Every living thing is made of cells, and everything a living thing does is done by the cells that make it up. LL Larison Cudmore, 1977

I hope everyone returned back from Thanksgiving break feeling refreshed from such a wonderful holiday of gratitude and family. I myself spent the break hunting North of Ely, NV for my Nevada bull elk tag. I am truly thankful for my family who made it to the hunt with me and gave their heart and souls to help me be successful. I was able to harvest a Nevada bull elk, what an awe inspiring animal elk are! The trip reminded me of how much I love my native home state, Nevada. I have traveled all over the world, but I do not think any place compares to the harsh yet fertile landscapes of our basins and mountain ranges with the stark contrasts between the two. 

Mrs. Mortensen and her parents (left), in-laws (right), husband (middle), and two daughters. 11/2016

Mean while back at the ranch... let's get back to work! The freshmen finished up their fantastic Cell Respiration projects in which they had to create an add campaign in which they "sell" cell respiration as the best way to make ATP as compared to just fermentation. There were many creative takes on this. I am posting pictures on the Biology page tab. Overall, great job freshmen! This week, we transition into cell division, mitosis, and meiosis. This is a quick unit, but truly informative and ends in a cookie lab! Who could ask for more than that? There will be an email home asking for parent volunteers to help with our "materials" (i.e. ingredients for the lab.) 

In Physics, we are working towards our end goal of their final project which will be due before Christmas Break entitled A Mission to Mars. To help with this, we are learning about Kepler's Laws, Gravitational Force and related equations, as well as Centripetal Force and Motion. There will be homework every night was we push forward to the end of this semester. If students are taking proper notes of examples in class, they should be successful with the homework assignments. Many students are struggling with their calculators, as although they are mostly created to be equal, some are just not as user friendly as others and last week caused many to be in tears as they struggled trying to figure out the proper way to enter equations. It is impossible for me to become an expert in all calculators, so we have been working through the good 'ol fashioned rules of exponents and PEMDAS (order of operations) to assist students in making these calculations easier. If you do want to buy your child a more user friendly calculator for this class, I recommend the TI-30; HOWEVER, a TI-85 model up to the TI-NSPIRE (this baby is the MOTHER of all calculators) is strongly recommended as these can be used on the ACT and are required in many Pre-Calc and Calculus classes.