She Blinded Me With Science

If done correctly, this assignment will count as an extra grade in the “Projects” category of their grade. This assignment will be graded like a homework assignment, with four possible grades: 100, 80, 50, and 0. This assignment is due Friday, December, 6, 2006. No late extra credit assignments will be accepted.

Since Day 4 of the unit has been struck due to time constraints, students are still going to be given a chance to do the weather report, but they have to do it all on their own. These weather reports should be recorded on video. This recording can happen one of two places: at home or at school during lunch on Friday.

The weather report should:
1. Be based on Raleigh, NC weather data.
2. Address all variables that we are recording in class.
3. Include a written script to be submitted with the video.
4. Include visuals to help with the reporting of the weather. (Maps, transparencies, etc. may be provided if requested at least 48 hours in advance.)
5. Last no more than five minutes.

If you decide to videotape yourself at home and wish to edit your video after shooting it, you might consider the following free video editing software programs:

Windows Movie Maker (2) — The latest version is actually quite good. Available only to those with Genuine Windows (XP, I think). Upgrade if you have WMM 1.
Apple iMovie 05 — Available only to those with a Mac/Apple.
HyperEngine AV — This is touted as a good alternative to iMovie if you don’t have iMovie. Apparently there are no tracks at all when using this program. Different but very, very intuitive.

And more. Someone else has already put together a list of free / shareware / trial video editors by operating system with comments so that I don’t have to bore you about it here. Check it out if you wish to use it.

If done correctly, this will count for additional points in the “Lab” portion of the students grade. It will be graded like a homework assignment, however, with the possible grades being 100, 80, 50, and 0. It is due Monday, December 4, 2006. No late extra credit assignments will be accepted.

Students are to research the current case before the supreme court that deals with global warming. Here is a good starting point.

Students are then to write an essay, not to exceed two pages, that includes the following:
1. A summary of the case.
2. Who are the two sides in this case, and what are their positions?
3. If you were a Justice of the supreme court, given the knowledge that you have from Earth Science class, how would you rule? Why?

Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any questions with regard to this assignment. I am aware that the case won’t be decided until the summer.

WUNC forces your brain to stay sharp –
ScienceFriday covers and summarizes this case. If you listen to this clip from their show, and are an auditory person, this will help you immensely in completing the assignment.

Day 1 = Proceed as normal. 11/27/2006

Day 2 = Proceed as normal. 11/29/2006

Day 3 = 12/1/2006 Add the following:

Informal Lab: Winter Weather
Associated Reading - How do clouds and precipitation form?

Day 4 = Not going to take place. This may be eliminated from the unit map.

Day 5 = Proceed as normal. 12/4/2006

Day 6 = 12/6/2006 Add the following:

Tornadoes
Associated Reading - When and how are the most hazardous weather situations likely to occur?

Day 7 = Not going to take place. This may be eliminated from the unit map.

Day 8 = Proceed as normal. 12/8/2006

Day 9 = Not going to take place. This may be eliminated from the unit map.

Day 10 = 12/11/2006 Add the following:

Presentation of Collected Data for Your City
Homework - Finish up pamphlet and study for test. Study guide questions on http://alchemist.wikispaces.com.

Day 11 = Not going to take place. This may be eliminated from the unit map.

Day 12 = Proceed as normal. 12/13/2006

Parents,

As this quarter draws to a close, I am pleased to see that students have (grudgingly) risen to the level that I use to challenge them. I am aware that there is frustration and that this material isn’t as easy as students would like for it to be, but I once again remind you that the students have signed up for an HONORS course and with an honors course comes honors-level material. That said, I’d like to take this opportunity to once again remind parents that I do have a formal peer tutoring program in place. Students who are making an A in my class are available to those students who are doing less well, as tutors. This is especially useful during Academic Lab. These students have a solid grasp of the material and have the ability to reteach it in a different setting and coming from a different mindset. Please encourage your students to take advantage of this opportunity available to them.

All of the students have taken last Thursday’s test. The test average was an 83% across both classes. This is the kind of C-average with bell curve distribution that shows that the test was neither too hard nor too easy. That said, there were some students who did not pass the test, and these students have had their “Pass the Test” assignment attached to their test when it is returned. Due to the accelerated time line to get those grades bumped up before the quarter draws to a close, I have also included their current event articles with their assignment sheet. They should not have to do any research … just provide me with the material that they should have grasped from the course.

As we go into the second quarter, I will continue to provide the students with a list of guiding questions for each of the sub-topics covered. These guiding questions are to help them guide their studies. Answers to these questions will be provided in class. These are the sorts of questions that will appear on their quizzes and tests, along with questions such as those that come from any in class activities and worksheets.

Rocks and their Roles focus heavily on mineral composition, which is a good introduction to chemistry. Today, we finished up our introduction to matter, with its connection to geology. Tomorrow and for the remainder of the week we will be looking at the larger and larger pieces that these atoms create. Tomorrow we will begin to look at minerals, and then through the rest of the week we will expand from minerals to the rocks they create. This is a short unit, so there will be a test coming up rather quickly. In the textbook, which we have only a class set of, this will cover Chapter 2 and Chapter 3.

We will then be moving on to a unit entitled “Giving the Earth a Face lift”, where we will learn about the different forces that shape the face of our earth. We will also be covering a weather unit and an oceanography unit, and then will be concluding our semester with a unit on astronomy.

As always, feel free to contact me with any questions that you might have.

-Ms. L-

Parents,

School seems to be flying by. I can’t believe that it is October already. This is my favorite month because it combines so many wonderful celebrations of fall: the State Fair (lots of physics on those rides, and biology in the agriculture sections), Halloween, TWO teacher workdays, and flu season (epidemiology!). On the latter note, I ask that students who are sick please walk out in to the hall to blow their nose, and that they cover their nose and mouth when they sneeze or cough. It would seem like common sense, but I don’t have to remind you how easy it is for a cold to become in epidemic in the classroom, and since the school is so small, I’d hate for something to wipe out the entire school. Then who would I teach?

Thursday, October 5, 2006, is our test that concludes the “Destructive Seismic Events” unit. Our next unit will cover the rock cycle, and geologic landforms, and will be entitled “Rocks and their Roles”. As usual with any unit, you can expect for there to be notes, one lab (at the very least), and a test. All sub-topics will have a quiz given when we finish that information.

Students are doing much better at staying on top of their work for this past unit. That said, when students turn in their test on Thursday, I will be handing them a sheet that lists what work they have that is outstanding. I have a copy of this sheet, and it will not (hopefully) leave my classroom. The reason behind this is that report cards are coming out on October 17, 2006. No official word, yet, on their distribution method.

Since report cards come out on the 17th, I cannot accept any outstanding work beyond October 10, at 2 pm. I have to turn in my grades in significant advance of the report card deadline so that the computers can have time to mull over the grades and generate the report cards. Please be aware that if your student tells you that they are turning in their work … “Today, mom, I swear,” and “today” falls after the 10th, the turned in work (should it appear in my hands) will not be reflected in their quarter grade. However, it will be counted toward their semester grade.

Also, we have had a minor emergence of some, for lack of a more delicate term, cheating issues. While I highly encourage students to help one another grasp the material as that helps both the tutor and the tutee (by the way, I have a formal peer-tutoring program), that does not translate to “hand them your worksheet and let them copy your answers”. Instances of identical answers will receive a 0 for those questions. If it occurs for more than half of the assignment, that assignment will receive a 0. Copying over all of the sentence except for a word such as “of”, “the”, or “and”, does not somehow magically make it okay. I keep copies of all identical work for your (parental) perusal. Please let me know if you are concerned and would like to schedule a conference so that you can look over the work.

We have also had the emergence of the “I did half of it”s. What this means is that students are handing in assignments that are started in class with ONLY the work done in class completed on them. Again, I keep copies of any work that receives a 50% or below grade on it so that you (parents) can see the responsibility level of your child. Again, please let me know if you would like to schedule a conference so that you can look over the work. As a hint to your students: I don’t put the questions on the sheet just for fun. They are to all be completed.

Well, I think I have spouted enough for one week. As always, feel free to email, call, or comment with questions.

-Ms. L-

Parents,

Rather than writing up a daily summary, as classes have strayed from the Do Now questions, I am instead going to give you a weekly summary and look ahead.

Last week we finished up our study of Earthquakes. We finished by taking a quiz that was mainly on the work that we performed on Monday and Wednesday about triangulating earthquake epicenters. Most of the students passed this quiz and I had a large number of A’s on the quiz. The class average was a 95.2%.

The students expressed frustration with having to do the math to triangulate the earthquake epicenter. This appeared to be more of a complaint about having to do something, than an ability issue as they were all able to locate the earthquake epicenter with their activity on Monday. That said, a few of the students continue to not complete all of the questions necessary in an activity and then express surprise when they get a grade that reflects the small amount of work they have put in to completing their work. If you are concerned for your child’s grade, I ask that before contacting me to see how they can better understand the material, you first look at copies of the work and see if there aren’t large green pleas for an answer to be placed inside of the large empty space where one is to go. To any student who may be reading this: You know who I’m talking about.

On Wednesday we finished up our Earthquake notes and prepared for our quiz and activity on Friday.

On Friday we took an Earthquake quiz, heavy on the material from early in the week (which included math), and then worked on an activity involving the comparison between MMI and the Richter Scale. This activity included an Extension Option which could count as an additional lab grade. This extension is due on Friday, September 29th.

Today we started on Volcanoes. Rather than posting the power point to my website as I have done in the past, I am instead starting to teach them to take notes from the power point. In this case, I wrote up a list of 34 questions that the notes would help them answer and asked them to write the answer to the notes as we went through the class. As can be seen, the questions are posted on my website.

To look ahead this week, there will be additional notes on Wednesday and then a “Cake Batter Lava” lab on Friday. On Monday we will review for our unit test and then on Wednesday, the students will be taking their test.

For those students who submitted their “Pass the Test” assignment, those have not been graded yet. The labs are being graded at six-lab notebooks per day. I have all of the lab notebooks that were turned in on time. If your student tries to turn theirs in late and just “slip it in to the pile” as one student has already discovered, it will not be graded and I will be able to tell that they had turned it in late.

We are really picking up steam with the pace that things are going and I’m aware that students are struggling to keep up. With that in mind, I’ve instituted a science peer-tutoring program that will allow the students who need extra help in Earth Science to meet with their peers who are doing well, during their two hour block of Academic Lab. If students have taken advantage of the peer tutoring and still need some extra assistance, then I’ve asked that their parents (because after all, it is you who will be in charge of their transportation) contact me. I am available after school on a very limited basis due to the other obligations of teaching such as faculty meetings, additional training, etc.

I hope that you all like the new format. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to send me an email, or to drop a comment on to the commenting system, if you think that your question is one that everyone could benefit from.

-Ms. L-

Do Now
1. A tsunami forms, 700 miles off the coast, with crests measured at 3 cm above the standing water line. Is it a threat? Why or why not?
2. Tsunamis are caused by underwater
(A) landslides
(B) volcanoes
(C) earthquakes
(D) all of the above
3. True or False: A tsunami is a single, destructive ocean wave.

Agenda
1. Do Now
2. Announcements: Closed toed shoes on Friday. Tsunami quiz on Friday. Extra Credit to bring signed interim back by Monday or else a phone call home.
3. Finished earthquake notes .
4. Created a table (see last three slides of powerpoint ) about the four different types of earthquake waves.
5. Interims handed out.

Homework
1. PreLab reading/answer questions for lab on Friday.
2. Closed toed shoes on Friday (5 pts on lab grade).
3. Study for Tsunami quiz on Friday.
4. Signed interim due on Monday.

Note: I was absent because I was attending a professional development workshop in beautiful, downtown New Bern. There was a substitute. What follows comes from the note that the sub was given. As I haven’t seen the students since Wednesday, I’m not sure what took place.

Sub Plans for Earth Science

1. After Roll is Taken – Introduce the “Class Team Poster” activity. The students are to come up with a team name that represents their entire class, a team logo, and create a poster for mounting on the wall across from the periodic table. This activity should take no longer than 30 minutes.

2. Students may be given a three minute (set the timer) break to go to the bathroom before beginning the movie.

3. The video that is labeled “Ms. L’s Sub Video” is to be placed in the TV and students may begin to watch the video. Each student should be given the half-sheet study guide and informed that they must turn it in at the end of the video. The video is from “Modern Marvels” and it covers the technology involved in the study and protection from tsunamis, one of the destructive seismic events being studied in this unit.

4. Remind the students that for homework due Monday, they must watch the Tsunami Sciencecast video located either on my webpage or provided to their academic labs on CD and take notes on the video. If the video fails to work, they may also download and print the powerpoint as it contains much the same information. For 5 extra percentage points on the assignment, they must inform me of where, in their notes, it was that my cat first decided to make a vocal appearance in the lecture.

Note to Parents: If you are a certified sub in the Wake County system, and might wish to sub for my class (see how detailed my sub notes are?), then please send me an email. This is the workshop that never ends, so I will have several more planned absences through out the year and could use a reliable sub.

This is the start of the unit entitled “Destructive Seismic Events”.

Do Now
Since we haven’t started this unit, there were no Do Now questions.

Agenda
1. Brief discussion of the test.
2. Preparation for the substitute.
3. Overview of the unit.
4. Starting notes on Earthquakes (Ch. 8-1)

Homework
1. Watch the video notes on tsunamis and take notes on them. This assignment is due Monday and will be collected. The video will be made available to Academic Lab teachers. If students cannot find a way/time to watch the video (on google video so it should be viewable from any/every computer with a high-speed internet connection), then they may download the powerpoint and take notes off of that. The transcript of the video is located in the “Notes” section of the powerpoint file.

2. Bring a photo of your face for the sub on Friday.

Today, we had a test. There was no “Do Now”. The agenda consisted of doing well on the test. When students finished the test, they were given a puzzle that could be solved, in class, for an additional 5 points on their test. While many took it home, it became value-less after it exited the classroom.