THIS WEEK IN SCIENCE!

FS – G7 Week 18

Lesson 1 - Monday, Jan 13

Today in science: After reminding students there are only two weeks remaining in the Fall Semester (including this week), Dr. M asked students to begin putting together a final answer to this unit’s Driving Question. For this work, Dr. M created a new assignment in the Google Science Classroom called the “Driving Question Practice Essays.”

We began creating our final answer by working from our Class Consensus Model and transforming the boxes, arrows, and linking (red) caption phrases into complete sentences. When needed, we searched for, located, inserted, titled, and captioned images to show hard-to-understand concepts. We also used various formatting ‘tricks’ (e.g., bolding, underlining, capitalizing, etc.) to emphasize certain words and/or ideas. When finished, this written document should provide the scientific answer to our Driving Question we’ve been working towards.

Homework: There is no science homework tonight.

Lesson 2 - Tue, Jan 14 (B, C) & Wed, Jan 15 (H)

Today in science: Continuing with our essay answer to the Driving Question, we added key ideas with a new source of information provided by Dr. M involving the “karyotypes” of both Ms. Bloodworth and her husband! These karyotypes are actual photographs of their chromosomes as their body cells duplicate themselves and divide into two exact cell copies. We used the Bloodworth family karyotypes to then calculate the number of possible different sperm and egg cells that Ms. Bloodworth and her husband can each create. In doing so, we then arrived at our first legitimate answer to our Driving Question, which we recorded in writing in our Practice Essay document.

Homework: There is no science homework tonight.

Lesson 3 - Wed, Jan 15 (B, C) & Thu, Jan 16 (H)

Today in science: After reviewing our previous day’s work on our Practice Essay, we added the final key ideas, sentences, and diagrams needed to answer our Driving Question. We called this “Version 1.0” of our Final Answer. Dr. M then set students a series of tasks designed to progressively summarize the 300(ish) word version of our Final Answer. The tasks are summarized below…

  • Version 2.0: Answer the DQ in a maximum of 150 words
  • Version 3.0: Answer the DQ in a maximum of 75 words
  • Version 4.0: Answer the DQ in a maximum of 25 words
  • Version 5.0: Answer the DQ in a maximum of 10 words
  • Version 6.0: Answer the DQ in a maximum of 3-5 words
  • Version 7.0: Answer the DQ in a maximum of 1 word

Homework: For 20 minutes outside of class, G & H period students have been asked to continue working on the 7 different versions of their Practice Essays (Part 1). Students will be asked to submit this assignment at the END of Friday’s science lesson.

Lesson 4 - Thu, Jan 16 (B) & Fri, Jan 17 (C, H)

Today in science: Students were given time in class to finish working on their Practice Essay – Part 1, which is a multiple-version attempt to explain WHY human beings, e.g., a brother and a sister, are different from one another. If/when finished and submitted (Turned in), students then went to work on Practice Essay – Part 2, which is single version attempt to explain HOW two human beings, e.g., a brother and sister, become different from one another.

Homework: Any B, G, or H period students unable to complete and Submit (Turn in) the 7 different versions of their Practice Essays (Part 1) by the end of Lesson 4 should find/create time outside of school to do so.

Announcements...

The DRIVING QUESTION of our current unit is: Why are human beings different from one another?

C & H period homework collection days: Wednesday & Friday.

B period homework collection days: Tuesday & Thursday.

Including this week, there are 2 weeks of school before the end of the Fall Semester.