Hope you had a great July 4th. I took my family to the see the fireworks in town.
Philippine-American Life Through a Scientific Lens
A stormy night in Kaputian
After lunch in Penaplata, we headed south looking for a place to stay. I wanted to go down south as far as possible on the east coast, but, as I said the last time, the road curves inland towards the center of the island. So I decided to head south on the west coast to [...]
Samal bat caves
As we continued our trip around Samal Island, I was eager to visit the bat caves on the northern part of the island. I read an article about the lady who is taking care of and protecting these animals and it seemed an interesting place for me to visit. The bat caves are north of [...]
Samal’s east coast adventure
Last summer I took a trip to the east coast of Samal. I was trying to find the road that goes south all along the coast. What I discovered, though, is that the road only goes down part way and then heads inland. There is no road all along the east coast.
We started our road [...]
Solar Panel Part 3 Soldering the cells
I brought the solar panel home for the long weekend to work on. We have four days off for Memorial Day and this would be a good time to make progress. I’m soldering two strips of tabbing wire on each of the cells top, or negative, side.
I’ve completed soldering 24 of the 36 cells [...]
Solar panel part 2
My attempt to build a solar panel is moving along slowly. I have a few of my 7th grade students helping me during our lunch half hour. The box is now almost complete. I attached two 1″ x 2″ on the back to help straighten out the plywood. The plywood was a little warped and [...]
Bisaya lesson 21
My Bisaya lesson last week went well. My teacher is Bebe and she lives in Davao, Philippines. I learned in this lesson that Bisaya has a way to verbalize a noun. Mag computer ako, which translates to I will use the computer. Another example is: Kevin will cook adobo–Mag-adobe si Kevin. The main part of [...]
Building a Solar Panel Part 1
I have started to build a solar panel to use for a class project here, and eventually in the Philippines. I searched the web and found that it’s possible to build a lower cost 60 watt PV panel, possible less than $200.00. One of my goals in building this panel is to learn more about [...]
A Review of the EyeClops Microscope
I bought the EyeClops video microscope last week and it arrived yesterday. I took it to school and my students had it up and running in no time. I was interested to see the quality of the images and video and to see if this would be something I could use in the classroom. The [...]
Don’t Get Burned Out
Any teacher will tell you that teaching is a demanding job and that it’s easy to get burned out. The key is to recognize the warning signs and to take action. Elaine Plybon over at Cruel Shoes has a good post dealing with this topic. This post caught my attention because I was just thinking [...]
