Grade 7 Week 7: Simple Invertebrates

We start our look at the animal kingdoms diversity at the start of its diversity.  Sponges are the simplest animals we know of, very few specialized cells, maybe tissues, but no organs or organ systems.  As we move up through the ranks of invertebrates things will become more complex:  body cavities will become digestive systems, nerve nets will become nervous systems, more and advanced sensory organs will develop.  That is the journey, let's begin at the start.

Compare and contrast sponges, cnidarians, and worms.

Contract 7 has you choosing a unique species of simple invertebrate to present to class:  the four characteristics it shares will all living things, but how your animal shows them differently, how we classify your organism and by what traits, and where your species fits in the trends of growing complexity of invertebrates.

Grade 8 Week 7: Fossil Evidence

This week we move our focus from the change of plate tectonics to the changes of Earth's history:  the Geologic Time Scale.

What evidence is there for our current understanding of the geologic time scale?

How are fossils formed?

How do we find their age?

Contract 7 give you four choices on showing fossil evidence:  how are they made, finding the life history of a tree from it's rings, modeling a mold and cast, or researching the La Brea tar pits.

Grade 7 Week 6: Seed Producing Plants

This week we continue our look at plants and the change over time from those plants that reproduce with spores to those that reproduce with seeds and then to flowers and fruit.

How do plants reproduce?
How are gymnosperms fertilized? 
How are angiosperms fertilized?
What are the benefits of "enclosed" seeds over "naked" seeds?

Contract Week 6 has you collecting a pair of seeds from five different plants or examining how we use plants in our daily lives?

Grade 8 Week 6: Mountains

As we continue our look at mountains we examine the other types of mountain formation.

How do mountains form where they form?

Contract Week 6 has you invent a lab or mountain formation or research a famous mountain.

Grade 7 Week 5: Spore Producing Plants

During the next two weeks we will be describing the diversity of Plants.  We begin with the oldest types of plants:  moses and ferns.

How are plants adapted to living on land?
Why do moses and ferns need a moint environment?

Contract Week 5 has you going outside and describe five plants or make a terrarium of three spore producing plants.

Grade 8 Week 5: Volcanoes

Over the next two weeks we will be examining mountain formation.  We begin with volcanoes.

How do volcanoes form?
What are the effects of these eruptions?

Contract Week 5 has you modeling or making a diagram of a volcano, or researching a famous volcano.

Grade 7 Week 4: Fungi

We begin our focus on multicellular organisms by studying fungus.  This week we will research the characteristics of fungus, and then a fungus foray.  Our mushroom hunt will give us practice in our observation and identification skills.



What is a fungus?
How does a fungus get energy?

Contract Week 4 has you researching a single, unique fungus.

Grade 8 Week 4: Earthquake Damage

Last week we investigated earthquakes, magnitude, focus depth, rock composition, and other things that we can not control.  This week we try to control the amount of damage done by these natural disasters.



How do earthquakes cause damage?
How can we engineer structures to resist this damage?

Contract Week 4 has you engineering your own earthquake-safe building or researching the damage done by historical earthquakes of different magnitudes.

Grade 7 Week 3: Multicellular Organisms

This week we begin the rest of the unit, multicellular organisms.  Fungus, Plant, and Animal kingdoms are coming up, but for now a quick overview.

How do multicellular organisms show the 4 characteristics of living things?
How do plants absorb and store energy?
How do animals obtain and use energy?

Contract Week 3 has you researching a unique multicellular organism.

Grade 8 Week 3: Earthquakes

This week we begin discussion of the effects of Plate Tectonics.  The first, earthquakes, occur along faults which are similar to boundaries. 

What are earthquakes?
What are faults?  Compare and contrast faults to boundaires.
How does energy from an earthquake travel away from faults?

Contract Week 3 has you modeling faults, or designing demonstrations, or researching fault systems around the world.

Grade 7 Week 2: Single Celled Organisms - Protists

We continue squinting at the really, really small this week with the Kingdom Protista.  This week we actually use a microscope to help us.

How do protists show the characteristics of living things?
What characteristics do viruses not show?

We took our first look into the microscopic world this week.  We tried to draw and describe protists from our Mullet River water samples.

Contract Week 2 has you presenting on a unique virus or protist.  Maybe one of you will use a protist you saw in the microscope.

Grade 8 Week 2: Plate Boundary

Last week we learned about the layering of the Earth due to density and composition, and heat and convection inside the Earth leading to movement of plates.  Where these plate meet and interact is known as a boundary.  There are convergent boundaries, divergent boundaries, and transform boundaries.

Where do we find these boundaries?
What formations do we find at each boundary?
What is going on beneath the Earth's crust at this boundary?
How do we know?

This week we watched the video Earth's Catastrophic Past(follow the link, there is a preview there of almost all of what we watched).  From the video answer:  How do we collect evidence of the formation continents and oceans?

Contract Week 2 has you modeling a boundary or researching and predicting the future for our well known hotspots (Yellowstone and Hawaii) or our well know transform boundary (San Andreas).

Grade 7 Week 1: Single Celled Organisms - Bacteria

We begin our look at the Diversity of Living Things by squinting to see microscopic organisms.  This week we begin with bacteria.

What are the four characteristics of all living things?
How do bacteria show these four characteristics?

Contract Week 1 has you researching a unique single celled organism or comparing five helpful bacteria to five harmful bacteria.

Grade 8 Week 1: The Theory of Plate Tectonics

As we begin our unit on the Changing Earth, we start the school year with Plate Tectonics.  The Theory of Plate Tectonics began with Alfred Wegner's hypothesis of continental drift.



What evidence was used for continental drift?
What evidence do we use today for the Theory of Plate Tectonics?
What are the layers of the earth?  Why do they form as layers?  What are the porperties of each layer?

Contract Week 1 has you modeling the inside of the earth or predicting where plates will move to in 100 million years.

Summer School 2011

Check out what we have been working on during the 2011 version of summer school.

Science of Motion
We started with flight and lift v. gravity making paper airplanes with distance and time in flight as the goal. Then we talked buoyancy and constructed paper boats to hold as many pennies as possible. $3.89 was the record. Then we built cars for a demolition derby. Many fine eggs lost their lives that day. Finally, we summed it all up with Rube Goldberg Machines. Here are a few examples:

BUGS!!
We started down by the pond finding water bugs and beetles and nymphs of other insects while we built our classroom aquarium. Then to the grassy fields to chase dragonflies and build up our terrarium. Notables had to be Abby's GIANT water bug, Ethan's Polyphemus moth,h and the ecdysis of the cicada on the tree outside. We wrapped up with a bug scavenger hunt, but before that we had fun looking at the smallest 'bugs' like this ostracod in a microscope:

Project WILD
Project WILD is a curriculum and activity guide set up by the Council of Environmental Education. Some of the activities we did this summer included: the Thicket Game(a kind of predator/prey hide-n-seek), animals as national symbols, micro odyssey, and dilemma cards. Here are a few finds from the micro odyssey:

Here are the three dilemma cards selected by the last class:
Brodie:  You are fishing at a secluded lake and have caught 2 fish on your first day at the lake.  Now, on the second day, the fishing has been great, and you have caught 5 fish in the first hour, all of which are bigger than yesterday's fish.  The law allows you to possess 12 fish.  Would you:

• Continue to fish and keep all fish?
• Dispose of the smaller fish you caught yesterday, and keep the big ones to stay with in your limit?
• Have fish for lunch?
• Quit fishing and go for a hike?

Jon:  You are out in the woods with a friend when you spot a hawk perched on a high limb.  Before you realize what is happening, your friend shoots the hawk.  An hour later, you are leaving the woods and are approached by a state wildlife officer who tells you a hawk has been illegally shot and asks if you know anything about it.  Would you:

• Deny any knowledge of the incident?
• Admit your friend did it?
• Make up a story implicating someone else?
• Say nothing, but call the fish and wildlife officer later with an anonymous phone tip?

Jordan:  You are walking in the woods and come upon a young fawn.  There is no sign of the fawn's mother.  Would you:

• Leave the fawn where it is?
• Move the fawn to a sheltered area?
• Take the fawn home?

What would you do?

Grade 7 Week 24: Types of Forces - Pressure

How do we describe pressure?

For Contract 24 students will create experiments that show pressure or fluid forces.

Grade 8 Week 23: Solutions

Contract 23 has students researching the use of road salts or conducting a solubility lab for the class.

Grade 7 Week 23: Types of Forces - Gravity and Friction

What forces act on objects? How?
Compare and contracts gravity and friciton.

Contract 23 asks students to design activities that showcase gravity or friction.

Grade 8 Week 22: Endothermic v. Exothermic Reactions

Contract 22 has you inventing a lab that demonstrates an endothermic or exothermic reaction or teach the class how to balance chemical reaction equations.

Grade 7 Week 22: Newton's Second and Third Laws of Motion

Newton's Laws of Motion

Explain Newton's Second Law of Motion.
F=ma

Explain Newton's Third Law of Motion.
When one object exerts a force on another object, the second object exerts a force equal and opposite on the first object.

This week's contract has you create a lab inquiry that showcases Newton's Second or Third Laws of Motion.

Grade 8 Week 21: Chemical Reactions and the Law of Conservation of Mass

What is a chemical reaction?
What types of reactions are there?
How are they different?
C₂H₆ + O₂ à CO₂ + H₂O
Balance this equation.
Why must it be balanced?

Contract 21 has you inventing a lab that demonstrates a chemical reaction or teach the class how to balance chemical reaction equations.

Grade 7 Week 21: Newton's First Law

Newton's First Law

What is Newton's First Law?
What does it mean?

Week 21 has you inventing a lab that showcases Newton's First Law of Motion.

Grade 8 Week 20: Properties of Bonds

Electrons form bonds.


Compounds can be modeled.


Atoms can form molecules.

What are the different types of bonds and what are their unique properties?
How does a compound get its properties from its elements and their bonds?

Week 20 has you comparing bonds, or modeling molecules, or researching buckminsterfullerene.

Grade 7 Week 20: Speed and Acceleration

How do we describe speed?
How do we describe acceleration?
Using the graphs below, explain what is going on.


Graph A



Graph B



Week 20 Contracts again have you inventing a lab or activity that describes speed or acceleration.

Grade 8 Week 19: Compounds

Now that we know everything there is to know about elements and the Periodic Table...let's start combining elements for form compounds!  We are well on our way to ripping up these bonds, rearranging them, and blowing stuff up.

What are compounds?
How do compounds compare to the elements that make them up?

Contract 19 has you comparing your element from the previous weeks to the common compounds your element is a part of.

Grade 7 Week 19: Position and Motion

Now we begin our physical science unit on Physics.  We begin by looking at position of objects and the change in position we call motion.

How do we describe position?
How do we descirbe motion?



Week 19 Contract has you inventing a lab activity on position or motion.

Grade 8 Week 18: The Periodic Table of Elements

This week we look at how elements are arranged by their properties.  We will end by blowing stuff up, but we must first begin by finding the properties that makes that "stuff" blow up.

How are elements arranged on the periodic table?
What classifies elements into those groups?



Contract 18 has students using that same atom to fill in the periodic table on the ceiling or researching famous chemists.

Grade 8 Week 17: The Atom

This week we begin the physical science of chemistry.  We will end by blowing stuff up, but we must first begin by finding out what makes that "stuff" up.

How does an atom's structure determine the element's properties?



Contract 17 has students picking an element and contructing its atom or researching quarks.

Grade 7 Week 18: Control - The Nervous and Endocrine Systems

Our final day studying the human body will be spent examining the systems responsible for control and response.

What are the structures and functions of the nervous system?
What are the structures and functions of the endocrine system?



This week's contract choices deal with the nervous and endocrine system and their disorders.



Grade 7 Week 17: Reproductive System

This weeks topic:  the Reproductive System

What are the structures and function of the the reproductive system?



This week's contract focuses on the reproductive system and disorders of the system.

Oceans Webquest

No contract this week.

This week we focus on our new groups in an Oceans Webquest.

Questions are answered by filling out your projects form.

View spreadsheets of answers:

Coastal Development

Submarine Canyon Sludge

Kelp Forest Facial

Coral Reef Vacation

Sargasso Sea Salvage

All That Glitters

Running On Empty

Geoengineer Me a Copyright


Groups composed of a biologist, chemist, physicist, and geologist will come together on the final days of the week to decide the fate of the project. Then try to convince me. Good luck.

Grade 7 Week 16: Protection the Immune and Integumentary Systems

Our next step in the Human Body unit is to research those systems that protect us from a harsh world.

What are the structures and functions of the immune system?
What are the structures and functions of the integumentary system?
How do they work together to stop invasions of your body?

Contract Week 16 has you researching the two systems or disease of the systems.

Grade 8 Week 16: Ocean Resources

We finish out the ocean's unit by examining how we use the the ocean's resources.


What resources do we get from the ocean?
What are the effects of taking ocean resources?

Contract Week 16 already has a good start on a wikipage for each ocean animal effected by humans (check out the one on Elephant Seals (yeah, I did that one, but the one on Sharks is equally good(even better))), the use of aquaculture, and a visual on ocean pollution.

Grade 7 Week 15: The Circulatory System

Next stop on the Human Body Unit tour is the Circulatory System

What are the structures and functions of the Circulatory System?

Hey Lydia!  Check this out!  Taylor in 9th hour brought in this deer heart.  Check out the dissection and description before Kenny gets at it.

Contract Week 15 has you researching the circulatory system or a disease of the system.

Grade 8 Week 15: Oceans near the shore.

This week we begin the end of our Oceans unit.  We have looked at the systems and physics of the oceans.  Now we investigate the many, varied environments of the ocean.  We start near shore.

What are the characteristics of near shore environments?
What changes would animals living there need to deal with?
What adaptations do animals that live in a splash zone or intertidal zone have to survive there?

 

What different environments do you find as you go out on the continental shelf?
Describe those environments.

Contract Week 15 has you research how humans affect coastal waters, create a poster for our ocean environments wall, or design your own contract.

Challenge Projects

With deadlines just a few months away, I am again stumping for some participation in the EC Challenges.  Lets take a look at the two with the nearest deadlines.


We Can Change the World Challenge

The Siemens We Can Change the World Challenge middle school level encourages student teams, working with a teacher/mentor, to identify environmental issues of concern and create sustainable, reproducible improvements in their local communities.  Open to all middle school students in grades 6 -8 working in teams of two to four with a teacher/mentor.  The Challenge is open August 31, 2010 through March 15, 2011

Google Online Science Fair

Google is looking for the brightest, best young scientists from around the world to submit interesting, creative projects that are relevant to the world today.   Check out the offical source for information on the science fair at the Google Science Fair Blogger.

Grade 7 Week 14: Digestive and Urinary Systems

So far in our unit on the Human Body we have examined the Skeletal, Muscular, and Respiratory systems.  this week we look at the Disgestive and Urinary systems and how they process materials taking in nutrients and getting rid of wastes.

What are the structures and functions of the Digestive system?
What are the structures and functions of the Urinary system?

Contract 14 has you looking at structure and function of the digestive and urinary systems or researching diseases of those systems.

Grade 8 Week 14: Waves and Tides

Last week we looked at the oceans features and currents.  Now we focus on other motions in the oceans.



What are waves?
How do they form?
What causes tides?
What is the difference between currents, waves, and tides?

Contract 14 gives you the choice to design your own contract to teach the class about waves or tides.

Grade 7 Week 13: The Respiratory System

This week we examine the respiratory system.

What are the functions of the respiratory system?
How do the structures of the respiratory system work together to perform these functions?

Science on Prezi

Contract 13 has you examine the respiratory system and it's diseases.

Grade 8 Week 13: Under the Sea.

After working on the Earth's waters in general, we now focus on the main point of this unit: the Ocean.

What features are found at the bottom of the ocean?
What affects the density of salt water?
What effects do different densities of water have on the ocean?


Contract 13 gives choices to diagram the oceans features, examine the effects of the ocean on weather and climate, or to focus on the El Niño
 event.

Grade 7 Week 12: Muscular System

A week ago, we began our Body Systems Unit.  We looked at how all the systems interact and then specifically the Skeletal system.  This week we get specific with the system that works closely with the skeletal system:  the Muscular System.

What are the functions of the muscular system?
What systems does the muscular system interact with to maintain homeostasis in the organism?

This week's Contract Week 12 has us look in depth at the funtion of the muscular system - when it's working correctly and when it is not.

Grade 8 Week 12: Water moves on Earth

After our look at the water cycle we will be examining other ways water moves around the Earth. From last Friday's presentations - what are some other parts of the water cycle that we learned? (like sublimation)

How does freshwater move on Earth?
How does it move due to gravity?
How does it move as ice?
How does it move underground?

Contract week 12 has you look at how we get our water in Plymouth, the Great Lakes, and the eutrophication of Lake Sheboygan(the marsh).

Grade 7 Week 11: Body Systems

We begin our own new unit on the Human Body.  We will be looking at one or two body systems each week for the next few weeks.  Important questions:

How do these systems work together to maintain homeostasis?
What is the function of the skeletal system?
What systems interact with the skeletal system to maintain homeostasis?

Contract Week 11 has you examine body systems in general or our first highlighted system, the Skeletal System.

Grade 8 Week 11: The Water Planet

This week we begin our next unit of Earth Science.  We start by looking at water.

What is the water cycle?
How does the water cycle affect us?
Why do belly flops hurt?
Why does ice float?


Water Cycle Video by Peter Weatherall
Uploaded by peterweatherall. - Explore more science and tech videos.


Contract Week 11 has you researching the unique molecule of water or diagram the water cycle beyond just what the book portrays.