9 March 2014

 Gibson got a T-shirt at a school assembly this week for being an independent reader.

 Our school had a jog-a-thon this week to raise money for the PTA.  The kids got a bracelet for each lap they ran.  The track is an eighth of a mile long.  Gibson ran 12 laps in 20 minutes.  This is a photo of Gibson with his friends, Tayvon and Solomon.  They call themselves the -on brothers.

 Helen ran 13 laps.  All the kids got an otter pop when they finished.

 Abe ran 20 laps.  He ran 18 of them wearing a tutu.  He kicked it off when it got too heavy.  He kept the crazy socks and colorful hat. 

 Sofi had another Brainbowl competition on Saturday.  Becky mistakenly thought parents were not invited to attend Brainbowl competitions so she had never been to one.  Most parents don't come, but they can, so Becky, Gibson and Helen dropped by for one of the matches.  From Sofi's descriptions, Becky imagined Brainbowl was like Jeopardy.  That might be true if Nobel Prize winners were the contestants.  Here is a sample question:

The rate-limiting step in this molecule's biosynthesis is catalyzed by ACC synthase. This molecule is a ligand in Zeise's salt with a hapticity of two. This molecule's oxidation produces acetaldehyde via the Wacker process, or oxirane, the simplest epoxide. As a hormone, this molecule stimulates fruit ripening. It can be made from the dehydration of ethanol. Name this simplest alkene.
answer: ethylene (or ethene or C2H4) 

Sofi is holding her buzzer in the photo.

 Here is a photo of Sofi's team.  Rebecca is sitting across from Sofi, Zach is next to Rebecca and Ben is next to Sofi.  Each player gets a buzzer.  Whichever team buzzes first gets 15 seconds to answer the question.  The moderate stops reading the question as soon as a buzzer is pressed.  The questions sometimes hardly sound like they are in English when they are read.  Everyone has a good attitude and the kids answer a surprising number of questions.  Here's another sample question for fun:

Count Haugwitz established a standing army under this ruler, whose throne was disputed by Charles Albert. This ruler signed the Treaty of Breslau after losing control of Silesia. Charles VI worked around Salic Law to allow this person to take the throne with the Pragmatic Sanction. She fought Frederick the Great in the War of Austrian Succession. Name this female Habsburg ruler of the Holy Roman Empire.
answer: Maria Theresa 

While Sofi was wearing out her brain, Abe was wearing out his legs on a 5 mile hike with the Boy Scouts.  The hike fulfilled the last requirement Abe needs for his Arrow of Light award.  Brandan went on the hike, too, and took some great photos.

Here's most of the group who went on the hike.  They are standing near a rebuilt portion of train track that commemorates mining in the area.

The trail cut through a grove of small trees called manzanita.

Here is a photo of the same section of trail looking back up the hill.  This section is called the Halls of Manzanita.