P/P Thurs

The P/P activities were both good. the hands on activity with the beans was a good way to introduce students to not only predator/prey but also to other factors such as survival of the fittest, and how body structure affects the ability to survive (catch prey). This would be a good activity to do first, then go to the on-line activity and have the students work with the more complex relationships represented within that model. The ability to change several variables will generate a lot of discussion. I can use this site and plug-in data from a different lab I all ready use and combine the two sources. It will be nice to see the graphs of data collected from the lab I currently use right away. For the simple concept, the hands on bean lab allows for the understanding of the simple concepts; however, the computer program also allows students to understand a more realistic and complex set of data.
My impressions of today: Today was worthwhile. I have not run a spectrometer for many years and was glad that it was easy. If anyone has an extra one or two they'd be willing to share/give... I'd be willing to take it off your hands. I thought it was fun. It's a concept I explain, but it'd be great to have one, so students can actually "see" how it works.
Thanks for a good day,
Kim B