Lesson 1 - Monday, Jan 27
Today in science: Gathering again into teams of 3-5 students, students spent time adding a written account of what–in as much detail as they could–happens to, for example, a bite of banana or apple from the time they put it to their lips until the time at least some part of that piece of fruit leaves the body. From these written accounts, Dr. M then tried to extract a pathway common to all groups in the form of a Class Consensus model, which will become our ‘official’ version 1.0 when finished.
Homework: There is no science homework tonight.
Lesson 2 - Tuesday, Jan 28
Today in science: Using the digital Science Notebook as our guide, we examined the packaging of a popular snacking cracker sold in the local stores with INV #6 – Crackers. During the first part of this investigation, we revisited our previous Driving Questions such as “What are we made of?” and wondered if/how it might be related to our new Driving Question. Students were then asked to consider crackers from a couple of different perspectives: What ingredients/substances do they think are in snacking crackers? What does the ingredients label tell us is in snacking crackers? What does the nutrition label tell us is in snacking crackers? This later question required us to ‘get smarter’ (i.e., learn more) about “nutrients,” and to do this we consulted p. 6 in our Exploring Science 8 books.
Homework: There is no science homework tonight.
Lesson 3 - Wed, Jan 29 (D) & Thu, Jan 30 (E - Dr. M absent)
Today in science: To deepen their knowledge of nutrients, students recorded how to do three different “food tests” in their science notebook. They were then asked by Dr. M (in D period) or Mr. Barry (in E period) to ‘get even smarter about “nutrients,” but especially what nutrients do for the human body. Using the Exploring Science 8 books, students were asked to answer questions 1-11 on pp. 8-9 in the science notebooks. It was also decided this assignment would be due on Friday for both classes.
Homework: Use the Exploring Science 8 textbook to answer questions 1-11 on pp. 8-9. Write your answers into your science notebook.
Lesson 4 - Friday, Jan 31
Today in science: After giving students the first part of the lesson to either complete their remaining 1-2 questions and/or compare their homework answers with other students, students turned in their science notebooks to Dr. M for checking/grading. When doing so, he asked students to enter today’s homework assignment into the Table of Contents as follows: ES8, pp. 8-9 (1-11).
In the remaining time students were asked to help Dr. M create version 1.0 of our Initial Class Consensus model, which we began articulating during Lesson 1. Students could choose to make this model on paper (like Dr. M) or in a program of their choice on their iPads. We will be using this model to guide the remaining activities for our entire unit, but also revising it so that it becomes more and more scientific each day, each lesson.
Homework: There is no weekend science homework.
Announcements...
The DRIVING QUESTION of our current unit is: What happens to the food we eat?
D period homework collection days: Wednesday & Friday.
E period homework collection days: Tuesday & Thursday.
Today marks the beginning of a new semester, the Spring Semester!