Lunar Eclipse 4:51 – 6:07 am PST Wed. 1/31

Take photos.  Look West for full moon!

Mini Ocean & Thermohaline Current

We are returning to our lessons on density & the Thermohaline Current.  Students will be reading about the Thermohaline Current from articles in class, and one was sent home today.  I am wanting to be sure that kids understand the relationship between density, temperature, salinity, the formation of the deep ocean currents, and the lab we recently completed (which simulates the motion of the Thermohaline Current).  Students will use this information to write a somewhat formal lab report – in class.  These will be available for your review during student led conferences in March.  Please encourage your child to read the article I sent home today and to mark five key facts on the article (with a star or highlighter, for instance).  He/she will be sharing with his/her cooperative learning groups tomorrow!

Progress Reports and Late Work

Tomorrow, I am giving a class period (44 mins on Friday) to make up missing Late Work.  Late Work will be accepted, but does receive a 20% penalty unless there has been an excused absence, and then it must be turned in within a week from that absence in my classes.

I am noticing many students not putting in any time for Science homework, which is often just completing what was not completed in class.  I rarely assign additional “homework” in the traditional sense.  Please encourage your child to complete late work, and to spend a few minutes every night or so on Science.  The concepts we are studying may have not been presented before (unlike math, for instance, where the curriculum spirals, and builds), often times new units in Science are truly all new material.  We do build concepts, like the recent unit which included metric measurement, density, deep ocean currents (which move due to density), and the “Mini” Ocean Lab.

Students that are doing well, consistently come to class prepared, ready to focus and learn, participate in class discussions, complete homework, and ASK questions during class, and come in at lunch to “fix” or re-do some assignments.  Please tell your student that expecting A’s in rigorous classes takes determination and “grit”.  I hope your are hearing about some of the interesting things we are studying.  Next week we will continue our unit on the atom.

ALR 🙂

Density, Mystery blocks, Thermohaline

What do these topics all have in common?  Ask your student (or yourself?)!

We’ve been very busy with labs on density, identifying mystery cubes by calculating density and then using charts and deductive logic. Today we are completing climographs of three cities to show effects of the ocean current conveyor belt (Thermohaline Current).

Progress Reports will be sent home on Tuesday.  Please remember that this quarter, late work receives 20% less credit unless you have an excused absence.

I hope you enjoy the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday Monday.