A space where students can read and respond to ideas and information Mr. Delemeester shares for and about our classroom. The four rules for all posts and comments on this site are that they must be Responsible, Respectful, Honest and Caring.
Taylor M. found that placing her "eggsperiment" in Karo Syrup drew a significant amount of water out of the egg (the circumference changed from 16.6 cm to 12.3 cm) because of the osmotic pressure gradient created by the syrup.
Taylor's eggsperiment shows that creating osmotic pressure with salt, brine, or sugar solutions was an effective method to remove water and slow the metabolism (growth) of microorganisms to preserve food before the widespread use of refrigeration in the modern era.
Today I have set aside time to thank the donors who contributed money so that we could purchase a high quality 3D printer for our classroom. Expectations from the DonorsChoose organization are:
An excellent way we can demonstrate our character traits of being respectful, responsible, honest and caring is to fulfill our obligation to the donors who supported our classroom by completing the actions suggested by the Donors Choose organization.
1. We will take a picture of each class showing objects that we printed. We will also take pictures of student designed 3D objects or of objects that you felt were really neat or significant. I will upload these to the website.
2. Students will write thank you letters - creative and fun letters are great! The letters should be appropriate and could explain how using Tinkercad and a 3D printer caused you to think differently about what is possible in our futures or how they encouraged you to design or enjoy some object you created. For example, do you remember the 3D printed heart we read about? You don't need to mention the heart in your letter, but you might consider mentioning something else you have thought about.
3. Mr. Delemeester will upload the pictures and read the thank you letters. He will then write an overall impact statement thanking the donors.
On Friday our students were busy creating parts for a rollercoaster, building robots, using microscopes, coding, and finishing up some cards for veterans. Thank you to Mr. Loper, Mrs. Richardson, and Mrs. Rodriguez for helping our students with their projects this week. We appreciate Mrs. Wickerham, Mrs. Hornak and Mrs. Kieffer for accomodating our need for more space and for helping our students find artistic expression and compassion in our world of science, technology, engineering, and math. Thanks also to Ms. Kuchar for fostering an environment where we are encouraged to try new ways to think and to improve our school.
Students,
I am attending to family matters today so have prepared a list of activities and information to share with you while I am gone. We will have a guest teacher and I expect you to be polite and demonstrate EXCELLENT behavior.
REVIEW
Use the Chromebook and Check Powerschool
Look at your test grade. The overall class performance was excellent. The test results are evidence that most students understood the information in our first unit, kept good notes, and were able to master this test. Way to Go!
Look for missing assignments. A few students turned in assignments without their name written on them. If you did not have a name on your assignment, were absent, or forgot to turn in an assignment Powerschool will show a flag indicating a missing assignment.
Correct and Return, or turn in if you Forgot or were Absent, any assignments missing in PowerSchool.
You should add your name, correct the assignment before turning it in, then hand it in to the bin to receive credit.
Tape or Glue Metric Mania into your notebook(With a Title and Date on the entry). Make sure that the STEPS for METRIC CONVERSIONS are easily read. You can use these notes in the future whenever you need to do metric conversions.
NEW
Log on the chromebook, open Gizmo then launch the "Seasons in 3D" Gizmo and complete the assessment.
The assessment is below the Gizmo. Drag two fingers from the top toward the bottom of the touchpad of your chromebook to scroll down to the assessment. The picture at the right shows the assessment questions are below the Gizmo.
You may work together with one other student while taking the assessment, but all students must complete the assessment so that I can see results for each student on Gizmo.
Begin the 5E Measuring Lab
We are starting a lab on measuring today. The first three activities to do are
Watch It
Read It
Research It.
The directions for each activity are taped on the table. There are some spare copies if you move around, but please return the directions to the appropriate table when you complete the activity.
The answers for these activities should be recorded on the MEASUREMENT lab answer sheet. Each student will have their own copy of the answer sheet. Please place the answer sheet in the bin at the end of class. I know you may not get done with all three activities today but that is OK because we will continue working on this lab tomorrow.
Remember that I expect you to have EXCELLENT behavior for the Guest Teacher. If you get done early please sit quietly at your table and read, do homework for another class, or some other non disruptive activity. You MAY NOT listen to music on your cell phones or IPods.
A new tool we used during this lesson was "Gizmo". Hopefully this new tool will help us better understand the significance of the change in seasons that occurs at 4:02 pm.
It's Hurricane season! According to the National Weather Service the hurricane season in the Northern Hemisphere lasts from June through November. As you are reading this one of the most powerful hurricanes ever recorded is heading towards the U.S. Lets take this opportunity to learn more about hurricanes.
Task
Your group will create a poster about hurricanes with four quadrants. Each group member is responsible for one of the quadrants. The topic and requirements for each quadrant is listed below.
Create a panel on a half sheet of blank paper. Each member must put their name on their panel.
When completed, glue your panel onto the poster board in your quadrant.
Assemble poster; it should have a title and be neat and easy to read.
Quadrants (Topics)
MAP: Hurricane PathYou will be provided with a map of the world. Using the illustration on page 105 in "A Golden Guide to Weather" shade the areas where hurricanes form and draw arrows to show the direction in which the hurricanes travel. Read the section titled 'Sources and Paths of Hurricanes' on page 105 and write a short summary underneath your map.
DRAW: Energy and FormationInformation on this topic can be found on pages 104-110 in "A Golden Guide to Weather" and on page 19 in "Hurricane!" Using the information on these pages and the diagram on page 9 of "Hurricane!" draw a diagram of hurricane formation.
DISCOVER: Hurricane IrmaThis task requires mapping and researching skills. Use the Atlantic basin hurricane tracking map to sketch the current predicted path of hurricane Irma. You may use Google to look at images of the path - make sure to check how old they are! Use a Chromebook locate recent news articles about Irma and answer the following questions:
What category hurricane is Irma?
Where in Carribean did Irma make landfall?
What are the sustained wind speeds in Irma?
What is the significance of Irma? What makes it stand out from previous hurricanes
FIND: Hurricane FactsThis task requires reading for information. Using “A Golden Guide to Weather” pgs 104-110 and internet search engines, answer the Hurricane Facts Questions. Restate the question in your answer. List your answers in bullet point form on your panel in a neat and organized manner.
I had a great holiday weekend completing some barnyard repairs, gathering with family and friends, mowing the lawn, harvesting some early pumpkins and grilling red peppers!
I'm ready to get back to school and hope you are too.
We will begin today by reviewing our assignments on Powerschool and talking about our Scientific Method Lab from last week.
Your first assignment today has two steps...
grilled red peppers to add zest to our meals
Review Powerschool and finish (or make a note in your planner to finish) any overdue or late assignments.
Choose two of the Scientific Method lab activities that you liked best and paste them into your science notebook.
Students in Science 7 are engaged in our first lab: The Scientific Method. In this lab they are working in small groups to explore, draw, read, watch, write, organize and evaluate what happens when we "do" science.
Seventh Grade students at New Lothrop Jr. / Sr. High School began their year by spending some time on Friday, August 25th thinking about Genius Hour projects they could become involved in this school year. The students identified robotics, 3D printing, coding and general research in a topic of their choice as their highest priority in the comments section of the first post in the class blog.
Stay tuned for more information as we work on STEM Enrichment this year!
I hope you had a good break. I am interested in hearing what you did over the summer! On the first day of school Mr. Delemeester and the students will answer warm-up questions and then use the warmup answers to share their names and an interesting fact about themselves. After we introduce ourselves we will navigate to MrDelemeester.com and look at some of the topics we will be studying in Science Class this year and review class procedures and teacher expectations.
We will also discuss how Mr. Berthiaume (the Superintendent of New Lothrop Area Public Schools) and Ms. Kuchar, (our new High School Principal) have agreed to allow some time during class to try innovative Science Technology Engineering and Math (STEM) enrichment activities.
Our goal for the first two days of class will be to become familiar with each other, gain an overview of science class, become introduced to the classroom rules and teacher expectations, and to think about something special and challenging that we can do this year.
We will watch a video published by Gallit Zvi, an elementary school teacher and Vice Principal in Surrey, British Columbia, Canada and review a list of idea starters provided by a teacher named Denise Krebs who currently teaches English to 5th Grade Students in Bahrain (don't know where that is? Google It!).
I would like students to consider things we could do with our special time...
Write a Novel
Share Your Knowledge
Design a Video Game
Build a Killer Robot
Direct a Blockbuster Movie
Compose a Symphony
Change the World
Some questions we should ask about ourselves and the world around us are...
What new idea do you want to develop?
What have you been wanting to try?
What skill can you master?
What tool can you learn that will help you work better?
What tool could help you create something beautiful?
What tool could help you communicate better?
How can we make it better?
How can we make each other better?
How do we know this to be so?
Is this what is needed most?
What is it we hope to accomplish and what’s stopping us?
What are we most proud of?
What is possible?
When can we start?
How will we prevent failure?
How can we make this happen?
Who can make this happen?
What do we regret most?
How can we make the best use of…?
What if we…?
Finally I want students to investigate the STEM Enrichment section at MrDelemeester.com and look at the opportunities that we would like to offer students this year. Spend 10 to 15 minutes investigating any of the links on my website that you find interesting and discuss them with Mr. Delemeester and your classmates.
The assignments for the first two days of school are to review the syllabus and expectations documents handed out in class with their parents and return them signed, and to think of something special to do this year and add a comment about it to this blog post.
