Tammy's Page (Granddaughter of Arvie and Ruth Johnson)

It has been four years since we studied biology and it is now time for the next ones coming up to get to move into the  next level of critter studies. We begin in two weeks with module 11. Yep, that is right, module 11. It made more sense since modules 11 to 16 deal with creatures so easy to have access to in the summer months. Tim will be at the high school level and Zach will be elementary. Melody graduated this spring, so just two of the four left to go. Four years ago I taught the biology in the local co-op. This year I will be teaching it online. I am really looking forward to it. We have our indoor stream studies tank all set up with a few stream residents already (crayfish, snails, dragonfly nymph, water daphnia, hydra,  tadpoles, creek plants, etc. We have two creeks on our property, which is a Godsend while studying biology. The online classes will be held in the VHSG online classroom. I have tested out the webcam for dissection labs, critter cam, and microscope activities. It looks like it will work great for those. I have the first three units we will be doing all set up in slidesets and VoiceThreads, so I feel a bit ahead at the moment. I also have lined up a few guest speakers. One is a specialist in plant nematodes. We had a fieldtrip in which he gave a presentation on them at the Experiment Station. It was really interesting, so I think the online kids will enjoy it too. I was hoping that the extra dissection secimens we had left over from four years ago would still be useable this go around, but they were tough as leather at best and rock hard at worst. I have some new specimens on the way. I was sorely tempted to buy a digital camera made to go on the microscope, but I just couldn't bring myself to spend that kind of money. The webcam will work even if it will take holding it in place on the eyepeice of our microscope. I hope some of you will stop in to the course page and take a look around. It will house all our resources that the kids will need 24/7 access to. The coursepage is at http://www.virtualhomeschoolgroup.com/course/view.php?id=55 . The online classroom will have kids from all over the US and Canada. We will also have students from a  family in Brazil who will be in Amsterdam later in the year and another family that will later be in Dubai. The international students have timezone difficulties to deal with.  From Amsterdam, the class will be at 10pm. It would be great if we would get volunteer teachers in the Eastern Hemisphere so the online classroom could be put to use around the clock. That would be neat.