Week of October 19-23

Monday, October 19, 2009

6^th Grade

7^th Grade

8^th Grade

Daily Launch

Pass back papers and calculate grades.

Turn in Making Sense of Water Bottle Rockets.

Take out Study Guide #1.

Take out notes of Earth’s Structure and Seismic Waves.

Complete heading on a new sheet of notebook paper.

Daily Mission

Continue to calculate the elapsed popping time for each kernel. Create a data table for White Corn Group Data and a separate table for Yellow Corn Group Data. Tables should include trial #, start time, end time, elapsed time (in seconds), and observations for each kernel.

2^nd Period: Analyze data from water bottle rocket launch. Identify the main sources of error in our procedure and suggest which procedures could be improved, clarified, or replaced. Assemble altitude trackers.

3^rd Period: Continue to review answers to Study Guide #1. Topics discussed: parts of the Shuttle Transportation System, liquid verses solid rocket fuels, types of payloads, common uses of rockets, forces acting on a rocket, demonstration of lift forces.

Analyze distance vs. time graphs of seismic waves moving through the Earth’s interior. Have students determine that a straight line indicates constant speed while a curved line indicates acceleration. Review that acceleration means speeding up, slowing down, or changing directions. Then examine graphs indicating that seismic velocities increase at the base of the crust (where the BUM starts). Have students determine what this means about the nature of the BUM (higher density = faster seismic velocities). Discuss the seismic anomaly known as the Mohorovicic discontinuity (the Moho) and how the study of seismic anomalies has provided indirect evidence for the internal structure of the Earth.

Introduce new classnotes on Heat Transfer. Students will define temperature, thermal energy, and heat, and then differentiate between these three terms by comparing the temperature and thermal energy of a beaker of boiling water to the Atlantic Ocean.

Handouts

Homework

White Corn Group Data table and Yellow Corn  Group Data table due tomorrow. Data tables and graphs for class data will be due Wednesday.

Study History of Rocketry and Space Flight Study Guide #1.

No homework.

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

6^th Grade

7^th Grade

8^th Grade

Daily Launch

Turn in White Corn and Yellow Corn Group Data tables. Pass out Science Journals.

Journal Entry: Muddled Hypotheses

No daily launch.

Pick up Puzzle of the Earth’s Crust packet (see your absent folder). Read Fitting the Continents Together on first page and complete the Before You Read activity called What Would You Do? Make sure your answer is a well-thought-out paragraph using complete sentences.

TURN IN ALL SALAZAR LETTERS!!!

Daily Mission

Discuss the issues with the two hypotheses presented for today’s journal prompt and have students re-write original statement using the two methods we have learned in class.

Pass back group data tables and have each group calculate average popping time for  white corn and average popping time for yellow (original) corn, as well as percentage of duds for each.

Students will create a data table for the class data to use for tonight’s assignment.

Students will practice using the Altitude Tracker to sight/spot objects in the classroom, establish procedures for measuring angles, and practice using the trundle wheel (rolling distance meter) to measure out the length of our classroom.

Students will create testing procedures and plan out our next rocket launch, including determining what supplies will be needed, how many student scientists are required, what jobs will need to be performed, estimating how many trials can be conducted per class period, etc.

Students will share their responses to What Would You Do? assignment. Initiate a discussion of how scientific knowledge is the result of great debate and confirmation within the scientific community, and why listening to and “arguing” against differing ideas, no matter how “out-there”, can actually strengthen current understanding and even lead to new ways of seeing a problem.  Encourage debate of what qualifies someone as a scientists or what credentials they should have in order for the scientific community to take them and their ideas seriously. Discussion should foster a general recognition that the scientists who have contributed to our current body of scientific knowledge have come from all kinds of backgrounds and possessed varied talents, interests and goals.

Handouts

Journal Entry: Muddled Hypotheses

Continental Drift: The Beginnings of a Theory PACKET, Puzzle of the Earth’s Crust PACKET (should be in your absent folder),

Homework

Create a graph comparing the class averages for white corn popping time to the yellow corn popping time, as well as a graph comparing the number of duds for each type.

2^nd Period: Look for water bottle rocket simulators online. Copy and paste link into a word document.

3^rd: Make sure all students complete Making Sense of Water Bottle Rockets (if you have not done so already).

Read/highlight Continental Drift: The Beginnings of a Theory PACKET.

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

6^th Grade

7^th Grade

8^th Grade

Daily Launch

Turn in White Corn and Yellow Corn Graphs. Pass out Science Journals.

2^nd: Turn in websites where you found water bottle rocket simulators.

3^rd: Turn in Making Sense of Water Bottle Rockets (if you have not done so already).

Agenda Check and Oral Comprehension Quiz (HW Check) for Continental Drift: The Beginnings of a Theory PACKET.

Daily Mission

Journal Entry: Hit or Miss Hypotheses (6th). Discuss the issues with the three hypotheses presented for today’s journal prompt and have students re-write the original statement using the two methods we have learned in class.

Pass back graphs of class data for popping time and # of duds. Make suggestions for positioning of graphs on the graph paper, using a ruler when drawing graphs, leaving room for axes labels, including graph titles, etc.

Reinforce standard practice for establishing range of axes, especially for percents (must go from 0 to 100).

2^nd: Journal Entry: Hit or Miss Hypotheses (7th). Discuss the issues with the three hypotheses presented for today’s journal prompt and have students re-write the original statement using the two methods we have learned in class. Students will then use these same two methods to construct a hypothesis for our water bottle rocket lab.

3^rd: Students will continue to create testing procedures and plan out our next rocket launch, including determining what supplies will be needed, how many student scientists are required, what jobs will need to be performed, estimating how many trials can be conducted per class period, etc.

Read pages 118-122 in Prentice Hall Earth Science Textbook. Take notes that will help with tonight’s homework.

Students will debate and analyze some of the evidence that Wegener used to support his theory of Continental Drift and propose possible scenarios besides movement of the continents to explain this evidence. Wobbling of the Earth on its axis, “rafting” on ocean currents, global climate change were all proposed, but later rejected after further discussion and evaluation.

4^th Period got very side-tracked in a discussion regarding evidence supporting heliocentrism as opposed to geocentrism, and how scientific theories change over time.

5^th Period used high-level synthetic analysis to conclude that global climate change could not have simultaneously explained evidence of glaciers in modern equatorial regions and tropical plants growing in polar regions.

Handouts

Journal Entry: Hit or Miss Hypotheses (6th)

Journal Entry: Hit or Miss Hypotheses (7th)

Continental Drift: The Beginnings of a Theory PACKET

Homework

Correct or re-do graphs if required. Make sure you have procedures, raw data sheets, neat data tables, and completed graphs for tomorrow.

Write water bottle rocket lab hypothesis in your Science Journal.

Thinking Question: Explain and give examples of the physical evidence that Wegener used to support his theory of continental drift and how the Earth has evolved over geologic time.