November 30

Today in class, students  finished the  Force Diagram Notes after completing the review of problems 1-9 on the Force Diagrams worksheet. After finishing the notes, student practiced creating a force diagram for one of the problems on the notes, and then we debated the answers to find the correct one. We will continue work on force diagrams tomorrow and throughout next week.

Science 8 students began today by receiving back their exit tickets on earth’s interior and the Making North America-Origins video worksheet. Afterwards we revisited the Relative and absolute dating notes. Students then worked on the Relative Dating Practice homework and a short review of the laws of stratigraphy. We reviewed the laws of superposition and cross-cutting mainly, and showed a video on how unconformities are formed.  Students will be continuing to place events in order and then they will be given the task of creating stories for a particular rock column. Tomorrow, they’ll learn how to interpret some of the features they see in the diagrams so they can tell the story that goes with each picture.

HOMEWORK: Integrated= Please read and do 8 points of annotations for the articles Why the knuckleball takes such as knucklehead path and Got a great idea for dealing with poop in a spacesuit? Let NASA know . Quiz retake on Friday.
Science 8= Do annotations for the “Everything Worth knowing about: Scientific Dating Methods’.Due Friday. Quiz Retake Friday. Study for the quiz retake on Friday (Seismic Waves and Earth’s interior Quiz KEY)

November 29

Today in class, students then worked on taking notes and learning about a new tool to describe the forces on an object with the Force Diagram Notes. We mainly discussed the types of forces today as well as a few examples of force diagrams.

Science 8 students workshopped most of the period on their exit tickets to improve them.

HOMEWORK: Integrated=None
Science 8= Do 5 points of annotations on the article “Everything Worth knowing about: Scientific Dating Methods“. Due Friday. Quiz Retake Friday. Study for the quiz retake on Friday (Seismic Waves and Earth’s interior Quiz KEY)

November 28

Today in class, students in Integrated science reviewed their quiz over force basics (Newton’s 1st and 2nd laws, qualitatively). Students then worked on taking notes and learning about a new tool to describe the forces on an object with the Force Diagram Notes. The point of making force diagrams is to learn about motion, and not to learn what forces are acting on objects. We will be continuing the notes tomorrow, and then learning how the objects will move based on the forces acting upon them.

Science 8 students finished up the Making North America-Origins video worksheet, and grading the quotes section. The remainder of the period was spent reviewing the quiz from last week over seismic waves  and Earth’s interior (Seismic Waves and Earth’s interior Quiz KEY). There will be a retake of the last question/exit ticket tomorrow, as well as new information on depositional environments.

HOMEWORK: Integrated=None
Science 8= Do 5 points of annotations on the article “Everything Worth knowing about: Scientific Dating Methods“. Due Friday. Quiz Retake Friday.

November 17

REMINDER: First period bring in canned/non-perishable items for the food drive!

Today in integrated science, students began class by finishing their observations of a setup of a low-friction car with a fan on it. We moved the car along the track in different ways and made predictions to determine what our preconceptions of motion are, and then we wrote down the actual observed motion. Students finished by categorizing the motions of the examples into two categories and determining what was the same about the forces in the categories. Tonight, students will need to finish their annotations for the  Sir Isaac Newton biography (Hero’s journey Socratic Friday).

Science 8 students worked on the Seismogram worksheet today and learned that P waves always come first, followed by S-waves and, sometimes, Surface waves. The activity also showed that the greater the gap in between our S-wave and P-wave arrival times, the farther we are from an earthquake. To finish class, students pasted a graph of P-wave and S-wave speed with depth, and density. We made observations of the graph to help with our lesson for tomorrow, which will be interpretation of the graph.  For Friday, students also need to do their annotations for the articles “Weather Bomb” storms send tremors through Earth and Tracking warfare by “earth shakes” .

Homework: Integrated= Annotations for Sir Isaac Newton biography (Hero’s journey Socratic Friday); Quiz Monday on Forces
Science 8= Annotations for “Weather Bomb” storms send tremors through Earth and Tracking warfare by “earth shakes”  due Friday. Quiz Monday on Seismic Waves.

November 16

Students in integrated science began class by  sharing their information on the Force Diagrams worksheet. Through our discussions, we inferred that forces working in opposite directions can balance each other (not cancel), and that forces can also combine together to increase their effects on motion. We then moved to making observations of a setup of a low-friction car with a fan on it. We moved the car along the track in different ways and made predictions to determine what our preconceptions of motion are, and then we wrote down the actual observed motion. We’ll be continuing this exercise tomorrow, and then also analyzing the data for patterns. Tonight, students will need to begin their annotations for the  Sir Isaac Newton biography (Hero’s journey Socratic Friday).

Science 8 students began by writing some aha moments about their observations of data for the   Earth’s model  notes . Some students came up with the ideas that seismic waves tell us most of our information concerning the interior, but direct sampling tell us the most about the crust. We also saw that the deeper parts of  the earth have less information, and seismic wave data is all we use to determine the thickness of each layer. After this, students worked on taking some notes and having individual discussions about the Earthquakes and Seismic Waves unit for Layered Earth (on the school computers). Students then saw some short demonstrations with slinkies to show how different waves travel, and began working on the Seismogram worksheet.  For Friday, students also need to do their annotations for the articles “Weather Bomb” storms send tremors through Earth and Tracking warfare by “earth shakes” .

Homework: Integrated= Annotations for Sir Isaac Newton biography (Hero’s journey Socratic Friday); Quiz Monday on Forces
Science 8= Annotations for “Weather Bomb” storms send tremors through Earth and Tracking warfare by “earth shakes”  due Friday. Quiz Monday on Seismic Waves.

November 15

Students in integrated science received their tests from the motion unit back today and reviewed the information on them. We discussed the scoring and final grades before moving on to the topic of force. Students took a few brief notes on force and then began work on determining motion direction from a few simple pictures of objects being pushed or pulled (Force Diagrams). Students will need to begin their annotations for the  Sir Isaac Newton biography (Hero’s journey Socratic Friday).

Science 8 students today finished up the obscertainer labs, and we’ve never seen so many students curious to determine what’s inside a plastic disc before! Students were able to reflect on why we did the lab. Part of the purpose was to see how indirect observations can help us infer the properties of something. More specifically, it helped us as an analogy for how we use seismic waves to determine the earth’s interior structure. Students then took the Earth’s model  notes and then discussed/reflected on the patterns in the evidence we have closer to earth’s surface and closer to the center of the earth. Students  will learn more about seismic waves tomorrow and how they tell us about Earth’s Interior. For Friday, students also need to do their annotations for the articles “Weather Bomb” storms send tremors through Earth and Tracking warfare by “earth shakes” .

Homework: Integrated= Annotations for Sir Isaac Newton biography (Hero’s journey Socratic Friday); Quiz Monday on Forces
Science 8= Annotations for “Weather Bomb” storms send tremors through Earth and Tracking warfare by “earth shakes”  due Friday. Quiz Monday on Seismic Waves.

November 14

Lakeview Thanksgiving Food Drive

Today in integrated science, students worked on finishing up the motion detector activity from last week. Students were able to test their motions to create the graphs that they intended to, but they soon found that Mr. Ross is master of all motion detector walk-outs. Students then continued with the question of why do objects move? Students were finalizing their potential answers but will continue working tomorrow.

Science 8 students began class today by making a new section for Earth’s Interior in their notebooks and estimating the proportions of different layers of Earth. Students were then given the actual sizes, and they were floored when they discovered how small the crust is. Students wrote some “Aha moments” for how the size of the crust explains the ease with which magma/lava can penetrate it, and also how easy it is for convection currents to move the crust. We asked students to determine how they thought scientists had figured out the sizes, and then we looked up how far humans have drilled into the crust. At only 12.26 km, the deepest well was not even half way through the crust. Students began the obscertainer activity to help them learn about indirect evidence, which we’ll discuss tomorrow.

E/I worked on the  Organic vs. Conventional Farming Debate.

HOMEWORK: Integrated=None
Science 8=None

November 11

Today is Veteran’s Day, and our team spent some time in E/I today watching a video about Veteran’s Day. We are thankful for the sacrifices and accomplishments to all our military, and we hope you know the deep gratitude we feel.

Integrated science finished their tests today on Motion, as well as doing the motion detector activity.

Science 8 students received grades back, finished testing, and also engaged in some Socratic discussions about plate tectonics-related ideas.

HOMEWORK: None

November 10

Today in class, all students were taking tests. Integrated will finish their tests tomorrow and also do their motion detector problems. Science 8 turned in their interactive notebooks, and they will engage in a short Socratic discussion tomorrow.

HOMEWORK: Get your missing work in!

November 9

Today in integrated science, students were directed to the Practice motion Test Key to correct their study guides and also make sure they are preparing for the test. The periods were shortened due to the delay, so we were only able to discuss the test tomorrow and the motion detector activity for Friday.

Students in science 8 were reminded of a test tomorrow on plate tectonics and plate boundary types. They may use the  Plate Tectonics History Quiz Key, the exit slips and the plate boundary types, and the week-14-15-quiz for their studying. Students were also reminded of their lab notebook being turned in tomorrow (interactive-lab-notebook-rubric)

HOMEWORK: Integrated= Test Thursday on Motion.
Science 8= Test Thursday on Plate Tectonics unit; Lab notebooks due (see interactive-lab-notebook-rubric)