Lesson 1 - Monday, Oct 21
Today in science: As Dr. M was absent for Lessons 3 & 4 last week, today was a day for picking up and organizing the ‘pieces’ from those two lessons. Students were given the entire lesson to work on the assignments given to them by last week’s Guest/Cover Teacher(s). They two required textbook assignments:
7Ha – “The Air We Breathe,” pp. 120-121. Questions 1-7
7Hb – “Earth’s Elements,” pp. 122-123. Questions 1-9 (including all letters)
If/when students completed and submitted those two assignments, they were then asked to continue working on the following handouts:
7Ha-1 – “The air we breath”
7Ha-4 – “Elements, compounds, and mixtures”
Homework: There is no science homework tonight.
Lesson 2 - Tue, Oct 22 (B, C - Dr. M present) & Wed, Oct 23 (H - Dr. M absent)
Today in science: After adding one or two safety tips to INV#3 in our science notebook, we began evaporating the water from the leftover bath bomb liquid. This process lasted the entire lesson and every time students’ liquid levels decreased by half in their evaporating dish Dr. M added additional leftover bath bomb liquid to their crucibles.
During the investigation, Dr. M asked students to visualize the evaporation process by watching an evaporation animation. He also asked students to add a Results table to their notebooks so that they have a place to record their end-of-investigation observations. C period also took time to write down a definition for the words evaporation and melting.
B period started the evaporation process with Dr. Merritt and C period continued it with Dr. Sinnathamby, who also showed C period students the PhET “States of Matter” simulation to help them better visualize the evaporation process.
- H period will do their part in Wednesday’s Lesson 3 to finish off the evaporation investigation and–hopefully, by the end of Lesson 3–all classes will be able to begin seeing some of the unknown bath bomb substance with our own eyes!
Homework: There is no science homework tonight.
Lesson 3 - Wed, Oct 23 (B, C) & Thu, Oct 24 (H) - Dr. M absent
Today in science: With a Guest/Substitute teacher, B period students continued evaporating the leftover bath bomb liquid and used the PhET “States of Matter” simulation to better visualize the evaporation process. Working with Dr. Sinnathamby, we obtained a final product for future inspection!
In Dr. Merritt’s absence, C and H periods students started watching an educational NOVA (PBS) video titled, “Hunting the Elements.” During the video, students were asked to record three Noticings and three Wonderings related to each of the individual elements discussed in the video.
- In this activity, our NOTICINGS should be verifiable observations (e.g., pure gold bars have a yellowish color and a shiny luster) AND/OR facts stated within the video (e.g., “only a few natural elements have a greater density than gold”).
- WONDERINGS are questions we have about the element which are not answered by/within the video.
Homework: There is no science homework tonight.
Lesson 4 - Thu, Oct 24 (B) & Fri, Oct 25 (C, H) - Dr. M absent
Today in science: With a Guest/Substitute teacher, students continued watching an educational NOVA (PBS) video titled, “Hunting the Elements.” During the video, students were asked to do a set number of Noticings & Wonderings for specific elements such as gold, copper, sodium, oxygen, carbon, phosphorus, and silicon.
With the Grade 7 TASIS Swiss Adventure trips happening during all of next week, students will come back to this lesson on Monday, 4 November.
Homework: There is no weekend science homework.
Announcements...
The DRIVING QUESTION of our current unit is: How can we make something new that was not there before?
B period homework collection days: Tuesday & Thursday.
C period homework collection days: Wednesday & Friday.
H period homework collection days: Wednesday & Friday.
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