COWs - Week 3

7th grade COWs were returned today with comments, and all 6th grade COWs will be returned tomorrow with comments. The new COW for Week 3 was assigned today. Notice that one of the constraints has to do with not only who can go in the boat at one time, but also what can go in the boat. Think tonight about how you will represent the who and what as they travel.


Fact Fluency - we are working to help students develop 'automaticity' with basic math facts. The four arithmetic operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division) with single digit numbers should be 'automatic', meaning a student just knows them without having to think about it. Without automaticity the development of higher-order skills - multi-digit addition, fractions, and problem solving, will be severely impacted. Think of it as freeing up brain space to work on problems rather than using it up on basic math facts. We will have timed 'mad minutes' for all four operations each day this week, and then calculate the mean of each operation. We will do this again periodically throughout the year to see our growth. For practice, you can go to MATH FACT PRACTICE.

7th Grade

Check out this website for interquartile range help.
box and whisker plot website

Challenge of the Week

Attached are copies of this week's COW for you use.

COW #2 7th Grade
COW #2 6th Grade

EXCITING OPPORTUNITY!

The Morehouse School of Medicine’s Ben Carson Saturday Science Academy has extended an invitation to the students at our school to participate in our science enrichment program from October 9-November 20 (Saturdays ONLY). The program runs from 9am-1:30 pm offering extensive hand-on science experiments which include dissections and also a robotics component. We also include parental workshops on various issues pertaining to children. The purpose of our program is to introduce students to the health sciences field. Students in 4th-8th grade can participate. Registration dates are from August 2-August 31 so please act fast!
Ben Carson Science Academy Link:

http://www.msm.edu/community_health/commhealth_trainingprograms/commhealth_trainingprograms_ben.aspx

COWs

This week's Challenge of the Week was assigned today, and each student received a 3-prong folder to complete the work in. Some helpful links for the knowledge portion may be found to the right.

Drilling for Oil

I hope everyone is enjoying their weekend. On Monday, we will be introducing our first 'Unit of Study' looking at the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Click here to see a video about drilling for oil in general. After watching this video, please post a comment to the blog.

6th Graders - one area of our learning expectations in Science this year is geology. We started an experiment about fossil fuels on Thursday. We will look at the results on Monday. I posted a link to a video about fossil fuels on the previous blog. Please remember to post your comments to this video.

Fossil Fuels

In sixth grade today, we began an experiment to investigate fossil fuels. One of the concepts we explored is "What are fossil fuels?" The attached link has some great information - check it out!
http://videos.howstuffworks.com/hsw/6187-energy-what-are-fossil-fuels-video.htm

In seventh grade, we began a lab to explore the behavior of oil in water. We will continue the lab tomorrow. Students need to measure the area of a rectangle or a circle. We will continue with this lab tomorrow.

For both grades, we have had great progress for our Challenge of the Week (COW). It has been reviewed daily, and will be turned in tomorrow for a grade. I will be returning the graded COWs next week.

We will also be celebrating our first 'Success Day' tomorrow during the last hour of the day. Students who have completed the Math, Reading, Writing, and Research portions of their Summer Activity Journals will participate.

Organization Day

On Monday, we will wrap up a few loose ends from last week, review materials, and get organized. We will outline our expectations for notebook organization and contents. All students should come prepared with their 1-1/2" 3-ring binder and a pencil (as was explained in the MST syllabus). We will provide a composition notebook to every student, as well as a 1-sheet monthly calendar to use for noting assignments. If you are unable to provide a 3-ring notebook, please email me.
I have enjoyed reading the goals, potential challenges, and expectations reflections that students completed on Friday afternoon, and look forward to helping our students reach their full potential this year.

Reminder - we are a chewing gum-free school :)

Another Great Day

In seventh grade today, students made graphs of some quick in-class surveys that we conducted today. Overall, they did an excellent job.
In sixth grade, each group made arguments to persuade the class that their assigned musician was the best, citing evidence from articles that were then sorted into either quantitative or qualitative data.

Remember that you will be assessed tomorrow on the following:
- quantitative vs. qualitative
- arguments, claims, and evidence
- using graphs to present information

Quantitative Data vs. Qualitative Data

Today, we explored the ideas of qualitative versus quantitative data. I was very impressed with how quickly our students demonstrated understanding and could create qualitative or quantitative descriptors of our class. To review these concepts at home, you can visit a related website by clicking here (http://www.regentsprep.org/Regents/math/ALGEBRA/AD1/qualquant.htm)
Keep up the great work, and don't forget to answer the survey to the right!

First Day Reflection - Tuesday morning

I was so pleased to meet all of our new students yesterday! We had a great day, and the students did an excellent job diving right into problem solving. Each student received his or her MST syllabus (which should be signed and returned today). We have some great activities planned for this week which introduce the approach we will be taking towards learning in MST. Please contact me if you have any questions or concerns. Lastly, don't forget to complete the simple survey to the right.

Welcome Back / Welcome to ACMS

Orientation is tomorrow, Friday, August 6! I look forward to meeting each of you. I have met some of you when you were much younger at NCS, and I can't wait to see how you've grown and changed. New students, come at 8:30 and meet in the library. Returning students, drop in anytime between 2:00 and 4:00 for an open-house format meet and greet.