Week 3 and 4

I feel like this needs celebrating...

We have AIR CONDITIONING!

Technically, it's at 50% functionality right now, but that's far better than 85 degrees with 100% humidity in my class every day.

Week 3 began our first official unit that wasn't process-centered: The Flow of Energy.

Monday:

We used a foldable to help us learn our unit vocab. We spent about 10 minutes discussing the words together before I set them free to do their foldable. They were very familiar with this vocab, so I didn't want to spend an eon discussing it. I handed everyone two of the following...

If you google vocabulary foldable, this is the first link that comes up. It actually comes as a front/back page, but I wasn't yet proficient enough at front/back printing with our old risograph printer when I printed this, so I simply gave them a one-sided sheet.

The kids wrote the word and drew a picture on this front side (yes, they had to color).
They wrote the definition on the back side in the right hand column (on the reverse of where their name/date is).

Tuesday: Photosynthesis
I used a prezi to outline the ingredients, products, and process of photosynthesis.
http://prezi.com/opfbxgq8yqdv/photosynthesis/

The kids had a similar-looking notes page which we taped into their journals.

They took a few notes on this page as we went through the prezi.
Bottom right: Roots-absorb H2O/Water (filled in the molecule with HOH)
Trunk: Xylem-tubes that carry water from roots to leaves
Top Left: Leaves take in CO2/Carbon Dioxide (filled in the molecule with OCO)
Top Right: Glucose=Sugar C6H12O6

After the Prezi, we did an activity on the back of this sheet.

The kids were broken up into groups and given a baggie with centimeter cubes in it (because I lack snap cubes). The bag had 12H (red) 6C (orange) and 18O (blue).

I told the kids that the top 6 molecules were H20 and they filled those in. The next 6 are CO2, and they filled those in as well. We discussed how these, plus sunlight, are the ingredients in photosynthesis.

They had to build 6 water and 6 carbon dioxide molecules using their cubes.

Once they had that done, we labeled the Glucose molecule at the bottom. They broke apart their ingredients and made the glucose...and figured out what they had left over (Oxygen).

I had a number of Ah-Ha! moments when they realized that THAT is how trees give off oxygen!


Wednesday:
We played catch-up on a lot of things that we'd fallen behind on. We taped a few pages into our journals, finished up some lesson review pages out of our (Consumable) textbooks, and studied vocabulary

Thursday: Stomata Lab
I used my (semi) free time on Wednesday to set up their stomata lab. I had intended for them to do the setup but we needed Wednesday to catch up. Plus, as I discovered, the peeling of nail polish off of leaves is rather tricky.

The stomata lab exists in different versions. I decided to do it this way:

1. Paint a swab of clear nail polish on the underside of a few leaves (still connected to the plant).
2. Wait for polish to dry (this requires a lot of patience)
3. CAREFULLY peel the polish off and place it on a microscope slide...add cover slip
4. View on low>medium>high power and draw stomata

My original intent was to have them view stomata from a plant that had been in the dark, and some from a plant that had been in the light. However, I must have removed the "light" plants too early from the outdoors as most of their stomata were still closed. I wanted the kids to see both open and closed and compare them, but apparently I get to work too early *overachiever*

Still, they had fun, and got a better understanding of what a stoma is.

Friday:
The kids took their Vocab Quiz.
After, we talked about producers, primary/secondary consumers, and decomposers. We practiced picking them out of sample ecosystems (desert, arctic, and forest).

Week 4

Monday: Compost Lab
The kids were split into 4 groups, and each had a 2 liter bottle, potting soil, salad (from the school lunch on the previous friday, kept in my fridge over the weekend), apples/oranges (also from friday's lunch), and some plants from my garden (that my mother had pulled over the weekend).

They layered the ingredients in the following order (top layer on top, bottom on bottom)
Soil
plants
soil
apples/oranges
soil
salad
soil

My compost bottles from 5 weeks ago are looking great! They're almost completely composted. Here's a pic lab station 1's bottles

Tuesday: Food Chains
We spent the day talking about food chains.

I had the kids set up a page in their journal for all of this week's notes. They divided a page into thirds. One per day we spent talking about this stuff:
1. Food Chains-show the flow of energy from one organism to another
[   ] > [   ] > [   ]
The kids filled in the boxes with Producer, Primary Consumer, Secondary consumer.
We took a few minutes to point out what the arrows mean. I had seen a STAAR question about that and wanted to drive that point home. They DO NOT show you what is eating what. They show the direction of the flow of energy!

Wednesday:
2. Energy Pyramids-show the amount of energy that is transferred from one level to another
We drew an energy pyramid, filled it in with Producer, Primary Consumer, Secondary consumer. We talked about the 10% rule.

To help them visualize it, I separated 500 centimeter cubes into bags. I used the C-scope 10% rule activity sheet as a guideline. I showed how much energy goes to the following:
Unused sunlight 20% (yellow cubes)
Photosynthesis: 30% (green cubes)
Reproduction: 30% (red cubes)
Respiration: 10% (blue cubes)
Stored in body: 10% (passed on to primary consumers) (45 white cubes, 5 black)

We talked about where that 90% energy was going, and how the 10% is what we'd get if a rabbit ate the plant. We then took it one step further.
Now that the rabbit has that energy (50 cubes)...
10% respiration
20% digestion
30% reproduction
30% movement
10% stored (passed onto secondary consumers) (5 cubes left)

The kids were shocked at how much energy is lost along the way!

Thursday
3. Food Webs
We're discussing this tomorrow. After, I plan on having them making a food web poster, using whatever animals and plants they want. I'm going to ask for 2 producers, 3 primary consumers, and 3 secondary consumers, plus 1 decomposer. They must have their web labeled and colored.

They'll finish these up on Friday.

It's 7:30 on a Wednesday and I'm just about ready for bed. Ms. Kat is pooped! And sore from Drill Team practice yesterday = )

Peace, Y'all
Ms. Kat

Week 2

Has another week already gone by? I think someone must be tampering with the time/space continuum.

This week was a little rougher than the first. The excitement over starting school has worn off, and the kids are settling into their 'oh we're going to be here for a loooong time' mentality. They're a little more grumpy this week.

As a department, all 3 science teachers decided to devote this second week to the Scientific Method. We thought this might be a good idea to prevent us from having to introduce it each and every time we do a lab.

Monday (holiday)

Tuesday- We covered Empirical Evidence, and scientific Explanations using our textbook. We also talked about good and bad sources (books, websites, journals, blogs, etc).

Wednesday- We discussed what Scientific Laws and theories are. We used a set of self-made cards with different laws and theories on them, and the kids had to sort them into stacks. We made a venn diagram in our science notebooks to compare and contrast the two. We also talked about what models were, and looked at the benefits and limits of using them.

We watched this mythbusters clip and the kids picked out the benefits and limits of the model they used. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cu0uNPFCf68

Thursday- The kids designed an experiment to test how plant seedlings responded to light. The kids already knew that plants grow toward light. The purpose of the lab was to teach scientific method, to make them actually go through the steps.

I had the kids bring in small cardboard boxes (shoe boxes, cereal, cake mix, snack bar boxes) and I grew about 30 cucumber seedlings in plastic baggies. The seedlings were planted about 1 week before the experiment, and most were about 7 inches tall by this time. I transferred them to cups to separate them and help them stand up.

The kids were tasked with cutting a hole somewhere in the box and positioning their plant-in-a-cup.

I had them write up their lab like this:

Plant Growth Lab

Hypothesis: If _____________ then ______________________.

"If we place a seedling inside a box, with only one hole where light can enter, then the seedling will grow toward the light."

(I ask my kids to use If, then statements for their hypothesis)

Materials: small box, cucumber seedling, plastic cup, scissors, sunlight

Procedure:
1.

2.

3.

(I had them write their procedure within their group)

Data:

Here I had them draw two boxes. They had to draw a before and after picture.

Conclusion: When we ______________ to ________________, _____________ happened. My hypothesis was (correct/incorrect).

"When we placed our seedling inside the box and left it outside, the plant grew toward the hole on the side of the box. My hypothesis was correct.

This is the form I generally like for their hypothesis to be in. It provides a summary, tells me their results, and goes back to their hypothesis.

We set our labs up on Thursday, and I put the boxes outside that afternoon. I retrieved them Friday morning and the kids did their conclusions Friday. I really should have left them out there for another day (moved what we did Wednesday in-between the two lab days) so the plants had more of a chance to grow. Oh well, lesson learned!

I will upload pictures of our plant labs, as well as the Law Theory cards soon. They're on my work computer and I completely forgot to bring them home!

Peace, love, and Science,

Ms. Kat

Week 1

Oh my Glob!

School began a whole 4 days ago. We are already almost done with the first week of school! Time is passing with a quickness I had not anticipated. I can't say that's a bad thing though.

Both my new 7th graders and I are still getting into the swing of things. Each day goes a little better than the last, which is excellent.

To sum up the week so far:

Monday- I had students fill out their About Me pennants while I told them about myself. We went over some of the classroom expectations and procedures. I broke the kids into 6 groups and sent them to their lab stations, where they were to study a sheet about one of the major procedures in our class (make-up work, rewards, consequences, class library, NOISE letters and Exit Tickets). They then had to present that procedure to the class. We finished up with a few more basic things like the No Name board, how to enter and leave, and how to get my attention when they needed help (more on that later). We finished up with a video from John Green: http://youtu.be/x78PnPd-V-A

Tuesday- We started Lab Safety. I passed out the Science Is A Blast sheet (from C-scope) and had the kids work in pairs to identify all of the lab rules being broken. They circled each one and numbered them. Then they wrote on the back which rule was being broken. we went over it as a class, and I collected this as their first Daily Grade!

Wednesday- We watched a Video by Hank Green, found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRWRmIEHr3A (also available on Schooltube).
We then used a set of matching cards to match a scenario to a lab rule. They had 10 rules and 10 scenarios in a plastic baggie, and worked in groups (each set of tables was a 'group,' from 4-6 kids). We finished up by talking about our Unit Project: Lab Safety Brochure. I gave the kids a rubric and explained how it worked. We folded our brochure and went over exactly what needed to be in the brochure.

Here are the instructions I gave the kids for setting up the brochure:

Fold a sheet of paper (we used neon color paper) into thirds. I had them hold it so it was landscape, then bend the left side over a little more than half-way, bend the right side over on top, even the edges out, then Smush!

The front is the title page. They need to have a title about lab safety, and it needs to be easy to read and big enough that I can see it from a few feet away.

I had them flip over onto the back and write their name down at the bottom. On this same side, I had them write the number 5 at the top (in either corner).

Once they opened up to the middle, I had them number the left column 1, the middle 2, and the right 3. Then they folded that right panel in, and gave it a 4.

They're going to finish their brochures Thursday. They'll be due Friday before they take their Lab Safety Quiz.

Until later,

~Ms. Kat

Exit Ticket and No-Name Update

The new school year is just around the corner, and if your school is anything like mine, you're knee-deep in professional development. We've got 9 straight days of it, and I'm awash in a sea of activity, but I wanted to take a moment to share a few things.

First, an update to my No-Name board. I finally figured out how I was going to physically use the letters. I used double sided sticky pads to attach the letters to a poster board, and glued clothes pins along the bottom.

My school colors are actually Orange and White but I made the letters a few months ago before I got this job. There's no washing the PN-G Pride out of us life-long Indians!

Second, I wanted some type of Exit Ticket system. This is what I came up with.

I have little baskets set on each pair of desks (since my desks seat 2). I plan on putting an exit ticket for each student in these baskets. When the kids are walking out the door, they slip their exit ticket into a folder. Got it means they completely understood. Kinda means they are in the process of mastery, but need more work. What means 'jeeze Ms. Lynch I have no idea what any of that means!'

This is a very quick way to see if/how many your students understand the content, and how comfortable they are with their understanding. The exit tickets don't have names or numbers, so it's entirely anonymous.

Alright, back to constructing/planning/organizing for the coming year.  2 weeks til we begin!

~Ms. Kat

Compost bottles Prep

Happy August, Internet!

I've been up to my neck in busy since landing my job. I had the entire first 6 weeks of school rigorously planned out, powerpoints made, labs planned, activities designed....

And then my principal called and asked me to teach 7th grade instead of 8th!

Honestly, I don't mind. I actually prefer 7th grade as it's mostly Life Science (and I majored in Biology). Plus, I had about 6 weeks of lessons already planned for when I was trying to get a job at my Student Teaching school, so it's not nearly the hassle it might have been.

I'm writing today to share my summer prep on a lab we'll be doing mid-September. In the middle of our "flow of Energy" unit, we cover the following...
TEKS 7.5 (B)...demonstrate and explain the cycling of matter within living systems such as in the decay of biomass in a compost bin

I recall my mentor teacher's neighbor taught a class of 7th grade, and they did compost bottles early in the year. I decided it would be an excellent activity for my kiddos. I'll publish the powerpoint and journal pages later when we actually get to the lesson, but there's a little pre-planning and work that I need to take care of first. If you're planning on doing compost bottles, you might want to follow my lead on this.

Composting takes time. Like, weeks of time. I didn't want the kids to go through all the work of making these compost bottles only to move on to another unit before they could see in any results. So I decided to make a few compost bottles today, allow them to do their thing for 5-6 weeks, and bring them up to school during the "lets check our bottles" day I have budgeted (about a week after the kids do their bottles). This way, the kids could see what will eventually happen to their bottles without the hazards of time travel = )

There's tons of resources out there on how to do compost soda bottles but here's my take.

I pulled the labels off of 2-liter coke bottles and used an x-acto knife to cut the top off...at about the first ring...where the bottle curve turns into being straight sides.

I then rounded up my ingredients.

I found the following in the bottom of my fruit/veggie drawer in the fridge:

 Two immensely rotten (and fungus-y) cucumbers and some half-rotten radishes.  BLEGH. I have a traditionally strong stomach, but even that made me queasy. Had to clean out the whole drawer, and promise myself to be far more vigilant with respect to that drawer in the future.

Since I don't believe in coincidence, I took this as a sign that I was supposed to be making compost bottles today (tomorrow is trash day and they would have gotten thrown out).

I was also fortunate in that my mother pulled weeds from the fence-line and garden a few days ago.

I also had a half a bag of potting soil from our spring gardening at my disposal.

I wish we still got the newspaper, because I would have loved to use that. And if I'd thought about it, I'd have used our coffee grounds from this morning. Things to remember in a few weeks!

At any rate, I layered soil, rotting veggies, watermelon rind (from lunch!), grass, and mists of water until the bottle filled up.

Once full, I shoved the cut off tops into the bottles. I used my x-acto knife to poke small holes along the sides so we could get some air in there. I plan on shaking them once a week to aerate.



If all goes well, the kids will have three 5-week old compost samples to compare theirs to. Here's hoping!

I also found this cool game, and I plan on letting the kids play after we finish up the lab. http://compost4fun.recyclenow.com/


I'm not sure if we'll have computers at every desk like I'm used to, but even if we don't, I can run the game and they can tell me what to grab. They'll enjoy it regardless.

Hope August is treating you all well!
Ms. Kat

New job! and NOISE

Hello there, internet! I have some splendorous news!

My first interview landed me a job! I'll be teaching 8th grade science at a Junior High about 25 minutes away. It's one of the best schools in the area. It's a lot like my dream school (the one I attended and student taught at).

I'm also going to be taking on the Drill Team! I haven't received much info on it yet, but it shouldn't be too much of an issue. I was in DT in high school, and I recall a lot of our practices. Hopefully I'll have a little bit of help! I've already been through CPR and Concussion training these past 2 days (hitting the ground running indeed), and I met the High School DT sponsor yesterday. I feel stressed and a bit crazy, but I'm taking it one day at a time.

It's really lucky that I decided to outline the first 6-weeks of each grade level this summer. I have a plan made up for our first 6-weeks (which is technically only 5 weeks), and I'm working on my beginning of the year, welcome to my class, here's how things work lesson right now. So exciting!


I wanted to mention one thing that I failed to bring up last time. This goes along with the noise level chart. I made these letters from unfinished wood letters and scrapbooking paper. When students become too loud for a particular noise level, you remove the E and give them a warning. If they become too loud again, you remove the S and they are to work in silence for 5 minutes. If they get too loud a third time, you remove the I and you're left with NO. That means NO more talking for the rest of the class.

I tend to design my group work where it's possible to complete independently. I prefer them to work in groups because they have more fun, bounce ideas off each other, and learn better. But group work is a privilege. It requires maturity and self-control. If they show me they can't handle it on that particular day, they will be working solo.

I'll be terribly busy for the next month while preparing for school, so I probably won't be able to post much, but I'll try to pop in and share my lessons and other odds and ends as I go.

May the Science be with you,
Ms. Kat

Procedural Tidbits

Welcome back! Today I'd like to cover a few procedural bits and pieces.

First up...the noise meter!

Science is unique in that students perform labs. Even if I weren't a project and group-work oriented teacher, I would need some kind of way to let the kids know what noise level I find acceptable.

There are a number of cool online apps that utilize a microphone to listen to class noise levels and display them graphically. But the computers at work aren't hooked up to a microphone, so they don't register the sound. As an alternative, I've developed a noise level poster.

The poster has 4 sections.
1. No talking- this is used for independent work, quizzes, tests, and solo projects
2. Whisper Voices- this is used when we pair up into groups of 2. I ask for a whisper or very low tone during partner work.
3. Presentation voices- this is used when the kids are either presenting a project, or when they come up to the board to interact with the mimio. Only those presenting have permission to talk, and those seated must remain silent. The presenters are reminded to speak up so everyone can hear (kids get so loud when talking to the person next to them, but ask them to project in front of the class and they whisper!)
4. Group work- this is used for group projects, activities, and lab work.

At the beginning of the day, I set the noise meter using a moveable arrow. Usually, it will begin on silent, as I like to start all classes off in full control. Plus, the kids have board work they need to complete, and agendas to take down. All of that is best done without speaking.

If I'm presenting a lesson using some form of lecture, or a mimio, or powerpoint, or even prezi, I change the spinner to Presentation voice. I like to think I'm setting a good example and allowing them to practice for when others are up at the board. Kids must raise their hands during presentation voice level for recognition to speak, regardless of who is at the board.

It's a very flexible system that can be changed in seconds. If the kids are doing a project that doesn't necessarily require talking (like working on a solo powerpoint presentation) and I allow them to talk quietly (spinner set to partner work), sometimes they get out of hand. After reminding them to quiet down, all I need to do is set the spinner to silent and it remains there for 5-10 minutes. After time is up, the have little trouble keeping their voices down.


Next up is my No-Name Paper procedure

I recently found a pin on pinterest which shows a cup with the words "Did you remember to write your name?" sharpied on it. And since I never miss an opportunity to sharpie a mug, I had to make one for myself. Highlighters are placed in the cup, and when kids turn in their papers, they must highlight their name.

Also, just in case the system doesn't take right away, or kids just plain forget (you know how middle schoolers are) I created a no-name plackard. I'm not quite done with it yet, but the letters are done. I took regular wooden letters and single sheets of scrapbooking paper from hobby lobby (they are literally two aisles apart!) and made these gorgeous school-color letters. Just set the paper face down, set the letter face down as well (be careful! Keep in mind that the side of the paper facing down is the side that you want showing. Not all letters are symmetrical, so when you flip the paper over, it might not line up with the letter), trace, cut out, and hot glue!

Please excuse the lion canvas. It was the perfect place to set the letters, though = )

I plan on buying a wooden plaque from hobby lobby and attaching them to it. Then, by some means of mechanical manipulation, also attaching paper clips. You can find examples of this project on pinterest by searching for no-name papers.





I had planned on including my makeup-work system in this post, but I haven't had the chance to organize it yet, and I like to take pictures of everything, so I'll leave that for another day.


Until next time,
Ms. Kat