It was a great first week in our class and I am looking forward to another excellent week! On Friday, students had homework for the first time. It was to simply label the tabs in their binder. There should be eight tabs and they were given the opportunity to write the titles down in class on Friday. In case students need them again, they are:
- Work in Progress
- Skills
- Energy
- Ecology
- Biodiversity
- Natural Resources
- Atmosphere & Weather
- Portfolio
If tabs are not available, students were shown how to use sticky notes and a blank sheet of paper to engineer an alternate solution. This week we will continue to learn and practice classroom procedures as we begin to dive into more academic content, including graphing, the scientific method and the engineering design process.
Monday
Students will build catapults and document their repeated attempts to launch an object a far distance. They will then use their data to create a graph. Using their graph, the data they obtained and the ACES writing strategy, students will write a scientific review of their experiment reflecting on the relationship between the attempt number and the distance their object went.
Binder Notes - Skills section:
A ~ Answer the question!
C ~ Cite evidence, vocabulary or rules that prove your answer
E ~ Explain your reasoning! How do you know?
S ~ Summarize what you are learning!
Homework: Complete graphing worksheet.
Tuesday
Students will review the catapult activity and be asked to identify parts of the activity in terms of the scientific method. We will then engineer a marble run! Students will have limited time and materials to create a marble run.
Binder Notes - Skills section:
- Identify - What problem are you trying to solve?
- Investigate - What information do you know or can you find readily available?
- Imagine - Brainstorm ideas for possible solutions. No idea is a bad idea at this point!
- Plan - Decide what idea you would like to try and figure out what steps to take.
- Create - Take those steps!
- Test - Test to see if your creation worked the way you expected.
- Improve - Make changes to your creation to make it better.
- Communicate - Use the ACES strategy, summarize your process and results to discuss your creation.
Homework: Using the first 3 steps of the engineering design process, describe the marble run challenge as completed in class.
Wednesday
Students will review the marble run challenge. Students will then use the Scientific Method and their marble run design to test varying sized marbles, collect data, and graph the results.
Binder Notes - Skills section:
- Ask – Ask a question to which you plan to find the answer.
- Research – What background information do you have? What can you find?
- Hypothesize – What do you think is going to happen?
- Test – Create an experiment to see what happens!
- Analyze Data and Draw Conclusions – Did the experiment work? Did it support your hypothesis? Why or why not? Did it work partially? Why? What new questions do you have now?
- Conclude and communicate – What do you think it all means? Summarize your results and share the information in a written, visual, or digital way.
Homework: Using the Scientific Method, describe the experience of the marble run. Use all 6 steps and the vocabulary on the Notes sheet to receive full credit.
Thursday
Students will review the marble run challenge once again to discuss forms of energy that they encountered. We will create a list of questions that we will be working all quarter to answer. Students will also get online in class for the first time to review procedures and get to know regularly visited sites including Clever, Microsoft Office Suite, and email.
Homework: Complete graphing worksheet.
Friday
Students will be introduced to Menus. This will be the format in which their weekly work assignments will be delivered. Over time, they will include more choices as students become used to the freedom and choice. Activities will be focused on graphing and evaluating data.
Homework: NO Homework! (This will be standard practice!)
Have a great week! Please feel free to contact me with any questions, comments, thoughts or concerns!
Lisa Preston, MAT
6th Grade Science
lisa.reed-preston@mnps.org
Head Middle Magnet Prep of Math & Science
1830 Jo Johnston Ave.
Nashville, TN 37203
(615) 329-8160
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