Week of Catapults...

CATAPULTS

Last week we started our unit of Space.  We started talking about the concept of gravity and what this might look like if we didn't have it at all!  The students thought it was pretty funny what some everyday events might look like in space!  

We followed this conversation up by creating posters that showed "What Gravity Effects..." Finally, the students worked on making Catapults out of popsicle sticks and masking tape.  This was a two day project and the students will test their models today during class!

 

Busy Week~!

We have had a busy week!!!

This week we completed a Boys vs. Girls experiment!  The students loved this (mainly the girls!) as it was "Who is more flexible-boys or girls?"  We found that girls are more flexible as a whole, but we did have some flexible boys, beat some of our girls!

We also borrowed a model of an environment.  With this model, we pretended that it was our town of New Albany, and thought of different ways that humans might negatively impact our environment (salt, fertilizer, herbicides, pesticides, litter, oil, etc.).  All of this we saw get washed away into our rivers, streams, and ponds/lakes; which we discussed was not okay for the water ecosystems.  We talked about how this has lead to many deformities within the ecosystem, including mutations. 

 

Finally, we helped one of our very own!  Mr. Bill Resch sent a plea asking for help to finish planting plants out in our newly developed wetlands, here on campus!  We spent the entire day out there, planting a TON of plants for Mr. Resch!  We didn't get it all done, but we made a huge dent before the frost comes this weekend!  Thank you to all of the students that were a part of this!  You will get to see this environment grow during your educational career at New Albany!  You should all be proud of yourselves!

 

Biz Town Interviews and Mayor!

We are getting reading for our jobs! at Biz Town!

This week, the students got dressed up and become professionals for the day.  It was their turn to go on a job interview.  The students were asked to dress, business appropriate, and were then interviewed by our very own parents!  All of the students looked terrific and did a great job on their first job interview!  Thank you to all of the parents that donated their time to help with interviews!

We also held Mayor elections.  The students ran for mayor in their own homeroom, the students then voted on who they thought would best represent their class.  From there, we held a final election between the 4 homerooms (Ballard, Cameron, DeLong, and Taylor) to see you our Mayor for Biz Town would be.  The winner is........

Sydney 

From Mrs. Cameron's Class!

Congratulations to all participants, as we recognize the courage that it takes to stand up in front of your peers! Great job to everyone!

Partial Solar Eclipse

Partial Solar Eclipse

Tomorrow, Ohio will have a Partial Solar Eclipse.  It will begin around 5:30PM and go until about 6:45PM.  If you are home or out and about tomorrow, please check out this awesome science spectacular! If there are clouds, please check out the following website: http://spaceweather.com.  They will have a live camera so you can view the show!

Lucid Chart

Lucid Chart Food Webs

The last couple of days, the students have been using a computer program called Lucid Charts.  This is presentation program that the students can use to complete projects for class, or create new documents at home.  The students used this program to create a food web using the organisms that we found out in the Wetlands last week.  They learned how to search and drag in images, create and change fonts, and also how to use arrows to show the energy transfer between the organisms. When finished, the students will share their Food web with me, just like you would share a Google document. They have really enjoyed this program; many students even asked if they could create a new project at home on their own time!!! 

Wetlands!

We Made It!!!

We finally made it out to the wetlands this week!  The students were introduced to Mrs. Wilmore, who gave them a quick lesson on what to find out in the wetlands.  She included the super scary.....DADDY LONG LEGS, which we learned would not cause us any harm.  She mentioned that the "Cute" "Furry" caterpillars that we all enjoy picking up and analyzing should be something that we actually stay away from as they have defense mechanisms that could hurt humans.  Finally, she showed us what to look for when looking to STAY AWAY from poison ivy- "Leaves of three, let them be."

 







When we ventured out in to the woods, the students were to observe a log of their choice.  They were to decide what stage of decomposition the log was in, as well as observe the various organisms that were living on, in, and under the log.  The students food some really interesting creatures!!

Ecology Assessment

Ecology Test is Thursday and Life Science Packets will be turned in!!!!

This week, we finished talking about photosynthesis.  The students should know the necessary resources that a plant needs in order to survive: Sunlight, water, and carbon dioxide.  The plant then converts this energy into Glucose (sugar), which is the plants food (energy).  This energy is then passed to other organisms when they consume the plant.  

Yesterday, we reviewed for our test, by playing a review Bingo game.  The questions that were used during the game, came directly from their study guides.  If they felt comfortable with the game, they should be successful on our test this Thursday!

Today is FINALLY the day to go out to the Wetlands!  We are headed out to dissect a decomposing log and document the organisms found within the log.  It should be a great day!  

Stay tuned for pictures from our adventure!!!!