This is a busy week for math and science! We have some fun lab time with microscopes and some cool rock and mineral samples, (Rock Boxes), we will FINALLY get to do our Hide and Go Seek Rock activity, and we will learn how to use an important tool of the scientific world, the dichotomous key, for our "What Rock Is It?" activity. Scholars are rotating through these activities as we are sharing materials, making sure to be sanitizing before and after each rotation! Thank you for your help and support in making this happen by driving to pick up and drop off materials. I know it is extra work on all our parts and I hope you feel like me, that it is worth it for good science experiences for these scholars.
In addition to the hands-on experiences we are at assessment time! We have several that we need to do to meet requirements and to also show what an amazing amount of material they now know. More important that the tremendous increase in scientific knowledge that they have, is the ability to articulate their understandings and do so with evidence to back up what they are saying. The assessments have as much variety as the hands-on experiences! They will do two online multiple choice post unit assessment in Amplify Science: one for Plate Motion and one for Rock Transformation. They will construct their own drawing and interpret other artist's scientific drawings. They will answer 10 multiple choice questions that were based on the information presented by their peers in our review Group Projects, and the will answer 7 short answer, on demand questions. Finally, they will do a final essay, the prompt for which is one full page and comes with a half page of Language of the discipline- word bank that they can use in their writing. All of this will be spaced out over two weeks, in class and as homework and as homeschool work. It is important that no piece of this intricate puzzle be left out or missed. The essay will be worked on as part of Friday homeschool and Monday homeschool, and a peer edit will take place on Tuesday, March 23, 2021. Final drafts will be due March 25th. I copied the information that is in the Google classroom with the assignment (titled Geology Final Exam part 1 Diagram and Multiple Choice Questions part 2 Short answer with evidence part 3 Scientific Essay,) and added it below for more details.
We talked about this assessment in class today (on Monday) and I explained how the assessment and our week would go. This final exam has been broken down into manageable parts for you to complete.
Science homework for the week up through March 25th.
Monday for Homework
Part 1:
Scholars will create a diagram of the layers of the Earth and respond to ten multiple choice questions on geology. Scholars may use all their notes and lab materials as resources, but must work alone and must not use Siri or other search engine devices. Honor system, please. This section of the exam should be completed Monday night as homework.
Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday for homework
Part 2:
Scholars will respond to 9 short answer questions. The responses will be several sentences long and will have evidence from student materials to support their answers. Scholars should complete this section as homework on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.
March 19th Friday Homeschool and March 22nd Monday Homeschool
Part 3: Scholars will write a Scientific Essay according to the prompt they have been provided. This essay must be planned out before it is written so that the scholar is certain that all topics are covered and that the essay will flow nicely. Scholars are encouraged to use technology such as speech to text, grammar and spell check to assist them. Scholars are encouraged to read their essay to an adult, who should be able to fully understand the ideas presented if it is a stellar essay. Final drafts should be typed and free of errors in punctuation, spelling and grammar. Evidence and depth and complexity are essential ingredients to a stellar essay.
Please enjoy this process. You know this material! You get to shine and show your brilliance!
This strong rough draft is due on Monday by 7:30 p.m. They can submit the whole exam then.
On Tuesday, March 23, Scholars will peer edit their papers. Every scholar will have a paper to help them know how to be a "critical friend" and provide the most feedback to their peers.
Scholars will work on the final drafts, which they will turn under a separate assignment, by March 25th at 3:00 p.m.
MATHEMATICS: We continue our study of rates, ratios, decimals, fractions and percents.
In class Monday: We had an amazingly good discussion in both 6 A and 6 B with this week's poster problem, "Two Scholars Go Shopping." We went over this in class, and thus you should be seeing their work in pencil and notes on strategies used by their peers, in green, blue, or purple. If you do not see this, ask them where their record of other scholars' strategies is. This was their accountability work for in class today, Monday, March 15th.
No math homework Monday.
In class Tuesday: We will go over our Measure of Central Tendency work from Friday homeschool- the tangerine slices and their peels. We will talk about the "outliers" in the tangerine peels and what to do with them. We will compare results for the calculations of the mean, median and mode. We will learn how to generate series for a specified term (rates/fractions.)
Math homework Tuesday- make sure any missing work (any completed papers you have) is brought to school and turned in to Carol Smith.
In Class Wednesday and Thursday: Scholars will work through some rate problems using what they learned about generating series (Tuesday). They will focus on two problems: "Ricardo bought Baseball Cards," and "Jorge Bought Gum." They have this response page from the work they picked up last week, Sunday.
Math Homework: make sure you have no missing assignments from December forward.
Friday and Monday Homeschool Days : Equivalent Fractions Search and Shade Response page. Scholars will be reducing fractions and then locating that reduced fraction on a grid and shading the space according to a "key" - thus generating a picture. I will explain this fully in class, so that they can work on it relatively independently. It should not take much time.
The bulk of the time for the two homeschool days I would like spent on their science essays.
Scholars should also be completing their Scholarly Reflections and PE Logs for LP 8!
In addition to the hands-on experiences we are at assessment time! We have several that we need to do to meet requirements and to also show what an amazing amount of material they now know. More important that the tremendous increase in scientific knowledge that they have, is the ability to articulate their understandings and do so with evidence to back up what they are saying. The assessments have as much variety as the hands-on experiences! They will do two online multiple choice post unit assessment in Amplify Science: one for Plate Motion and one for Rock Transformation. They will construct their own drawing and interpret other artist's scientific drawings. They will answer 10 multiple choice questions that were based on the information presented by their peers in our review Group Projects, and the will answer 7 short answer, on demand questions. Finally, they will do a final essay, the prompt for which is one full page and comes with a half page of Language of the discipline- word bank that they can use in their writing. All of this will be spaced out over two weeks, in class and as homework and as homeschool work. It is important that no piece of this intricate puzzle be left out or missed. The essay will be worked on as part of Friday homeschool and Monday homeschool, and a peer edit will take place on Tuesday, March 23, 2021. Final drafts will be due March 25th. I copied the information that is in the Google classroom with the assignment (titled Geology Final Exam part 1 Diagram and Multiple Choice Questions part 2 Short answer with evidence part 3 Scientific Essay,) and added it below for more details.
We talked about this assessment in class today (on Monday) and I explained how the assessment and our week would go. This final exam has been broken down into manageable parts for you to complete.
Science homework for the week up through March 25th.
Monday for Homework
Part 1:
Scholars will create a diagram of the layers of the Earth and respond to ten multiple choice questions on geology. Scholars may use all their notes and lab materials as resources, but must work alone and must not use Siri or other search engine devices. Honor system, please. This section of the exam should be completed Monday night as homework.
Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday for homework
Part 2:
Scholars will respond to 9 short answer questions. The responses will be several sentences long and will have evidence from student materials to support their answers. Scholars should complete this section as homework on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.
March 19th Friday Homeschool and March 22nd Monday Homeschool
Part 3: Scholars will write a Scientific Essay according to the prompt they have been provided. This essay must be planned out before it is written so that the scholar is certain that all topics are covered and that the essay will flow nicely. Scholars are encouraged to use technology such as speech to text, grammar and spell check to assist them. Scholars are encouraged to read their essay to an adult, who should be able to fully understand the ideas presented if it is a stellar essay. Final drafts should be typed and free of errors in punctuation, spelling and grammar. Evidence and depth and complexity are essential ingredients to a stellar essay.
Please enjoy this process. You know this material! You get to shine and show your brilliance!
This strong rough draft is due on Monday by 7:30 p.m. They can submit the whole exam then.
On Tuesday, March 23, Scholars will peer edit their papers. Every scholar will have a paper to help them know how to be a "critical friend" and provide the most feedback to their peers.
Scholars will work on the final drafts, which they will turn under a separate assignment, by March 25th at 3:00 p.m.
MATHEMATICS: We continue our study of rates, ratios, decimals, fractions and percents.
In class Monday: We had an amazingly good discussion in both 6 A and 6 B with this week's poster problem, "Two Scholars Go Shopping." We went over this in class, and thus you should be seeing their work in pencil and notes on strategies used by their peers, in green, blue, or purple. If you do not see this, ask them where their record of other scholars' strategies is. This was their accountability work for in class today, Monday, March 15th.
No math homework Monday.
In class Tuesday: We will go over our Measure of Central Tendency work from Friday homeschool- the tangerine slices and their peels. We will talk about the "outliers" in the tangerine peels and what to do with them. We will compare results for the calculations of the mean, median and mode. We will learn how to generate series for a specified term (rates/fractions.)
Math homework Tuesday- make sure any missing work (any completed papers you have) is brought to school and turned in to Carol Smith.
In Class Wednesday and Thursday: Scholars will work through some rate problems using what they learned about generating series (Tuesday). They will focus on two problems: "Ricardo bought Baseball Cards," and "Jorge Bought Gum." They have this response page from the work they picked up last week, Sunday.
Math Homework: make sure you have no missing assignments from December forward.
Friday and Monday Homeschool Days : Equivalent Fractions Search and Shade Response page. Scholars will be reducing fractions and then locating that reduced fraction on a grid and shading the space according to a "key" - thus generating a picture. I will explain this fully in class, so that they can work on it relatively independently. It should not take much time.
The bulk of the time for the two homeschool days I would like spent on their science essays.
Scholars should also be completing their Scholarly Reflections and PE Logs for LP 8!