danaleeling

Once again I had the MS 150 Statistics students throw paper aircraft from the second floor balcony to obtain statistics. The data generated from both this term and two earlier terms is available in a Google Docs spreadsheet . A head wind held down the distances this term and kept outliers from occurring. Some planes were lofted up onto the roof, providing a ready made example of the inability to measure a population. In the course of three sections, four planes were lofted onto the roof. Boxplot produced using Gnumeric The leftmost three boxplots were from this term, se1, 8:00, 9:00 and 10:00 o'clock sections. Planes that went back onto the first floor porch were measured as negative distances. Distances were measured not along the flight path but rather perpendicular to the building. Distance out from the building is used. Measuring flight path distances would take longer and circular spirals would be particularly problematic. Measuring perpendicular distances can ...

In the past I have used the erasers that one can buy to put atop pencils. The division does not always have erasers in stock, so the activity is not done each term. This term I acquired a set of foam rubber cut-outs that are part of a giant beading center set. Too many when all are thrown In the first section I threw everything but the counts proved too big. In the second section I threw only hearts, stars, and wheels, but the wheels rolled creating extreme outliers. The hearts, stars, and letters work best. I throw the beads and then count the number in each row of tiles on the floor. The number rises and falls rather normally about the impact point of the beads. The beads have a small amount of bounce which helps with the dispersion. The tiles are twelve inch tiles, which seems to work best. Probably anything could actually be thrown such as paperclips, but the height might have to be increased. The point is that the normal distribution occurs purely randomly and naturall...

Laboratory eight has a special focus on observation, accurate drawings, and the science of kindergarten: cloud shapes. The laboratory is also the first piece of a set of laboratories and demonstrations focusing on color and spectra. As such, I start where so many children start. With a box of crayons. I have long maintained that many colors, such as mauve, burnt sienna, raw umber, and turquoise, are defined in the minds of English speakers by Crayola crayons.  Serlyn Manuel coloring a cloud in the sky The languages of Micronesia usually have color words for red, yellow, green, blue (or green/blue switching words), purple, pink, brown, black, and white. Orange is often an imported word. I often ask the class, "How many colors are there in English?" I then use a box of 96 crayons to show that there are more colors than they realize. When I saw a tower with 150 unique colors, I knew I needed those towers for class. Three students stayed back of their own accord in...

Presentations on gymnosperms, angiosperms, spices, and timber trees. Spencer Francisco on gymnosperms Leaf morphology for gymnosperms Rico Joab Best penmanship seen on a poster, Benhart the calligrapher Monocot and dicot differentiation with Jenny Gabriel Jenny Gabriel Carie-Ann on cinnamon Sother Junior presenting, Merlina on the right Arlen presents Nutmeg facts - delivered by a student who chose to face the board for the whole presentation Leona Saimon on Araucaria timber Charlotte Eperiam speaks on Eucalyptus deglupta as a timber product Hanae Shimuzu presented shiso Carlinda Joab on Kauri pine products Lerina Nena with a very detailed angiosperm life cycle diagram

This term I returned to the area to the southeast of the gym. Fall 2013 a Spensonian deluge flooded out the hide location atop the trail head I had chosen. This term I opted for a weather friendlier site. The first group found me at 12:18. This term no other group was near the first group, so I remained at the hide when they left, a first. This worked better than I expected - the second group did not arrive until 12:48, with the third group close on their heels.   Donbert, Jessica, Nikita in the second group   Amyleen Tom, and Johnnyboyd Joseph were the third group No images from the 072 laboratory which was done using the linear regression to obtain a minutes to meters conversion. This worked well. Off of both the first palm at N 6° 54.567, E 158° 09.597 and second palm at N 6° 54.570, E 158° 09.597 distances of 180 meters were obtained into the college intersection to the East. Work in the lab suggested that shifting from 30 meters to 30.48 meters does reduce the...

An attempt to build on last term's note , "I fiddled and tweaked my way to the initial logistic expression by using a computer in the possession of Brinando and Megan. They watched as I fumbled and fought my forward to a design that would behave in a way similar to their data. I explained what I was doing and why, including referring to the (x - h) portion of the graph. I gather one or both had MS 101 Algebra and Trigonometry, so they were not necessarily completely lost in my ramblings. I thought that interchange was valuable, that exercise was valuable. They were able to see their instructor struggle with a mathematical model, not have it quite right at first, and then iterate his way to a reasonable solution," did not go as well as hoped in the 8:00 lab. I did not use a lap top as I did in the fall. Note two that all but one group saw an immediate and rapid linear rise in temperature until the peak temperature was reached. Only one group had that characte...

The ethnobotany class visited the Pwunso botanic garden on 18 February to view gymnosperms and economically valuable plants. The Clove trees were producing heavily. This suggests that cloves, like cycad cones, are a spring term production. That cloves have appeared twice but not previously may simply be a factor of the age of the trees.  Lerina Nena with cloves  The class heads over to the Cook island pine trees.  The cycad sported cones.  Immature coffee cherries - seems too early for the fall crop, maybe an out of season berry. Charlotte. Hanae, Benhart.