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.