Award-Winning Private Physiology Tutoring in Catalina Foothills, AZ

This morning the student studied geology in the science curriculum, completing Unit 4 Lessons 2, 3 and 4. Lesson 2 Plate Tectonics made sense to him, yet it was new information for him. He learned about the layers of the Earth: the relatively thin crust of hard rock, the thick fluid mantle, the liquid outer core and the hot solid inner core. Other new terms: basalt, granite, thin oceanic crust and thicker continental crust, continental slope, abyssal plane. I explained that the liquid outer core of iron and nickel is metal in motion, causing electrons to create magnetism -- that's why the Earth has a magnetic field that extends into space. Quiz score for Lesson 2 was 100% for 5 multiple choice questions. Lesson 3 A New Theory taught about Wegener's idea that the continents had once been together. Scientists did not believe this could be possible and it was disregarded for decades. Proof was slowly found, however, that the continents were once connected; we name this super-continent Pangaea. The student understands deep connections: that the Earth slowly cooled over millions of years, that the mantle and core is still molten and that the crust plates move, so rocks and environments change! Quiz scores for Lesson 3 were 100% for multiple choice and verbal / workbook responses. Then Lesson 4 Seafloor Geography explained how scientists map the seafloor elevations using sound echoes. He visualized that the seafloor is dynamic, with undersea mountains and trenches circling the globe "like the seams on a baseball." Going further he watched a video online showing the deep sea vents at the Pacific Ocean floor and the unexpected discovery of an ecosystem living without sunlight -- including gigantic tube worms! The student enjoyed the lesson and scored a 100% and 90% on the 2-part quiz. At this point he has mastered about one third of the science curriculum.

The student was working on Kirchhoff's rules and how to apply them, as well as with resistor and capacitor combinations. We spent the most effort on applying Kirchhoff's rules, and I think she made some gains in understanding how to use them. She set up and solved a final problem using those very well.

The student had a test on Friday so we spent the session completing the review. Her test is on incomplete, codominance and multiple allele Punnett squares and pedigrees. She was very proud of how her presentation on albinism went.

We reviewed range of motion tests for supination and pronation of the forearm. We also covered the Mill's test, milking sign, tennis elbow, table top relocation test, and posterolateral relocation. Afterwards, we did a review of all topics covered, and briefly discussed patterns of insertions, origins, and innervation. This was all of the material she is responsible for in the forearm, so our next session will be to review for the cumulative final of the upper limb.

The student and I worked on the basics of acid/base chemistry today. I helped him understand the four formulas associated with acid/base concentration conversions.

Today we focused on chemistry. Mostly we worked on the lab report dealing with reactivity series. We figured out the best method to determine reactivity series based off of pairwise comparisons. We got through the lab report. His teacher continues to praise the student's lab reports.