More Rocket Science

Our fifth grade rocket scientists launched

  more rockets two weeks ago.

Technorati Tags: amateur rockets

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Teacher Potluck Carnival: The Pi Day Edition

Welcome to the Irrational Teacher Potluck Carnival for Pi Day 2008!

Pi Day and Pi Approximation Day are two holidays held to celebrate the mathematical constant π (pi). Pi Day is observed on March 14 (3/14 in American date format), due to π being equal to roughly 3.14. Sometimes it is celebrated on March 14 at 1:59 p.m. (commonly known as Pi Minute). If π is truncated to seven decimal places, it becomes 3.1415926, making March 14 at 1:59:26 p.m., Pi Second (or sometimes March 14, 1592 at 6:53:58 a.m.). Pi Approximation Day may be observed on any of several dates, most often July 22 (22/7 (European date format) is a popular approximation of π). March 14 also happens to be Albert Einstein's birthday.

The first Pi Day celebration was held at the San Francisco Exploratorium in 1988, with staff and public marching around one of its circular spaces, and then consuming fruit pies; the museum has since added pizza pies to its Pi Day menu.[1] The founder of Pi Day, the "Prince of Pi", is Larry Shaw,[2] now retired from the Exploratorium, but still helping out with the celebrations. They have also recently added the first Pi Day celebrations in Second Life.

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology often mails out its acceptance letters to be delivered to prospective students on Pi Day.

See Wikipedia, Pi Day, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pi_Day (as of Mar. 14, 2008, 00:26 GMT).

Tomorrow we are celebrating ∏ Day with our ∏ Memorization Contest, a ∏ Day Sudoku, and, of course, pies! Chocolate pudding pie seems to be the kids' favorite, with blueberry and pumpkin coming in second.

But don't worry! Our recipes and education links are very rational. In fact, at least one is green for St. Patrick's Day. All our recipes are circular. Happy Pi Day!

FOOD

Let's start off with St. Pat's Pistachio Cookies. I got this recipe from my weekly mailing from King Arthur Flour. You get green cookies, which is fun! They suggest you use the Jell-o brand of Pistachio pudding for the best color.

I spent this past Saturday making my Apple Crumble Pie from cooks.com. I love pies. They are my favorite breakfast food. But making them? A mess! The crust I make is terrific but makes me too tense. Luckily, our store in the village now has a local frozen organic pie crust available. Amy has used two shells for a two crust pie. Still too much work for me. This apple pie has an easy crumble topping that works beautifully just as the recipe says it will. The crumble topping feels skimpy but trust the recipe and it will work. I love the sheen that the raw apples have with the flour and lemon water mixture. The last photo is of the first piece of pie from the pie tin. The flour and lemon juice mixture made a beautiful gel that was completely natural. Click on the image to see it full size.

Finally, my Amy has granted me permission to publish her "perfected" chocolate chip cookies. What does "perfected" mean? I don't get anymore cookies because she has no need to further test her recipe. She is in search of another recipe to perfect. It had better be something chocolate. Sorry, no photos. I ate the cookies.

2 sticks unsalted butter
2 cups flour
1 cup whole wheat flour (or just use all regular flour)
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 cup sugar
1 1/4 cups brown sugar
1 egg
1 egg yolk
2 tablespoons milk
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
about 2 cups of toasted walnuts or pecans

Hardware:
Ice cream scooper (#20 disher, to be exact)
Parchment paper
Baking sheets
Mixer

Heat oven to 375° F.
Melt the butter in a heavy-bottom medium saucepan over low heat. Sift together the flour, salt, and baking soda and set aside.
Pour the melted butter in the mixer's work bowl. Add the sugar and brown sugar. Cream the butter and sugars on medium speed. Add the egg, yolk, 2 tablespoons milk and vanilla extract and mix until well combined. Slowly incorporate the flour mixture until thoroughly combined.
Stir in the chocolate chips and nuts.
Chill the dough, (I did not do this.)

Scoop cookie onto parchment-lined baking sheets, 6 cookies per sheet. Bake for 14 minutes or until golden brown, checking the cookies after 5 minutes. Rotate the baking sheet for even browning. Cool completely and store in an airtight container.

EDUCATION

Jean Mosher presents More American Children Educated Online posted at Always in Motion. I read the article and it raises important questions about public funding, for-profit educational corporations, credentials and regulation. We have to be aware of the issues because they could affect us sooner than we know.

With that in mind, consider Mark Monaghan's post The need for eLearning posted at eLearning. If you have not seen this video, you must. It will put the eLearning debate into focus.

Despite a district-wide rule prohibiting cell phones in our schools, students have them. Cell phones have audio, still photo and video capabilities. What would you do if suddenly you appeared on YouTube in a cell phone video? Greg Laden presents Greg Laden's Blog : Teachers Gone Wild posted at Greg Laden's Blog. I think this is another article that you must read.

Are you planning on buying pronunciation software for your students? Eric Koshinsky presents Pronunciation Software to Improve English Pronunciation posted at Teachers Call. There are more criteria to consider than I had ever realized.

That's it for this edition of the Potluck Carnival. Please submit your recipe, story or article for the next carnival here.

HAPPY PI DAY!

moar funny pictures

Teacher Potluck Carnival

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Teacher Pot Luck Carnival: Leap Day Edition

Welcome to the Leap Day Edition of the Teacher's Pot Luck Carnival! According to folklore "Leap year was ne'er a good sheep year." That's OK because we are presenting a (mostly) vegetarian potluck. In case you have the cold or flu, we also have a healthy recipe for herbal cough drops and throat soothers. Did you know that there are only twenty more days left until spring? We had a foot of snow this weekend here in Vermont. Tonight and tomorrow we are getting another foot. But here at the Teacher's Pot Luck Carnival, it's warm by the stove!

FOOD

VERMONT BAKED BEANS: I've been experimenting with baked bean recipes (not vegetarian). I think I've finally got it right. They come out differently each time, which makes Saturday's bean supper always an adventure! Vermont Baked Beans are mild and use maple syrup, not molasses. You can substitute, though, if you are devoted to molasses.

Michael has a great vegetarian casserole, World's Fair Vegetable Rice, that came from his Boy Scout manual back in the days. It's a one or two pot meal made for campers and great for a potluck. He has also contributed a great peach cobbler recipe, Michael's Peach Cobbler, made on the stove top.

Did you know that King Arthur Flour is based right here in Norwich, Vermont? It's our favorite store. They have started a blog, too. It's full of recipes, tips and tricks for professional and home baking. Amelia and I collect their recipes on my recipe blog.

Amelia and I are sending two bread recipes that become four. Change the molasses for maple syrup in both recipes and you get a completely new taste! 100% Whole Wheat Bread is a King Arthur Flour recipe that I have worked with for over a year. Try it! Amelia has been working with King Arthur's Oatmeal Sandwich Bread. I prefer the maple oatmeal. She prefers the molasses.

NATURAL HEALTH

Baldwin's Girl, a well-known train photographer, had the flu and had it rather badly. Luckily for us, she posted her recipe for Herbal Cough Drops and Throat Soothers. I am definitely going to make these if I get sick this winter. As an added bonus, you can use the same recipe for an herbal hand/air/room/surface spray (lavender, please, for me!). You probably don't have all of the ingredients on hand, so plan ahead, visit her post, make a shopping list, and stock up!

EDUCATION

Continuing her Web 2.0 series, Mrs. Whatsit shares Mind Maps and Social Software. I can see our teachers moving towards Web 2.0, but it's going to be quite a long time before we implement it as well as Mrs. Whatsit. It's a shame we don't move faster, because Mrs. Whatsit's students seem very involved in their learning.

Larry Ferlazzo sent Stadium Nutrition from Aetna — an interactive exercise where you create a meal you’d eat at a baseball stadium and you’re then told its nutritional content. I played with this and you have to go see the nutritional content of stadium peanuts. Yuck! But fun!

Colleen Palat at tutorfi.com has submitted Handling the Student with Difficult Behaviors, a problem we are all having with disturbing frequency. I am going to print her list of seven tips. The more we read them the more we will internalize them and can therefore avoid problems in the future.

That's it for this Teacher Potluck Carnival. I hope you enjoyed it and found lots of great food and useful information. My thanks to Michael for teaching me how to fix the Potluck Carnival's graphic so that it looks good on my blog!

On March 14, the Pi Day Edition of the Potluck will go up here at meeyauw. Be sure to e-mail me with your submissions. Look at the top of the right sidebar and click for email. March 14 is the day we celebrate that wonderfully irrational number, pi. So let's see lots of pis and St. Patrick's Day recipes! I already know what I'm going to submit! Link up and spread the word!

Teacher Potluck Carnival

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Unplugged Project: Knots And A Cipher Update

Sorry, Mom Unplugged. No string theory today.

I got you-know-who The Dangerous Book for Boysfor Christmas. And

then I got a copy for myself because of the cipher wheel instructions on page sixty-seven. The cipher wheel activity blends perfectly with my Unplugged Project on ciphers. Identical, free instructions can be found here at Scholastic Kid's Spy Academy. (There are great online activities here, at Scholastic, for home and school.)

The connection to this week's Unplugged Project is the section "Five Knots Every Boy Should Know." The Dangerous Book has a web site with a special section for teachers with some free activities to use at recess or at a Parent/Son Night. And one of the activities is this knots section from the book.

Beware of this pdf activity file, though. I have had to use my school PC while my Macintosh is in the shop. And the pdf file for the knots activity crashed this PC twice. Finally, I right-clicked on the link, downloaded the file and opened it locally. It then worked. Be sure to click all of the stickie notes on the book graphic. You can print out certificates, download a section of the book and even print out badges after completion of parts of the book. There are also other valuable links.

I am still planning a math club that will engage kids, especially boys, and I think I will use this Dangerous book. It is stuffed with mathematics activities.

Please note that I am blogging on a PC, which I find inordinately difficult. All of the formatting is differently than on a Mac. I also cannot work with my photos because of my lack of PC software. Therefore, my few posts this week are using graphics linked to their source.

Thank you for stopping by.

Visit other participants of the Project at Unplug Your Kids
or clickUnplugged Project

Next week's Project is in two weeks: COLLAGE

Technorati tags: The Dangerous Book For Boys, Conn Iggulden, Hal Iggulden, math club, cipher wheel, knots
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Youth Hunting Update

I surveyed all the middle school classes because of some questions I got in e-mails today about the Youth Weekend post. By the way: all meat is used at the homes of the hunters. Families still rely on it.

Technorati tags: Vermont youth+weekend hunting

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Youth Weekend

This was Youth Weekend in Vermont: a weekend of youthful hunting in the woods.

I have twelve fifth and sixth graders in my homeroom. Here are the numbers:

• 92% have used a gun
  
• 67% hunt (deer, moose, bear, game birds, coyote, etc)
  
• 58% own their very own hunting rifle

One of my students got a 6-point, 200 lb buck. The 7th grade brother of another student got 3-point, 144 lb buck. A fifth grade girl in another class got a deer, as did another fifth grade boy. I failed to get the details of their hunts.

All of the students take Hunter Safety. They are not going out willy-nilly. And they all go out with a licensed adult.

Technorati tags: Vermont+Youth+Weekend hunting

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Photo Hunters: Music

April 1993: Placido Domingo Visits Hartford, Connecticut
In 1993 I taught a sixth grade of Puerto Rican, Vietnamese, African American, Jamaican, and Portuguese children. My husband (who died 13 months later), another teacher and I transported all who wanted to see Domingo on this Saturday. The event was empty except for us, some high school students, my own children, and the principal. It was a very informal meeting and we actually shook hands with this magnificent tenor and humanitarian. My Amelia photographed it for the Hartford Courant and my Andrew wrote the article. I scanned the article years ago and found it tonight. If you care to see, when you click the photo will be large and you will see that I have identified people in the photo. The text of the article follows:

The Metro Bridge (The Hartford Courant)
April 1993; page 7

Domingo Offers Song and Words of Wisdom

by Andrew --------
Metro Bridge Staff Writer

The maroon curtains of the stage were torn and ripped, and parts were missing.

At other schools the grand piano would be on the stage ready to be played, but at Bulkeley the piano was wrapped up and on its side next to the stage.

This was the scene when the world renowned tenor Placido Domingo visited Bulkeley High School. His visit was short and he sang only one song, without a piano. But the purpose of his visit seemed to be more focused on giving a message to the inner-city high school students than performing.

Hartford Mayor Carrie Saxon Perry and State Rep. Edwin Garcia were among those who attended the event. Winners from Bulkeley of the statewide foreign language poetry competition recited poems for Domingo in Italian and Spanish. Then the Bulkeley students asked Domingo questions.

One student asked how many languages he spoke. He listed many and added that everyone should be proud of his or her heritage.

He told the audience that it is important to keep the language of their ethnic backgrounds. He said that in today's society one cannot get along speaking just English.

The next part of his talk was directed at the Latino community. He told the audience he was born in Spain and is Spanish.

He said only people from Spain are really Spanish and if you are someone from a Spanish-speaking country you should not call yourself Spanish, but a Peruvian or Colombian or whatever country the person comes from.

After the questions, Domingo asked some of the children to dance. They came on stage in white dresses ornamented by red and green ribbons and tambourines.

They danced the tarantella, a dance native to Italy, while Domingo clapped to the music.

Then he sang a Spanish folk song a cappella called "Te Quiero Mucho." The crowd rose to its feet and cheered when he finished. Shortly after, Domingo made his way through the mob of fans that followed him to his limousine.

As Domingo drove away the audience applauded, still very excited. His visit was over, but his words were not forgotten.

The memories of that intense year are vivid within me. There were awful times but also these wonderful times. I am proud that I was able to get all my home and school kids to see Domingo.

Thank you for visiting. ClickPhotoHunt for more participants.

Technorati tags: Placido+Domingo Hartford+Connecticut Metro+Bridge Hartford+Courant PhotoHunt

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Math Notes from Futility Closet

Math Notes | Futility Closet

I love patterns like this. Give it a look.

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Dig a Hole in Barton

If I were to dig a hole from Barton to China (which Amy's dogs have attempted to do), I wouldn't end up in China. As you can see from the red dot on the right hand image, I would end up between Australia and Antarctica in the Pacific Indian Ocean. There is no spot in the U.S. where you could dig your way to China. Good tool for students (and me!). Play with it at If The Earth Were A Sandwich.

Update: Thank you, Andrew, for correcting my geography.
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Another Student Is Gone

Monday June 4, 2007

Local Man Drowns In Moore Reservoir
BY AMY ASH NIXON, Staff Writer


WATERFORD, VT - WATERFORD -- A 23-year-old Waterford man died in a watercraft accident Saturday evening.



A search for Joshua Connelly ended late Sunday afternoon when his body was found in about 15 feet of water. Police said he had not been wearing a personal flotation device.



State police said Connelly was riding a personal watercraft with a friend at Moore's Dam Reservoir between 8 and 9 p.m. Saturday.



The pair had been riding a Jet Ski on the reservoir when a thunderstorm broke out over the region, and according to the report heard over the police scanner Saturday evening, they abandoned the craft fearing it would be struck by lightning.

Connelly's companion, whom police did not name, made it to shore and was rescued Saturday night. He told police the Jet Ski began having mechanical problems, and Connelly jumped into the water to swim to shore, which was about 75-yards away.



The friend told police that when he got to shore, he looked back and saw Connelly flailing his arms.



Police said the friend pulled the Jet Ski to shore and heard Connelly calling for help. He tried to help, but was unable to do so.



New Hampshire and Vermont authorities responded, but could not find Connelly Saturday evening.



A command center consisting of state police, members of Bureau of Criminal Investigation, the state police scuba team, the Fish and Wildlife Department and VSP auxiliary personnel, was set up at the shores of the normally tranquil Moore Reservoir, and Connelly's family kept vigil at the water's edge.



His mother, Barbara, waited on the banks of the water with good friends, and other family was at the scene through out the day, state police said.



CALEX Ambulance stood guard, and a huge state police command center vehicle was stationed at the scene.



Several police officers were out on the dock where people usually jump off for fun, and nearby, people had set up a weekend party and were out enjoying the afternoon, as the tragic event played out.



Connelly was taken to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Burlington. Police said the investigation into the incident is continuing.

Audrie Wright, who owns a home just up the road from where the tragedy occurred, was outside at her picnic table Sunday early evening, a glass bottle filled with lilacs.



"I'm worried about everyone," she said, looking very sad about the stream of police and emergency vehicles that had been going past her property for nearly 24 hours by then. "It's very sad."

++++++++++++++++++++++

Wednesday June 6, 2007
www.caledonianrecord.com

Joshua Connelly, 23

- Joshua Roland Connelly, 23, died in Waterford Saturday evening, June 2, 2007.

Born on May 7, 1984, he is survived by his mother, Barbara Connelly, his brother, Paul, and sister, Crystal, of Waterford (PO Box 18, Lower Waterford VT 05848); and his grandparents, Peg and Doc Tirrell of Waterford.

He is predeceased by his father, Jim.

Josh attended St. Johnsbury Academy and graduated from Littleton High School in 2003.

In high school he was an accomplished sprinter and was a Vermont state champion two years in a row.

A Life Scout, Josh enjoyed fishing and being outdoors. Josh was very loyal to his friends and was often the peacemaker when arguments arose.

Memorial services will be held Sunday, June 17, at 2 p.m., at the North Congregational Church, St. Johnsbury.

Memorial contributions may be directed to either Green Mountain Council, Boy Scouts of America, P.O. Box 557, Waterbury, VT 05676 or to North Congregational Church, 1325 Main St., St. Johnsbury, VT 05819.

Condolences and memories may be shared with the family privately on-line at www.saylesfh.com.

Sayles Funeral home of St. Johnsbury is assisting the family with arrangements.

The Caledonian-Record is a daily newspaper serving Northern Vermont and Northern New Hampshire. Visit our website updated daily at www.caledonianrecord.com

Note from the WebMaster: We request that you maintain proper credit to the Caledonian-Record Online News and to the author of the article. If you post this news article on your website we also request that you include a link to our website, which can be accomplished by using the following code:
The Caledonian-Record Online News

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Students' View of Intelligence Can Help Grades

From National Public Radio - Morning Edition, Thursday, February 15, 2007. See http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=7406521 . Our thanks to Greg Gierhart for bringing this piece to our attention.

Your Health: Students' View of Intelligence Can Help Grades
By Michelle Trudeau

A new study in the scientific journal Child Development shows that if you teach students that their intelligence can grow and increase, they do better in school.

All children develop a belief about their own intelligence, according to research psychologist Carol Dweck from Stanford University.

"Some students start thinking of their intelligence as something fixed, as carved in stone," Dweck says. "They worry about, 'Do I have enough? Don't I have enough?'"

Dweck calls this a "fixed mindset" of intelligence.

"Other children think intelligence is something you can develop your whole life," she says. "You can learn. You can stretch. You can keep mastering new things."

She calls this a "growth mindset" of intelligence.

Dweck wondered whether a child's belief about intelligence has anything to do with academic success. So, first, she looked at several hundred students going into seventh grade, and assessed which students believed their intelligence was unchangeable, and which children believed their intelligence could grow. Then she looked at their math grades over the next two years.

"We saw among those with the growth mindset steadily increasing math grades over the two years," she says. But that wasn't the case for those with the so-called "fixed mindset." They showed a decrease in their math grades.

This led Dweck and her colleague, Lisa Blackwell, from Columbia University to ask another question.

"If we gave students a growth mindset, if we taught them how to think about their intelligence, would that benefit their grades?" Dweck wondered.

So, about 100 seventh graders, all doing poorly in math, were randomly assigned to workshops on good study skills. One workshop gave lessons on how to study well. The other taught about the expanding nature of intelligence and the brain.

The students in the latter group "learned that the brain actually forms new connections every time you learn something new, and that over time, this makes you smarter."

Basically, the students were given a mini-neuroscience course on how the brain works. By the end of the semester, the group of kids who had been taught that the brain can grow smarter, had significantly better math grades than the other group.

"When they studied, they thought about those neurons forming new connections," Dweck says. "When they worked hard in school, they actually visualized how their brain was growing."

Dweck says this new mindset changed the kids' attitude toward learning and their willingness to put forth effort. Duke University psychologist, Steven Asher, agrees. Teaching children that they're in charge of their own intellectual growth motivates a child to work hard, he says.


"If you think about a child who's coping with an especially challenging task, I don't think there's anything better in the world than that child hearing from a parent or from a teacher the words, 'You'll get there.' And that, I think, is the spirit of what this is about."

Dweck's latest book, Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, gives parents and teachers specific ways to teach the growth mindset of intelligence to children.

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Peeing on Electric Fences

Any boy can find an electric fence here in the Kingdom.

T, our classroom para, does morning meetings in my homeroom because he knows what he is doing in morning meetings. Today was Book Thursday. We go around the circle talking about books we are reading. But T's discussion stopped the show: peeing on electric fences. He described how to do this, as written in the book he was reading: Harris and Me by Gary Paulsen. All six of the boys' eyes lit up. What a great idea! As I envisioned all six of my male charges electrocuted in the snow, I spoke up: "Well, I don't know how exciting that would be. After all, when my father had an electric fence for the cows, he hooked it up to an old car battery. That can't be too dangerous."

But B, 10 years old like all the boys, interrupted. "Oh no no, it's bad! It hurts!" So obviously we had some personal experience here. The other boys' faces lit up even more. They all exchanged wide eyed glances. I tried again and asked T, "What happened to Paulsen? How badly injured was he?" T, father of two boys, watching the reactions of the boys, was laughing so hard he barely heard me. But he described how the boys in the book were hurt. They could not walk normally for a week. "Oh man, that's so cool," was whispered in awe all around the circle.

No, not all around the circle. The three 10 year old girls, sitting near me, all of us females together, were looking at me, slowly shaking their heads, rolling their eyes. They all have brothers. They seemed to be saying there was nothing I could do to stop this conversation. It was difficult for them to suffer this male silliness but they were patient. I whispered to them, "Why do they do this?" They all three silently raised their eyebrows. Who can understand the boys? Who wants to?

I asked the boys, "Why do you do this?" Then they all began roaring with laughter, doubled over. They began to impersonate John Wayne of all people! Who would think that in 2007 ten-year-old boys would even know who John Wayne is? You could tell that they couldn't wait to get out of school today and try this thing out.

I thought I would end the conversation and said, "OK. If any of you come to school walking funny, I'll know what you did." That sent them out of control as they began to walk like cowboys, imitating John Wayne, roaring with laughter. Only ten-year-old boys have a laugh that can both scare you and fill your heart with joy.

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Mrs. Grumpypants

<-- That's me: but let's make it Ms. Grumpypants. I was called that by a student today after I chided him for having to pick up his paper airplanes one more time. I had a severe headache so I know I responded too harshly to the poor kid. He tossed himself into a chair and whispered to another student that I am Mrs. Grumpypants today. I cracked up when I heard him.

The photo was taken this autumn on Photo Booth with color effects (I forget which ones). I personally like how it emphasizes my eye color.

I got the rest of the 2003 recipes on the recipe blog today. I only had two responses to my Booking on Thursday meme. It is too cold, too dry. The cats are fighting because they can't stand being in the house anymore. It's going to be below zero all next week. I am in the depths of sadness again. I had huge technical difficulties in a lab class today that wrecked the whole effect I was trying to create for the students. I tossed away 5 gig of old podcasts I was saving for somebody special that never wanted to hear them anyhow.

But I found a lovely blog (blogaway: see the blogroll on the right) that linked me to a great song by Tom Chapin that was on NPR Morning Edition earlier in the month: just click TomChapin in my del.icio.us tag cloud (at this very moment it is not popping up in the cloud but it should appear shortly). The song is an NCLB lullaby called "Not On The Test". Cool.

But the throttle on the car still is not freezing. It isn't even threatening to freeze. I am bombing around on ice at 50 mph or higher. But I notice the brakes aren't too great at -15°. So I simply make sure that there is plenty of room between me and whoever is in front of me. Not that that happens too much.

Todos: blog about my father and Eli Maor; blog about my freezing throttle.
9:39 PM and -10° (I think it has warmed up a bit: perhaps the clouds that are coming in have trapped some heat).

Our M&M Project

I know every mathematics class has done an M&M project but this was my first one. It was an opportunity to review graphing skills and competencies for the NECAP administration. But it was also a way to have fun with Halloween! The numbers are interesting and the project engages kids. We were careful to wash our hands thoroughly and to count and then bag the M&Ms on clean surfaces.

ToDo: find mean, median, mode of the data. Only the eighth grade did this but I think all students, even the fifth graders, could have done it.

Further questions for research: why such a deviation in the numbers of each color? Does the mean remain the same for large and small sample sizes? Where does this blue M&M color come from anyhow?

Any more questions we should ask? Let me know!

Sadness

There is sadness in school. The drive in was slow but uneventful until I reached Pike gravel pits on Rt. 105. The road was closed and I had to detour up into Newport and go to North Troy from there. There had been a fatal accident and I knew the victim in a distant way.

The upper level kids are skiing at Jay today; there will be extra time to adjust to being back. I took some photos at the corner of Veilleux Road and the River Road.

It is approximately 20 degrees warmer than the average mean for this date in Burlington (the mean temperature for this date is 12 degrees).

I will post the photos when I return home tonight.

All the photos I took today can be seen at http://www.flickr.com/photos/meeyauw/sets/72157594455510332 (Opens a new window.)

Chaz Booth

My last student to die . . . one year ago today:

Chaz Lamont Booth

CHAZ LAMONT BOOTH (BIG CHILLY) We Love you Chaz, miss you so much. We keep you alive in our hearts and memories, every minute of the day. You are our Angel in the sky who watches over us day and night. The hearts you touched, the love you showed us, is priceless. We love you Son, Brother Chaz. Forever, until we all are reunited... Rest Baby Rest. Love Always, Gone but never forgotten Mommy, Moe-Moe, King David, Amy


Published in the Hartford Courant on 12/24/2006.

Monday, March 6, 2000
Contact: CDC, Division of Media Relations
(404) 639–3286

Why is handwashing important?

Remember Ignaz Semmelweis? Of course you don't. But you're in his debt nonetheless, because it was Dr. Semmelweis who first demonstrated over a hundred years ago that routine handwashing can prevent the spread of disease.

"Dr. Semmelweis worked in a hospital in Vienna whose maternity patients were dying at such an alarming rate that they begged to be sent home," said Julie Gerberding, M.D., director of CDC's Hospital Infections Program. "Most of those dying had been treated by student physicians who worked on cadavers during an anatomy class before beginning their rounds in the maternity ward."

Because the students didn't wash their hands between touching the dead and the living--handwashing was an unrecognized hygienic practice at the time--pathogenic bacteria from the cadavers regularly were transmitted to the mothers via the students' hands.

"The result was a death rate five times higher for mothers who delivered in the hospital than for mothers who delivered at home" said Dr. Gerberding.

This week is Hand Washing Awareness Week, a timely reminder--before flu season reaches its peak--that regular hand washing is the single most effective way to prevent the transmission of disease. Visit FirstGov.gov’s link to the Centers for Disease Control to find out how this hygienic practice gained recognition during the 19th century and to learn five common household scenarios in which contaminated hands transmit disease-causing germs.

FirstGov.gov Updates: News and Features 12/5/06 3:42 PM

You’d think a country like ours could do better than tell us to wash our hands ..... and save more than a few lives in the bargain!