Period 7 - Claim your Australian Organism

Okay, this is a first come first served situation.
Respond to this post with which organism you are going to research.

Good luck!

Practice Voicethread

Bad Weather in the US

There was a story in the NY Times this week about bad weather events happening in the United States. It fits right in with what we have been studying in terms of ecosystems responding to changes.

You can read it here.

Biome Map and Info

Here is a great website to use for studying biomes.
It has a cool map and lots of information about the biomes and the species that live there.
Let me know what you think about it.

Period 7 - Applying What We Have Learned

Hello all.

Your assignment this week (due by the time you come to class on Thursday, May 22nd) is to apply what you've learned about Ecology from one another to the movies we watched in class. I want you to put together about a one-page paper that discusses where you saw each of the 8 topics in either or both of the movies we watch in class. Then, you'll post the paper to the blog.

Remember to use your fake names. No anonymous comments, please!

Just in case you want to see them again, here are links to the movies:
Elk and Wolves
Grizzly Bears

Have fun. I am really looking forward to reading what you've written.

Our Pictures

I thought it might be fun for our Australian friends to see our pictures.

Mrs. Gow's Document

Parts of Plants we Eat - Upload a doc

Read this doc on Scribd: Parts of Plants we Eat

Connecting with Our Australian Friends

As we discussed in class, we are going to reach out to our new Australian friends and colleagues. We are going to do this in three ways:
1. I am asking that some of you respond to Mrs. Gow's question about our garden. You might share with her how we researched the plants and organized themselves.
2. Please find one of Mrs. Gow's students and introduce yourselves to them. You can find their blogs here.
3. Please look over the joint Australian/American assignment on animals that we will be collaborating on. You can find it here.

Have fun!

Happy Feet Reflection - Period 7

Here is the place for you Happy Feet reflection.

I look forward to reading your work.

Story of Stuff Reflection

Here is where you will post your reflection in response to the Story of Stuff.
Your reflection should be about a page long and should address the following questions:
1. In the system, discuss how everything is related to everything else.
2. How did the movie make you feel.
3. What do you think we could do as a school to change the situation you saw portrayed in the movie.

This reflection is due by Monday, April 7th.

Just in case you want to see the movie again, you can click here.

Inconvenient Truth Reflection

We are watching the movie, An Inconvenient Truth, to introduce our study of Ecology. Ecology is all about relationships – relationships of various organisms to each other and to their environment.

The movie will talk about these things in the context of Global Warming.

As you watch the movie, make notes that start to address the following questions. You should make these notes in your Science notebook.

1. How does Global Warming work?
2. How do human activities make Global Warming worse and/or better?
3. What species are affected by Global Warming? How?
4. What can be done to address this problem?
5. What do you think we can do at PVC to address Global Warming?

I am asking you to turn your notes into a detailed reflection. This reflection is due to me on Wednesday. You will submit them to me on paper for this one.

My Plan as a Student - 7th grade - DUE WEDNESDAY

One of the good things about coming to the end of the marking period is that it gives us a chance to reflect on what we have done well and what we can do better.

I want you to write three goals you have for yourself as a student (notice I didn't say as a science student) for the 3rd trimester. Remember that goals are specific and measurable.

Here's an example:

• Not a goal -- I want to be a better person.
• A goal -- Every day, I will do something nice for someone else and write down what I do in a journal.

I look forward to reading about your goals. Let yourself by inspired by your fellow students.

Gardening Links - DUE TUESDAY

Here is the place to collect the links you have found for our garden.

This set of links should be about:

• Resources that will help us plan the layout the garden
• Resources that we can use to help us take care of the garden

For the ones you post here, please write a sentence or two that explains why you think the site is useful.

For example:
Growing Plants Indoors
I thought this site was useful because it tells about growing plants indoors, which we will need to do until Spring comes.

Garden Powerpoints

Hello everyone.

I just wanted to post the details for the garden Powerpoint presentations. Here they are:

• Plant Name
• Growing conditions? -
  
• water, soil, sun, pH
• How tall does it get?
• How much space does it need to grow?
• Cool stuff about your plant
• References

Molecules - "Dot" Diagrams

This picture has several examples of "dot" diagrams. I think if you practice with these, you should be fine for tomorrow's test. Remember, you are only concerned with the electrons in the outside  layer.

You can also click here for a reference for doing these diagrams.

Don't forget that it is more important to study well from the study guide.

Chemistry Unit Study Guide - 7th Grade

I have uploaded the study guide so you can download another copy (just in case).

You can get it by clicking here.

If you have any questions, post a comment to the blog and I'll check in and respond.

Period 7 - It's All in the Shape Reflection

Here is where you would post your reflection on the It's All in the Shape Lab.

Remember, you are answering the following questions:

• What did you learn from this lab?
• What do you now know about molecules?
• What questions do you now have?

Your reflection should be about 1/2 to 1 page long.

I look forward to reading your responses.

A new kind of blog assignment -- Period 7

For this week's blog assignment, we are going to try something different.

There is a very cool website, called Earth & Sky. They have articles and podcasts about science topics. The podcasts are good and relatively short (about 10 minutes).

This week, I want you to find a podcast that interests you, listen to it, and then share about it with us on the blog. You can click here to find their podcasts.

For your podcast:
1. Write the name of the podcast and a link to the piece.
2. Say what it was about.
3. Tell us what you thought about it. Why was it interesting? What did you learn by listening to it? Why did you pick this one and not some other one? Include what you thought about listening to a story rather than reading it.

Have fun!

Weekly Science Article Report - January 25th - Period 7

Here is the place for this week's weekly science article report.

As usual, please find an article about science that you think is cool and worth writing about. The more inspired you are, the better your reflection will be.

Then, you are writing a report that has 3 parts:

• The citation - the name of your article, who wrote it, and where did it come from. Include a link if you got it online.
• The summary - a one or two sentence recap of the article (no more).
• The reflection - a discussion (two or three paragraphs) about what you thought about the article. Did you like it or not? Why? What interested you about it and why? What questions or suggestions do you have for the writer?

I look forward to reading your reflections.

Diffusion Experiment Reflections - Period 7

Here is the place for you to post your reflections on our diffusion experiments. Since it's a reflection, you will be sharing your experiences: what you liked/didn't like, what you learned, what surprised you.

Be sure to think through all the phases of the project:

• Designing an experiment
• Having your experiment reviewed by another group
• Working with your partner
• Conducting your experiment
• Preparing your presentation
• Sharing your work with others

You all did a really good job with the projects. I look forward to reading your reflections.