Grade 7 Week 6: Flowers, Fruit, and Seeds

After the great job on the herbarium we finish our section on plants with seed plants.

How do angiosperms and gymnosperms reproduce?
How does each differ from how spore producing plants reproduce?
If spores still work, why would fossil records show a change to seeds and then further to flowers and fruit?

Contract week 6 has you back outside looking for flowers, fruits and seeds or looking at how we use plants in our daily lives.

Grade 8 Week 6: Mountains

This week we continue with mountain formations focusing on folded mountains and fault-block mountains.

How do these types of mountains form?
Where do they form?

This week's contract has us inventing a lab or activity that demonstrates the build up or wear down of mountains. Try to make it something that all the class can replicate.

Grade 8: Dante's Peak

This week we travel to a volcano created in Hollywood.

Dante's Peak is a story about the second most desirable city to live in the the U.S. (population under 20,000), and the really, really bad day they have.

Enjoy James Bond and Sarah Connor v. Dante's Peak the composite volcano!

How do scientists monitor volcanoes in the movie?
How does the volcano affect the city of Dante's Peak and the surrounding valley?

Grade 7 Week 5: Plants

After we come back inside after the successful Mushroom Hunting we now take on the Kingdom of Plants (so we can head back outside and complete this years Herbarium).
This weeks questions:

What types of plants are there?
How has each type adapted for survival?
How are plants adapted to life on land?

The contract for this week takes you outside as well. One has you starting your own herbarium by collecting samples, drawings, or photos of plants around your home. The other choice has you looking for spore producing plants around your yard to create a terrarium. Have fun!

Grade 8 Week 5: Volcanoes!

After the great ideas we saw last week in Earthquake Engineering I am looking forward to this week's designs. This week we move from earthquakes to volcanoes. Remembering what we discovered in the fist section about the inside of the Earth and how it moves, answer this week's questions:

What causes volcanoes?
How do they form?
What are the effects of volcanic eruptions?

This weeks contract has A contracts designing or modeling a volcano. I am still looking for an actual composite volcano beyond the science fair vinegar/baking soda coming from a cup. I did that back in my days at Fairview. You can design something better, something...more...real?

Grade 7 Week 4: Mushroom Hunters

This week we focus on our first Kingdom of multicellular organisms: Fungi.

What types of fungi are there?
How do they get their energy?
Where can we find them?

This week we will go outside and 'hunt' for mushrooms at the park and around the campus. The goal is to show diversity of the kingdom and to identify what fungi we find in our area.

You are encouraged to go for a hike around your house and bring specimens for class.

A web album can be found here once it is no longer blocked by the schools new filter.

This weeks contract has A contracts inventing their own multicelluar organism. Have fun with it.

Grade 8 Week 4: Earthquake Engineering

This week we discuss the effects of an earthquake.

What determines the amount of damage done in an earthquake?
How can we lessen the damage done by an earthquake?

During the week we will view a video on Earthquake Enginneering and then work to design a retrofit for Riverview.

All this leads up to this weeks contract where A contracts design and build a structure to stand up to an earthquake. I will try to topple them with a small tremor in class on Friday.