Labs (Not the Furry Kind)

I always feel a smidge better as a teacher when I do experiments in science.

Some recent enjoyable labs have included:

Construction of a camera obscura. This device was used to prove the rectilinear propagation of light... er, to prove that light travels in a straight line. We made a crude model from a VetWrap box and semi-translucent paper. Lo and behold, the images of candle flame and flashlight beam were indeed flipped upside down.

Concoction of candy canes (and purple candies of spherical and various abstract shapes). This lab demonstrates the change in boiling point with increasing solute concentration (from 212 F to 270 F).

Try these experiments yourself (see associated links above)! They require no specialized equipment or materials.

If you're up for a cardiovascular study... buy a pack of chicken hearts at the store. They are usually in great shape for identifying semilunar valves, atrioventricular valves, aortas and more!

With a cream separator, investigate gear ratios, mechanical advantage, inertia, and centripetal force. Only, don't expect cream from homogenized milk. I tried... I didn't work.

Ah, then there's always the turkey neck spinal cord hunt. Meat bits scattered on table, chair and floor. Fun times!

If I knew who cuts cookies in our school parking lot, I would make them cookies. But I do not know. Alas.

Hope

In church decision making... it matters that the persons in charge proceed prayerfully. That they send their words to God for analysis before speaking them, and nix them if they don't pass the test. That they care more about the souls and relationships involved than a speedy solution. That they are courageous enough to speak the truth in love. It gives me hope when I see this. The exact decision (when there's more than one right way to skin the cat) does not matter nearly as much. (On the other hand, when you see no sign of a leader's communication with God, be very afraid.)

Tour de Foot

The day was cool but it did not rain on the ~700 participants of the Runaway Pumpkin Half Marathon. There was joy on the shores of Cheadle Lake.

Overall, it was an excellent experience. I did not sprain my ankle, I was not chased by dogs, the people were friendly and demonstrated excellent sportsmanship, and I did not die. My time was mediocre... but it's a start. If nothing else, the race got me out the door and running (training)... 100+ miles of running I would not otherwise have done.

For the first 4 or 5 miles I was running behind a woman with a plush cat tail attached to her pants (Halloween costume). It bounced as she ran. The base of the tail was flat, the rest was round, and I had this split-second feeling that the tail needed to be amputated — it was flat at the base and the blood supply must be cut off and the tail was going to necrose. Yeah, roll your eyes, it's o.k.

Running became difficult around mile 5 or 6. Some minor hills and I wasn't drinking enough water. You'd think I'd've figured out the seriousness of a dry face. Anyway... "This is hard!" I thought — and then — "but who said it was supposed to be easy? There'd be little point in running it, if it was..." ...and... "I've done 10 miles before... this is only three more..."

I began to feel asthmatic after mile 8 or 9. That's never happened before. Kinda freaky, really. My legs would have gone faster but my pulmonary alveoli or bronchioles or something kept closing off and making me wheeze. Undesirable sensation. Due to dehydration? I don't know. I thought of Pahom in "How Much Land Does a Man Need?" by Leo Tolstoy. The Bashkirs will sell him land — all the land he can run around in a day. He is greedy (and doesn't drink enough water) and dies as soon as he reaches his starting point.

Next time I will drink by number — a certain number of ounces per mile — and see how I feel.

Sociological Inference

I'm trying to develop a running addiction. I want to develop the habit and rarely break it.

There are many benefits to running. It lowers your resting heart rate, decreases body mass index, builds endurance and discipline. Physical benefits, yes. But take up running and you're also sure to gain insight into the local population. A sociological education.

On an average run around town, I learn about the cuisine of my neighbors. At this house, they're cooking meat, slightly burnt. [They're not vegetarian, unless the meat's for their cat.] At another spot, there's a squash/spaghetti/Italian smell. [They eat vegetables!]

Someone smoking a cigar. [Stressed about life, developed the habit sometime in the past.]

Perfume smell wafting out of a car. [Someone bothered to hang a deodorizer.]

A wannabe rock star crashing on drums and still at it on my second round 23 minutes later! [Developed that musical taste, somehow. Putting inner frustration into "music?"]

Dogs barking behind fences and closed doors. [People bought the dogs -- why? Children, protection, companionship?]

Four cats lounging around a yard, a plastic feeding container reclining under a bush. [Someone places value on domesticated animal life.]

People riding bikes in the street with their children. [Just like the old days.]

A lady's Rottweiler runs at me, I stand still, I see the hackles already risen along its spine, and the lady says "she's friendly." Hah! [People are blind to the attitudes of their dogs.]

Most days, the ice cream truck plays "Do your ears hang low?", but one day the guy changed it up -- Jingle Bells and a lullaby and who knows what else. I had no idea ice cream trucks could play anything so varied. [An adventurous streak?]

A guy chopping wood in front of his house. [He knows something about house warming.]

A lady trimming vines along her fence. [Places value on beauty.]

Two people on the side walk ahead. One is wearing a ghillie suit, says to me "this is my normal." Yeah, what can you do but laugh?

When I run at the track, I see a subset of the local population. People wanting to improve their health, run faster, win a game of soccer. They're interested in exercise, so am I, and we go out there and run really boring laps and don't feel the fool for the repetition. Sunday, though... wow. There was this guy practicing boxing moves, complete with explosive sound effects, in the middle of the track. Air boxing, I guess you could call it. His sense of the ridiculous was either different from mine or he didn't care.

And I'm still wondering WHY someone put my CamelBak water bottle in an empty trash can. It was lying innocently on the grass and then it disappeared, I thought it was stolen, I looked in a nearby trash can, and Voila! Practical jokester? Hmph.

What do you learn from the smells and sounds of your town?

Return?

Perhaps I shall return to the blog-o-sphere. Perhaps no one will notice if I do.

Faith Mission Home

NOTICE: Brain is tired, I know soon-to-be highschool teachers should have better sentence structure than the following, but at present I am not caring.

July 30 I flew from Oregon to Charlottesville, VA to visit my friend LG who is doing a term of service at Faith Mission Home (an Anabaptist home for handicapped persons). She and a couple other girls picked me up at the airport around 11 pm and we drove off to a mountain cabin for the night. After eating chocolate ice cream with honey nut O's (for this I was ridiculed though I stuck to my guns. Choco ice cream is much better with crunchy additives :) ) I entered a night of slumber with soft breeze playing across the cabin loft.

The following morning we prepared to depart and shortly before we left I heard that typical Appalachian blue grassy music -- being played live (?) some distance across the mountain slope.

The rest of the weekend I was at the mercy of Lyd and her friends. They had big plans for their day off -- swimming in a reserved man-made lake. This I was excited for, though somewhat trepidatious.
You see, it wasn't like I thought some monster would arise from the lake and drag me to its depths. I wasn't worried about things over which I had no power. I was worried over this battle between wanting to do the normal lake swimming stuff (like diving off the peer and sliding off a water slide into deep water) and wondering if I was up to snuff in my swimming abilities. I had the desire to perform, the desire to not be a woos... and at the same time the desire to not, er, get in permanently over my head... if you know what I mean.

My brother and I were pretty decent swimmers as 9 and 11 year olds, but since that time I had not gone swimming until this spring. And for whatever reason I learned the back stroke/crawl and underwater swimming this year and had not yet recalled to practice my old method of front-ways swimming with head above water.

Anyway, we picked up a couple three other girls from FMH and headed off for the lake -- an hour's drive. A mid-summer day, this... and no one seemed to think our plans would be foiled by precipitation. However, as we neared the lake we realized the cloudy sky was remaining and providing us with blessings. "It'll stop by the time we get to the lake," thought we optimistically.
Yeah....

Well, it didn't. So we thought... "let's eat lunch, and then maybe the rain will be stopped." Um, hum.

So we ate, and it was still raining but there were some small patches of blue sky.
It was middling warm, a bit of a breeze, didn't really entice us toward the water. But shoot, we'd driven all the way out there and what else was there to do?
So we donned our swimming duds and headed for the shore.
And went swimming. In the rain. And it was actually pretty fun.

The lake has a 30 yard rubber slide with a water supply at the top. Start at the top, lay on the provided foam mat, give yourself a push with the toes, and away you go -- faster and faster until woosh!-splat! you blast onto the water accompanied by a sizeable spray and everyone screams. Given the correct technique (some way of holding the mat edge like the front of a snow sled) you can blast a pretty decent distance out into the water.

The lake also sports a diving board and pier from which "all manner" of slicing dives, cannon balls, belly flops, and intra-air flips were accomplished that day. One of the girls brought along a hula hoop through which to direct the dives.

This swimming excursion was for me a significant emotional event. I recalled my past manner of swimming (yoohoo!) which impowered me to swim greater distances, swallowed/inhaled a minimal amount of water, and enjoyed a few dives. It was a day of remembering, of conquering fears, of exhilarating enjoyment. A day, perhaps, of accomplishments far below my age group. Who cares?

***
Friday evening volleyball (quintessential Mennonite youth game) and food at one of the FMH staff houses... running into Corey Anderson and recalling "ancient" history from FB College Retreat 2005 (has it really been 4 years since then?)... playing this great nonresistant Mennonite game called Mennonite Madness/Manners (a game I would be disinclined to play with great frequency)... et cetera. Such were the happenings that day.

I interacted briefly with a few of the FMH residents on Friday, and on Saturday and Monday ate a few meals with them. I guess I didn't really know what to expect from these people. Didn't know how it'd be to interact with them. If I'd be embarrassed, not know what to say, whatever. I found the interactions to be amazingly comfortable. Out of my comfort zone, sure, at least at first, but very manageable. The residents are very outgoing and not at all shy to speak to or otherwise interact with visitors. The FMH staff demonstrate such hearts of love and acceptance for the residents that I also felt such interactions to be the norm.

I found myself discussing insects and catching a cricket with one girl, holding hands with another, playing ball, talking/"talking" about Corn Day with the fellow at the breakfast table.

It's not like the general public where I might feel ridiculed for conversing with the mentally handicapped.

***
Saturday was a major corn processing day, and numerous of the cottage (more independent) residents had a blast helping with this event. Perhaps pictures will some day follow.