Lesson 1 - Monday, Dec 1
Housekeeping: Students were given a paper copy of their (already digitally-submitted) Unit 6.2 science essays with a paper copy of Dr. M’s grading rubric. Topic by topic, Dr. M explained how students could earn different grades–10, 9.2, 8.5, 7.5, 6.5, 5–for their written work. Students can see the explanations he projected on the smartboard in the G7 Notes Portal. At the end of the lesson, Dr. M collected the essays and the student-completed rubrics.
Homework: There is no science homework tonight.
Lesson 2 - Tue, Dec 2 (B) & Wed, Dec 3 (H)
Housekeeping: Students were asked to set up their notebooks for a new investigation today, INV#5 – Greenhouse Gases, by entering it into their Table of Contents and creating a new page for it. Students wrote a brief “Background” section and then created a detailed diagram of the interaction of sunlight with 1) the molecules of certain ‘greenhouse’ gases on the way IN, 2) the Earth’s surface, and 3) the molecules of certain ‘greenhouse’ gases on the way OUT.
In the next two science lessons, we will attempt to model the Earth’s atmosphere with two glass flasks. We will fill one of them with a powerful greenhouse gas called “methane” (CH4) while the other one will simply contain air from the classroom (which contains almost no methane gas). We will then simulate sunlight with two equal-strength light boxes and measure the temperature of the air contained within the two different ‘atmospheres’ during the lesson. You can see a photo of our experimental apparatus in our Science Notebook.
Homework: There is no science homework tonight.
Lesson 3 - Wed, Dec 3 (B) & Thu, Dec 4 (H)
Housekeeping: After making some minor adjustments to their greenhouse gas drawings, B period students were then asked to draw the apparatus we plan to use during the investigation AND create a data table for the data we hope to generate during our upcoming greenhouse gas investigation. H period students needed to complete their (unfinished) greenhouse gas drawings, draw the experimental apparatus, AND make their data tables.
In the next science lesson, we will attempt to model the Earth’s atmosphere with two glass flasks. We will fill one of them with a powerful greenhouse gas called “methane” (CH4) while the other one will simply contain air from the classroom (which contains almost no methane gas). We will then simulate sunlight with two equal-strength light boxes and measure the temperature of the air contained within the two different ‘atmospheres’ during the lesson. You can see a photo of our experimental apparatus in our Science Notebook.
Homework: There is no science homework tonight.
Lesson 4 - Thu, Dec 4 (B) & Fri, Dec 5 (H)
Housekeeping: Students in both B and H period who were absent for the recent complete combustion quiz were asked to complete it at the start of today’s lesson. Both lessons then completed the data collection task of INV#5 – Greenhouse Gases by entering data into their pre-prepared data tables. While the experiment was running, students were also asked to prepare a line graph on which record the temperature results of the investigation. To create the line graph we used the Kids’ Zone – Create a Graph website.
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 do chemical substances move through Earth's atmosphere, water, and land to change the planet we live on?
B period homework collection days: Tuesday & Thursday.
H period homework collection days: Wednesday & Friday.
Including this week, there are 5 weeks of school before the end of the Fall Semester.