Oct. 15th-26th Earth Science–Plate Tectonics and Earth’s Layers

With our chemistry unit wrapped up its on to GEOLOGY! We’ll be getting new vocabulary and information for the next 4-5 weeks. Read and work ahead and don’t forget to budget study time into your plans every evening.

Our first exploration of the Earth will be its crustal plates…large sections of the rocky surface down to the mantle called tectonic plates. These plates are always on the move and cause the physical features and movements that shape our Earth. Take time to take a quick ride along with Tim and Moby to find out more.

When marking your calendar don’t forget our SCIENCE SPOOKTACULAR coming up on October 30th from 5-7. Hope to see all of you here!

SEPT. 24TH-OCT. 12 CHEMICAL AND PHYSICAL PROPERTIES AND CHANGES

Goggles and aprons and all of your safe lab practices will be put to use in the coming days. We are going to be working in the lab to identify signs of a chemical change. To prepare yourself for a better understanding of the strange things going on in the lab, place particular emphasis on the 10 signs of a chemical change, physical and chemical properties, and reflect back on the examples you observed in class.

As always study every time you get the chance…the more you review…the more you can do!

Try to pick out as many signs of a chemical change as you can from the following video!

Our first major unit test (CBA #1 Chemistry) is October 16th. Study guides will be made available October 5th to begin preparation…SO, STUDY-STUDY-STUDY!!!

SEPT. 14TH-21ST ELEMENTS AND COMPOUNDS

I know what you’re thinking…”this is soooo much new vocabulary and information!” Don’t be frightened, just dig in and STUDY-STUDY-STUDY!!!

The first portion of our chemistry unit will focus on elements and compounds; what an element is and how they combine to make new substances. For an introduction to the elements check this out (just click on the link…pick and element…and find out all there is to know about it):

http://www.periodicvideos.com/

Aug. 27th-Sept. 7th MEASURING MATTER—-CALCULATING DENSITY

We’ll begin the week of the 27th continuing to brush up on measurement using the international systems of units (SI). Our goal is to begin our study of matter by calculating density using the formula…D=M/V (density is equal to mass divided by volume. When our measuring is spot on we’ll tackle our first big lab (“FLOATERS AND SINKERS). The following should help make sense of the idea of density of matter:

We’ll be out on Friday the 31st (a student holiday) and Monday the 3rd of September (Labor Day).

AUG. 14TH-23RD WELCOME BACK MUSTANGS!!! DSIS PROCEDURES AND LAB SAFETY–INTRODUCTION TO MATTER

I hope you all had a great summer break and that you are recharged and ready to get back to work. The first few days of school will be filled with the “how to-dos” and the “dos and don’ts.” We’ll cover everything Mustang style on Wednesday and Thursday and begin lab safety on Friday.

Before we begin our investigations in the lab every student will need a LABORATORY SAFETY AGREEMENT on file in the science lab (no exceptions). This is an MISD policy and is in place to help in creating a safe working and learning environment. Check this out:

Don’t be this guy!

JAN. 6TH-24TH FORCE AND MOTION — POTENTIAL AND KINETIC ENERGY, NEWTON, VECTORS AND A WHOLE LOT MORE

What causes things to move, not to move, or in which direction they move if they are moving? All questions that we will be answering over the next few weeks.

Understanding the two basic forms of energy (potential and kinetic) will be essential for our upcoming investigations into PHYSICS! We’ll also be looking into the 3 basic laws of motion set down by Issac Newton back in 1687. We’ll use Newton’s laws to conduct several investigations in the lab as we start out the new year.

So…welcome back, Happy New Year, and get ready to work harder and smarter than ever before.

…and about those laws of motion…give this a look!

NOV. 27TH-DEC. 21 SPACE–THE SOLAR SYSTEM–GRAVITY–SPACE EXPLORATION

Between late November and Winter Break the learning will be extremely fast paced. Not only will we investigate the solar system and it’s components; we will also look back at the history of space exploration, what’s going on in space exploration today, and finally what may be in store for space exploration in the future.

Starting with the solar system we’ll check out the composition of celestial objects, their locations and their movements. This might be of some help!

Next well will try to understand the intergalactic glue that holds the universe together…GRAVITY!
See if this makes sense.

https://ed.ted.com/lessons/jon-bergmann-how-to-think-about-gravity

Finally we’ll look back at the history of exploring space, what’s going on today, and plans being made for the future.

The Unit Test is currently planned for the week of December 18th! As usual your success is up to you…so STUDY, STUDY, STUDY!!! Lets end 2017 on the upswing and set our sights high for 2018!

NOV. 6TH-17TH WRAPPING UP TAXONOMY AND ON TO ECOSYSTEMS

We’ll wrap up taxonomy mid-week and jump straight into the organization of ecosystems. Working with your ecosystems vocabulary will be important as we will be moving through this portion of our investigations into life science very quickly.

The week of the 13th will be very busy. Wrapping up ecosystems and preparing for the UNIT TEST over life science. It will include prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells, classification using domains and kingdoms, and levels of organization in ecosystems. The test will be Thursday the 16th!!! STUDY…STUDY…STUDY!

OCT. 30TH-NOV. 3RD CLASSIFICATION OF LIVING THINGS

Just like a department store or a grocery store sorts goods for sale into categories, biologists use a type of classification to sort living things into different domains and kingdoms of life. It may sound complicated, with so many different living organisms to sort out, but it’s really pretty simple.

DUMB KING PHILLIP CAME OVER FOR GREAT SPAGHETTI! It may sound crazy but it’s a great way to remember the levels of classification of living things. We’ll investigate that and other aspects of classification in the lab this week.

For a head start…check this out:

P.S. Could be a learning check on Friday!

OCT. 23RD-27TH PROKARYOTIC VS. EUKARYOTIC CELLS

This week is all about cells! Eukaryotic cells have a nucleus and prokaryotic cells don’t have a nucleus. Nucleus, what’s that? With all of our new life science vocabulary there are so many new words with unusual spelling, pronunciation, and definitions…that being the case, it’s study time MUSTANGS!!! There will most likely be a learning check late in the week. For those who don’t remember that’s a quiz.

To help with the similarities and differences of cell types….check this out.