Lesson 1 - Monday, Jan 19
Housekeeping: Both periods continued working on the INV#6 – SEASONAL LIGHT INTENSITY. B period collected data for Trial 3, which is the situation in which our model Earth is titled away from the model Sun at an angle of approx. -23 degrees. H period mapped the Trial 1, 2, & 3 data onto the Earth drawings and began analyzing it with our Research Question in mind: Can a consistently tilted Earth (axis tilt = 23.5 degrees) explain 1) the seasons, 2) days of 24-hour light and dark at the poles, and 3) the ‘opposite’ seasons experienced in the northern and southern hemispheres?
Homework: There is no science homework tonight.
Lesson 2 - Tue, Jan 20 (B) & Wed, Jan 21 (H)
Housekeeping: Both periods finished working on the INV#6 – SEASONAL LIGHT INTENSITY. This meant finalizing our Results section (which included calculating Northern and Southern Hemisphere light intensity averages) and writing a Conclusions section. In our Conclusions, we included a number of statements identifying problems with the design of our Earth-Sun model that likely affected our Results.
Homework: There is no science homework tonight.
Lesson 3 - Wed, Jan 21 (B) & Thu, Jan 22 (H)
Housekeeping: Having finalized INV#6, students turned their attention to the Earth’s place in our Solar System, our Milky Way Galaxy, and the larger Universe. Since Dr. M couldn’t be with his classes for this lesson, students investigated these topics with the help of a Guest Teacher and two film, one shorter (The Solar System – To Scale) and one longer (the BBC’s 5 Wonders of Our Universe). To accompany these films, the Guest Teacher used two different handouts containing questions to go with the films.
Homework: There is no science homework tonight.
Lesson 4 - Thu, Jan 22 (B) & Fri, Jan 23 (H)
Housekeeping: B & H period students were asked to demonstrate their understanding of the “Seasons” by way of questions posed to them with the Exam.net tool.
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 the motion and scale of objects in our solar system create the cycles we experience every day, from a day to a year?
B period homework collection days: Tuesday & Thursday.
H period homework collection days: Wednesday & Friday.
This is last week of the Fall Semester! Spring Semester begins on Monday, Jan 26.