Quiz on Thursday and Exam Review

Coming up on Thursday, we will have a notes quiz to make sure that students have everything needed upon their return in January. The PowerPoint is posted here. It will be open-note and is intended to see if students understand the content we have covered so far. We are basically going to move the content and full test intended for last two weeks of this quarter into next semester as the pacing guide constructed this summer was a little bit ambitious. This quiz should have no major effect on grades provided the students have paid attention in class.

I know this is a time of year when we are all sick, and there are many distractions. However, lots of students have missed class for various reasons, and not being here does affect grades. Here are some tips to help you get through these last few days of school and do well on assignments:

1. Get lots of rest and eat healthy.
2. Prioritize. If you have classes in which you are struggling, get help there first.
3. Complete all unfinished work. Some teachers will let you go back more than 3 days. I don't, but if you were sick, I'm can be lenient if you have a track record of turning in work on time.
4. Avoid absences for non-essential events.

If you follow those four recommendations, the end of the semester will be easy. Although it's a little late in the game, keep these in mind for next semester as well.

Science Olympiad and science fair will be taking up quite a bit of time when we return. I will cover the possible topics and procedures with the students upon our return in January. I am also going to start a separate blog that will cover the science fair as well as Science Olympiad.

That's about it for now. Hope you have a good week!

Updated notes are here

Please click on this link for updated notes for the test. There are some adjustments to the notes to help you in creation v. evolution, chemotrophic organisms, and life units. This is not a major revision, but enough that you may want to spend a few minutes looking over. Sorry for the delay on the test. One 7th grade class was out this morning with the spelling bee, so I've decided to test both classes tomorrow. Good luck!

Introduction to Biology Test on Nov. 30

Tuesday after we return from Thanksgiving, I will give a test on our introduction to biology. The notes are posted here. Please download them and compare to your notes. I have given a review in class and will not post a study guide this time. There is a lot of material here, so study a little at a time over the break and you'll be good to go.

Grades have been updated this week. There is quite a bit of material left to cover before the semester break, so there will be more grades.

Hope you all have a happy Thanksgiving!

Link for Rock Cycle

This is the link for the activity on the rock cycle. Go through this activity and you should be prepared for much of what is on the test. :)

http://www.learner.org/interactives/rockcycle/index.html

This week: Nov. 8

A good evening to all. Just getting ready to head home for the night, but not finished with work
:(.

1. We will be having a short test on rocks on Friday, after we return from our much deserved break. 50 points maximum.
2. Biology starts next week. Be ready for a lot of notes and a lot of fun.
3. We are approaching the middle of the quarter. Make sure your assignments are being completed accurately and on time.

Have a great week.

Short Test on Wednesday, Nov. 3 with Notes

Since the students have actually done most of the science involved in the unit on minerals, we will be having a short test based on the limited notes from this chapter as well as the mineral tests. It will be no more than 15 questions, and will count as a partial test grade (40-50 points). After the test, we will be briefly covering rocks before moving on to biology, which is the really fun stuff. I'll be letting you know more this week. Notes for the test are posted here. The students may use their lab sheets to help them on the test.

Grades updated

Post title says it all. :)

This week...

A slow start to the week today, as the students had a test on weather. Much of it was review for them, but very fun for all as I'm an amateur weather man and get pretty pumped when I get to cover it.

Tomorrow, I will be gone to Birmingham for the Alabama Science Teacher's Assc. conference. Students will have a sub and will be doing a computer based assignment. This assignment will be classwork, and it will count as a participation grade. Make sure it is done before you leave.

As for the rest of this week, and most of next, we will be briefly covering rocks and minerals as a review for our SAT objectives and will test on Wednesday, Nov 3 or Friday, Nov 5. I don't see this as being a long unit as most students have covered this in previous years.

I want to apologize for the lack of updates during the middle of last quarter. I will be updating more frequently this quarter.

Have a great week!

Study Guides

Make sure you work on your study guide for your test on Monday.

Notes for Test

Our test has been rescheduled for Monday, Oct 25. Please download the notes from this link. The test will cover Ch. 4.3 - Ch. 5. Please check out a book if needed.

Cool animation series on clouds

Go to this Link to see a very neat Shockwave Flash video on clouds and cloud types. I encourage you to take notes on this video regarding the main cloud types. This animation will complement your notes.

Update on project grade

Due to an untimely event at home last night, I could not enter the grades for their lab in the system as planned. Therefore, the grade that all students have now will be their final grade for the quarter. I will be reviewing these labs with the students and will count them as a dry run. I apologize for the inconvenience.

Coriolis Effect Animation from Class Today

Check out this link you used today to help you with your studies for next week's test (Wednesday).

No, I haven't fallen off the face of Earth.

Hey folks. I apologize deeply for the lack of posting. I've been working double time trying to unpack in our new house as well as manage a classroom. A lot of give and take lately.

Now for some business.

1. Quarter 1 is complete. I have one grade left to enter tonight and it should substantially boost some grades. This is the lab report. Since it is the only grade that will be entered under "Projects" a good grade will go a long way. From what I have seen so far, none of you have much about which to worry.
2. Some assignments were not visible despite numerous attempts to make them so. This made averages appear wonky (is that a word?). All should now be visible in INOW. I NOW would like to say something to the makers of THAT program, and no, it isn't nice. By the way, our admin has done a stellar job in keeping things up and running and none of the INow issues can be faulted to them.
3. If a blank appears next to a grade in your grade report, that means the you are exempt from that assignment.
4. Homework assignments will now be ascribed 5 and 10 point values depending on the length of the assignment.

I am loving this school and this job more by the day. Thanks to all of YOU who make it fun and exciting. Keep up the good work.

Test Tomorrow

A rough week got worse with the death of a college friend. Test will be tomorrow. Make sure you touch base with me tonight if you have questions as I'll try to be on here from 8-10.

Download Notes Here

Click on this link to download the PowerPoint presentation for the Energy unit. Test is on Tuesday. Use this link to download the study guide.

Practice Problems

1. A football player has a velocity of 3 m/s. If his mass is 48 kg, what is his kinetic energy.
   
2. Double the football player's mass. How does this affect his energy?
   
3. Now double his velocity. How does this affect his energy?
   
4. A girl sits a book with a mass of 1.2 kg on a shelf that is 1.4 m high. How much potential energy does the book now have?
   

Interesting Days Tomorrow and Friday

Tomorrow, Savannah Weaver, a senior from PCA, will speak to both 7th grade classes. Savannah is a certified VFR/IFR pilot and will speak about her journey to become a pilot as well as the physics and math needed as a pilot. We welcome her.

Friday will be our first lab of the year. We will be dropping a few interesting things from some rather high spots here at the school. I will have a short lab report to fill out Monday, and we will test Tuesday instead of this Friday as originally planned. I will post our PowerPoint in the next post to keep things clean and easy to find.

Test on Friday, Sept 17

Make sure you study your Energy notes. I will post the PowerPoint on Wed. Don't wait until then to study. Also, be sure to make up your missing work.

Test Next Wednesday, Sept 8

Seventh grade will test on Newton's Laws on Wednesday, Sept 8. I wanted to test on Tuesday, but since we will be off on Monday and it's going to be a long weekend, I think it's better to wait a day. A printed study guide will go home on Thursday. Please download the notes from this link. Simply enter the letters into the captcha box, click "download file" and then wait 45 sec. for the free download link to appear. Make sure to save the file. Books for studying are available for check-out if needed. Please let me know if there are any questions.

Grades Updated

Grades have been updated tonight.

Just closed on the new house yesterday. That makes getting grades done a wee bit easier. Off to bed!

Test Scores Posted

Most of the corrected test scores have been posted. Some tests were not corrected or students simply did not get the correct answer on the second try. Any tests that have not been posted will be checked tonight. Overall, the test scores followed the law of averages, and since the students have one test under their belt, they should have a better idea of what to expect next time. I can send the test home by parent request (email only please), but I normally hold on to them for exam review when I will pass them back out, and they will already be corrected :)

If you have feedback, please respond via email unless it's a procedural question from which everyone will benfit by the answer.

By the way students should be ready for a little pop _____ tomorrow:). They were told today. Blessings.

PowerPoint Download

Students, please click on this link to download the PowerPoint for the test review. Keep in mind that this is one of the few times I will make your notes available as I expect each of you to keep notes from class. Your study guide is in your notes, and I will give you the items you need to study either here on the blog or in the class. I know this is a big change from 6th grade, but the expectations are higher now. If you need help with any material, please come in before or after school for help.

Practice Questions

1. A violent wind blew a board across a 50 m yard in 1.5 seconds. What was the speed of the board?
2. The Wright Brother's first flight in a powered airplane covered 37 meters and lasted 12 seconds. What was the speed of that flight?
3. The world record for covering 400m in a drag racing car is 4.43 seconds. The top speed at the end was 150.27 m/s. What was the acceleration of the drag racer.

Test Date Moved to Monday, Aug 23

The test has been moved to Monday, August 23. The reason is that the students needed a bit more work on their notes as well as how to set up motion problems. The same material will be on the test as I wrote in the previous post. If you need help, come by in the morning before school. I am also here until around 3:45 PM on Friday.

Test On Friday

Alright, the first test of the year is coming up on Friday, August 20.

The following material will be covered:

1) Unit conversions
2) Motion definitions and formulas to include:
- Motion
- Speed
- Velocity
- Acceleration
- Displacement
3) Be able to solve problems for speed time and distance using formulas from notes.

Students may bring a calculator to help them, as well as a 3x5 card with ONLY formulas for speed, distance and time. They may also write down their metric prefixes. Nothing else may be written on the card. This card will be the only thing they may use to help them on the test.

Please post a comment if you have a question. We will review tomorrow and Thursday. Work hard and bring glory to God.

Grade Updates

Grades will be updated starting Monday.

Unit Conversion Practice Problems

Problems are due on Friday, Aug. 12 at class time.

Students need a basic calculator

Because I am rearranging some parts of the curriculum, each student will need a basic calculator starting on Thursday. We are going to learn about force and motion as part of studying the first day of creation. The calculator must be a stand alone unit and not on a phone. A good basic calculator can be bought cheaply at a discount store. If students already have a calculator for math class, they are more than welcome to use it in here.

I apologize for the inconvenience. If you have any questions, please let me know via email.

Open Office Software

This one is for parents, so if you are a student ask them before installing.

What if I told you there was a program that would both open, edit and save word processing documents, spreadsheets, databases and presentations in almost any format you can think of? What if I told you that program was FREE? Allow me to introduce you to OpenOffice.org, a free program that does all of the above and more. It can be installed on either Mac or Windows operating systems. It is about 350 mb in size which is similar to MS Office or Corel Suites but much more powerful. You can even create .pdf documents directly. OpenOffice is very similar in functionality to older versions of MS Office (XP, 2003). Since we use OpenOffice on our school computers, you may wish to install it on your home computer, so your child may use it to work on their projects at school and at home. Download from www.openoffice.org.

An Assignment

Alright kids, here's an assignment. Click on this link for some interesting reading. Now write a paragraph in your Science notebook telling how you may have used the scientific method to solve a common problem. A paragraph is 6 to 8 complete sentences. Good luck!

Smooth Opening

I could not have asked for a smoother beginning to the school year. I've been around education for over 13 years, and that was surreal. Hey, I'm not a Pollyanna, but the multiple prayers of those associated with our school have availed much. For them I thank God.

Welcome!

Alright, here's the first post for all students and parents. I'm looking forward to a great first year at PCA. Make sure to keep up with this blog as I will be posting regularly. A reminder to parents and students. Keep your posts respectful. If there is any question regarding school policy or a disagreement, please send an email directly to me so we can keep the blog an informational tool rather than a discussion board.

Here are a few things you'll need to have for this class.

• You'll need a green, pocketed, 3-ring binder for this class. No spiral notebooks allowed as they are messy. Please put your name and SCIENCE (yes, all caps) on the front. That way we can ID it if it is lost.
• A pen or mechanical pencil. Don't use regular pencils in the classroom, as the computers don't like the dust from the sharpener.
• A 1-2 GB USB thumb drive. Make sure it has your initials etched on it.
• A calculator will be required later. You may bring your calculator from math class.

My rules for class are very simple and few. If you do these things, I guarantee you'll pass.

• Respect people and property
• Show up on time
• Show up prepared
• Work hard

Your syllabus should be kept in your binder at all times. This is a handy reference. I will send an electronic copy with my first newsletter to parents.

I know this is a long blog post, but there's a lot of info that must be digested. I hope all of you have a great year. Keep in touch.