysticum

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The term in ethnobotany closes with the observation of a cultural ceremony centered on Piper methysticum. This plant is central to a ceremony that welcomes a new child to a family, permits a husband's family to ask another family for the hand of a daughter in marriage, shows honor to a king and to the head of a kousapw, and says goodbye to those who have departed this life. The plant is central to the birth, life, and death of a Pohnpeian. The plant is deeply embedded in the culture, and without the plant, the culture would, arguably, collapse. Tehn wehd (Alocasia macrorrhiza) ready to be used as pwei koar.  The reasons one would invoke the ceremony are many. At funerals By a family to apologize to another family as, for example, a result of fighting or stealing. In all of the traditional festivals (kamadipw) Isimwas New nice house, new nahs. Kapasmwar New title. Kesihpwong (Koasihpwong) from evening to morning Keting en doadoahk (koating doadoahk) to celebrate thos

WiFi woes in the personal technology classroom

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This week MS 101 Algebra and Trigonometry moved into matrix mathematics, attempting to use Desmos new matrix calculator . This calculator is not an Android app and thus does not run offline. The students, and the instructor, once again had difficulty logging on and loading pages.  The signal is from an external antenna, and the signal strength registers as quite strong. The problems may be related to load on the antenna rather than the actual signal strength, although some students had signal strength issues. The above student is intentionally holding up her tablet, she loses signal if she puts the pad on the desk. The cement wall is a sufficient barrier to the line of sight signal. Although I am using a phone released in April 2017, a Motorola Moto G5 Plus running Android 7.0 Nougat, I repeatedly lost my wireless connection, each time my phone having to re-request an IP address. An attempt to load Schoology in the browser failed. Although I worked for 15 minutes to get to t

Ethnogarden clean-up at term-end

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Cleaning up the ethnogarden on a rainy Thursday. Under the conditions only a photographic role could be taken. The class first cleaned up the area, then reviewed the local names, Latin names, and ethnobotanical uses of the plants in the area. Pelida and Reinhardt surrounded by Senna alata Sharisey cleaning up the Senna alata Pelida working in the Senna alata Jamie Reinhardt, Vincent, Darion, Rennie Glen. Saccharum spontaneum on the left, Macarange carolinensis on the right. Cymbopogon citratus foreground right corner. Johsper with the last Colocasia esculenta Shanaleen and Harriet. Gardenia jasminoides on the left, Senna alata on the right Sandralyn styling with Senna alata Kiyoe. Merremia peltata on Hibiscus tiliaceus in the background. Kira. Background tree is Acacia auriculiformis Johsper and Kimsky surrounded by Merremia peltata and Macaranga caroloinensis Rennie Glen amidst Ischaemum polystachyum Emerika Sac