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In biology there is a joke we pass around: the more complicated a system is, the more difficult it is to study. Biological systems are the most complicated systems humanity has yet observed, and thusly studying these systems is the most difficult science. This joke is especially fun around physicists and chemists. Yet there is…

Last academic year (2018-2019) I was fortunate to work as a Spanish teacher in three different schools: our own school Washington Preparatory School in Bothell, Soundview School in Lynnwood, and Cedar River Montessori School in Renton. I will let go of the idea of writing about the most efficient way to drive around the entire Seattle area but rather I will write of how I was introduced to the International Baccalaureate Programme (IB, and yes, the…

We are living in the 21st century and our life is surrounded by modern technology. We are using smart phones, computers, portable laptops, smart watches, instant pots for easy cooking, IRobot Roomba and IRobot Brava for cleaning, a Kindle for reading and many more devices in our daily routine. All these devices are operated by…

A binary number, also known as a base 2 number, is a number composed only of 0s and 1s. The modern binary number system was studied in Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries by Thomas Harriot, Juan Caramuel, and Gottfried Leibniz. However, systems related to binary numbers have appeared earlier in multiple cultures including…

As a child, I saw the ins and outs of Día de los muertos around me because it wasn’t a holiday we observed at home. Part of my family would go to the cemetery and clean the tombstones of our relatives. They would bring pan muerto (bread of the dead) home with them, and I…

One of the most obvious and frustrating observations in biology is the existence of species. Obvious in the sense that there are immediate and large differences between yourself and say, a cat. But frustrating in the sense that finding a definition that holds true across the entire tree of life has been elusive. Humans have…

In the summer of 2019, I began making tacos on Tuesdays, not because I am the Spanish teacher with Mexican background but because the availability of a decent taco in the Pacific Northwest is rather low. There are good tacos out there, I know that there are, but driving around and testing one place after…

As the 4th of July approaches and we prepare to celebrate Independence Day I was reminded of the painting Parson Weems’ Fable by the artist Grant Wood. I first saw the painting while living in Texas at the Amon Carter Museum of American Art (https://www.cartermuseum.org/collection/parson-weems-fable) and it stuck in my memory because of its unusual qualities,…

This semester WA Prep was excited to add Digital Photography to the arts course offerings. After practicing their composition and shooting skills they transitioned into using digital editing with Photopea. In their second editing project students used their new skills to create parodies of real magazines with their own images and concepts. After carefully studying the typefaces and…