I can't believe another school year has come and gone. I had a lot of fun with my MS Life and Physical Science classes this year. Also, had some HS students to shake things up. I'm wishing you all a very happy summer, and look forward to my week of teaching during summer school. Students who will remain on campus over the summer get to participate in 5 weeks of STEM focused activities from June 11th through July 13th. Two teachers will return each week to guide classes through fun, hands on lessons in between a little math and reading remediation. In addition to the regular summer activities and outings, the kids should be kept busy and learning! I will have access to email over the summer, so please let me know if you need anything or have any questions! Please join us for our MUSEUM WALK on Friday, February 24 from 1:00 to 3:00 PM at the school. Students will be presenting their research on famous African Americans throughout history. Drumming performances will take place outside the school at 1:45 and 2:15 PM.
EARTH SCIENCE: The Earth Science class has been studying the Planets and the Solar System. We are learning that the solar system consists of planets and their moons, comets, meteoroids and asteroids that all orbit the Sun. They worked really hard on a large mural of the Solar Systems with planets, stars, moons and fun facts. PHYSICAL SCIENCE The Physical Science class has been working on Energy, Forces and Motion. We have done lots of projects demonstrating potential and kinetic energy, energy transformations and the the law of conversations of energy. We ended our semester with an activity called BOMBS AWAY! where students design and build devices to protect and accurately deliver dropped eggs. The devices and their contents represent care packages that must be safely delivered to people in a disaster area with no road access. Similar to engineering design teams, students design their devices using a number of requirements and constraints such as limited supplies and time. The activity emphasizes the change from potential energy to kinetic energy of the devices and their contents and the energy transfer that occurs on impact. Students enjoy this competitive challenge as they attain a deeper understanding of mechanical energy concepts. Although we had a lot of broken eggs, we did have several successes and a lot of fun! LIFE SCIENCE the Life Science class has been using a series of procedures called the Scientific Method to solve problems. An example of one of the worksheets we use is below. As we study life's structures there are lots of questions that can be asked. This method allows us to use critical thinking and problem solving skills to organize our investigations. The students also had a lot of fun creating different types of Dichotomous Keys. A Dichotomous Key is a tool scientists use to identify organisms.
I can't believe we are at the end of our first quarter of school, but we are! Progress reports will be coming out this next week. For students in my first quarter math and science classes, I give equal grades for classwork, tests and participation. These are averaged for a final quarter grade. Students who participate and complete their assignments should do well. I also give students an opportunity to correct answers on tests after we review them for additional credit.
We are on Fall Break from Thursday, October 6th through Monday, October 10th. Students will return to class on Tuesday, October 11th. We will also have a new schedule when students return. I will now only be teaching middle school science. The new middle school team is Ms. Marisa (ELA), Mr. Andre (SS), Mr. Mike (Math), and Ms. Gail (Science). You can view their websites from the Hillside Conant School homepage at www.hillsideconantschool.weebly.com If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at [email protected] or by phone at (404) 875-4551 x342. Enjoy the cooler weather as fall arrives! The MS2 class has been studying cell structure and function for plant and animal cells. We ended our unit with a cooperative activity where students grouped together to create an animal and a plant cell with different organelles and labels. The students also had fun making an edible cell with jello (Cytoplasm), a plum (Nucleus), gummy worms (Endoplasmic Reticulum), M and M's (Mitochondria), raisins (Centriole), and several other treats in a ziploc bag (Cell Membrane)!
This week both science classes learned about the Scientific Method of Observation and conducted several science experiments using this format. We tested whether tennis balls dropped faster going straight down, or by being pushed and rolled first. We also discovered that adding liquid dish soap to water interfered with it's cohesiveness and surface tension so that a penny would not hold as many drops of soapy water as a penny with plain water. The best experiment was on Friday, where we dropped Mentos candy into two different types of soda and watched the reaction. The Mentos react with the carbonation and the artificial sweetener in the soda. We had done some research earlier in the week by watching videos and picked the two sodas we thought would have the greatest reaction. It was quite exciting and a great way to end the week!
I am very excited to be part of the Hillside Conant School team. As a former Special Education Teacher and Principal, I am thrilled to be back in the classroom as an elementary and middle school math and science teacher. I have been with Hillside since March of 2015 as a tutor, and I'm very passionate about working with the students in the Conant School Program.
This school year, I have two groups of students for math and science. EM1 is 4th-6th grade, and MS2 is currently all 7th graders. We have spent the first two weeks of school getting to know each other and how the classroom operates. I will be posting what we are working on, with some pictures and updated pacing charts, so you can check in to see what's going on as the year progresses. One of the focuses this year will be to add arts into the curriculum. Every now and then we will take time to explore how drama, visual arts, music and movement connect with science and math. Please feel free to contact me via the website home page, by the school email at [email protected] or by phone at (404) 875-4551 x342. I will return calls during my planning period or after school. It's going to be a great year! |