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100 Things to be grateful for right now.

One hundred things I’m grateful for this year.

Comfies to keep us warm during outdoor Thanksgiving dinners
Sunshine on a cold day.
Sea shells.
Hot tea with honey.
Chapstick.
Rainbows.
Umbrellas.
Email.
Kind strangers.
Fluffy towels.
The smell of baking bread.
Clean water.
Babbling brooks.
Orange and red trees.
Not setting my alarm.
Ball point pens.
The dog’s tail wagging when I come home.
Church bells.
Clean sheets.
Comfortable shoes.
Vegetables.
Vacations.
Naps.
Cheering for the Mets.
Finding money in pockets.
Chocolate ice cream.
Bubble wrap.
Snow men.
Clean air.
Good hearing.
Ice cold white wine.
Music.
Calculators.
Coffee.
Dramatic clouds.
The internet.
Drum lines.
Bird watching.
The public library.
Leaf blowers.
The beach.
Dunkin’ Donuts drive through.
Neighbors.
Homemade cookies.
Friday nights.
My cell phone and the phones it connects me with.
Mentors.
Avocados.
Sunlight through a clean window.
Spellchecker (but not autocorrect).
Crunchy walks in the woods.
Good eyesight, and the eyeglasses to make it perfect.
Wreaths.
Washing machines.
Strong legs.
Sunrises.
Welcome mats.
Park swings.
Farmers markets.
Rain.
Surprises.
Baby giggles.
Old photographs.
Funny movies.
Leggings.
Marching bands.
Ceiling fans.
Good bread.
The ocean.
Audio books.
Amazon prime.
Sharp pencils with new erasers.
Science.
Snow days.
Dish washers.
Lasagna.
Random acts of kindness.
Fluffy pillows.
Teamwork.
Steaming hot showers.
Love letters.
Netflix.
Mittens.
Good hair days.
Sleep.
The right to vote.
Traditions.
Cats.
Crisp french fries.
Date nights.
Sunsets
Police officers.
EMTs.
Fire fighters.
New friends.
Old friends.
Wrapped presents.
Dog kisses.
Moms and Dads.
And the number 1 thing I’m grateful for is people like you who read through my whole list 🙂

Does Turkey Make You Sleepy?

Does turkey make you sleepy? Sure there’s nothing better than an nap after a Thanksgiving dinner, but is the turkey to blame?

roasted chicken

Turkey contains an amino acid called tryptophan. Our bodies metabolize tryptophan to create serotonin and melatonin, hormones which make people sleepy.

Contrary to popular belief, however, the sleepiness many people report after Thanksgiving dinner isn’t necessarily due to the tryptophan. Turkey contains many other amino acids which outnumber tryptophan and fight to keep you awake, leaving you not sleepy at all. The reason many people feel sleepy, however, is probably due to the higher than normal amount of carbohydrates that often accompany Thanksgiving dinner.

Carbohydrates are found in foods like potatoes, bread, stuffing, and pies. Your cells digest carbohydrates and turn it into glucose which circulates around your body in your blood. Eating carbohydrates causes the pancreas to secrete insulin, a hormone that allows your body to take the glucose out of your blood. Insulin also removes amino acid other than tryptophan from your blood, leaving tryptophan alone. Without the other amino acids to compete with, the tryptophan is able to be converted to serotonin and melatonin and make you feel sleepy.

Another reason you’re probably feeling sleepy after Thanksgiving is because of your full small intestine. Your body requires a lot of energy to digest a large meal and it directs your blood to travel to the small intestine to help digest all the food you just ate. More blood in the small intestine means less blood in the brain. Less blood in the brain makes you feel sleepy.

A third reason Thanksgiving makes people sleepy is that some people consume alcohol with their meals. Alcohol is a depressant and makes people sleepy as well.

So it’s not just the turkey. It’s everything else you consume with the turkey! Cute white kitty peacefully sleeping

The Science of Thanksgiving Jigsaw Activity for Middle School

Turkey Photo by 🇨🇭 Claudio Schwarz | @purzlbaum on Unsplash.

Sleeping cat Photo by Peng Louis from Pexels

What’s so great about Cranberries?

I’m pretty sure you’ll have cranberries on your Thanksgiving table this year. Cranberries are one of the foods that Native Americans taught the Pilgrims to eat, and they remain one of our traditional Thanksgiving foods. But did you know how great cranberries are?

Cranberries are red because they contain a pigment called anthocyanin. Anthocyanins are also found in grapes, pomegranates, raspberries, and strawberries. Anthocyanin is a natural pH indicators – it turns red in acidic solutions and green in alkaline solutions.

Anthocyanins are anti-inflammatory which means that they can prevent redness, swelling, and pain. They are also antimicrobial. That means they can kill bacteria living in the body and may also help prevent bacteria from growing in the body. Some scientists believe that anthocyanins are able to help prevent cancer and diabetes.

Close-up of Strawberries

Cranberries are grown in bogs which contain acidic soil and enough water for the plants to grow properly. They grow close to the ground so it is difficult to pick them. In order to harvest the cranberries, the farmer floods the fields and uses machines to knock the cranberries off the plant. The cranberries float to the top of the water and that makes them easier to harvest.

Sixty percent of the United States’ cranberries are grown in Wisconsin. The remainder are grown in mostly Massachusetts but also New Jersey.

Cranberry Photo by Irita Antonevica from Pexels

White Meat or Dark?

It’s almost Thanksgiving. Which do you prefer – white meat or dark? Why is some turkey meat dark meat and some white meat?

Turkey breast is white meat. It is lighter in color, quicker to cook, and dries out more easily than dark meat. Turkey legs and wings are dark meat. They are darker in color, take longer to cook, and are less likely to dry out. But what makes dark meat dark and white meat white?

roasted chicken — what makes white meat and dark meat?

Dark meat contains muscle fibers known as slow twitch fibers. They are specialized for extended exercise. White meat is made of muscle fibers known as fast twitch fibers. They are designed for short intense bursts of energy.

Most of the time, turkeys use their legs for locomotion, flying only occasionally. Their legs, therefore, are used for extended exercise and are dark meat with slow twitch fibers. Their breast meat, used to fly, is used only once in a while which is why it is white meat with fast twitch fibers.

Most Americans prefer white meat, so scientists use selective breeding to ensure that their turkeys have a lot of white meat. Only turkeys with large breasts are allowed to breed. Large breasted turkeys are more likely to pass on the desired genetic trait and to have large breasted baby turkeys. The baby turkeys are fed a diet that promotes growth of breast muscle so that farmers can sell them at Thanksgiving.

brown and white turkey — dark meat and white meat are made by the way the turkey uses their muscles

First turkey Photo by 🇨🇭 Claudio Schwarz | @purzlbaum on Unsplash.

Second turkey Photo by Meelika Marzzarella on Unsplash

How Do Vaccines Work?

Vaccines are in the news! Hooray for scientists! But how do vaccines work?

How does your body fight disease?

When germs such as bacteria or viruses infect your body, they attack and multiply which causes illness.

Your immune system’s job is to fight the bacteria or virus. You have three different types of white blood cells who all work together to eliminate the germ.

One type of white blood cell is called a macrophage. Macrophages surround and digest germs, leaving behind proteins that the germ contained called antigens. Antigens are proteins that are specific for each germ. T-lymphocytes are white blood cells that attack your own cells after they have been infected so they can’t reproduce. B-lymphocytes are white blood cells that produce antibodies to attack the antigen. The B-lymphocytes have the ability to recognize antigens after they have seen them which makes the antibody production much faster the second time you are exposed to the same germ.

Herd immunity

Vaccinations help more people than just the patient who receives the vaccine. Very young babies or people with weaker immune systems may not be able to receive vaccines which would make them very vulnerable if they were exposed to a serious disease. Vaccinating everyone around them, even if the disease might not hurt the other people, creates a population of people that can’t be infected which means they can’t pass the bacteria or virus on to the people with weak immune systems. This is called herd immunity and it is one of the reasons why schoolchildren are required to have vaccines.

How do vaccines help your immune system?

Vaccines cause your body to produce antibodies against a particular germ. Chickenpox vaccines, for example, cause your body to produce antibodies against the chickenpox antigen. Once your body has been exposed to an antigen, it remembers it and is able to produce antibodies quickly if you get exposed to it a second time. This prevents the germ from being able to infect you later. For diseases that are very serious, this quicker immune response can save your life.

The flu vaccine

Seasonal influenza is caused by a highly contagious virus and can be serious in some people. Many physicians recommend an annual flu vaccine. But why do people need to have a vaccine every year if the body’s immune system can remember an antigen? The reason for this is that the flu virus mutates quickly which causes new strains of virus every year. So even if you had immunity to last year’s virus, this year’s might be very different and your antibodies likely won’t respond to this year’s antigens. Even if you get the flu vaccine this year, you still might get the flu for a few reasons. First, if you are exposed to the flu soon after getting the vaccine, your body may not have had time to build up a stockpile of antibodies. For another reason, you may get a version of the flu that wasn’t in your vaccine.

Side effects of vaccines

Because some vaccines contain weakened forms of the germ, people may experience some mild symptoms after receiving the vaccine. Activating B-lymphocytes may cause a low grade fever and some achiness for a day or two.

Anti-Vaxxers

In 1995, a physician named Andrew Wakefield speculated that vaccines cause autism. Not only were the number of children diagnosed with autism increasing, the number of vaccines children were given was increasing. Dr. Wakefield studied 12 children who had been vaccinated and were diagnosed with autism and concluded that the vaccine had caused the autism. His conclusion was widely published and caused the beginning of what is sometimes called the anti-vaxxer movement. Anti-vaxxers believe that vaccines cause diseases, including autism, and choose not to vaccinate their children.
The findings of Dr. Wakefield have been completely refuted by multiple scientific studies covering 1.2 million children. The studies conclude that there is no relationship between vaccination and autism.

Photo by CDC on Unsplash

Winter Magic Pictures – Water cycle and D=M/V

Celebrate the winter in your science classroom with a Magic Reveal Picture!

Magic reveal pictures are self checking worksheets that your students can use to practice, review and reinforce a skill. Here’s a magic reveal picture that reveals a pixelated image of a snowman as students correctly identify the vocabulary of the water cycle.

This water cycle vocabulary magic reveal picture is available in my TpT store!

This magic picture worksheet practices calculating density, mass and volume using the formula D=M/V. Each correct answer reveals another few pixels of a penguin. It is also available on my TpT store.

Christmas Chemistry Magic Picture

Celebrate the holidays in your chemistry class with a Magic Reveal Picture!

Magic reveal pictures are self checking worksheets that your students can use to practice, review and reinforce a skill. Here’s a magic reveal picture that reveals a pixelated image of Santa Claus as students correctly balance chemical equations.

This Balancing Equations Christmas puzzle is now available on the JustAddH2O store!

Here’s another magic picture reveal about the states of matter.

You’re doing your best.

Even if your remote students are early and your face-to-face students feel ignored. Even if your computer crashes in the middle of explaining the rock cycle. Even if you were so busy taking attendance that you forgot to unmute yourself and just explained the homework muted. Even if you forget your students’ names or don’t recognize them with masks on. Even if you haven’t graded the labs from 2 weeks ago. Even if your progress reports aren’t done, your SGO is gibberish, and your PDP is copied from last year’s.

You’re doing your best.

This is hard. There are so many things we can’t control. But don’t be your own worst enemy. Setting the bar ridiculously high is destructive to you and doesn’t help your students. Give yourself a little grace. Treat yourself like your own best friend. Forgive yourself if you need a nap at 3 in the afternoon. Give yourself a pedicure or take a walk around the block on your lunch break.

You’re doing your best.

We tell our students to be sure that something is true, kind, and necessary before they say it. It’s a good idea to be sure that something is true, kind, and necessary before you say it to yourself.

Photo by Madison Inouye from Pexels

The Science of Thanksgiving

Here’s a great way to engage students in science during the day or two before the holiday with a science of Thanksgiving themed jigsaw activity or escape room.

To play as a Jigsaw:

Divide students into groups and have each group research a different aspect of Thanksgiving and how it relates to science. Here are some ideas:

Why is some turkey meat white and some dark?
How are footballs made?
What does brining do to a turkey?
Why do leaves change color in the fall?
Does turkey make you sleepy?
Are sweet potatoes and yams the same thing?
Why are cranberries so good for you?
What’s the secret to flaky pie crust?
How does selective breeding make a bigger turkey?
Why are there so many types of apples?

Then, after groups have researched their topic, redistribute the groups and let students share what they learned with each other.

To play as a digital escape room:

Use the information in the worksheets to create a magic picture reveal puzzle that provides students with a password to solve a mystery like who stole the turkey.

Great exit ticket idea – What interesting fact are you going to share with your family at Thanksgiving dinner?

Do You Sneeze at the Sun?

sneezing at the sun is a genetic syndrome

Do you sneeze at the Sun? You may have a genetic condition known as Achoo Syndrome. Really.

Sneezing when you look at the Sun, or sometimes any bright light, is called a photic sneeze reflex. The reflex is known as Achoo Syndrome, an anagram of “autosomal dominant compelling helio-ophthalmic outburst.” It is triggered by a change in light intensity – seeing bright light after seeing dark such as walking out of a dark theater or driving out of a dark tunnel.

Aristotle noticed the photic sneeze reflex, but it was first officially identified by a physician who noticed that some patients sneezed when he used an ophthalmoscope which casts light into the eye to examine the retina.

Scientists are not sure why the change in light intensity causes the sneeze reflex. Some theories include the light stimulating the optic nerve or causes the production of tears which might irritate the nose.

The sneeze produced in the 18-35% of people with this syndrome is different from a sneeze caused by an irritant such as dust. Photic sneezes are usually multiple sneezes – as few as two or three but sometimes many more.

Achoo Syndrome is autosomal which means that the gene for the trait is carried on the first 22 pairs of chromosomes and not on the sex chromosomes. Pair 23 are the sex chromosomes – XX for females and XY for males. The gene for photic sneezing is (coincidentally?) located near a gene that causes light induced seizures.

Achoo Syndrome is also dominant. This means that a person only needs to inherit the gene from one parent to exhibit the reflex. If you have Achoo Syndrome, it’s likely that someone else in your family does also.

Most of the people who have Achoo Syndrome are female and white.

For more information, visit these Healthline or BBC articles.

Image is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license