Welcome to my class page where you'll find helpful information including class assignments, homework, and links.  Weekly assignments and posted homework is pre-planned and may change according to class progress.

Every student can access their personal files/folders and class files/folders from home (or another location) through the school website.  There is also a link to the Science textbook to the right.

Please feel free to email me if you have questions about assignments, homework, or student progress.

WEEK OF MAY 15

Monday, May 15:  Finish Activity 81, Do Activity 82 Braking Distance

Students measure the braking distance of carts by releasing them onto a track with a high-friction surface. They compare the braking distance of the cart at different initial speeds and find a relationship between the initial speed of the cart and its braking distance.

Tuesday, May 16:  Activity 83 Coming to a Stop

Students learn that the distance a car takes to stop is a result of two separate events—the distance traveled during the driver’s reaction time and the distance traveled once the brakes have been engaged, both of which increase with increased speed. They investigate the actual stopping distance of cars by calculating and graphing data for different speeds, road conditions, and states of driver alertness.

Wednesday, May 17:  Finish Activity 83

Thursday, May 18:  Activity 86 Investigating Center of Mass

Students are introduced to the concept of center of mass. They observe empty and loaded carts hitting a barrier and compare the stability of vehicles with different masses and centers of mass. They apply their results to vehicle design and rollover accidents.

Friday, May 19:  

WEEK OF MAY 8

Monday, May 8: Activity 79 Inertia Around a Curve

Students investigate inertia by making observations of a marble’s motion around a circular track. They predict and then observe the direction the marble rolls when a section of the track is removed and the marble moves due to its inertia. They also investigate whether changing the mass of the marble affects the motion of the marble.

Tuesday, May 9:  Activity 80 Newton's Laws of Motion

Students complete a reading about forces and Newton’s three laws of motion. The reading is supported by a literacy strategy designed to reveal and address common misconceptions about force and motion. A second literacy strategy supports comprehension during the reading. Students then discuss aspects of Newton’s laws that seem to contradict daily experience.

Wednesday, May 10:  Finish Activity 80

Thursday, May 11: DVD - Understanding Car Crashes: When Physics Meets Biology

Friday, May 12:  

WEEK OF MAY 1

Monday, May 1:  Activity 77 Mass and Collisions

Students investigate the effect of mass on the force of a collision. They design and carry out an investigation similar to the ones previously conducted that measures how carts of different mass move a block when they strike it.

Tuesday, May 2:  Finish Activity 77  procedures and perform lab

Wednesday, May 3:  Activity 78 Force, Acceleration, and Mass

Students further investigate the relationship between force and other quantities, using the SI units for force and acceleration. Students find the equation that relates force,mass, and acceleration by analyzing data that is provided. They graph the relationship
between these quantities and are introduced to Newton’s second law.

Thursday, May 4:  Finish Activity 78  Force, Mass, Acceleration worksheet due tomorrow

Friday, May 5:  DVD:  Understanding Car Crashes - It's Basic Physics

WEEK OF APRIL 24

Monday, April 24:  Finish Activity 74 Measuring Speed (Period 4 and 7), ISTEP testing (Period 5 and 6)

Tuesday, April 25:  Activity 75 Interpreting Motion Graphs (Period 4 and 7), Activity 74 Measuring Speed (Period 5 and 6)

Wednesday, April 26:  Activity 74 Measuring Speed (Period 5 and 6), Activity 75 and Speed, Distance, Time graph worksheet (Period 4 and 7)

Thursday, April 27: Activity 76 Speed and Collisions

Students investigate the effect of speed on the severity of a collision. Using different release heights, students compare how far a block placed on the track moves after it has been struck by a cart. Students discover that a faster-moving cart moves the block
farther. Assuming that the time of impact is about the same, the data indicates that the faster the cart is moving, the greater the force on the block. This conclusion is applied to the situation of car collisions.

Friday, April 28:  Period 4 - Bill Nye movie; Period 5 and 6 - Activity 75; Period 7 Engineering Marvels movie

WEEK OF APRIL 17

Monday, April 17:  Finish Vocab test, do Unit test

Tuesday, April 18:  Start new Unit (Force and Motion), Activity 73 Choosing a Safe Vehicle

This activity introduces students to a scenario about car safety. They analyze and compare some features of two vehicles in order to choose the one they feel is safer. In the process they discover they need to know more about the science involved in accidents
and in the design of vehicle safety features if they are to make a good decision.  Students use a literacy strategy that helps them make a definite choice between the vehicles.

Wednesday, April 19:  Finish Activity 73

Thursday, April 20:  Activity 74 Measuring Speed (Period 4 and 7), ISTEP testing (Period 5 and 6)

Students use a cart, ramp, and track to measure the time it takes for a cart to roll 100 centimeters. They then calculate speed from their distance and time measurements.  They explore the units used for speed and the concept of speed as a rate of motion.
They further investigate speed by designing and conducting an experiment that relates the speed of the cart to its release height on the ramp.

Friday, April 21:  

WEEK OF APRIL 10

Monday, April 10:  Finish Activity 46A and Activity 48

Tuesday, April 11:  Activity 49 Comparing Site Risk

Students consider two nuclear waste disposal sites in addition to Yucca Mountain.  They first examine earthquake and volcano risk maps for the U.S. and then read information about each site. They evaluate the relevant evidence and then draw on their knowledge of earthquakes, volcanoes, and plate tectonics to identify additional evidence that supports and does not support each site. They discuss risks associated with each site and make a site recommendation.

Wednesday, April 12:  Finish Activity 49, work on study guide for test

Thursday, April 13: VOCAB TEST (OPEN NOTEBOOK)

UNIT TEST ON MONDAY

Friday, April 14:  NO SCHOOL

WEEK OF APRIL 3

Monday, April 3:  Activity 45 Understanding Plate Boundaries

Students read about how the theory of plate tectonics helps explain earthquakes, volcanoes, and mountain ranges.

Tuesday, April 4:  Activity 46 Convection Currents

Students explore the mechanism behind plate motion as they investigate convection currents.

Wednesday, April 5:  Activity 47 Spreading Plates

Students utilize a computer simulation to investigate what happens when the earth’s plates move apart. Students investigate the rate of this change on earth as they set the simulation to run for different time periods from 10 years to 20 million years.

Thursday, April 6:  Activity 48 Other Types of Plate Motion

Students use a computer simulation to investigate what happens when the earth’s plates collide as well as slide past each other. They then compare the similarities and differences among the three types of plate boundaries: sliding (transform), spreading
(diverging), and colliding (converging).

Friday, April 7: Activity 46A Energy Transfer:  Conduction, Convection, Radiation

In this reading, students are provided with descriptions, explanations and examples of how energy can be transferred from place to place and transformed from one form to another through radiation, convection and conduction.

WEEK OF MARCH 20

Monday, March 20:  Activity 42 The Theory of Plate Tectonics

Students watch two video segments on the history of the development of plate tectonics, beginning with Wegener’s idea of continental drift. They use Student Sheet 42.1 to review key ideas presented in the video.

Tuesday, March 21:   Activity 43 Measuring Earthquakes

Students model how a seismograph records earthquakes as they explore the relationship between earthquakes and plate boundaries.

Wednesday, March 22:  Activity 44 Mapping Plates

Students compare the sizes and shapes of continents with those of plates as they color in the continents and trace plate boundaries. The relationship between plate boundaries, earthquakes, and volcanoes is reinforced as students use earthquake and volcano data to both plot and draw missing plate boundaries. Students then label the major plates and use directional data to draw arrows showing the direction that they are moving.

Thursday, March 23: DVD:  Earthquake in the Heartland

Friday, March 24:  Finish Activity 44

WEEK OF MARCH 13

Monday, March 13:  Activity 41 Continental Drift

Students evaluate evidence related to continental drift. They first determine which statements constitute evidence, and they then identify the statements that support this idea of continental movement.

Tuesday, March 14:  Activity 41A How Water Can Shape the Land

This activity will help students better understand how some common features of the Indiana landscape were formed. The reading explains how large-scale physical processes such as the dissolving of bedrock by slightly acidic groundwater and the movement of largemasses of ice can produce geological features such as karst topography and glacial moraines.

Wednesday, March 15:  Activity 41B Magnetic Fields of Force

Students are introduced to natural force fields such as the Earth’s gravitational and magnetic fields. They then use magnets, compasses, and iron filings to explore the nature of magnetic materials and the field of force that surrounds them.

Thursday, March 16:  Activity 41C Earth's Magnetic Field, Compasses, and Navigation

Students continue their exploration of magnetism by examining the effects of Earth’s magnetic field as evidenced by the existence of naturally magnetic rocks and the behavior of navigational compasses.

Friday, March 17: Review reading about Alfred Wegener and the theory of continental drift

WEEK OF MARCH 6

Monday, March 6:  Activity 39 Earth Time

Students are introduced to the age of the earth as they place important events in the earth’s history into one of four time periods. They compare their ordering with that of modern geologists.

Tuesday, March 7:  Activity 38 Beneath the Earth's Surface

Students read about volcanoes and the interior of the earth. They use information about the layers of the earth to construct a scaled, labeled diagram of the earth’s interior.

Wednesday, March 8:  Finish Activity 38

Activity 38 Earth diagram and Analysis Question 5 due FRIDAY

Thursday, March 9: Volcano: Nature's Inferno

Friday, March 10:  Activity 40 Continent Puzzle

Students use puzzle pieces representing the earth’s continents in order to begin to investigate the idea of continental drift.

WEEK OF FEBRUARY 27

Monday, February 27:  Work on Activity 23A

Tuesday, February 28:  Finish Activity 23A

Wednesday, March 1:  ISTEP testing - no class

Thursday, March 2:  Start new unit - Plate Tectonics, Activity 36 Storing Waste

The issue of nuclear waste disposal at Yucca Mountain, Nevada is used to introduce volcanoes and earthquakes to students. Student groups first read background information on nuclear waste. Then, they evaluate eight statements in order to determine
whether each statement provides evidence that either supports or does not support Yucca Mountain as a storage site. Each student sorts the relevant evidence using a discussion web and then decides whether or not to recommend storing nuclear waste at
Yucca Mountain. The concept of risk analysis is discussed.

Friday, March 3: Activity 37 Volcanic Landforms

Students consider the constructive nature of volcanoes as they model the effects of two different kinds of volcanic eruptions. Students then apply what they have learned about volcanoes to the nuclear waste storage scenario.

WEEK OF FEBRUARY 20

Monday, February 20:  No school

Tuesday, February 21:  Rocks and Minerals Vocab Test

UNIT TEST TOMORROW

Wednesday, February 22:  Rocks and Minerals Unit Test

Thursday, February 23: Activity 23A Transforming Natural Resources into Energy

Students read about the different forms of energy generation and discuss the advantages and disadvantages of each.

Friday, February 24:  Finish Activity 23A

WEEK OF FEBRUARY 13

Monday, February 13:  Activity 20 Identifying Rock Types

Students observe rock samples and use a table of identifying characteristics to help identify each rock as either igneous, metamorphic, or sedimentary. Students then use this knowledge to identify the type of rock brought back by the forest hikers and
decide whether or not the hikers were likely to have seen diamonds.

Tuesday, February 14:  Finish Activity 20, Start Activity 22 The Rock Cycle Game

Students play a game that models the rock cycle. During the game, students record what happens to their igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic rocks. They share data to summarize the rock cycle.

Wednesday, February 15:  Finish Activity 22, Rock Cycle DVD

Thursday, February 16:  Activity 23 Making Minerals

Scientists can now produce minerals like diamonds in the laboratory. Students evaluate data on mined vs.manufactured diamond gemstones from the perspective of four different roles. They then discuss whether manufactured diamonds are as valuable as
mined diamonds.

Friday, February 17: Bill Nye DVD Rocks and Soil as review, Give Study Guide

VOCAB TEST ON TUESDAY (OPEN NOTE)

UNIT TEST ON WEDNESDAY (NOT OPEN NOTE)

WEEK OF FEBRUARY 6

Monday, February 6:  Mineral Identification Lab

Students are provided with 8 unidentified minerals. They use several tests to help identify the minerals. After collecting data, they compare the data on the unknown mineral to the properties of several minerals in order to identify the minerals.

Tuesday, February 7:  Continue Mineral Identification Lab

Wednesday, February 8:  Continue Mineral Identification Lab

Students will take lab information and write a formal lab report. 

LAB REPORT DUE FRIDAY

Thursday, February 9: Activity 17 The Minerals in Rocks, time to work on Lab Report (DUE TOMORROW)

All rocks are made of minerals, and rocks are often identified by the minerals they contain. Students select a single property to determine whether the mineral found in a rock sample is calcite or quartz. After collecting data, they identify one of the minerals
found in granite and one of the minerals found in limestone.

Friday, February 10:  Activity 19 Rock Formation

The formation of sedimentary, igneous, and metamorphic rocks is explained in the context of coal, kimberlite, and marble. Several literacy strategies are used to help students organize and process key concepts.

WEEK OF JANUARY 30

Monday, January 30:  Test

Tuesday, January 31:  Start new unit (Rocks and Minerals), Activity 12 Observing Natural Resources

Students are introduced to the earth’s natural resources. They observe samples of four resources and rank them from the most to least valuable. The class discusses what makes natural resources valuable, and the concept of renewable vs. non-renewable resources is introduced.

Wednesday, February 1:  Activity 13 Diamond Dilemma

In this activity, students gather data on a mineral sample that appears to be a diamond. Students begin to explore properties
of minerals by making observations of color, hardness, and crystal shape.

Thursday, February 2:  Activity 14 Analyzing Diamond Data

Students compare data on the mineral sample to the properties of four other materials.  They discuss which properties are the most and least useful in telling the materials apart. They use the data to eliminate materials and to identify the sample of earring material as fluorite.

Friday, February 3: Activity 15 Mineral Properties

A reading on minerals and mineral properties helps explain why certain minerals like diamonds are so highly valued. Characteristic properties of minerals, such as color and hardness, are further explained. Students are introduced to the idea that rocks are made of minerals.

WEEK OF JANUARY 23

Monday, January 23:  Activity 10:  Organic Matter Test

Students conduct a laboratory experiment to test the garden soil for organic matter.  Students use an experimental control as a basis of comparison. The results help determine whether the garden soil contained sufficient nutrients. Students are then
prepared to decide how to solve the garden problem.

Tuesday, January 24:  Activity 11:  Garden Action

Students are presented with four possible solutions to the garden problem. They analyze the advantages and disadvantages of each of these solutions and decide to what degree they agree with each solution. Finally, students recommend their own solution to the problem and weigh the evidence and trade-offs of their decision.

Wednesday, January 25:  Continue Activity 11

LETTER DUE FRIDAY

Thursday, January 26: Work on Activity 11 Letter and Study Guide

LETTER DUE TOMORROW

OPEN NOTE VOCAB TEST TOMORROW

SOILS UNIT TEST MONDAY

Friday, January 27: Letters due, Vocab test

SOILS UNIT TEST MONDAY

WEEK OF JANUARY 16

Monday, January 16:  No School

Tuesday, January 17:  Finish Activity 7

Wednesday, January 18:  DVD - Surviving the Dust Bowl

Thursday, January 19:  Activity 8: Dust Bowl

Students consider the factors that led to the Dust Bowl of the 1930s by reading a role play about life on an Oklahoma farm at that time. From this historical perspective, students are introduced to some of the soil issues farmers face. 

Friday, January 20: Activity 9: Nutrients in Soil

Students use a set of cards to investigate the relationship between plants, soil, and nutrients. They identify missing nutrients such as nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium in the sample soil cards and recommend fertilizers that would address these nutrient deficiencies. Student groups work together to create a concept map on soil that summarizes some the relationships among ideas from this unit.

WEEK OF JANUARY 9

Monday, January 9:  Activity 5:  Soil Composition

Students read about the organic and inorganic composition of different layers of soil.  Particle size of weathered rocks in soil are discussed and the role of organic material in soil and plant growth is introduced.

Tuesday, January 10:  Continue Activity 5 (AQs 1-4)

Wednesday, January 11:  Finish Activity 5 (AQs 5-6), Start Activity 6 Describing Soil Scientifically

Students make observations of the soil samples that are similar to those conducted by soil scientists. Specifically, students observe for color, consistence, and texture. They compare their data to information about soils from two gardens to determine which
soil is from the school garden and which is from another location.

Thursday, January 12: Activity 6 Analysis Questions and Concept Map

Friday, January 13: Activity 7 Mapping Soils

Students are introduced to field sampling of soils. They become experts on the composition of a regional soil and share that information with their small group.  They map the soil composition data onto a map and learn about four major soil categories in the United States. They use this map to compare the composition of the soil in the school garden to other areas of the United States.

WEEK OF JANUARY 2

Monday, January 2:  No School

Tuesday, January 3:  Start new unit: Studying Soil Scientifically Activity 1: Into the Field

Students review and practice making good qualitative and quantitative observations.

Wednesday, January 4:  Activity 2: The Garden Problem

A fictional scenario about a school garden is introduced. Students read about the garden problem and use a literacy strategy to organize the information. They identify statements about whether plants can grow in the garden as either evidence or opinion.

Thursday, January 5:  Finish Activity 2 and Do Activity 3 Observing Soil

Students observe two soil samples with a magnifying lens and describe what they see.  They identify the similarities and differences between the soils.

Friday, January 6: Activity 4 Soil Columns

Students investigate the composition of two different types of soil by separating the soils with water. By creating and observing a water-and-soil column, they gather evidence to show that soils are made from a mixture of different-sized materials. They
learn how to use a graduated cylinder to quantify the height of the different sections.  Comparison of this data shows that soils have different types and proportions of these materials.

WEEK OF MAY 15

Monday, May 15: Finish Activity 96 and 97

Tuesday, May 16: Movie

Wednesday, May 17: Activity 98 Family Histories

Students draw and compare double bar graphs showing changes in the numbers of fossil families in the fish, reptile, and mammal classes over geological time. From this evidence, they can conclude that both speciation and extinction have occurred in all classes of vertebrates throughout the Paleozoic, Mesozoic, and Cenozoic eras, for as long as each class has existed. The class discusses how this evidence provides further
support for a branching model for evolution.

Thursday, May 18: Finish Activity 98

Friday, May 20:

WEEK OF MAY 8

Monday, May 8: Finish Activity 94

Tuesday, May 9:  Activity 96 Battling Beaks

Students simulate the effect of natural selection on an imaginary forkbird species. Genetic mutations, represented by tosses of a number cube, introduce variation into the population. Differential survival and reproduction of particular types of forkbirds changes the composition of the population over time. At the close of the activity, theclass discusses the role of variation in the process of natural selection.

Wednesday, May 10: Finish Activity 96

Thursday, May 11:  Activity 97 Origins of Species

Variation within populations is the raw material upon which natural selection acts. Students read about how mutations provide this genetic variation. Charles Darwin’s observations of finches in the Galapagos Islands and the enormous diversity of cichlids in Lake Victoria provide examples of speciation, natural selection occurring under different conditions in different locations.

Friday, May 12:  

WEEK OF MAY 1

Monday, May 1: Finish Activity 64 Nature and Nurture

Evaluate leaf color of seedlings grown in light vs. dark of Nicotiana seeds.

Tuesday, May 2: Review for test

GENETICS TEST TOMORROW

Wednesday, May 3: Test

Thursday, May 4: Start new unit (Evolution)  Activity 89 - 93 (overview of each activity and vocab)

Friday, May 5: Activity 94 A Meeting of Minds

Students role-play an imaginary meeting between Charles Darwin, Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, a modern-day science reporter, and a middle school student. In the role play, Darwin and Lamarck present and compare their theories on how evolution occurred.

WEEK OF APRIL 24

Monday, April 24: Continue movie

Tuesday, April 25:  ISTEP testing

Wednesday, April 26: ISTEP testing

Thursday, April 27:  Period 2 - finish movie; Period 3 - Finish Activity 66

Friday, April 28:  Period 2 - finish Activity 66; Period 3 - DNA Curing Cancer

WEEK OF APRIL 17

Monday, April 17: Continue Activity 65

Tuesday, April 18: Finish Activity 65

Wednesday, April 19:  Activity 66 Patterns in Pedigrees

Students investigate the behavior of genes for human traits. Pedigrees are introduced as another way to study genes. They are then used to analyze the patterns of transmission for recessive and dominant human traits.

Thursday, April 20: Activity 66 or Activity 67

Period 2 Activity 67, Period 3 Activity 66

Friday, April 21: Movie - My Sister's Keeper

WEEK OF APRIL 10

Monday, April 10: Continue Activity 64

Tuesday, April 11:  Continue Activity 64

Wednesday, April 12: Set up Activity 64 lab, start Activity 65 Breeding Critters - More Traits

Students model the diversity of offspring possible from two parents and discover patterns of inheritance other than strict dominant/recessive traits.

Thursday, April 13:  Finish the movie "A Place for Annie"

Friday, April 14:  NO SCHOOL

WEEK OF APRIL 3

Monday, April 3: Finish presentations, review STDs

Tuesday, April 4:  Review sheet for Reproduction unit test

TEST TOMORROW

Wednesday, April 5:  Test

Thursday, April 6:  Activity 64 Nature and Nurture

Students design an experiment to investigate the effect of the environment on the development of the green color trait in Nicotiana seedlings. This introduces the interplay of hereditary (nature) and environmental (nurture) factors in the development of an organism’s traits.

Friday, April 7: DVD "A Place for Annie"

WEEK OF MARCH 20

Monday, March 20: STD presentation research

Tuesday, March 21:  STD presentations

Wednesday, March 22: STD presentations

Thursday, March 23:  Reading lesson about bacteria and virus

Friday, March 24:  Finish STD presentations

WEEK OF MARCH 13

Monday, March 13: Growth and Development

Tuesday, March 14:  Growth and Development

Wednesday, March 15:  Growth and Development

Thursday, March 16:   Growth and Development

Friday, March 17: STD presentation research

WEEK OF MARCH 6

Monday, March 6: Mitosis and Meisosis

Tuesday, March 7:  Finish Activity 63 from Friday

Wednesday, March 8: Start Reproduction

Thursday, March 9:  Continue Reproduction

Friday, March 10:  Continue Reproduction

WEEK OF FEBRUARY 27

Monday, February 27: Punnett squares practice and worksheets

PUNNETT SQUARE WORKSHEET DUE WEDNESDAY

QUIZ ON WEDNESDAY

Tuesday, February 28:  ISTEP testing - no class

Wednesday, March 1:  Quiz, Activity 62

Students quantify the results of the seeds they germinated in Activity 55, “Plants Have Genes, Too!” They then compare their results to Mendel’s results.

Thursday, March 2:   Activity 62

Friday, March 3:  Activity 63 Show Me the Genes!

A reading describes the behavior of chromosomes during sexual reproduction and its consistency with basic patterns of inheritance. In addition, the function of DNA and the effects of randomly occurring mutations are introduced.

WEEK OF FEBRUARY 20

Monday, February 20: No school

Tuesday, February 21:  Activity 60 Mendel, First Geneticist

A reading describes Mendel’s experiments with pea plants. Students relate the rules discovered by Mendel in his analysis of pea plant crosses to their findings about critter genes. The reading introduces the idea that basic concepts discovered in working
with one type of organism (for example, pea plants) can often be generalized to other organisms or groups (such as humans).

Wednesday, February 22: Activity 61 Gene Squares

Students use Punnett squares to predict the approximate frequencies of traits among the offspring of specific critter crosses.

Thursday, February 23:  Discovery Channel's 100 Greatest Discoveries in Genetics

Friday, February 24:  Continue Activity 61

WEEK OF FEBRUARY 13

Monday, February 13: Activity 57 Reroduction

Asexual and sexual reproduction are introduced. Differences between the two prepare students to understand the mechanisms of heredity in sexually reproducing organisms.

Tuesday, February 14:  Finish Activity 57

Wednesday, February 15:  Activity 58 Creature Features

Students develop hypotheses to explain the behavior of genes in a story about zoo scientists breeding imaginary creatures. They use models to evaluate how well the hypotheses fit additional evidence about the critter offspring.

Thursday, February 16:  Activity 59 Gene Combo

Students use a coin-tossing simulation to model the pattern of inheritance exhibited by many single-gene traits, including the critter tail-color characteristic. They relate this model to the hypotheses they developed in Activity 58, “Creature Features.”

Friday, February 17:  Finish Activity 59

WEEK OF FEBRUARY 6

Monday, February 6: Start Genetics Unit, Activity 54 Invetigating Human Traits

Students investigate traits for six human characteristics to begin a discussion of human variation and heredity. They learn that traits can be inherited, environmentally acquired, or created by a combination of hereditary and environmental factors. When students graph their data they see human variation patterns.

Tuesday, February 7:  Continue Activity 54

Wednesday, February 8: Finish Activity 54, Start Activity 55 Plants Have Genes, Too!

Students germinate seeds that are the offspring of plants bred from true-breeding green and plae yellow strains of a flowering garden plant.  By predicting and then quantifying the colors of the offspring plants, students obtain genetic data for analysis.

Thursday, February 9:  Continue Activity 55, Start Activity 56 Joe's Dilemma

Students are introduced to the issue of genetic testing through a story about a student who suspects he may have inherited a genetic syndrome (the Marfan syndrome).  They generate questions they would have if they were in this situation, and make a
preliminary decision of what they would do based on the limited information they have so far. Students then view a video produced by the National Marfan Foundation to find outmore. They consider the impact of the Marfan syndrome on a person’s life.  Activity 67, “What Would You Do?” will follow up on this activity, enabling students to make a recommendation to Joe after they have learned more about genetics.

Friday, February 10:  Finish Activity 56

WEEK OF JANUARY 30

Monday January 30: Activity 68  Worldwide Wind

Students use a computer simulation to identify the most common wind direction in a particular location. They share their data with the class and construct a map of global wind patterns.

Tuesday, January 31:  Activity 70 People and Weather

Students role-play atmospheric scientists, climatologists, hydrologists, and meteorologists who analyze data summarizing weather, climate, water usage, and atmospheric conditions for the fictitious Sunbeam City. Students consider the possible link
between population growth and changes in local weather, atmosphere, and water availability. They then make recommendations about ways to reduce humans’ impact on local conditions.

Wednesday, February 1:  Finish Activity 70

TEST ON FRIDAY

Thursday, February 2:  Work on Study Guide

TEST TOMORROW

Friday, February 3:  Test

WEEK OF JANUARY 23

Monday January 23: Activity 60:  Changing States of Matter

Students are introduced to the different forms of water and how they change from one to another. The class discusses the relationship between the changing states of water and the water cycle.

Tuesday, January 24:  Continue Activity 60

Wednesday, January 25:  Finish Activity 60, Analysis Questions

Thursday, January 26:  Activity 62 The Water Cycle

Water Cycle diagram (detailed) and questions

Friday, January 27:  Activity 64 Earth's Atmosphere

Students use a computer simulation to sample air composition, temperature, and pressure at different altitudes above the earth’s surface. They take three samples within each atmospheric layer and calculate the average values. They then compare the properties of the different atmospheric layers.

WEEK OF JANUARY 16

Monday January 16: No School

Tuesday, January 17:  Finish Activity 56

Wednesday, January 18: Presentation by Mr. Wilcoxson from CHS

Thursday, January 19:  Activity 57: Oceans and Climate

Students learn more about how oceans affect climate. They participate in a role-play that discusses the history of the identification of the Gulf Stream and how modern technology is used to gather ocean data.

Friday, January 20:  Activity 58: The Causes of Climate

Students read about more factors affecting climate, including the sun’s energy.

WEEK OF JANUARY 9

Monday January 9: Finished Activity 69 

Presented weather reports and Analysis Questions

Tuesday, January 10:  Activity 55: Heating Earth's Surface

Students perform an experiment to measure how the Sun’s energy heats land and water as well as how quickly both of those substances cool. 

Wednesday, January 11:  Perform Activity 55 investigation

Thursday, January 12:  Finish Activity 55, start Activity 53 Weather and Climate

Students use a literacy strategy to organize the information about different climates (dry, tropical, etc.). They identify their local climate and compare their personal observations and seasonal weather averages to the climate description. Students then examine climate graphs for three different regions and use the graphs to identify each region’s climate. The class discusses the relationship between climate and weather. 

Friday, January 13:  Finish Activity 53 and start Activity 56 Ocean Temperatures

Students investigate the range of mean ocean surface temperatures around the globe. They map and discuss patterns of surface temperatures in particular regions of the oceans. The members of each small group then merge their findings and summarize
global patterns. They use this data to further investigate climate patterns on earth.

WEEK OF JANUARY 2

Monday January 2: No School

Tuesday, January 3:  Start new unit: Weather and Atmosphere, Activity 51: Investigating Local Weather

Students record and analyze five days of daily weather data. They then record and graph local monthly weather averages. They compare daily weather conditions to the monthly weather data.

Wednesday, January 4:  Finish Activity 51, Start Activity 69: Forecasting Weather

Students work together to interpret a weather map and construct a weather report. Each group then presents a weather report to the class. Students use this information to forecast the next day’s weather.

Thursday, January 5:  Continue Activity 69

Friday, January 6:  Continue Activity 69