Week of December 15

We have finished all notes for the upcoming test. Our test is Wednesday, December 17.

It covers passive transport (diffusion, osmosis & facilitated diffusion) and active transport (endocytosis & exocytosis). With osmosis, there are the three different types of solutions.

I will be available for tutorials on Tuesday, if your child would like some test studying help.

Week of December 8

What a busy week we had in science!

This was Microscope Week, starting with an introduction to microscope anatomy and ending with creating a wet mount slide to view.

Kids should have flash cards of parts and functions, which they hopefully are flipping through to learn. This week we will add more to the stack as we learn about processes cells undergo when taking in nutrients and getting rid of wastes.

We are starting our study of Cells In Action. This will cover the processes of diffusion and osmosis as well as endocytosis and exocytosis. We will continue to use flash cards to facilitate learning facts. We will also use diagramming with illustrations and we will build and/or use models of these processes as well.

For those who plan ahead, the test over Unit 4 is scheduled for Wednesday, December 17.

Extra Credit Opportunity: You must sign up to participate in this extra credit opportunity. Keep reading for details. ** In order to participate, you must sign up and bring the needed item - on a first come, first served basis. Click here for the link to signupgenius.com where I've posted the details and the sign up list. (To find the sign up sheet, you need to know my email address which is mharris@wcsks.com and the password is Spartans. All sign ups are at the given link, so please do NOT email me to sign up.) Once the spots are filled, my need has been met and only those who are first to sign up can earn the points. (Don't worry! We will have more needs as the year progresses!)

Week of December 1

December already? I hope you all enjoyed time with family over the Thanksgiving holiday, realizing how truly blessed you are! I hope that the attitude of gratitude encourages you to do for others, especially those less fortunate. It's a season of giving, of opening hearts to others. I hope that you and your family find a way to spread love and joy to others during this holiday season.

As for school, this week we will FINALLY start learning about and using microscopes.

Students will:

• continue to use flash cards to help learn facts. 
• learn microscope anatomy, naming parts and those parts' functions. 
• make wet mounts and see how microscopes affect images. 
• draw images at different magnifications.
• recognize what happens to one's field of view as magnification increases.

Later in this unit, we will view prepared slides of cells in action ... but that won't be for a couple weeks!

No quizzes or tests planned for this week. (Sigh of relief!)

Week of November 24

[The following was sent out as an email to all seventh grade parents and students.]

I have enjoyed seeing the creations used to help master the information presented in Unit 3. Most put forth acceptable effort on their project choices. I hope all learned facts while completing the project.

Remember, our test over this unit is on Monday, November 24. It covers four major concepts: (1) cell theory - people & its development, (2) prokaryotic, eukaryotic, and domains, (3) organelles & function, and (4) animal cells and plant cells. Remember, you have papers in your pronged folder that you should be reviewing, plus flash cards and notes on OneNote. Don't forget the game I showed you; the link is on the right side bar.

All projects have been graded and posted on Power School. Students, you will receive grading rubrics for project choices on Tuesday. At that time, you will have the opportunity to look at others' projects. If you see a ZERO as the grade for a project, I do not believe that a part was submitted. If you believe I'm in error, please email me to indicate what project I am missing that you submitted. (Remember, you can click on the item's grade on Power School to see a description so you know what parts I did receive.) Late project parts will be accepted on Monday, November 24.

Thank you for your diligent effort in science. Study for Monday's test!

Week of November 14

We are in the home stretch. If you're anything like me, you're looking forward to the Thanksgiving Break, which is really just around the corner. I'm especially excited because my college freshman will be coming home on Saturday. Oh, how I've missed my guy! Hopefully, some of you will get to meet him at the Thanksgiving program.

Back to reality ...

• Your child should now be able to name several organelles within a cell and state that organelle's function. We used PowerPoint slide presentations as well as illustrated analogies to help associate function with organelle. In addition, your child should have created flash cards to flip through for all the organelles and their functions.
• We created and critiqued presentation slides, recognizing the importance of proofreading when presenting information. Grammar matters, even in science!
• We continued improving our "flash card creating" technique to make studying facts more effective. Your child should have a big stack of cards, but each card should have one simple fact on it (as opposed to a list of bulleted facts or paragraphs of facts on the back). 
• Specific tutorials were offered during which flash cards were reviewed to ensure completeness and correctness. There were lots of kids who attended; I hope it helped those who joined in the learning fun! (I didn't check individual's cards, but I did go over specifically what cards should be in their "deck". As I did this, kids were supposed to mark those cards to indicate correctness and completeness.)
• We are facilitating organizational skills, utilizing a pronged folder to hold science papers. If you see your child's folder, note that my rule is once papers go in, they stay in. Hopefully, this will end the "I-can't-find-that-paper-in-the-stack-of-papers-in-my-backpack-or-in-the-stack-I-shoved-into-my-locker." If your son/daughter brings you a paper to sign for science and it isn't in the pronged folder, please note that I won't give credit if the paper isn't in the prongs. 
• On this week's quiz, the importance of details and specifically answering the question asked became obvious. We talked about common incorrect answers and how carefully reading the question asked is important. Attention to detail matters.
• This week we practiced nonfiction reading again. This is our third experience with this, and I am noticing an improvement in ability in this area.

All of these are skills that the kids will hopefully master over the course of the year. All are skills that will help them in the future. As always, thank you for your support at home as I try to incorporate these skills while teaching science content.

My plan for this week:
Monday 11/17: The second part of the cell project is due.
Tuesday 11/18: Quiz today over organelles and their functions
** Due date postponed - Fri 11/21: The third (and final) part of the cell project is due.

And, for those planning ahead:
Monday 11/21: Test over Unit 3

I know I've been mentioning microscopes for the past few weeks, but it has taken me a little (ok, a lot) longer to cover the other parts of this unit than I had predicted. No worries, though ... as we will cover microscope anatomy and use microscopes to view both prepared slides as well as wet mounts after the Thanksgiving holidays.

Don't forget: If you have questions or concerns, I'm just an email away!

Week of November 10

Be sure your son/daughter checked their email on Friday. I was off campus, but I sent an email with some important information. It was sent to each student's wcsks account.

This past week ...

Kids are getting more accustomed to the flash card method of studying. Please continue to remind your son/daughter to flip through the flash cards multiple times each day. The stack should be at least forty cards for the current unit; I know some kids have over 75 for this unit already. Again, more is better than less! {Please pick up a few packs of flash cards to keep at home. We have almost used up the 100-150 cards each student brought in at the beginning of last unit. Your son/daughter will need to have access to cards at home to complete future assignments.}

I was happy to see kids taking personal responsibility for their individual study tool, coming to a formal tutorial this week that was designed to confirm "correct & complete" sets of flash cards. I hope your son/daughter is finding this a reasonable way to study and that he/she is finding success as a result of this study tool. If yours isn't seeing a positive result, please encourage him/her to come to tutorials, specifically to create a "correct & complete" set of cards to study. 

On Monday {11/10}, please send your child to class with a three pronged folder, preferably without pockets. I have realized that seventh graders lack some organizational skills, evidenced by the number of kids who "lose" papers or come to class unprepared and leave to go to lockers to retrieve forgotten papers or cards. In science, these papers serve a purpose when studying, so keeping papers is an important skill. I'm going to require that science papers be kept in the three pronged folder, held by the prongs. Shoving papers into pockets will not be acceptable. Folder organization will receive a grade with each unit. Hopefully, knowing that organization will be connected to a grade, kids will put forth some effort to meet my expectations. Effective Monday, if you see a science paper laying around, you might want to remind your child about the folder! We will begin organizing on Monday.

There is a project linked to this unit to allow students to demonstrate knowledge of cells, with a flair of creativity. Details are posted on the blog in the file cabinet. The project is a set of three assignments, each with their own due date. Because of my absence Friday and because we are taking more class time than I expected to review organelles & functions, I have altered the original due dates for each of the three choices (and updated the file in the file cabinet). I am not giving any class time to complete the project parts, nor am I discussing the project in class, as the posted directions are clear. Kids were supposed to read the requirements Wednesday nights and I did field a minimal amount of questions on Thursday about the project. Of course, if your son/daughter has a question, he/she just needs to ask! Project parts may be submitted earlier than the due date.

This week: {Click on homework tab above for specific due dates}

- Finish notes on organelles & functions

- Use analogies to describe organelles' functions

- Quiz: Prokaryotic cells, Eukaryotic cells & Domains

- Learn microscope anatomy

- Make a wet mount

- Project, Choice 1 due

Remember, I'm an email away ... if you have a question/concern!

Week of November 3

Last week's introduction of a new skill went well. Kids learned the process of skimming (not reading) nonfiction text and then reading for purpose (to answer a specific question). It was a slow process at the beginning, but thirteen practice questions later, kids seemed to have grasped the method. It was purposeful practice, as the nonfiction reading was about the two categories of cells: prokaryotic cells & eukaryotic cells. Of course, we will continue to practice this skill of skimming nonfiction reading in the future!

On the topic of continuing to practice newly learned skills, during this unit on cells, the class will continue to utilize "old school" flash cards. Kids should still be carrying around baggies of flash cards. Only current unit flash cards should be in the baggie. I told kids to "store" their old flash cards somewhere safe and out of the way - like a sock drawer at home - as the flash cards might be useful when preparing for a semester exam. (So, Moms & Dads, please don't throw away any index cards in your child's sock drawer .. but also know those aren't the ones to study for this current unit!) Of course, please encourage your child to regularly flip through the current set of cards. I keep reminding them that simply carrying around a baggie does not help them learn the facts!

On Tuesday (10/28), I invited any seventh grade student to a focused tutorial, with the goal to review flash cards to confirm that a student's set was complete and correct. I had hoped to see more of the "struggling" kids, who scored 80 or less on the last test. That wasn't the case. Parents, please encourage your son/daughter to come to tutorials on Tuesday (11/4) to go over flash cards if he/she is struggling and/or not feeling prepared. At this point, there should be at least 20 cards (the bare minimum) -- although I know some students have in excess of 30. More would probably be better ... I believe that the kids who came to tutorials on 10/28 left with over thirty flash cards.

This week we will continue our dive into knowledge about cells. We will learn about domains into which organisms are classified and the characteristics of each of those three domains. We will learn about organelles, the "cogs" within a cell, each with its own function.

Expect a quiz on Thursday (11/6) over the development of the cell theory. Kids have a fact sheet about this and should have already created valid flash cards. If you child came to see me on 10/28, his/her flash cards should be complete and correct. Again, if your son/daughter has been struggling, I need to see him/her at tutorials. Please encourage that - and send me an email so I know to expect him/her!

Also, be aware that this unit has a project that goes with it. Those details will be distributed later this week. Your son/daughter may need poster board or other art supplies. There are choices as to what he/she can create to fulfill the project requirements. I encourage you to help your child use the detailed instruction sheet as a checklist for completion. Failure to pay attention to detail will yield lost points. The project has multiple parts, each due on a separate date - all clearly indicated on the instruction sheet that will be distributed out this week. On each given due date, kids are expected to submit their project part before first hour.

One final reminder: On Tuesday (10/28), I announced a bonus opportunity for students. It is due before first hour on Monday (11/3). This is completely optional. Directions are in the blog's file cabinet. Again, I encourage you to help your child use the detailed instruction sheet as a checklist for completion. Failure to pay attention to detail will yield lost points. Remember, this optional bonus is due before first hour and late bonus won't be accepted.

Here's to a great week!