Today was our first attempt at a lab in class.  We used corn syrup and chocolate powder in a pie tin and heated it on a hot plate to model plate tectonics.  Each student has a five page lab report to accompany the activity and it’s due tomorrow.  The lab went fairly well, however the kids were awfully loud the  ENTIRE TIME.  We’ll get better at it.  If they missed the activity, we can recreate it when they return so they don’t miss out.  The lab covers everything we’ve worked on the entire quarter and is a good lead up to the test later this week.  I’ll include a link to a video of it on Youtube here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdWYBAOqHrk

First thing today, I explained to them about what “peer reviewed research” and how it related to this article: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/22/cern-light-speed_n_977014.html

I like to pull in news stories about science and remind them how science affects us every day.  This article was a good way to reiterate how the scientific method spurs advancements and that everything we know about the planet comes from diligent research from many people over many years.

After that we reviewed the questions from Journey Along a Fieldline and reviewed for the quiz.  The quiz threw some of the kids, but most did pretty well.  I allowed second period to change seats and told them I’m trusting them with the new arrangement.  If it becomes a problem, I’ll move them.  We also had a surprise fire drill.

Today we worked on a webcomic  that I found about Geomagnetism.  It’s pretty cool and I made the questions with it pretty hard.  It WILL be a part of tomorrow’s quiz.  If the kids didn’t get it done they can access the webcomic here: http://geomag.usgs.gov/comicbook/

The other part of the quiz will be the paragraph on Magnetic Shift from a couple of days ago.

Getting geared up for round two of parent/teacher conferences tonight!

We went to the computer lab today and worked on our Prezi’s.  Some of the kids a re little behind the others as far as the amount of information they have, but their personalities are really coming out in their work.  Some kids tried to add music or soundboard sounds to it, but the Prezi platform won’t accept it.  I’m not sure if adding sound to Prezis is even an option as of yet.  We’ll see what the kids come up with.  They were a little talkative, but I think they do that because they’re getting feedback form each other as to what they find or include and they want to show it off.

Today we delved a little deeper into pole reversal and how it relates to the evidence for seafloor spreading and did an enrichment worksheet in class.  The kids are picking this stuff up pretty fast.  I also had them take some notes, which they balked at.  It’s funny how much they hate to take notes!  Here’s what they had to write down:

Magnetic Shift

Polar shift is easily confused with pole reversal, in which the Earth’s magnetic poles change places. Evidence for such reversals is abundant, locked in the iron oxides of ancient rocks, which aligned along the direction of magnetic north when they cooled. This alignment still occurs in some igneous rocks, such as when lava cools and crystallizes. Magnetic pole reversals occur irregularly (around every 300,000 years) and require thousands of years to complete. Some call the South Atlantic Anomaly — a trough in the Earth’s magnetic field near the coast of Brazil that enables cosmic rays and charged particles to delve lower than usual into the atmosphere — a harbinger of an upcoming pole reversal, due perhaps as soon as 2012. Scientists think it unlikely; even if it happened, they say, the results would not be catastrophic.

One would have thought I asked them to copy War and Peace.  I might make this paragraph part or all of the next quiz.

Today I handed back the quizzes from last week and reminded the students that they can retake them if they would like.  After that we talked about pole shift and how it relates to the evidence for sea floor spreading.  We watched a couple of interesting little video clips and talked about how people can skew scientific advancement as well.

I changed the quiz format to include some essays on it and the students seemed a little weirded out.  They weren’t expecting it, but they were fine.  I will continue to challenge the way they recall information on my assessments in order to push them.  The science controversy writing exercise just barely got started, due to time constraints.  I’m putting it up here if they want to work on it over the weekend, but I will give them time next week to get it done.  We also got a lot of re-takes done in class for those who are not happy with their grades.  Those re-takes will be reflected on Pinnacle and I’ll only count the highest score.  Next week, new chapter and a big chapter test.

Science Controversy Cartoons

 These cartoon are depictions of scientific controversies seen throughout the world.  They are based generally on the way certain people view scientific advancement, evidence and its effect on people, politics, and the rest of the world.

1. Take a few minutes and pick a cartoon to study.
2. Consider what the central theme of the cartoon is.  Who is the center of the issue?
3. Look at the surroundings and try to determine what the message is.  Describe the cartoon and what it says.
4. Consider who is affected on both sides of the issue.
5. Who benefits from science in the cartoon?  Who doesn’t benefit?
6. What is the major problem?
7. How do we solve the problem?

Write your responses in a clear, concise manner.  Use complete sentences.  You will be graded on the content of your thoughts about the cartoon.  Have fun and try to think outside the box.

Today we did a little administration about the gradebook and made some appointments to retake some quizzes.  To reiterate, anyone can retake or redo any work I assign for any grade, formative, sumative or otherwise.  I want the work to be done correctly and with a certain exactness.  We started on a re-creation of a map outlining the plate boundaries.  This is homework if they didn’t get it done in class.  Tomorrow we will have a quiz over the same material.

We did an interactive on seafloor spreading today and talked about the reversal of magnetic polarity as well.  In class we did a quick worksheet on the birth of the Himalayas and for homework they got a guided reading on this section in the text.  Both classes were a little talkative today.

The kids are showing real progress with their ability to take information and mold it into really creative ways of displaying it!  They are searching out a myriad of websites, diagrams, charts, pictures and videos to put with our Inside Earth section.  It’s all coming along swimmingly.  We will be back in the lab next Wednesday, but if they feel the need to work on it at home, they should.

I have some students that need to retake some quizzes and several have shown up before school to do so.  I can give quizzes in third period as well, but I don’t ever want to take someone out of another class for a retake.  Before school or during lunch works as well.  Onward and upward!