The last few weeks have been so busy that it has impacted sleep patterns. Even a hurricane doesn't hold me back from going to sleep, but if I am all keyed up with the excitement of projects or I get a bit overwhelmed from taking on too many projects at a time I will wake up too early and will not be able to get back to sleep. I am on week two of that and it is starting to catch up with me mentally. I am going to try to get a few of the irons in the fire settled this weekend and then take some time for resting up. A good Sunday nap with a shorter to-do list should do the trick.

Here are a few of my fovorite highlights of this week:

Chemistry class:

The general chemistry kids are starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. They are midway through module 13 out of 16. Almost there! We have been testing out a simulation software called Virtual ChemLab. I find that It cannot do the specific labs that I want, but as I explore what it does have I find that those are interesting. It is still too early yet to know if it will be worth adopting for next fall or not. I like the way we are learning to use the Elluminate whiteboard lab objects to go through lab setups, procedures, and even simulations. The customization couldn't be better, so Virtual ChemLab has some stiff competition.

Biology:

Since the biology course has a unique 'never-ends' design, they don't get the fun of counting down the modules to go as a group. The kids can jump in to the course in nearly any module and after we get to the last module in the course they just wrap back around to the beginning. They graduate once they get to the module that they started on. They just finished up the module on protists and had a blast on our biomystery finding the mysterious poison that led to 100 people coming down with the loss of their ability to form short-term memories after eating blue mussels at a seafood place (based on a true story). They manipulated the lab gear in a sequence of labs and learned how scientists do the three key types of lab activities:

separation/purification  - solvent extraction, evaporation, column chromatography, High performance liquid chromotography, and high voltage electrophloresis

qualitative analysis - mass spectroscopy (I want to make an animation for this one)

quantitative analysis - I left the details for finding concentration for them to discover in chemistry, but they got the point that concentration can make a big difference especially when you have a chemical that is a neurotransmitter mimic.

Elementary Science:

My eight year old has been learning about static electricity today and of course the rub a balloon on your hair and build up a static charge is a requisite activity for that topic. The 'in' toy of the day accompanying us on our science adventures has been a stretchy groilla which he had fun winding up and watching it twirl. I was working at the computer and when I felt my little fellow come up close, I assumed he was going to give the balloon another good charge. I felt my hair get a good tug. I looked over to see my long spirally hair in a tight tangle around the gorilla's leg. I decided it was time for the scissors after working 30 minutes trying to separate us. I sacrificed a hunk of hair to save the poor gorilla from being an amputee. LOL