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Showing posts from August, 2017

Seedless vascular plant hike: lycophytes and monilophytes

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This term I passed out the plant list the class before, at the end of the banana patch cleaning day. I told the class to look over the list of plants we might be seeing on the hike. On the way across campus we picked up students. As I passed the gym I picked up cyanobacteria - Nostoc. I explained the Nostoc in the shade at the edge of the agriculture building. I skipped mosses. The upper open area was devoid of Lycopodiella cernua, and I missed the couple of Dicranopteris linearis fronds which were present. Jade, Shane, Darion, Sandralynn, and Jaime Off to the left side of the trail I found a nice example of a Nephrolepis "rehdil" fern with fertile fronds and explained this fern and sori to the class. Farther down on the right I encountered Davallia solida which also had fertile fronds, so I showed the class this one as well. No one knew their local name for this, which caught me off guard. Kiyoe with Asplenium nidus I then used the variety of ferns

Linear velocity

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Monday in physical science I laid out a 3000 centimeter flat stretch marked off every 300 cm to generate a time versus distance graph for my RipStik. The result was a nicely linear run at 206 cm/s. Wednesday I went over the homework, sharing a spreadsheet with the instantaneous velocities. I also used the rear screen to cover using the monkey wrench in Desmos to adjust the axes so that the graph did not wind up looking like a vertical line on the y-axis. Elymore bowls in the 8:00 section On Thursday I noted that the class was essentially repeating the exercise of Monday, only now there was a specific focus on how slope relates to speed. Myreen was the catcher The procedure is the more recently used timed crossing of chalk marks on the sidewalk. John Phillip Jr, Yostrick, Ardy Keoki, and Rufus timing a run. Myreen catching. Mike Selestine far left was recording data. The slow run was done at intervals of 100 cm out to 600 cm. The president joined the cla

Banana patch jungle

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When I reached the gate of the banana patch an invasive species wall of green a dozen feet tall greeted me. I briefly considered carving a trail through the tangle, and then decided just to crawl through, under, and around the dense bush. The banana patch was a mass of Ischaemum polystachyum, Cheilocostus speciosus, Clidemia hirta, Spathodea campanulata, Merremia peltata, and various numerous unidentified vines. Rain had begun to fall exactly on schedule at 3:15, setting up the perfect conditions for the first test in ethnobotany. The class knew only that I was in the agriculture area back by the bananas. They had been told the class meets rain or shine. Would the students come to class? Would someone realize that they had to plow through the bush to reach the patch? I headed back towards the taiwang bananas in the corner. If the class found me, then they would know that they should not give up looking for me, no matter the conditions. They would learn that I a