Sept 28-30: Intro to Matter

This week 8th grade students will be taking their school pictures during science on Monday. Then on Tuesday and Wednesday we will start talking more about matter with matter notes and the state core standard 1 reading with an accompanying worksheet.

Sept 21-24: IOWA Testing and Review

This week, 8th graders are completing their IOWA testing during their core classes. They are tested on Reading, Language, Math, Social Studies, and Science. These tests will be split over 2 days, Monday and Wednesday. On Tuesday students will be going through a special schedule for "Collection Day" for Student-Led Conferences.

When we aren't doing the IOWA testing, we will be reviewing for the physical and chemical properties and changes quiz for rise and stretch. Students should study pg10 in their notebook especially and should be able to distinguish between properties and changes, and between physical and chemical reactions. The quiz will be held on Thursday.

Thank you for being patient with us while we do the state testing - I know it's not particularly fun for the students (and not really for me either).

Sept 14-18 : Physical & Chemical Changes

Students recently took their first quiz for Rise and Stretch based on the notes we took for the scientific method. I was very happy with their results, the vast majority passed with a 70% or better! The students who didn't pass will get the opportunity to be retaught and retested, so that they can better display their understanding. Remember that for students to attend the Stretch activity, they must pass all 3 of their core class quizzes (science, history, and English).

This upcoming week we will hopefully be making the student folders which we've been talking about since school began, but which haven't actually arrived yet (yes... I'm getting a little bit anxious to get them going).

To start off the week we'll be finishing the labs focused on the physical properties of matter (the candy lab and cornstarch lab - I'll try to get a video on the blog with visual instructions for playing with cornstarch at home if you want). Then we'll be working on some matter vocabulary, to help remind students about what they learned in 7th grade about atoms, states of matter, etc.

Building on last week when we talked about physical and chemical properties, this week we'll be looking at physical and chemical changes using some more notes and by watching chemical reaction demonstrations that I'll be performing for the class. Near the end of the week we will do a lab about mass (a physical property of matter) using pennies. If we have time we will work on a lab about the chemical reactions in combustion (I guess all scientists are really pyromaniacs at heart - we'll be very safe pyromaniacs, of course).

Sept 8 - 11 : Physical & Chemical Properties

This week we will be finishing up learning about variables and the scientific method. This is what the Rise and Stretch quiz will be on sometime later in the week (either on Wed. or Thurs.). Students will need to pass the quiz in order to participate in the "Stretch" activity. If they don't pass, they will be retaught in the "Rise" class and then retake the quiz.

Hopefully we will be making our class notebooks (folders) this week with all the assignments, labs, and notes for the quarter.

During the rest of our time students will start learning about the physical and chemical properties of different substances. We will be doing a candy classification activity and a cornstarch lab. That is, if we can get everything else done!

Parents - a special note to you. If you have not yet signed the Safety Contract (see link to the right), please do so ASAP so that your student can participate in our labs coming up. Secondly, please help your student remember to have a 10-15min. chat with you about their grades and about what we're doing in science class each week. They will have a blue sheet for you to sign each week (also to the right in the "Useful Links" section, if you need it). I hope that by checking in with your student each week, you'll have a better feel for where they are at and for what we've been doing in my class.

If you have any questions, please email me at:

katie.groneman@fortherriman.org

Thanks!

Aug 31- Sept 4 : Scientific Method

This week we have been reviewing and applying the scientific method. First, they identified the logical order for how to think through problems using an activity based on the famous work of Alexander Flemming who accidentally discovered penicillin. Although there are a lot of different steps taught for the scientific method, these are the ones we'll be using this year:

Purpose (question, observation, problem)
Research
Hypothesis (If...,then...)
Experiment (Materials & Procedures)
Analysis
Conclusion

The students applied the scientific method with a bubbles lab and took some more formal notes on the scientific method, controls, and variables.

8th graders also spent a day working with the TAG Team Pod (Together Achieving Greatness) looking specifically at appropriate behaviors in different areas in the school.

Students were also informed that they will have the opportunity to go to Physics Day at Lagoon sometime in the 4th Quarter - ONLY if they can maintain a C- or above in ALL their classes, and an S or higher in ALL their citizenship grades. We hope that every 8th grader can keep up their good work so that they can earn the privilege of coming with us.