Looking for definitions of prefixes? Try this site or this one.
Group 4: Begin the research project that is due on Friday, February 3. Click on the To Do: Journal Activity link on this site. Do not do in your notebooks. Type up as a report.
Here is where you can see more of the Science Cheerleaders including the videos we examined today. Click on the photo to the left for details on Sean.
I just learned that there is a possibility that the northern lights (aurora borealis) might be visible from dark sky locations in our area late tomorrow night. If you are out Saturday late and the sky is clear look to the north for shimmering lights.
Want to get some more ideas about ways to create mnemonic devices? (Remember, your homework is the layers of the atmosphere in order from the surface of the Earth to space: troposphere, stratosphere, mesosphere, thermosphere, and exosphere.) Check out this site. If you want to know more about the goddess they are named after, you can read about her here.
There were so many errors of science in the movie we have been viewing. If you want to read what a real science educator has to say about this film, click on this review by Jacob Blickenstaff.
I hope everyone does well on tomorrow's Science Midyear Exam. Make sure you know what density is. Take a few moments to review how tectonic plates interact at different types of boundaries. Know what changes as you get deeper into the Earth (and be sure you know all the layers of the Earth).
The last couple of practice exams are available on the Handouts page.
First, it may take me a few days to get your quizzes graded. Please bear with me. Second, if you didn't bring it home, the practice exam for tonight's homework is available on the Handouts page.
In case you are wondering what some of the more interesting and creative ideas from last week's assignment regarding the plastic bottle were . . . here are a few of them:
Make it into a rattle.
Use as a rolling pin.
Freeze water in it and use as an ice pack.
Cut in half and use as a cookie cutter.
Cut out and make a bird feeder.
Fill with sand and tie balloons to it to make a party centerpiece.
A teaching tool to demonstrate different volumes.
Put air holes in it and make into an environment for insects.
Mark it and use as a ruler.
Cut and use as a boat for dolls.
Cut rings out of it to use as bracelets.
Add grips to the sides.
Add a magnet to the side so it could attach to the side of a desk.
Make it square so it doesn’t roll.
Add water and glitter and make it into a snow globe.
Cut into interesting small shapes and string to make a bracelet or necklace.
Cut out a section and use as a paint palette.
Cut out pieces, color them, and hang them as a wind chime or mobile.
Cut strips of plastic out and use as bookmarks.
Add wheels and make into a toy car.
Attach two water-filled bottles to a broom and use for weight lifting.
Use the lid with paint or ink as a stamp.
Put holes around the top edge and hang earrings from it.
Use as an emergency bathroom.
Cut the top off and put the bottom under a leaking pipe.
Cut and use as a scoop or shovel.
Cut pieces out (or use the top) to play checkers.
Cut, bend, and use as a bike windscreen.
Cut the ends off and use the middle section as a splint for a broken arm or leg.
Cut the ends off and use as a tunnel for hamsters to run through.
Put a sock around it and use as a dog toy.
Put holes in the cap and use as a salt shaker.
Make into an ant farm.
Cut into windows for a doll house.
Cut the top off and use as a small trash can at your desk.
Use the cap as a puck for table hockey.
Melt and use as a protective cover for things.
Use two bottles and make a sand timer.
Use as a buoy.
All of today's handouts (as well as the full lesson plan for teachers) are available on the Handouts page in case you need another blank sheet to draw your comic on.
Group 4 Only: If you want to try a more powerful online comics creator, you might want to take a look at Pixton. ToonDoo will work as well. Just do multiple 3-panel strips.
Did you find today's song as catchy as I did? Play it again (and again and again). And, as I mentioned, you might want to check out the TV show on NOVA on PBS tonight at 9: Deadliest Volcanoes.
The angle of repose lab photos have been added to the Media page. The SCAMPER slideshow is also available there.
Want to see a meteor shower? If you are up early tomorrow morning (between 3 and 6:30), look to the northeast. The moon has set and there are a lot of meteors with this shower.
Look for the big dipper in the north. Follow the handle as it arcs away from the bowl until you reach a bright star named Arcturus (yes, you arc to Arcturus). Look in this section of the sky, there are two bright "stars" to the south of Arcturus, the top one is Mars and the lower one is Saturn.
Merry Christmas! Here is my gift to you. Five points added to one of this past week's quizzes . . . if you correctly answer the following two questions:
In what country is the geological organization that goes by the abbreviation INGEOMINAS headquartered? And, what volcano were they monitoring for activity from December 14–20?
Have a safe, relaxing, and reinvigorating holiday. Thank you for sharing 2011 with me.
We heard about lots of ways that the solstice has been celebrated in history around the world. There are people who still find ways to celebrate it. Here is a link to a group that has lots of ideas of how to make it a special time and to link it with past practices and beliefs.
How about a FREE online service for putting together all your references into a well-formatted list of sources? Try out EasyBib.
The video today was Vesuvius from the How the Earth was Made series.
Today's music was Ring of Fire sung by Johnny Cash and a cover version by Dr Richard Alley.
The music played today is by Israel Kamakawiwoʻole. We heard Maui Hawaiian Sup'pa Man.
Want a fun book? How about The Astronaut's Cookbook?
Did you like today's video of lava flowing? If you did, take a look at this one . . .
Sorry I missed class today. If you don't have the Mt. Pinatubo Story or the questions needed for homework, you can download them from the Handouts page. Also, any questions you may have about the Volcano Poster Project, drop me an e-mail.
Copies of today's handout are available on the Handouts page. Here are some web sites that might have information you can use:
Volcano World (among other things, click on the Volcanoes menu to locate your volcano)
To properly cite your sources check out the instructions and resources on the Links page.
Wow! Really interesting news story and video of undersea volcanoes being dragged into a subduction zone. Go to the BBC News site.
The handout for the Family Viscosity Homework is on the handouts page. Note: this assignment is due Wednesday. This week's vocabulary list is also there if you need another copy.
A study guide for tomorrow's quiz is available via the Handouts page.
Would you like to learn more about the destructive ability of a tsunami? The New York Times has published some before and after satelite photos of areas in Japan that were devestated last March. You can view them here. In some whole neighborhoods were simply erased.
The video we watched today was from the series How the Earth was Made.
Information about the huge California earthquake drill I mentioned today can be found here at The Great California Shake Out. Play the video to see people drop, cover, and hold on.
If you complete the extra credit activity listed for 11-22, then (and only then) you can try these two extra credit items. First: What does the photo below have to do with Thankgiving? Second: What does the North Anatolian fault have to do with Thanksgiving?
Do you need a copy of tonight's take home quiz? It is available from the Handouts page (as is one of the activities we did today). For the quiz, the blank A, B, and Cs all refer back to the previous illustration where certain waves are lettered A, B, and C.
For extra credit, go to Virtual Earthquake and complete the activity. It will ask you for your Instructor's E-mail address. Enter mine so I know you have finished it and I'll give you the credit.
Today's epicenter triangulation worksheet from class is up on the Handouts page.
Two very neat news stories that tie in with our curriculum: Best map of moon ever and the "ghost" mountains of Antarctica are revealed.
If you want to read about the other four earthquakes (the ones you didn't get a handout on in class), the full set are available through the Handouts page. For tonight's (or any night's) homework, don't ever be afraid to go beyond the textbook. Feel free to add to your knowledge from other sources such as the Internet or other books.
Here are a couple of applications you may want to download if you have a device that can run them.
Macintosh: SeisMac (free), iPhone/iPad/Galaxy Tab/Windows Phone: iSeismometer (free)
If you want to learn a bit more about seismic waves, Wikipedia has a good article (note: focus and hypocenter mean the same thing). If you want to play with some interactive animations of the wave types, check out this site from the University of Utah.
Yesterday's classroom exercise of rewriting your homework was an attempt to instill rigor in your thinking and your work.
Rigorous was one of the words from the homework article many of you selected for defining and further study. Rigor: the quality of being thorough and accurate. This is what defines scientific thought and investigation. This is what you should be striving for.
Do not get lazy in your thinking or your work. Apply all you have learned to each exercise and investigation.
Group 4: If you need another fault model template, you can find them on the handouts page.
Everyone: If you want to read up a bit more on fault types, try this page and then click the next button for the second page. You may want to somewhat ignore the big words in the first sentence.
Here are links to the Usher and They Might Be Giants videos that were viewed today.
If you need the article for tonight's homework, you can find and print it here.
Here are a few videos that might help you visualize what is going on at the three faults.
Normal Fault: Vertical fault where one slab of the rock is displaced up and the other slab down. It is created by tensional forces acting opposite.
Reverse Fault: A fault in which the hanging wall has moved upward relative to the footwall. Reverse faults occur in areas undergoing compression.
Strike-Slip Fault
Thank you for all the interesting Family Science reports! I am impressed by all the ways you found to explore science: museums, movies, experiements, apple picking, flying kites on the beach, and so many others. I hope everyone keeps doing things as a family: sharing and exploring their interests.
The videos we finished watching today are (groups 1–3) Naked Science: Colliding Continents and (group 4) How the Earth was Made: The Deepest Place on Earth.
Group 4: Click on this link to get the instructions (2.8 megabytes) for tonight's homework. Read and work carefully. Don't get too frustrated. Yes, it may be difficult. It also may take some time. You will need to print out the pages of the document to write your answers on. Good luck. E-mail me with questions.
This is the best site for finding information about today's 7.2 magnitude earthquake in Turkey.
You can find out more about how GPS works here.
This is the most detailed map of the lithospheric plates I could find. It is big. If you want to read a bit more about the three types of plate boundaries, this site might be useful. Or, here are some animations (note: they call the Transform Boundary a Strike/Slip Fault).
Here are two useful animations having to do with sea floor spreading. This one shows how spreading occurs from a mid-ocean ridge and provides some good information if you scroll down. This second one details the magnetic reversals that have been preserved in the rocks of the oceanic crust.
This week's vocabulary is available on the handouts page if you need another copy.
So there are no surprises when progress reports come out next week, parents should be checking the District's X2 student information system for grades. Here is a message I received from Ms Rittershouse, our Technology Support Specialist:
X2 parent/student portal directions:
Go to Malden website www.malden.mec.edu
Click on Parent Information Center
On left top, click on Student/Parent Portal
Center of page, click on Online Request Form
Students enter their first and last name
Students must enter their birthdate 10/13/1998
School
Students must enter their home email address, preferably their parents' email, and
Home telephone
Don't forget SUBMIT
The students wrote this info in their agenda books during computer class. Apparently many did not follow directions!
Here is a nice tutorial on heat transfer from the Wisconsin Technical College System.
This week's vocabulary list is up on the Handouts page if you need a copy. Photos of last week's half-life lab (groups 1–3) and today's convection lab are up via the Media page.
The video we viewed in class today, Birth of the Earth, is available through iTunes ($1.99). It is episode 4 from this link.
Want to play around with a fun half-life application? Here is one where you can choose the radioactive isotope (parent element) and watch it decay into its daughter element. It automatically graphs the number of atoms of each. How does the graph you were drawing compare?
University of Colorado Half-Life Applet
There isn't a new vocabulary list this week. It is the bottom third of last week's that is already in your notebooks (right?).
If you are interested in ordering a copy of our textbook for your own personal use at home, it is the Prentice Hall Science Explorer Inside Earth 2002 edition, ISBN 0-13-054075-7. I know you can find copies through eBay, amazon.com, bookfinder.com. I'm seeing prices (with shipping) of between $4 and $6.
Here are some ideas for Family Science. Movies: Contagion, The City Dark. Museums: Boston Museum of Science, MIT Museum, Harvard Museums (scroll down for Science), New England Aquarium. Lectures: Science in the News.
Want to begin prepping for Monday's quiz? Here are links to some useful sites:
Good cutaway view of Earth and its layers (both structural and functional).
Description and depths of the Earth's layers.
Basic information on the crust, mantel, and core.
A few photos of today's Solid/Liquid? Lab are up on the Media page. If you want to make your own Mystery Substance, here are some directions.
Today's vocabulary sheet and the graphic organizer for tonight's homework are available through the Handouts page. Also, I've put up the quiz from last Thursday in case you want to review it again.
Scores for today's quiz will all be posted on X2 by Saturday evening. Here are a couple recent science news stories that might be of interest:
First planet orbiting a double star is discovered (includes a video)
NASA satellite hurtling toward Earth
Today's lab's instruction sheet is available for viewing through the Handouts page. Some photos from the lab are viewable through the Media page. Also, you may be interested in this news story from NASA about their proposed, next-generation astronaut delivery system.
If you want to do some practicing for this Friday's quiz, here are some sites to check out. (Note: some of these require special software to be loaded with your browser or take a bit of time to load.)
Length Strength centimeter measurement practice
Animal Weigh In (Important: only do Level 1)
Mass Game (I know it says Weight, but it is really Mass!)
Metric Word Problems (Try out some of the other neat games/quizes from the menu on the left of this site.)
Some photos of your graphing practice and examples of finished products from some notebooks are up. You can get to them through the link on the Media page.
Some photos from our height measurements are available through the Media page. I'll be putting up some of the graphing pictures this weekend.
The temperature data used for doing today's graphing is available on the Handouts page if you need it. If you ever need more graph paper or to create a graph (other than tonight's homework), you can find some resources on the Links page.
For tonight's homework, you can choose any tv or radio weather forecast. In your paragraph, make sure you include the name of the station (or its channel number), the time you saw or listened to it, the area or city the temperature was given for, the time or date the temperature was given for, the temperature, and whether they stated the units.
Some photos of today's lab are available through the Media page. Instructions for the lab are available on the Handouts page. Notebooks will be collected Friday. Make sure you keep them up-to-date and neat. This week's vocabulary list is also available on the Handouts page.
We got a lot done today. Good start on our notebooks. Remember, if you didn't finish up in class, finish laying out the table of contents pages, numbering the rest of the pages, and your pencil observation (labeled sketch and reflective responses to the prompts). The slideshow from class is available on the Media page.
Day 2 of 6th grade is now history. I've added links to the handouts you've received the past two days on the Handouts page. (Actually, I've included two for tomorrow as well.)
Parents: Thanks for the thoughtful responses to the first homework assignment. Your input and concern for your children is of great value.
Welcome to 6th grade! Thanks for a great start to the year. If you are confused about homework or anything else at school, don't hesitate to contact me through e-mail. If you have access to X2, I've already entered your scores for today's work.
If you have been wondering what you might need to be buying for this year's science class, it isn't much. All of the standard supplies that you will need for other classes are needed here: pencils, pens (black is my preference), highlighters (2), and a ruler (must have metric markings). I will supply you with a notebook and two-pocket folder. A calculator (or other electronic device that has a calculator application) will be useful, but not necessary.
This site will become more useful and fully operational once school begins. Many of the pages linked from the menu have little or no information yet. They will fill up as the school year progresses (and, this page will start to look a bit more exciting).
I've added a link to Mr. Foley's awesome Geography site on the Links page. Check it out! Linden Sixers are rocking the Internet. (And, I know that his site is far less boring than mine, so no need to barrage me with e-mails telling me that that is what this site should be like.)
Okay. I heard from lots of you that the new web site background was a boring color (thanks Don, Phuong, Stephen, etc.). Is this better? Is it still readable?
I've added a slide show of selected images from last school year to the Media page. It may give you something to look forward to.