Did you have a great summer? Visit the ocean? See any fireflies?
After spending last year in the 8th Grade Academy as a pre-service teacher, I'm excited to be returning as the full time science teacher! The curriculum this year will be a little different as we transition toward the new MA standards that have been revised to line up with the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS).
We'll be studying the following items (not necessarily in this order)
Earth's Place in the Universe
Earth's Systems
Earth and Human Activity
From Molecules to Organisms: Structures and Processes
Heredity: Inheritance and Variation of Traits
Biological Evolution: Unity and Diversity
Matter and its Interactions
Motion and Stability: Forces and Interactions
Materials, Tools and Manufacturing
Energy and Power Technologies
In our Science Plus class we'll be reviewing topics covered in 6th and 7th grades, in preparation for MCAS testing in May. This quarter long class will review:
Moon Phases
Eclipses
The Universe
Cells and Organelles
Body Systems
Ecosystems and Food Webs
Electricity and Magnetism
Waves
And a variety of tech/engineering items
In case you didn't know, I have a 7 year old son. Take a wild guess what his favorite toy is??? Yup, Legos. When I saw that there was a local workshop on coaching LEGO Leagues, I had to sign up. My team mate and I were the only ones to get our robot to successfully complete a "mission", and we even made it into an article in the Boston Globe.
I met some other teachers from GMS who are already running an afterschool program for kids to program and work with Lego robotic kits. I'll work on sourcing some EV3 kits for the 8th Grade Academy and maybe we can start a GHS afterschool program!
I couldn't have done this without a lot of help from a lot of people. Thank you!
