Today in integrated science, students finished up some quick investigations into friction and learned that friction is affected by mass and surface type, and that’s about it! Surface area and speed don’t affect friction. They also learned about friction types, including static friction (the friction when something isn’t moving yet) and kinetic friction, which is the friction of motion. Static friction was always greater than kinetic friction, and it builds up until an object starts moving, when it switches to kinetic friction. There are two types of kinetic friction as well! Rolling friction is almost always greater than sliding friction. Tomorrow we’ll be wrapping up some notes on Friction (Friction Notes) and taking our quiz on friction.

Science 8 students today measured the density of several objects in preparation for a learning activity. However, we first watched the first 11 minutes of a video on the Birth of the Earth and worked on the Birth of the Earth Video notes. This video outlined the early formation of our planet and the scientific evidence that supports this explanation. After watching the video, students learned that the earth’s layers formed because of melting, and the denser materials sank to the core. Applying this concept, students were asked to take the densities they had calculated and figure out what a new planet made of those materials would look like. Which material would make up the core? Which material would make up the crust? This information will be quizzed tomorrow as well.

HOMEWORK: Integrated= study for the friction quiz and week 10 retake quiz
Science 8=study your Earth’s model notes and any notes from today on density and/or the video.

Today in class, students in Integrated science spent some time investigating whether mass, surface type, surface area, and speed affect friction at all. We’ll be using all this information to determine how to do the old “pulling the table cloth off the table” trick.

Science 8 students continued notes on Earth’s model notes and preassessment. Students then predicted how big the layers of the earth are, and found out that the crust is actually very small compared to what we think most of the time. Students were also challenged with the question of HOW we got the layers of the earth, and so we learned that density plays a role. Students were then given some brief instruction on density, and then we took some time to calculate density for several substances in the room.

HOMEWORK: Integrated science, do the friction reading (password is readonline)
Science 8= do the Active Earth reading (questions on Friday’s quiz) Password is readonline.

Today in class, Periods 1 and 7 had parties that they had earned from the Albert award and Sophie Trophy (respectively). Integrated science answered 4 questions from the reading about Albert Einstein last night, and took the week 10 quiz over Newton’s laws, force diagrams, and acceleration.

Students in science 8 traded and graded the Kinetic and Potential Energy problems, and then reviewed for the week 10 quiz over energy and friction. The students finished up the period by journaling on the question of “What do we know about earth and its interior structure? How do we know this information (what evidence do we have)?”

HOMEWORK: Periods 1 and 7= quiz
Periods 2, 3, 4,  6= none

Today in class, students in integrated whiteboarded practice problems with force diagrams that apply Newton’s Laws (Newton’s Law 3 problems ,    Quantitative Force diagrams (NL1 and 2),     Quantitative Force diagrams 2 (NL1 and 2)  ). They will be preparing for a quiz on Friday.

Students in science 8 began collecting data on the Friction Notes that reviewed the work from the TAG friction from Friday. Students  learned yesterday that kinetic friction is always the same, no matter the speed. Today, their investigations revealed that smoother surfaces create less friction; greater masses create more friction; and the area in contact between two surfaces does not affect the amount of friction.

HOMEWORK: Integrated= Quiz Friday covering force diagrams, Newton’s laws, and acceleration.
Science 8= Quiz Friday covering Friction and Energy.

Today in class, students in integrated reviewed several old worksheets and began practicing problems with force diagrams that apply Newton’s Laws (Newton’s Law 3 problems ,    Quantitative Force diagrams (NL1 and 2),     Quantitative Force diagrams 2 (NL1 and 2)  ).

Students in science 8 began with the question of how to make pushing a fridge (by yourself) easier by making 2 suggestions. We eventually determined that all the options would essentially make friction less in the situation, and we began some Friction Notes that reviewed the work from the TAG friction from Friday. Students got a short demonstration on the different types of friction and learned that Static friction builds and is greater than kinetic friction. They also learned that kinetic friction is always the same, no matter the speed.

HOMEWORK: None, Quiz Friday

Integrated science class today learned a few valuable lessons. First of all, we learned that more data points, creativity, and careful analysis make us successful in our lab situations, as well as careful data collection. Today, we also learned definitively that falling objects begin by accelerating downwards, but as they push on the air, Newton’s 3rd law says they push back equally as hard. The drag continues to increase until the drag and weight are equal. At this point, the object falls at terminal velocity, the greatest speed at which the object falls due to drag. We were very thankful to Lilli Dobbins, Wyatt Stoddard, Tyler Carter, and Larissa Strong for their careful, thorough, and creative data collection and analysis! We also watched a short video to see how objects will fall without drag (HERE).

Science 8 worked on their Force Hero Blog Project and received an example of what the posts may look like. Tomorrow is the quarterly assessment for their test, and then Thursday we’ll be presenting our blogs.

HOMEWORK: Integrated= Read directions and do pre-lab for Integrated- Newton’s 2nd Law Lab (spring scale lab)
Science 8=Test tomorrow over the quarter’s material (review old quizzes). Force Hero Blog Project due Thursday

Today in Integrated science, students continued to analyze their data from the falling objects lab, and we are almost ready to determine whether the objects continuously accelerate or whether they accelerate and then move at a constant velocity.

Science 8 students continued their work today on the Force Hero Blog Project, and worked on their pages of information for back-story, superpowers, and arch-nemesis. Students also received back their old work from quiz retakes and labs. The quarter post-assessment will be this Wednesday.

HOMEWORK: Integrated= none period 1, Period 2 finish calculations of velocity from last data set.
Science 8= Force Hero Blog Project, due Thursday. Study for test Wednesday (review old quizzes).

Today in class, integrated science students worked on their data from the falling objects lab. Science 8 students worked on their Force Hero Blog Project .

HOMEWORK: Integrated=none
Science 8=Hero Blog Project

Today in class, students in integrated science worked to determine whether the motion of a falling object is an acceleration, a constant velocity, or a combination of the two. This was a redo of a previous lab, but with more background information now! Students will continue work on this tomorrow.

In science 8, students worked to finish the TAG Energy worksheet, and then continued work on their blogs and their quizzes.

HOMEWORK: Integrated=none
Science 8=Quiz Retakes due Friday. Blog checkpoint 1 due tomorrow.

Weebly lesson 1- Getting started

Weebly Lesson 2-web design

Weebly Lesson 3- background and text

Weebly Lesson 4- Background, font style, size and colors

Weebly lesson 5- Working with images