What a week! Field trips, Robotics, and National Engineering Month!

The Green Team started off the week with a field trip to PSU. Later that day, the Robotics Team met for the first time. Jesuit High School’s Robotics team helped mentor the students, as well as explain what they do on their own team.

February is National Engineering Month. To celebrate, Michael Pranger, an engineer with Daimler Mercedez, came to talk to the 8th grade.

The problem the 8th graders were working on

PSU Green Team Field Trip

The Green team, complete with new 6th grade members, traveled to PSU today. They visited with senior capstone students about sustainability. The college students are creating activities and board games about sustainability and our students gave them feeddback. It was a great morning and awesome to be in a college atmosphere.

February Newsletters

 

 

Dear Parent and Guardian,

 

                  First semester is officially over! Finals were tough, but they were a great learning experience.  A few updates are needed in the science room:

 

                  6th graders will be finishing the Dust Bowl this week before moving on to Earth’s History and the Geologic Time Scale.

 

                  7th graders are moving to a short section on cell division and cancer to heredity. Heredity will include probability and DNA, before moving on to genetics.

 

The 8th graders are working hard on acids, bases, and solutions. Included in this chapter will be the pH scale. A new update for the 8th grade is they just got their Science Fair packets Feb. 1st. We will be working on the science fair on and off throughout the months leading up to the Science Fair.

 

The Science Fair is April 18th, 2012 from 6-8pm at St. Andrew’s Gym. Please make a note of this on your calendars as we would love to have you attend! The 8th graders are required to be there and the 6th and 7th graders will be asked to participate as well. If you would like to volunteer for the Science Fair, please let me know. Also if you have any connections from your past school, I would love to know any ideas you have.

 

The can and bottle collection is going really well still! We have raised over $50-thank you again for your support.

 

Blessings, Ms. Miller

PSU Green Team Trip:

                  The Green Team will be going to Portland State University on February 6th, 2012 until lunch.

                  Currently there are 9 students on the Green Team from the 8th grade girls, 7th grade girls, and 7th grade boys. They have been hard at work with milk cartoon recycling and making a video about composting for the school.

                  If your student would like to join, please have them write a letter to me or Ms. Benware about:

• What Green Team is
• Why they want to join
• What they want to do

Thanks!

 Reading Strategies in Science

                  Throughout the year, students learn different reading strategies in science class. These strategies are intended to help students learn to read a textbook, especially a science textbook.

                  Different strategies work better with some units than others. Here is a list of the following strategies we have used:

• Text coding: students use symbols while they are reading to indicate their thinking. For example, stars are used to indicate important sentences, question marks are used to show there was confusion, and a boxed word means the word was unknown.
• SQ3R or ‘squeeker’: Students survey the section of the textbook before they read looking at pictures, titles, and graphics, next students turn titles into questions, after that students read to answer their questions, recite which involves lots of different options including making up a song, and reviewing.
• Clustering: students use a web-like design to take notes on a specific topic,  creating a web of interconnecting topics and ideas, the end product looks like a graphic organizer or concept map
• DEJ or Double Entry Journal: students split their papers into two columns, the 1st column is notes that come from the book, ie definitions and important passages, the 2nd column comes from their minds, such as questions they have or comments.

Each strategy can be used in all content areas. Ask your student about them today. More to come for second semester.

 

 

 

 

No school tomorrow!

School will be closed, January 31st.
The heater is broken, but school will remain in session for Wednesday as of now.
Please call the school with any questions or updates.
Thanks!

Finals Week

Clackmas firefighter, Mychal Costanzo, presents about fire and fire safety to the 8th grade.

Finals, finals, finals…that’s all everyone is talking about! The science final is this Thursday, so here are some pictures throughout the semester.

One final piece of advice? Get plenty of sleep, eat well, and start studying asap.

Finals Next Week

Finals are almost here! The science final will be a week from today, Thursday, in the afternoon.
Before finals, students will spend most of the period reviewing in class. In order to participate, students need to bring in the notecards they were assigned as homework over the last two weeks. These will be used in several of the review activities, as well as help the students review and study for the final. All students were given study guides for finals on January 9th. For another copy of the study guide, please see the previous post with the included files.
Thanks!

Microscope Songs

What a hit! Students performed their microscope songs on Monday. Students could choose their own group or to work as an individual. The requirement was the 11 parts of a microscope had to included in their lyrics.

Some students based theirs off a popular song, while others wrote an original piece.

Here are some samples of the lyrics and a few pictures:

“Hop out of bed, turn my light source on/

Look through my lens and say whats that”

“Wake up in the morning feeling like Van Leevwenhoek/

Grab my lenses I’m out the door, I’m a fix my device/

when its ready its finally goin’ to be able to use”

 

“Microscope, microscope hold it at teh base with the arm around your waist”

“Scope scope scope scope scope scope scope now stop! and turn the coarse adjustment knob like whoa. Dia-dia-diaphragm. Now lets get on stage and do our dance.”