THIS WEEK IN SCIENCE!

FS – G6 Week 04

Lesson 1 - Monday, Sep 15 (Dr. M absent - E period)

Housekeeping: Dr. M did a Science Notebook check-in. In Veracross, this non-graded work will show as “Turned in/Not graded”) and influences students’ Effort mark rather than their Academic grade.

1. QW – There is no QW today

2. RA3 (Striped Bugs!) – Finish building a classification key from scratch (i.e., by starting with observations and/or measurements).

Continuing from last Friday’s lesson, all three classes needed more time–some classes more than others–to compete their Striped Bugs classification key. Dr. M (or his Guest Teacher) collected students’ work before the end of the lesson.

3. Those few students who managed to submit a completed RA3 before the end of today’s lesson were asked to get a head start on three paper-based DQs (3, 4, & 5).

Homework: Students unable to complete the Striped Bugs activity during today’s lesson have been asked to complete it at home for homework. Dr. M will collect their final question-based, Yes/No classification key at the start of Lesson 2.

Lesson 2 - Tuesday, Sep 16 (Dr. M absent - D & E period)

Housekeeping: Collect RA2.5 (Striped Bugs) homework assignment. Be sure students have included all relevant information on it (title, name, date, mailbox #).

1. C period only: DQ3 (Groups within groups), DQ4 (Bugs), DQ5 (Animal or plant) – paper versions

2. RA4 (Garden groups) – Using the key characteristics of animals groups (e.g., vertebrates, invertebrates) to classify organisms into various groups and subgroups. Students had the entire lesson to work on this sorting activity.

Homework: There is no science homework tonight.

Lesson 3 - Wed, Sep 17 (C, D) & Thu, Sep 18 (E)

Housekeeping: After showing C & D period students how to access their Veracross Science Grade Details (aka. Grade Reports) and interpret their currently science grade, Dr. M handed back two recently graded assignments: RA1 & RA2. He also used this part of the lesson to 1) speak with individual students about their RA3 (Striped Bugs) assignment before grading it (some students still needed to complete their “incomplete” assignments!), and 2) accept all completed RA4 (Garden groups) assignments for grading.

1. Only some D period students were given paper versions of DQ3 (Groups within groups), DQ4 (Bugs), DQ5 (Animal or plant), but all of E period completed them.

2. Students in all classes were given in-class work time to complete and turn in assignments RA3 and RA4.

Homework: There is no science homework tonight.

Lesson 4 - Friday, Sep 19

Housekeeping: Because of Dr. M’s absences from some classes on Monday and Tuesday, each science class was given time to accomplish different needs. These needs included…

Submitting revisions of already-graded assignments such as RA1 (Classifying into groups) & RA2 (Build a key).
Submitting final, completed and/or corrected versions of RA3 (Striped bugs).
Submitting final, completed and/or corrected versions of RA4 (Garden groups).

When finished with all three of the above tasks, students were asked to begin working on RA5 (The blob!). If when enough students in a class completed and submitted RA5, the class was then introduced to the 7- and/or 5-Kingdom scientific classification systems their grandparents and parents most likely learned when they were in school. Dr. M used this recollection to set the scene for how scientists ideas about how to best classify living organisms has changed since the their parents and grandparents were in school!

Homework: As per the TASIS MS school homework policy, there is no weekend science homework (due on Monday).

Announcements...

The DRIVING QUESTION of our current unit is: How does putting living things into groups help us learn about them (and why do scientists sometimes have to change those groups)?

#1 - Students who could not produce an approved Science Notebook should acquire one as soon as possible.

#2 - Interim science grades will be issued on Wednesday, 24 Sep.

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