Let's get this done!

Hi All,

Posters are nearly finished. Great educational resources for the school - thank you!

Last thing is to finish the lab reports on our sunflowers and soil types for next Tuesday. Today we will focus on getting our graphs finished in class. I look forward to reading the report of all of your efforts related to this long experiment.

So, the last Wildcat science homework for you:

FOR TUESDAY, 6/14, FINISH THE LAB REPORT ACCORDING TO THE LAB REPORT GUIDELINES HANDED OUT IN THE LAST WEEK.

Wrapping up the year

Hi All,

Last week was quite productive as we took our density quizzes, and completed our "Inconvenient Essays."

FOR TUESDAY, 6/7, COMPLETE THE FIELD PROJECTS POSTERS - MANY OF YOU ALREADY HAVE. TUESDAY, WE SHOW THEM OFF!

In class on Tuesday, we get back to our sunflower and soil lab reports to check back in on our data analysis and draft our conclusions.

The rest of the year

Hi All,

A little change in plans as we wrap up the year. We have four things to complete:

1. Density - we will finish reviewing today, and will have our quiz next Tuesday, May 31st.

2. Inconvenient stories. Today we will take some time for you to work with your partner completing your document integrating key ideas expressed in Al Gore's documentary An Inconvenient Truth.

3. We will be wrapping up your field project posters on chickens, a lizard, or plants.

4. Next week, we will complete our lab reports on sunflowers and soil types.

Seems like a lot, but all have been making good progress on all of these projects. Keep up the good work!

The Next Two Weeks...

Hi All,

This week is kind of crazy with the testing schedule, but I am glad that we are getting in Two classes. Here is the schedule for the next two weeks.

DUE TOMORROW, THURSDAY, 5/19: YOUR DENSITY WORKSHEET PACKET
In class tomorrow, we will finish viewing An Inconvenient Truth, identifying the part of the system(s) in advance of building the connections.

DUE TUESDAY, 5/24, YOUR FIELD PROJECT POSTERS. MAKE SURE YOU ARE CONNECTING WITH ONE ANOTHER TO MAKE SURE YOU ARE PREPARED FOR CLASS. SEE THE LIST OF WHO IS WORKING ON WHAT PROJECT:

Field Project Educational Posters
CHICKENS
Coup set-up (Trevor and Aden)
Daily and Weekly tasks (Maggie and Mia)
SPIKE THE BEARDED DRAGON
Natural range and habitat (Josh and Gabe)
How to care for your pet dragon (Ethan and Marco)
Tank environment
Daily tasks
PLANT POSTERS
Butterfly Bush (Sarah and Danny)
Seaside Daisy (Ameerat and Electra)
Ray Hartman Ceanothus (Henry and Willie)
Penstemon (Zoe N.)
Red Twig Dogwood (Evie and Zoe)
Naturtium (Carter)
Toyon (Mariah and Kailey)
Spearmint (Jonathan and Tien)
ALL plant posters will include the following:
* Common name
* Botanical name
* Native range
* Benefits to wildlife habitat
* Photo

ON THURSDAY, 5/26, STUDENTS HAVE A QUIZ ON DENSITY

For the remainder of the year, we will be completing our lab reports, and focusing on interconnectivity within local ecosystems.

Catching up

Hi All,

We have been busy on a variety of tasks. As we prepare to head out in the field next week, here is the status of 6th grade science:

DENSITY
Students have been working on models displaying concepts of density. They drew models of why cylinders of aluminum and copper have different masses. We when looked at models of density showing glasses with the same volume of wooden balls and glass marbles (of the same size) with different masses. One of the biggest concepts so far is the concept of the difference between the space between particles at the atomic level and air, and that the space within atoms are not nearly big enough to accommodate air molecules. Of key importance also is the idea that density is an intensive relationship between volume and mass. We will continue to work on this after field week, and tie it into some of the geology concepts that we have studied.

LAB REPORTS
Students have reached the point of analyzing the data that we all gathered related to the growth of sunflowers in various soil types. Ultimately, their data analyses will include well-written descriptive paragraphs and the integration of a least on computer-generated graph. We will finish these, and begin our conclusions after field week.

EDUCATION POSTERS
Students have also begun developing posters to educate the TBS community about Spike the Bearded Dragon, the newly-arrived chickens, and the habitat benefits of numerous plants in the TBS Butterfly Garden. This work will be finalized after field week, as well.

SYSTEMS
As we continue our work to understand systems, we have been learning about the importance of pollinators ecologically, and for our food supply. We are also in the middle of viewing Food, Inc., looking at the effects of industrialization of the food system. Look for us to be out in the field at least once in May to study more local ecosystems.

Approaching Spring Break

Hi All,

As Spring Break arrives, I hope that you all have a fun one! Here is where we are in science:

This week, pairs worked effectively to use a jumbo Koppen climate map to analyze different types of climates around the world and to think about how and why topsoil is produced and accessible in some areas of the planet, while not in others.

We continued our measurement of the sunflowers planted in various soil types. We will continue to test those hypotheses for at least one more week after spring break. We will continue to graph various components of the data after the break to consider various ways to analyze out findings.

After break we will (finally) do some activities around density and spend the remainder of the year studying connections within local ecological systems.

Lab Reports, Climate, and Soil

Hi All,

Most of you got your lab reports (so far) typed up. If you did not finish this, it is homework for tomorrow, Wednesday, 3/23.

Tomorrow, we will resume our conversation on how climate affects soil.