Hey people of the world. This week, we started a very popular lab, as well as a new chapter, and even had an open note test, which I got 95 on! On my report card I ended up getting mostly B's which is pretty good considering I had a D in English at the beginning of the third quarter. It will be a small jump to get to and A now. We also have a new friend in our class, the neighbors cat Chloe, or as we call her, Waffles. She has completely taken over Mrs. Giacomelli's leather rollie chair. Mrs. G has actually taken to rolling Chloe outside and leaving her chair outside at the end of the day because the cat won't move. Strangely enough, Chloe is a super affectionate outdoor cat.


This week, we started our frog dissection lab, which I know most people have done or will do. As with all of our other dissections, the frog is gigantic. I don't know where our teacher orders these from, but there must me something in the water there. Our new chapter is on fish, reptiles and amphibians, hence the frog lab. We just opened it up on Thursday, and we had our quiz Friday.

I think I really understand this chapter so far. The concepts are fairly simple, except for some of the aspects of the fish. I really need to start tweeting more though. That is what brought my Biology grade down to a B. It's a simple assignment, but since I have trouble remembering things, it has become difficult for me. Maybe I should write it on the back of my hand so that I remember.

Altogether, I think it was a very productive week at WAAS, and ver fun. Ben and I met on Thursday after school for the Heredity part of S.O. It was very fun, and I really enjoyed doing the research. I learned a lot and it wasn't boring like studying alone was.

Hey guys. This week seemed to be all tests and papers, because we had sooo many. On Friday, we had both a math test and a science test. We also had a research paper rough draft due Friday. Suffice to say, I did a ton of studying. We finished our echinoderm dissection lab, and let me tell you, the smell of formaldehyde and fish is not a pleasant one. In fact, I almost threw up. Twice. I hardly ever get squeamish, but this was nasty. I now know why Patrick is so... you know. Echinoderms don't actually have brains. Another cool thing about echinoderms is that they shoot their stomach out their mouth to get food. The enzymes in the stomach break down food, and then the stomach retracts. On another note, we also finished our biodome lab. R.I.P to Beau our shrimp, and two of our crickets. Rihanna the snail is still alive, surprisingly , considering the terror my group mates put her through.

I need to work on tweeting. I think that is what brought my grade down to a high B. All in all, think I did fairly well this quarter, considering I pulled my English grade up pretty far. I still need to work really hard to keep the grades I have in those classes. I let my grades slip in the second and third quarters. I have always had problems with that, and I need to work on my work ethic.

Hey everyone. We didn't actually do too much in science. We finished up the grasshopper dissection lab. Did you know that the reason they can reproduce so fast was because they had sooo many ovaries? I didn't. They pretty much lined the sides of the grasshopper. To get to the intestine, we had to dig through a pile of ovaries. We also had a quiz on Thursday on Arthropods. I did well. I got a 97% on it. I would have gotten a 100, but I forgot to answer one question, which kind of stinks, but oh well!


In Social Studies, we did National History day through-out the day. I missed the last ten minutes of science because of it. Our group got second in the school, so we are moving on to Regionals. I am kind of put out because I didn't really want to go to Regionals because of all the extra stress. But it mean we will probably get a good grade on the project.

I need to work on the chapter again as we will be doing more with this unit before taking the test, as well as learning about echinoderms. I dare you to try saying that ten times fast! I knew pretty much the whole unit, but I still need to study.

Hey guys! This week, we did more dissections! I mean wow! We have done more dissections this year then we did labs last year. It's awesome. I also caught up on what I missed last week, including that test. I think I did ok, but I know I missed at least a few questions.

Foe labs this week, we dissected a squid, and boy was the smell of that thing rank. It made my eyes water worse than onions. We also started a cricket dissection lab. Like the giant worms from Australia, these giant crickets from Africa are as long as your middle finger. I swear, any animal off either Africa or Australia is mutated to be gigantic. I think I handled it pretty well considering I have an intense fear of bugs.

I need to work on lots of things. I don't really understand all the different groups in this chapter, but I do understand most of their body parts. I also need to make improvements to my hydrometer/salinometer, because during Science Olympiad, the marker on it washed off. Luckily I had a pen.

Tomorrow we are excused form all our classes to go to the library for a research paper in Social Studies, so I will miss some of the cricket dissection, which I am sad about; I really want to cut that thing open. I know I did this blog late at night, so night y'all. Have to get up early tomorrow.

Hey guys. This week, I don't have much to talk about from school, because I was sick, yet again. Basically, I slept all day or studied for Science Olympiad. I was there Monday/Tuesday, but couldn't get out of bed Wednesday. I even missed a field trip Friday, which I was not happy about. But what can ya do, right?
On Monday, we finished up our giant worm dissection lab. I didn't have mine because I let my lab partner borrow it because he was behind. Only he didn't give it back. So I still have to bug him to get it tomorrow. On Tuesday, we reviewed for the test we were supposed to take Wednesday. That wasn't the big part of our science week, though.
We got up early Saturday put on our safety green shirts, and headed out for UNCW. It was the day of Science Olympiad! We had to be there at eight o'clock for check in, and we hung out for another ten minutes. Then I went to my first event, Water Quality. The event was fairly straight forward, a simple test. Only two questions required the homemade Salinometer. The only thing I didn't understand was naming actual sea-creatures, which was no-where on the Science Olympiad study guide. I knew some from seeing the in pictures or hearing about them, like the redfish, carp, cuttlefish. I knew the difference between sponges and cnidarians because we learned that in class.
Then, I had a two hour break before Road Scholar, which is using topographic and road maps. Our director brought pizza and a bunch of other foods. Lunch was pretty awesome. The Road Scholar test was pretty hard because I couldn't find one one of the towns that was required through all the other towns and cities. And I needed that particular town for about eight or nine different questions.
The third event of my day was Heredity. Again, the test was very straight forward and we had studied a lot of the material in class, but there was one topic that was on there that we hadn't studied. It was on the study guide that we needed to know it, but we didn't study it, so whatever.
For the last hour of our day, we sat sweating in the UNCW gym. I swear that place didn't have any central air conditioning. WAAS got a lot of medals. I got fifth place out of seven in Water Quality, and our school got fifth in the region. We were so excited, because the top six schools go to state. You should have seen Mrs. Giacomelli's face! She was so shocked! At the end of the day, I had sooo much fun. I am also glad I found out that ninth graders can compete with a middle-school team! I am gonna do it again next year! Thanks to Mrs. G for being an awesome coach and teacher.
Some things I can work on are my study habits. I always wait to the last minute and get really stressed out. I will try to start studying when I hear about a test instead of waiting. I also procrastinate on projects and other work. It is a terrible habit that I need to break. I understand what we are studying in class to a T. If you ask me anything about worms, sponges, or cnidarians, I will be able to tell you.