Tallest structures!

-Miss K  :)

No pink!?!?!?!?

-Miss K  :)

Beautiful!

This woman is 29 years old and was born deaf.  Thanks to a "hearing implant" she was able to truly hear for the first time.  I don't know about you, but I thought this was pretty amazing!

Enjoy the beautiful, wonderful things in the world kiddos.  We often have to deal with a difficult times, frustrating people and other issues in our life, but there are some truly awesome things in life too!

Have a good day and find a reason to smile every single day!  I am so thankful to have all of you in my classes and look forward to sharing many amazing moments with you this year!

-Miss K  :)

I swam in this stuff once before!

From the Daily What:  Lights Out: Surfers generate beautiful bioluminescent waves off the coast of San Diego by disturbing a bloom of warmwater phytoplankton Lingulodinium polyedrum, causing a chemical reaction which produces a flash of blue light.

Though red tide can be harmful in certain circumstances, this particular algal bloom has a low-level toxicity that is safe to swim in.

Red Tide Surfing San Diego 2011 Bioluminescence from Loghan Call on Vimeo.

It wasn't this wild when I did it, but it was pretty darn cool!

-Miss K  :)

Flying over the Earth

-Miss K  :)

Be safe!

Satellite Image of Irene from yesterday.



-Miss K  :)

Still amazing!

Checkerboard optical illusion.



-Miss K  :)

Making fire from ice

-Miss K  :)

Fibonacci

Solar Panel Upgrade of the Day: A seventh-grader named Aidan Dwyer, inspired by the patterns of branches on oak trees, created a new arrangement of solar panels that generates 20-50% more energy than a the traditional flat solar array.

Aidan’s solar tree design is based on the Fibonacci sequence, a pattern that’s been observed in many places in nature, including tree branches.

For his trouble, Aidan received a Young Naturalist Award from the American Museum of Natural History, and a provisional patent on his invention.

(From the Daily What)

Aidan Says: "I designed and built my own test model, copying the Fibonacci pattern of an oak tree. I studied my results with the compass tool and figured out the branch angles. The pattern was about 137 degrees and the Fibonacci sequence was 2/5. Then I built a model using this pattern from PVC tubing. In place of leaves, I used PV solar panels hooked up in series that produced up to 1/2 volt, so the peak output of the model was 5 volts. The entire design copied the pattern of an oak tree as closely as possible. ... The Fibonacci tree design performed better than the flat-panel model. The tree design made 20% more electricity and collected 2 1/2 more hours of sunlight during the day. But the most interesting results were in December, when the Sun was at its lowest point in the sky. The tree design made 50% more electricity, and the collection time of sunlight was up to 50% longer!"