Happy Holidays!

Hi All,

As we wrap up 2010, we are in the midst of a number of projects and studies:
Students just took their Ecology and Living Systems quizzes on Thursday.
Lawrence Hall of Science visited to interview most of the students as part of our ongoing survey work with them on Wednesday.
We had a successful field trip to Sibley Volcanic Preserve on Monday.

As we head into the new year, we will be continuing our geology work, ecology and experimentation through the garden, and will get to the explorations of density that I had to reorder in the year due to some other scheduling needs.

NO HOMEWORK OVER THE WINTER BREAK!

I hope everyone has a very happy holiday season!

Sibley Wrap

Hi All,

Great trip to the volcano yesterday! Please reflect on our cold and foggy, but instructive, trip in the five ways:

1. What are three (3) things that your learned about geology yesterday?

2. What are two (2) questions that you have about Sibley or local geology from the trip yesterday?

3. What is one way that you were a productive field team member?

4. What is one way that you could have improved your contributions to the field team?

5. What is one thing that could have improved the trip?

GEOLOGY FIELD DAY!

Hi All,

Today is the day that we go to Sibley Volcanic Regional Preserve. We will discover lots of amazing evidence of past eruptive processes, and see all of the three main types of rocks in the area of exploration.

Remember, that beyond today's field trip, we have our quiz on ECOLOGY AND LIVING SYSTEMS this Thursday! I have embedded the text from the review sheet below.


Ecology and Living Systems Quiz

This is the review sheet for the upcoming quiz on Thursday, December 16, 2010. Please be able to express your understanding of how the various terms and concepts contribute to the food web and/or composting systems.

Define “ecology”

Food webs
Sun
Producers
Consumers
Herbivores
Carnivores
Omnivores
Decomposers
Energy flow

Composting
Decomposers (workers):
Fungi
Bacteria
Insects
Worms

Managing the pile for the decomposers:
Chop materials to increase surface area
Mix browns and greens
Maintain moisture as damp as a wrung out sponge
Maintain airflow

Benefits of compost:
Adds to fertility in the soil
Grows healthy plants
Can be used as a mulch to save water
Reduces the amount being sent to the landfill
Reduces the need for chemical fertilizers and pesticides
Reduces trash hauling bills

Geology!

Hi All,

As we get into the full holiday swing, I hope everyone is doing well. In science, we have been busy exploring various systems. From the ecology and integrated parts of the compost pile to exploring our ecological footprints, students are working to understand causality and make many connections.

Today, we began our geologic studies. We generated 3 thoughts or ideas about the subject, 2 questions, and one simile about geology. We will bridge these beginning ideas with those at the end of the unit to help gauge how much knowledge and understanding has been developed. This thinking routine, known as "3-2-1 Bridge," is very useful to help frame important ideas about geology.

Near the end of class, students viewed a video on rocks and minerals, helping to set the stage for tomorrow's field trip to the Lawrence Hall of Science.

We are all excited for the trip to learn about faults and earthquakes.

Earthquakes!

Hi All,

Your only homework is to get the Earthquakes: Whose Fault Is It? permission slip in for tomorrow, Thursday, 11/18.

If you still owe me the LHS survey consent forms, or if your parent needs to email me, please finish the appropriate task for homework too.

Thank you!

Wednesday Field Day

Hi All,

We have three classes before the Thanksgiving Holiday. Here is where we are going:

Today, we will continue our field work and mapping in the Chaparral House Garden.
Tomorrow, we will review the compost film that we viewed yesterday, and begin our soil studies.
Next Tuesday, if we are ready, we will investigate our ecological footprints.

IF YOU ARE OPTING OUT OF THE LHS SURVEY, AND YOUR PARENTS HAVE NOT EMAILED ME, HAVE THEM DO SO. I WANT TO KNOW THAT THEY HAVE READ THE LETTERS PRIOR TO MAKING THEIR DECISION.

HOMEWORK FOR THURSDAY, 11/18, GET THE LAWRENCE HALL OF SCIENCE PERMISSION SLIP SIGNED. AND WE NEED DRIVERS!

After the conferences......

Hi All,

I hope your conferences were useful and a good experience for you all. As we move forward, there are some very exciting things in the horizon:

We have been invited by UC Berkeley's Lawrence Hall of Science to take part in a pilot study investigating students' interests in science. This is truly an exciting opportunity for students, teachers, and parents here at TBS to help influence science programming and curricula being developed up at LHS.
HOMEWORK FOR THURSDAY, 11/11, GET BOTH THE STUDENT AND PARENT CONSENT FORMS FOR PARTICIPATING IN THIS STUDY SIGNED.

Today, we will be continuing our field work at Chaparral House. We will be gathering data on our research plots, and we will be continuing our studies on measurement as we map the garden space.

Looking ahead, we will be continuing our measurement work, and we will be moving into studies on density and geology. This includes a field trip to the Lawrence Hall of Science on December 2nd.

ECC and the homework

Hi All,

Today (Wednesday), we will be headed to the ECC to work with the younger students on gardening projects - lots of different gardening projects.

A reminder about your........
HOMEWORK, DUE THURSDAY, 10/28
1. REFINE YOUR HYPOTHESIS TO BE AS SPECIFIC IN ITS LANGUAGE AS POSSIBLE (AS WE DID WITH ZOE AND SARAH'S IN CLASS ON TUESDAY)
2. DESIGN YOUR EXPERIMENT SO THAT IT BEST TESTS YOUR HYPOTHESIS (WHAT IS BEING MEASURED AND HOW FREQUENTLY?)

Please make sure that all of this scientific method work is being kept in your Projects/Quizzes section of your binder. Also, remember to put the work assessment sheet that you received back yesterday in that same section.

Have a great day!

Update

Hi All,

For most of you, there is no homework. We have determined our working hypotheses, have begun gathering data, and we will continue this work in the next several weeks.

Have a great weekend!

Fun times with the younger kids and data collection

Hi All,

Lots happening in science this week:

Yesterday, we split our time between making further garden observations in our pea research plots and gardening with the kindergarteners and 1st graders from Laurel Creek classroom.

We have developed hypotheses that we will be finalizing today. We will also be developing our experiment methodologies for testing our hypotheses in class today. Finally, we will make sure that our data sheets related to the pea research are complete through yesterday's visit.

The Lorax and Peas

Hi All,

I hope you are all having a great week! Sorry for the delayed update. I really enjoyed watching and listening to you compare your Lorax concept maps last week. Overall, effective causal connections were made in your systems.

Our efforts in the garden last week were vastly improved! We set up a research area that includes three 4' x 5' beds, one with plain soil, one amended with compost, and one that has had organic fertilizer added. Into each plot we planted 50 pea seeds. We began using the scientific method to observe the research area and to pose questions about what we saw. Today we worked on developing hypotheses related to soil conditions and our predictions related to how they may affect the growth of the peas.

Tomorrow we continue our field work.....

The Story of Stuff and this week in science

Hi All,

We continue our study of systems this week in a number of ways:

Last week, we wrapped up The Lorax concept maps, and will share those this Thursday.

Today, we viewed the Story of Stuff (storyofstuff.org).

HOMEWORK FOR THURSDAY, 10/14, ANSWER THE FOLLOWING FOUR QUESTIONS RELATED TO THE STORY OF STUFF:
1. WHAT IS A SYSTEM?
2. WHAT ARE THE FIVE PARTS OF THE "MATERIALS ECONOMY?"
3. WHAT TYPE OF SYSTEM IS THE "MATERIALS ECONOMY?"
4. HOW DOES ANNIE LEONARD SUGGEST THAT WE CHANGE THE SYSTEM?

Tomorrow, we will continue our work developing habits and skills related to being a strong ecological field team. It is my hope that we will be able to venture out to plant an experimental pea plot in our Chaparral House garden.

Have a great week!

Science Update

Hi All,

Sixth grade science has been focused on understanding connections in systems.

In the last few weeks, we have been working on a number of aspects:

Systems in the Garden: Students worked in field ecology teams to investigate garden research plots. We began by defining ecology as : "The study of living things and how they interact with their living and non-living environment." Within a square-meter of garden, they identified living elements, non-living components, and the living and non-living factors from outside of the plot that could affect the life within the plot. We debriefed as a class, sharing all of the things we noticed in our garden plots and the factors that can affect life in them.

Following up on the garden explorations, we have spent more time being the impact in the garden, tearing out the dead and dying vegetation from this year as we prepare the winter garden.

The Lorax by Dr. Seuss: Most students know this book, but we are taking it to the next level. Last week, we viewed the animated film. This week, students will be constructing concept maps that make the connections between the living and non-living elements in the story. Students will work in groups of three to construct these maps and articulate the effects various elements have on others. This encourages systems thinking, one of the main throughlines for the year.

Sharing and getting a binder

Hi All,

Thank you for collaborating with others around our questions of "What is science?"and "What is a system?" We will continue our discussions and developing understandings of those next week.

For homework, due Tuesday, September 14th, please get a 1" binder with dividers and lined paper.

Have a great weekend!

Homework for Thursday, September 9th

Please write 3-5 sentences, or bullet points if that works better, answering one of the following questions.

If you are a NUMBER 1, answer, "What is science?"
If you are a NUMBER 2, answer, "What is a system?"

We will share our thoughts, and learn from one another tomorrow in class.

It was enjoyable hearing your seeing, thinking, and wondering related to the bouquet of flowers from our Chaparral House garden. I also hope our tour of projects on campus sparked some of your interest in science and systems related to bees, fish, wetlands, plants, butterflies, hummingbirds, and chickens. Lots of fun work ahead this year!

Welcome to the new year!

Hi All,

Welcome to the 2010-11 6th Grade Science Blog!

This week, we are jumping into two key questions:

What is science?

What is a system?

Next week we will provide more detail on the throughlines, content units, and learning goals, so stay tuned......