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bzirk -> RE: Apologia (1/9/2008 7:24:52 PM)

[:D]



rosenon -> RE: Apologia (1/9/2008 10:40:46 PM)

Shelly and I are off all summer ..... hummmm ..... and idea breweth [;)] Now we would just need a hotel which is Golden Retriever friendly.

Steve



cynthia -> RE: Apologia (1/10/2008 12:28:49 AM)

brewth: is that a word? Should it be breweth? [8D]



rosenon -> RE: Apologia (1/10/2008 7:28:10 AM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: cynthia

brewth: is that a word? Should it be breweth? [8D]


Yes. My fault. I was grading 170 papers, which came in yesterday, and trying to type (and grade) at the same time. Multi-tasking has its disadvantages, like forgetting to spell check.

God Bless,

Steve



cynthia -> RE: Apologia (1/10/2008 12:59:56 PM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: rosenon

quote:

ORIGINAL: cynthia

brewth: is that a word? Should it be breweth? [8D]


Yes. My fault. I was grading 170 papers, which came in yesterday, and trying to type (and grade) at the same time. Multi-tasking has its disadvantages, like forgetting to spell check.

God Bless,

Steve

Steve, I'm only teasing you!



cindybode -> RE: Apologia (1/10/2008 4:24:32 PM)

If you're interested in coming to PA, my house is golden retriever friendly. [:D]

I did some travelling this past summer with a black lab. It really wasn't too hard to find hotel rooms. There are a couple of chains that are usually pet friendly, and many of the smaller, ma and pa type places will take dogs on a case by case basis.

Maybe we've started something here. [sm=purplelaugh.gif]



rosenon -> RE: Apologia (1/10/2008 4:46:01 PM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: cynthia

quote:

ORIGINAL: rosenon

quote:

ORIGINAL: cynthia

brewth: is that a word? Should it be breweth? [8D]


Yes. My fault. I was grading 170 papers, which came in yesterday, and trying to type (and grade) at the same time. Multi-tasking has its disadvantages, like forgetting to spell check.

God Bless,

Steve

Steve, I'm only teasing you!


I did not think anything else but you teasing me. I am glad you feel so comfortable with me that you can tease me. It warms my heart to see such.

God Bless,

Steve



rosenon -> RE: Apologia (1/10/2008 4:48:38 PM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: cindybode

If you're interested in coming to PA, my house is golden retriever friendly. [:D]

I did some travelling this past summer with a black lab. It really wasn't too hard to find hotel rooms. There are a couple of chains that are usually pet friendly, and many of the smaller, ma and pa type places will take dogs on a case by case basis.

Maybe we've started something here. [sm=purplelaugh.gif]


WOW! Georgia, now PA. I might have to make an East Coast swing sooner than I had planned. Thanks for the invite. I will keep it in mind.

God Bless,

Steve



cindybode -> RE: Apologia (1/10/2008 6:26:38 PM)

I drove to Washington state this summer from my house, so I'm thinking you can get here. It's the same distance both ways. [;)]

Come on over. My dogs love to meet new friends. Just get your tummy rubbing muscles in shape, because my lab will think you came just to see her. [:D]

ETA there actually is a pretty active group of homeschoolers up here. I don't think you'd have difficulty finding interested families for a biology camp, and between the woods and Conneaut Creek you'd have a built in lab.



Ellie-Mae -> RE: Apologia (1/10/2008 9:44:10 PM)

If you go to PA, you might as well swing over here to NY. We can also put ya up. We have enough space to have the class at our house if we can get enough people together. What would the ages bor such a thing be?



rosenon -> RE: Apologia (1/10/2008 10:26:32 PM)

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you for the offers, but why don't we do this instead. As soon as I get my semester exams done the end of this month and my grades posted, I will revise the course syllabus to reflect some changes that need to be made in the camp program and I will make that syllabus available online as a download. That way those of you who want to set up a "summer biology lab camp" can organize your own. I can support you from here, but traveling east this summer probably will not happen. Although we are off all summer from our jobs, I have to attend AP Institute this year to maintain my AP teaching certification and will be holding a teleconference summer-long biology session. We go through the whole biology book in 16-weeks, meeting online twice per week. I only take 20 students in this intense class. I just don't see how we could make an east coast run this year -- but thanks for the offers. It is nice to know I have friends on that side of the country should we want to come in the future.

I don't feel that age should be the deciding factor for biology attendance. My top student in Honors Biology 2 years ago was a 12 year old. I think parent's estimation of ability, on-grade reading level, and math ability should be the deciding factors in student placement. Dr. Wile recommends a biology student be starting Algebra I (or have finished Algebra I) as his prerequisite. I use that as a guide in my classes also.

If you want to take a look at my admission requirements, you can find them on my web page below. There are also formal lab report examples, my complete course syllabi, course schedule, and an example set of lecture notes for you to view and listen to: the example notes begin to play a recorded lecture when opened. It takes about a minute to download, but you can hear what I sound like.

God Bless,

Steve



cynthia -> RE: Apologia (1/10/2008 10:58:57 PM)

Are there algebra problems in the biology course?



rosenon -> RE: Apologia (1/10/2008 11:40:34 PM)

No algebra problems in the course, but you need to be starting algebra for two reasons. If you have not done algebra by the end of biology, you will not be ready for chemistry, which DOES use algebra. Also some pretty significant research by both Cambridge University and the University of Washington demonstrates a link between the analytical skills for Algebra and the abstract thinking skills necessary for biology. Essentually, if you are ready for one, you are ready for the other. You have to be able to visualize cell membranes in your head for biology. The curcuits that allow you to do that are the same curcuits that allow you to solve A + B = 7, with A = 2. Basically, the prerequisite solves a sequencing issue and demonstrates a developmental stage mastery.

Hope that helps.

Steve



cynthia -> RE: Apologia (1/10/2008 11:46:32 PM)

[sm=icon_smile_idea.gif] It does make sense. I was wondering what kind of math was involved with biology and didn't think there would be algebra problems, but I had to ask. [:)]



rosenon -> RE: Apologia (1/16/2008 7:49:48 PM)

Hi Everyone,

I have been really busy with end of semester grading. Sorry I have been out of touch lately. For those of you doing Apologia Biology, Module 8, here is a great little vignette on pedigrees.

Pedigrees are the way we determine dominant/recessive traits of our ancestors. Here is an example:

http://www.highschoolscience.com/images/pedigree.gif

This pedigree is for humans, concentrating on the ability to roll their tongues. Squares are males, circles are females. If the circle is filled, that represents someone who cannot roll his or her tongue. If the circle is empty, the person CAN roll his or her tongue.

Which is recessive, which is dominant, and what are the genotypes of the parents? The answer would challenge Sherlock Holmes.

Look at the parents on the left. They both can roll their tongues. However, one of the children cannot. What does this mean? It means that not rolling must be recessive. After all, to express the recessive trait, you must have 2 alleles. Thus, there MUST BE one allele in EACH parent for the trait of not rolling the tongue. However, neither parent expresses that trait. If it were dominant, then the parents would HAVE to express it if they each had one. However, they each have one but do not express it. That means the inability to roll the tongue is recessive.

We will say that the ability to roll the tongue, then, is R, and the inability is r.

This means both of the first parents must be Rr and Rr. They each carry a recessive trait, but they do not express it. That’s the only way it is possible. The male of the next set is easy. He expresses the recessive trait. Thus, he must be rr. Finally, the second parents produce offspring which also express the recessive trait. Thus, the mother MUST have one allele for it, or no offspring could express it. However, she does not express it, so the only possibility for mom is Rr.

If that did not peak your interest, then have a look at this wonderful tutorial on pedigrees:

http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/units/addiction/genetics/pi.cfm

Hope that helps with your module on Genetics.

God Bless,

Steve



TMeeks -> RE: Apologia (1/17/2008 12:58:14 PM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: rosenon

quote:

ORIGINAL: cynthia

brewth: is that a word? Should it be breweth? [8D]


Yes. My fault. I was grading 170 papers, which came in yesterday, and trying to type (and grade) at the same time. Multi-tasking has its disadvantages, like forgetting to spell check.

God Bless,

Steve

170? YIKES!!![sm=shocked.gif][sm=eek.gif]

Better you than me. Grading papers is almost as tough as taking the tests! NOT my favorite part of teaching. [:D]



rosenon -> RE: Apologia (1/17/2008 10:42:40 PM)

Grading does take most of my time, but I have such GREAT kids it makes it worth it. When I taught in public school, I had to bribe kids with Jolly Ranchers to get them to perform the simplest task, which got to be expensive. (The school system does not refund candy money.) The kids I teach now get sooooo excite over an "A" from someone other than mom. I think having a teacher/mentor outside the home, at least for one class, really boost a student's confidence in his or her abilities. Mom's praise is great, but that praise outside the family unit really increases a student's self image.

Anyway, I had better get back to it .... I have another 170 coming in on Monday. [sm=funny.gif]

God Bless,

Steve



rosenon -> RE: Apologia (1/22/2008 8:58:58 PM)

Hi Everyone,

Just a quick note today. I will try to post a mini-lesson tomorrow or Thursday. For those of you using Fire Fox and Safari who had problems using the links on my web pages, the problem has been fixed. I had to remove some of the advanced graphics of Word 2007 and replace it with older table-enabled links to make the web site Fire Fox and Safari compatible. Now FF & S users can also use the helps on my course pages, which are linked below. Enjoy! [sm=hug.gif]

God Bless,

Steve



rosenon -> RE: Apologia (1/24/2008 11:05:56 PM)

Hi Everyone,

Those of you getting ready to attack the global warming issue in your Apologia studies, please read this vignette.
It is easy to say, "Lets decrease the worldwide CO2 concentration by 20%." However, are we really ready for what such a decrease would do to the world's population? You might be asking yourself, "What is the risk to global population growth if we curb CO2 growth?" Isn't decreasing worldwide CO2 levels a good thing? I mean isn't CO2 the main culprit in global warming?

Let's start with the last question first. Putting aside the environmental lobby's agenda and rhetoric we hear from Al Gore, here is a series of web sites which clearly show that CO2 is not the environmental Lucifer it has been made out to be. The follow is the best website on global warming, showing that the scientific data is squarely against the global warming hypothesis:

http://www.oism.org/pproject/s33p36.htm

Here is the MOST ACCURATE data on global temperatures (those gathered from satellites). You can see for yourself from the data that there is no warming going on, despite the fact that atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations have been rising substantially since about 1960.

http://www.ghcc.msfc.nasa.gov/MSU/msusci.html (This link was taken down by NASA) Here it is again from another resource:

http://www.junkscience.com/MSU_Temps/UAHMSUglobe-m.html

the wavy, light line is CO2 concentration, the dark, jagged line is global
temperature.

The latest research even indicates that the warmest period in earth's history was in the MIDDLE AGES:

http://www.dailytelegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2003/04/06/nclim06.xml&sSheet=/news/2003/04/06/ixhome.html

Other references include on this topic include:

http://web.archive.org/web/19980525144333/http://www.cse.org/surveyenviroreg100897.htm
http://www.marshall.org/subcategory.php?id=9
http://www.co2science.org/scripts/CO2ScienceB2C/Index.jsp
http://www.globalwarming.org/

Okay, so the evidence points against the CO2-global warming link. But what harm would decreasing the concentration of CO2 gas do? I mean it is just carbon and oxygen, right? The key fact in determining the harm of decreasing atmospheric CO2 is that world population has grown enormously and food production has kept pace with it. In 1975, the earth's population was 4 billion, today it is 6 billion. That's 2 billion more mouths to feed in just 25 years, and they are in fact fed. The UN's Food and Agriculture Organization's per capita food production indices vary with weather, natural disaster, and civil unrest, but they are basically constant. Production has increased 50% in 25 years. A miracle, the green miracle of global food (also shelter and clothing) increase, has occurred.

Moreover, population growth, while slowing, continues, so we must figure out how this green miracle has happened and keep it going. There is evidence that atmospheric CO2 increase is a significant contributor to this greening effect. If we don't want a worldwide shortage of food, then we don't want to do anything to reduce, slow, or stop the rise in CO2 levels. The risk is potentially enormous, including starvation on a global scale. There is abundant evidence that CO2 increase is one of, if not the chief, contributor to the green revolution -- theory, experiment, and observation all concur. Here are some great web sites for you that support this argument:

http://www.bydesign.com/fossilfuels/greening_benefits/miracle.html
http://www.bydesign.com/fossilfuels/greening_benefits/greening_theory.html
http://www.bydesign.com/fossilfuels/greening_benefits/green_technology.html
http://www.bydesign.com/fossilfuels/greening_benefits/policy.html
http://www.bydesign.com/fossilfuels/greening_benefits/policy.html
http://www.bydesign.com/fossilfuels/greening_benefits/usda_hole.html

So why all the push to decrease CO2 levels when there is some pretty good evidence that the increased levels are doing no harm and may even be beneficial? Does anyone find it strange that the same people that are pushing the global warming issue are the same ones leading the charge for abortion rights? I am not a conspiracy freak, but I just question the motive of those wanting a "world village" and at the same time advocating the killing of the children and potentially the people of that village. It certainly gives me a reason to pause and ponder while I am waiting for Jesus to return.

Hope you found this thought provoking.

God Bless,

Steve



cynthia -> RE: Apologia (1/25/2008 12:11:48 AM)

That is very interesting. I haven't followed any of the links yet, but have a question. If the earth isn't warming, why does the Arctic appear to be melting?



rosenon -> RE: Apologia (1/25/2008 7:51:25 AM)

The same reason it melted during the Middle Ages and in other times in recorded history, it is part of a normal cycle of global warming and cooling recorded in the geology of the planet. It is also interesting that while the polar cap is melting in places, it is thickening in others. Some places on Earth are having their coldest winter on record this year. If you look at the links given, you will see that every time there was an ice age recorded, it is immediately proceeded by a global warming event. Global warming IS NOT something unique to our lifetime; it is part of the Earth's travail over its entire life span.

God Bless,

Steve



cynthia -> RE: Apologia (1/25/2008 11:24:53 AM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: rosenon
Global warming IS NOT something unique to our lifetime; it is part of the Earth's travail over its entire life span.

God Bless,

Steve

That is what I have been telling my children. I was reading "Kid's Discover" magazine with my 8yo son. It was on glaciers. There was some info about global warming. I told him that it is normal for the earth to go through these cycles and that people could not have caused it.



rosenon -> RE: Apologia (2/1/2008 12:22:07 AM)

Hey Cynthia,

Your student is doing biology at this time, right? Forgive me but my brain is foggy after semester exams, so I can't remember. I am looking for someone to beta test Dr. Jay's and my new audio/note program for the rest of this school year. Basically, I would grant you free access to the program in exchange for your honest feedback in June. It is a pretty neat system, having downloadable audio lectures, web based notes with clickable links to some wonderful web sites, test review documents, lab report examples, printable lecture notes, and online tests which the computer partially grades (Sorry, it can't grade essay questions) and then sends you a grade report via e-mail. Are you interested in trying it out?

God Bless,

Steve



BCMOM -> RE: Apologia (2/1/2008 2:17:24 AM)

Hi Steve. I noticed in the chat thread Cynthia mentioned she is taking two weeks off of forums to deal with some domestic stuff. Figured I oughta tell you in case you wondered why she might not respond here.

Laurie



rosenon -> RE: Apologia (2/1/2008 4:38:05 PM)

Thanks so much. I missed that in the thread. I hope everything is okay for her. I certainly will keep the situation in prayer.

God Bless,

Steve



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