danaleeling

This term I began Monday with Hydrogen including the detour through deuterium and tritium in order to explain the fractional atomic mass. From there I went into orbitals (sharp, principal, diffuse, fundamental as an ascending odd number of orbitals) and electron spin. I wrapped up with lithium and hydrogen pairing to fill the 1s orbital shell via sharing. On Wednesday I headed into compounds, but I changed my diagrams to drop the circular orbitals model. I ended on H+ and OH- ions. For Thursdays lab I again picked up fresh baking soda, finding a mini-box for ninety cents at Yoshie. The lime tree had limes, and there was a single Spathoglottis plicata in bloom in the front yard that supplied flowers. Only the hydrogen peroxide is running low and could replacement. Perhaps vinegar too. I used a print out of last term's board to organize my notes. This lab is always somewhat conceptually confusing for the students, I find that gettin...

This term I dropped asking the students to bring a fruit. I added a three video preface and dried fruit to the wet fruit cocktail, expanding the number of fruit and the activity. This also altered the worksheet . I began with a Pinkfong fruit video to provide some settle in time for the students, then said that the result of growing up on Pinkfong videos is perhaps the Kyushu Girls Wing , which is also vaguely related to fruit and gave time for a couple late arrivals to show up prior to the main video,  Why Tomatoes Are Fruits, and Strawberries Aren't Berries . One recommendation would be to tag in one more video to repeat these concepts as the students did not pick up the fruit types from a single video. Tell me once, tell me twice, tell me three times perhaps. This term I bought one can less of fruit salad for a class of 24 but added a dried fruit mix. This term I remembered the can opener and the toothpicks along with the muffin/cupcake trays - four of them. Th...

The invasive hike began outside with a handout listing both locally common invasive plants on Pohnpei and, once again, the plants on the final examination in the ethnobotany course. During the walk and talk both invasives and ethnobotanically useful plants were covered. This class is effectively part of the review structure for the course. Below are some of the invasives seen during the class. In the field not everyone can see and hear what I am pointing at. Sphagneticola trilobata Clerodendrum quadriloculare Heterotis rotundifolia Ischaemum polystachyum Ipomoea carnea: toxic and invasive The class in the field Falcataria moluccana Mimosa pudica. Far upper left: Euphorbia hirta, a medicine plant for breathing difficulties Chromolaena odorata Stachytarpheta jamaicensis or S. cayennensis Stachytarpheta jamaicensis or S. cayennensis Hyptis capitata Another photo of the class in the field Melastoma malabathricum: not ...

The week on which electricity landed was a second week without a Monday. This dropped the video used to introduce voltage and current through the high head microhydro analogy. I used a rough analogy to a waterfall as seen on the left above and then laid out definitions for voltage, current, and resistance. This was followed by Ohm's law and the power relationship. Then I used a fan, a television monitor, and a coffee maker to calculate resistance, power usage, and the cost at the current rate of $0.4204 per kwH. This wound up consuming the period, which is somewhat unusual as this lecture usually leaves time for a walk to examine the air conditioning units and to sometimes go on to view the solar panel output panel, although that has been dark since 2014 . Although the reportedly six million dollar Japanese solar panel project was ostensibly installed at the college with the intent of the solar plant being academically useful towards teaching students about solar e...