Depends on the chemical. Most will be fine, others in solution will precipitate out, and hygroscopic ones will get hard (like brown sugar) if not properly stored (and most aren't properly stored). I would avoid used chemicals because you don't know if the person stored them properly, or more importantly, if they were cross-contaminated with another chemical because of poor technique; that will really spoil your day and can potentially ruin an experiment.

This lab guide: http://www.amazon.com/Exploring-Biology-Laboratory-Murray-Pendarvis/dp/0895827999/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1460134675&sr=8-1&keywords=pendarvis+and+crawley+biology+laboratory is an excellent resource for an introductory biology lab. You can pick and choose among a ton of experiments/exercises, based on what suits your needs. It also has an excellent dissection guide with clear photos, if that's your thing. I would opt for a few major experiments/exercises, and then on other weeks, look at smaller projects/demonstrations.discussions.

Typical; PayPal has a billing feature. No worries....

Thanks, all! DD and I were adding wrong and couldn't figure out why our simple wrong addition wasn't giving us the correct answer. 😂

Just to play devil's advocate (and I know there are some outrageous inefficiencies in the health care system): The bells and whistles that our parents did not have access to costs bug bucks and that money needs to come from *somewhere*. So does the bill for a collective over-reliance on meds for every. flipping. malady. Rioting would mean we would not have access to the advanced technology that we have now because no company would support the research without the possibility of hefty profit.

I think all of the things you mentioned can be legitimate high school science lab activities. I think many people think of hypothesis-driven science as the only legitimate science for high school, and forget that discovery based science is equally valid. For example, for a high school biology lab, it is perfectly appropriate to spend an entire lab learning to use the microscope proficiently (focusing, oil immersion, measuring, depth of field exercises), or to spend an entire lab studying blood (it's chemistry, cells under a microscope, chemistry of blood), a few labs of dissection, a lab looking at plant anatomy), a video about viruses and then discuss current events like ebola, etc... I do not think every high school lab has to be hypothesis-driven science. As for what I am planning for DD for biology: The microscope day (described above), an ecology lab that examines survival of the fittest (hypothesis-driven), several genetics labs that simulate transcription and protein synthesis with models, looking at slides of different stages of mitosis and simulating mitosis with pop beads, DNA extraction, Mendelian genetics lab, a plant lab that looks at plant anatomy (macro and microscopic), a bacterial lab where we swab different house surfaces and Gram stain the colonies (hypothesis-driven), a book discussion on a related book like The Double Helix/Spillover/Only A Theory, a macromolecule biochemical testing lab of unknown foods(hypothesis-driven) , a protist lab where we scoop pond water and examine and identify small critters, a taxonomy lab where we look at dichotomous key construction, a photosynthesis lab where we look at carbon dioxide uptake/chloroplast structure/function/plant pigment paper chromatography, to name several. I haven't yet planned chemistry or physics, so I am not sure what I will do with those. I would just plug in labs where you had something valuable to demonstrate or examine; that should be most weeks, but I don't think a week without a lab is a big deal. What I would do is get away from the idea that a high school biology lab has to function with only hypothesis driven science and be elaborately constructed. It's high school, not MIT, and the kids need to learn the basics of how to function in a lab first; gotta walk before you run, 'ya know?

Oh, duh...So tired today I didn't actually post the problem. Anyway, the problem reads: Margaret rolls two fair dice. what is the probability that the sum of the numbers rolled is not more than eight? The denominators 36; the numerator is 26. quote name="8FillTheHeart" post="6931341" timestamp="1459979907"] Without any context, it is hard to understand what the problem is demonstrating/asking. (BTW, do you have a typo? Is the denominator be 26 or 36?)

Yes. I don't understand why.

This is a probability problem in DD's Algebra I book: 5 +6 +5 +4 +3+2+1 _______________. 36 DD and I don't understand why the top numbers are there and how they got 26. I mean I know the numbers together add up to 26, but I don't understand why those numbers were chosen to be in the numerator.

I flat-out would not invite the person over to a group gathering again. No explanation, either. In fact, this did happen to myself and my friends when one of our friends decided her cell phone trumped engaging with us. She just isn't invited anymore; we don't even let on that we are getting together.

Oops, didn't even see that; thanks!

Has anyone used this CD or audio file? I was wondering what you thought of it and also for what age group it is recommended?

We have a tablepad over our dining room table, a tablecloth over that, and when the kids are at work at the table we also have a plastic table cover. So, it's smooth and the tablecloth stays clean.

This! DD did this at 11 and loved it, and there is tons of horse-related reading recommendations in it. Just a heads-up: Order early; their shipping takes forever.

Dictation in WWE is ridiculously hard for the grade level of the reading and narration, in my opinion. DS was in WWE 4 and the narrations were ridiculously easy for him, but the dictations were ridiculously hard. I just reduced the dictation to a fraction of what was printed, or came up with my own dictation from the reading. Don't sweat it; just adjust the dictation as necessary.

This was my take on it, as well. I wouldn't want my kids in this school, no matter how well funded it was.

My state requires no particular courses for homeschoolers, and I don't even look to see what they offer, so no, I don't follow them.

This isn't really a particularly valuable contribution to your question, but it is funny as I remember it. When I was a kid, a neighbor family hosted a "Fresh Air Kid" from NYC in the summer. One year, they got a kid who was a handful of trouble; just trouble every which way he could be. Nothing intimidated or stopped this kid - not threats of being unable to play, not time-outs, not threats of not being invited back, nothing except the words "I'll tell your mother". Stopped the kid dead in his tracks, LOL!

OK, that's it then...we all need butt implants!

I generally see your POV on things of this nature, but with the exception of food, necessity costs have also gone up disproportionately higher (especially insurance and housing). That said, I don't think increasing the minimum wage is the answer; it will just speed automation and eliminate jobs that are on the lowest skilled rung and pass them off on employees that do higher-wage-worthy work in addition to the scut work. I think the answer, as FaithManor says, is to "tariff the tar" out of companies that exploit cheap overseas labor.

The going rate here is about $10/hour, but when our kids were little we paid about $12-$14/hour to encourage sitters to be available for us. We're in Norfolk, VA, so I imagine DC would be at least that, if not more.

Sum and possum are irregular. In fact, you won't see possum again until Third Form Latin.

Same here! I love low and mid rise jeans; they're so much more comfortable! Butt :) you do have to try and find different brands to see what fits you well.

You should say that, LOL! Actually, what I would put down on the price if you're already at your lowest price is " no dickering" or "price firm".

Lol! I am the same way about laundry, *nobody* touches it but me.