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=Welcome to the Science Wiki! =

=May 11th - May 15th=

Here is your Week at a Glance for May 11-15:
===Middle School: Students will be finishing up their interactive Solar System projects (including pictures, key facts, etc) and present to the class either Thursday or Friday, depending on their schedule. Some students are doing this presentation via powerpoint, but for those who are creating the interactive journey on their wikispaces you can follow along with their progress! Just ask your child to share their web-journey with you at home. ===

===High School: This week students will start by finishing their Muscular System packets and then work on their life-size illustrations of a human's muscular structure. Key concepts and vocabulary sheets have been handing out and I will be working with them to make sure they are prepared for a coming assessment (early next week hopefully.) ===

=May 4th - May 8th=

Good morning everyone!
===It's good to be back from the wilds of Nova Scotia. I hope everyone had a chance to check out the daily updates, pictures, videos, and lessons I put together for the students. I also had a presentation at the end of the day Friday to showcase some of the lighter moments from my trip (I've been reviewing all the educational tidbits in class) and handed out a special present to each student so that they could remember the trip as well. However, without further ado, here is your Week at a Glance for May 4th - May 8th...===

===Middle School: This week we will be wrapping up the climate change portion of the Earthwatch experience by finishing a documentary on the changing habitat of the Arctic and how it affects polar bears and walruses. From there we launch headfirst back into the next astronomy unit which is the structure of the universe (galaxies, black holes, star formation, etc). Having practiced the guitar for 2 long, painful weeks I plan on teaching a couple original songs that cover some of the material. During he first part of the week, for the last 20-25 minutes of class students will be going outside to help the biology class get the garden plots ready for planting. ===

===High School: Students will continue working on their human anatomy packets and learn about the skeletal system. They will answer reading comprehension questions as well as complete a vocabulary sheet. They will start construction of their skeletal-transparency books as well as create their own models. During the last 20-25 minutes of class they will be heading outside (weather permitting) to get the garden plots ready for planting. Students with plants still alive from the plant unit will have a chance to plant them into our class plot. ===

=April 6th - April 9th=

===Middle School: Middle school students will be learning how to connect to the Earthwatch wikispace and use all the links. I will offer a refresher lesson on how to properly edit discussion pages to ask questions and also how to log in to the chat sessions that will be set up while I'm on the Earthwatch expedition. Lastly, students will review with flashcards for their solar system final, given either Wednesday or Thursday, depending on the class. Their solar system projects will be evaluated by the high school students and the top class will receive a prize! ===

===High School: High school students will be doing the same refresher lesson on the Earthwatch wikispace for the first half of class. After that, they will begin typing out their formal lab experiment (see template posted below). Students need to use the template to organize their lab neatly and professionally and turn in their final projects by the end of the quarter. They will also be spending a few moments viewing and evaluating the class models of the solar system and scoring them according to a small rubric. ===



=March 30th - April 3rd=

Greetings and welcome back to Lionsgate Academy after the the wonderful Spring Break! Here is what we are doing this week in my classes:
===Middle School: Each class will start their planetary model project. Each class will paint styrofoam models of each planet (and the sun) and use toothpick flags to identify surface features. Somewhere, on the base of the model, the 5 characteristic facts for each planet will also be either hand-written or typed out. Each class finish their set next week and the high school students will judge the most creative, original class set and that class will get a reward of some kind. ===

===High School: Students will finish out their observations of their plant projects and begin writing out their formal lab project by the end of the week. Along with finishing their observations, students will take a test on seed and seedless plant reproduction. ===

=March 9th - 13th=

===Middle School: Students will finish learning about the Inner Planets, the Jovial Planets, and the Outer Planets this week and prepare for a test on the solar system next week. They will also be focusing on comparative planetary sizes as well as distances between them. Students will be interested to know just how "empty" empty space is, and how distant we are from our planetary neighbors. ===  ===High School: Students will continue studying their plant packets (Plant Reproduction) and begin to fill in their experiment packets with data taken from the plants they planted last week. Students will also work on their unit vocabulary and section questions. We already have one plant budding! ===

=March 2nd - 6th=

==Middle School: The A classes this week will start by finishing the fusion notes, Einstein’s famous equeation E=mc^2, and their sun slide. After that, students will begin learning about the structure of the solar system, comparative distances between planets, the Keiper Belt, and the sad story of Pluto. We will start the solar system unit by creating original mnemonics to remember the order of the planets and the distinctive features of each. ==

==High School: After their Seed/Seedless Plants assessment, this week high school students will be formulating their experimental questions and begin planting their seeds and learning how to take data. Students will receive a couple small planters and some seeds as well as a blank experiment packet they will fill in with their purpose, hypothesis, procedure, and data. This form will be available for download on the science wiki. ==

=February 23rd - 27th= = =

Middle School:
== Students will be reviewing the Sun unit material by playing a powerpoint Jeopardy game and answering questions first as an individual and then a team. After, Mr. Wignall will teach them the song "How Does the Sun Shine" by They Might be Giants. Students can either sing along with Mr. Wignall, provide rhythm, or read along with the lyrics. After that, there will be a short presentation on Einstein's "E = mc^2" and how it relates to the nuclear fusion process taking place in the sun's core. Later in the week, students will take the Sun unit assessment and begin learning about the solar system and, in particular, planetary formation. ==

<span style="color: rgb(35, 10, 205);">High School:
==<span style="color: rgb(35, 10, 205);"> Students are continuing to work on their Seed Plants packets and answer the chapter questions as well as vocabulary sheet. At the end of the week studens will be sitting down with either Mr. Wignall or Ms. Osen and creating their plant experiment project. Students will come up with one experimental question they want to investigate ("Does grass grow better with eggshell fertilizer or miracle-grow?" etc) and design an experiment around it. Hopefully the gardening equipment will be here by Thursday so students can begin planting. ==

=<span style="color: rgb(160, 0, 255);">3rd Quarter Syllabi =

==I've put syllabi for both middle school and high school science into students' take-home binders as well as a copy of the grading rubric. I'll repost those documents here for anyone who didn't get a copy.==

[|Middle School Astronomy Unit]

[|High School Botany Unit]

[|Grading Rubric for Science]

=<span style="color: rgb(0, 21, 255);">2/13/09 = =<span style="color: rgb(0, 21, 255);"> Middle School Science =

===This is the Jeopardy powerpoint review on the Sun and Ancient Cosmologies I created to use in class. Feel free to download it (along with the answer key) to help your child prepare for the quiz when we come back from vacation.===





=<span style="color: rgb(28, 146, 42);">2/11/09 = =<span style="color: rgb(28, 146, 42);"> High School Biology =

4) How does the pitcher plant dissolve the bodies of its victims?

 * || [|Rock Hounds Website]



[|HOW FOSSILS ARE MADE] ||