January 19

Today in class, integrated science finished the Energy Notes  and started to work on a few practice problems from the back side of the notes. Students also heard a way to remember the metric system so that they can make easy and quick conversions from one unit to the other. When finished with these items, some students continued their TAG Energy activity that reviews some of the old information from energy.

Science 8 students in period 3 did two simulations of the Dinosaur Natural Selection Classroom Simulation.   Students then did some thoughtful reflections on what they learned in the simulation and they were asked to determine how the environmental changes, mutations, and adaptations interact to determine the success of an organism. Students in periods 4 and 5 took a practice Evolution and Natural selection quiz (Use this to study). After some discussion of the questions, we passed out the new essay that students will need to be doing in the next few weeks. The Argumentative Essay-De-extinction will require students to do some research on the topic of de-extinction, and determine whether they think scientists should bring extinct organisms back to life or not. This weekend, students will need to read over the article  Bringing them back to life (De-extinction)  (Bringing them back to life (Word) You may use the word version to have it read to you, but I would suggest doing annotations of the article). It may be beneficial to annotate the word version of the article online in Google Docs or to print out a copy and have it handy for reading purposes.

HOMEWORK: Integrated=none
Science 8= Quiz Monday over Evolution and Natural Selection (Evolution and Natural selection quiz  to study). Read over the article Bringing them back to life (De-extinction)   or use the  WORD version to read through. Bringing them back to life (Word) . Determine your side and begin thinking about both sides of the argument.