Wednesday, July 8

Circuits
I definately learned a lot about parallel, series, and complex circuits this morning. I grasped the parallel and series circuits rather quickly. However, I admit that I struggled a bit with the complex circuits. I did gain a better understanding of them during our discussion, and I feel a lot more comfortable with them than I did before, but I still have a lot to learn. It seems strange that when you have three lights in series, and you add a light in parallel to the second one, that you will actually increase the amount of current going to the third bulb. After Dr. Keller's explanation this morning, I do understand why, but it just seems strange that adding a resistor can actually increase the current to something.
Radioactive Decay
I enjoyed this lab a lot. As I mentioned in my blog yesterday, I teach a lot of math classes. In my Pre-Calculus class we sometimes talk about exponential decay. We have talked about how radioactive elements decay exponentially. However, in my class we are more concerned with the math involved in the exponential decay, and not so much the Chemistry. So, it was fun to learn more about the Chemistry involved with it.
Enzymes
I don't teach any life science classes. I teach math and physical science. So I have very little background in the life science area. Therefore, when it came to the lab over enzymes, I learned a lot. I probably won't be able to use it much in my classes, but I definately increased my personal knowledge of enzymes and how they can be affected by things such as concentration, PH, and temperature. I enjoyed it.