The First Day of School

Our colleagues and studetns are back in class. Our nieces and nephews are back in school. For the first time since we lost our jobs, it feels real!
For those who have been following this since May, I apologize for the complete lack of information. It was summer vacation and I just didn't want to do any homework. Now that the school year has started, it is time for us to go back to work, even in this limited capacity.
Because my interests are in the field of science, many of my posts will focus there. Amy will be doing some posting of her own in this space and I will let her discuss that later.
A few nights ago, I was watching the Perseid meteor shower from the ranch. It occured to me that if I was going to be teaching this year, I would talk about how all energy on Earth comes from only 4 sources. The Sun accounts for +/- 97%, followed by the core of the Earth, the Moon and finally space debris that enters the atmosphere. It is amazing to think that the atmosphere is heated ever so slightly by the rock and dust that the Earth encounters as it orbits the Sun.
Which brings me to the stories that I have read this summer about flooding in Pakistan, heat waves across America and Russia that have killed 1,000's of people and the intimation that there is a connection between these events and global climate change.
I hope that students are learning to desconnect scientific reasoning from political scheming and that future generations will be able to sort out the connections between human activity and the changes taking place in various Earth systems.
Please know that I will miss the classroom terribly this year and that through these posts, I will feel more connected to that part of my life. Please remember to take care of each other!