Grade 7 Week 17: the Nervous System

How do our bodies respond to internal and external stimuli?

What are the structures and functions of the nervous system?

Contract Week 17 has you researching the nervous system or a disorder of the system.

Grade 8 Ocean Biomes WebQuest

Assume the role of an ocean scientist as you and your group decide the fate of slated government projects that affect the oceans.

The Ocean Biomes WebQuest is an active review of our targets that has you assume the role of an ocean scientist(biologist, chemist, geologist, physicist) with a group of of scientists working on a project for the government.  Use and add to resources built over the five years of this dynamic activity to find solutions to issues regarding our us of the oceans.  Submit forms for your individual research and present your group findings this Friday.

Grade 7 Week 16: Protection

What are the structures and functions of the immune system?
How does the immune system interact with the other systems of the body?

What are the structures and functions of the integumentary system?

How does the integumentary system interact with the other systems of the body?




Contract Week 16 has you researching the immune or integumentary system or disorders of the system.

You should also be collaborating with your group to create a presentation and exam notes on The Human Body.

Grade 8 Week 16: Our Use of Ocean Resources

Describe ways we use the ocean as a resource.

What are the effects of this use?

How do we balance the need for these resources and the damand it puts on the ocean?



Contract Week 16 has you researching our influence on the oceans' organisms and other resources.

This week we will highlight the ups and downs of our use of ocean resources by watching the Nature program "Crash:  The Tale of Two Species" and research Super Survivors, or living fossils like the Horseshoe Crab.

Grade 7 Week 15: Transport

What are the structures and functions of the circulatory system?
How does the circulatory system interact with the other systems of the body?






Contract Week 15 has you researching the system or disorders of the system.

Grade 8 Week 15: Ocean Environments

This week we look at conditions at the varying zones of our oceans, the animals that live there, and our effects on those areas.

What are ocean conditions near shore?
What environments do you find near shore?
How are animals adapted to surviving ocean fluctuations in littoral(intertidal) areas?

How do conditions change as we move out to open (pelagic) ocean?

How are organisms adapted to life there as distance for shore changes?

...as depth changes?

Contract Week 15 has you looking at human influences on the shoreline, or creating a poster for the wall of a specific ocean zone.

Grade 7 Week 14: Digestive and Urinary Systems

What are the structures of the digestive system?
What are the function of those parts?

What is the function of the kidneys?

How does it do this?

Contract Week 14 has you researching the digestive or urinary system or a disorder of either of those systems.

Grade 8 Week 14: Waves v. Tides

What causes waves?

Why do waves break as seen in the picture above?
What near shore currents are caused by waves?
How can we use the energy transfered in waves to create energy?

What causes tides to fluctuate between low and high?
What are the effects of tides?
How can we use the energy in tides to create electricity?

Contract Week 14 has you designing your own contract that teaches the class more about waves and/or tides.  Good luck and be creative.

Grade 7 Week 13: Respiratory System

How does gas exchange occur in the lungs?
How are those gases involved in cellular respiration?
How did lungs evolve from gilled animals?

Contract Week 13 has you researching the structures, functions, and formation of the respiratory system or describing one unique disorder of the system.

Grade 8 Week 13: Ocean Systems - Currents

What causes water to move in currents?
What are the effects of currents on climate?

Contract Week 13 has you diagraming the ocean, researching how the oceans effect climate, and El Nino.

Grade 7 Week 12: Muscular System

We continue with form and function of the Human Body systems with the muscular system.

What is the function of the muscular system?
how does your muscular system interact with your skeletal system to move and support your body?

Contract Week 12 has you finding form, function, and formation or diseases of the muscular system.

Grade 8 Week 12: Freshwater

This week the goal is to find out where freshwater can be found and how we get it.  We will also look at the effects we have once we get it with our Groundwater Model.

How does freshwater move around us?
Where does Plymouth get its water?

Thursday we will be doing a little role-playing with the Groundwater Model.  Thoughts after using it?  How does our use of groundwater affect that part of the water cycle?

Contract Week 12 has you researching the past and future of Sheboygan Lake/Marsh due to eutrophication, creating a visual on the Great Lakes and the effects of our use, pollutants, and invasive species, and finally to find out finally...where does Plymouth get its water?

Grade 7 Week 11: The Skeletal System

We start our look at form and function of the Human Body systems with the skeletal system.

What does your skeletal system do for you and how does it do it?

Contract Week 11 has you finding form, function, and formation or diseases of the skeletal system.

Grade 8 Week 11: The Water Cycle

We learned in sixth grade about evaporation, condensation, and precipitation.  In eighth grade, let's get serious.  There are many ways that water moves in the world around us that we cannot see, or don't think about.

How does water mover throughout the atmosphere, the geosphere, the hydrosphere, and the biosphere?

Contract Week 11 has you adding to what you learned back in sixth grade about the water cycle and looking forward to chemistry by researching the weird molecule we call water.

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.