Lesson 1 - Monday, Sep 22
Housekeeping: Dr. M announced students’ names who had successfully submitted their Week 04 (last week’s) science classwork such as RA4 (Garden groups) and RA5 (The blob!). This announcement served to make students aware of any missed assignments.
1. We returned to our Smartboard map showing how students’ parents (and grandparents) learned to classify living organisms when they were in middle school. We then began learning how scientists–mainly due to their new knowledge of “cells” and “DNA”–classify living organisms differently today. Students can see the work we did together in the Grade 6 Notes Portal, which students were asked to record in their Science Notebook!
2. Near the end of the lesson, we began watching an Amoeba Sisters video on Classification and the 3-Domain organization used by scientists.
Homework: There is no science homework tonight.
Lesson 2 - Tuesday, Sep 23
Housekeeping: Dr. M used the first part of today’s lesson to highlight particular resources within both the Google Science Classroom (e.g., the digital textbook website and login instructions) and SCIENCEsEDiment website (e.g., Grade 6 Notes Portal).
1. We continued watching the Amoeba Sisters video on Classification and the 3-Domain organization used by scientists.
Homework: There is no science homework tonight.
Lesson 3 - Wed, Sep 24 (C, D) & Thu, Sep 25 (E)
Housekeeping: Dr. M used the first part of today’s lesson to explain his 10-point grading system used on Classwork and Homework assignments. He also explained the TASIS MS late work policy to students and described how some assignments can be revised and resubmitted for an improved grade. Students were then given two recently graded Classwork assignments so they could see Dr. M’s system in action!
1. Return to the Amoeba Sisters Classification and/or Bacteria videos to add even more notes to our Science Notebooks.
Homework: There is no science homework tonight.
Lesson 4 - Friday, Sep 26
Housekeeping: Today we learned how to access our digital textbooks. There is a resource link in the Google Science Classroom walking students through this process and informing students of their initial usernames and passwords. Dr. M also reminded students they have access to all of the Amoeba Sisters’ Classification videos in the Google Science Classroom.
1. QW#4
2. Return to the Amoeba Sisters Classification, Bacteria, Archaea (this video is not super helpful–it’s maybe a little too advanced!), and/or Fungi/Protists videos to add even more notes to our Science Notebooks.
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 can probably expect to see their Interim Effort grades posted in Veracross on Wednesday.
#2 - This week we will have our first end-of-unit assessment (i.e., our first "Unit Test")!