Model sedimentary rock Seventh grade is continuing to learn about the ways that rocks are formed, and this week students got to try making a sedimentary rock out of hard candy. Comic strips To help review the learning we had done before leaving for home learning, students worked on creating comic strips telling the story of the unit. They did a great job getting creativity and using vocab words! Study strategies Students took advantage of extra time at home to try out some new study strategies: picture flashcards, IWBAT quizzes, and acronyms. VIPs There are some amazing scientists in the world -- ones we know well and ones we may never have heard of before. Seventh and eighth grade students researched a scientist of their choosing and created biography boxes, monologues, and poems to share their stories. Just for fun With everyone stuck inside, it was time for some fun kitchen science activities. Students planted seeds from their kitchen scraps, tested the density of eggs, grew rock candy, and more. Model tsunami Seventh graders had the opportunity to complete a digital engineering internship. For their project, they created a tsunami alert system for Sri Lanka. But first they had to learn more about what a tsunami is and what causes it, so they got crafty at home and made model tsunamis. Thank you :) I appreciate your hard work with all of the home learning the last three weeks! It has been great to see all of your pictures, questions, and work come in. Thank you, and enjoy spring break!
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Moving mantle What makes Earth's plates move, after all? To find out, students mixed different temperatures of water to observe convection currents. Viewing the mixing of hot and cold water showed some pretty interesting things! Rock sleuths Seventh grade put on their detective hats to determine whether a report of a possible find of diamonds in a state park could be accurate. To figure it out, they first had to become skilled in identifying igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic rocks. Only once they had ID'd seven samples did they get to see the hikers' sample rock -- which turned out to be garnet schist, a metamorphic rock with garnets, but not diamonds. Learning at home We may not be able to have school like normal for the next couple of weeks, but students have kept exploring science at home! Check out these great pictures of at-home models of tsunamis seventh graders have made. National Plant a Seed Day March 19 is National Plant a Seed Day! Take a few minutes at home to plant a seed. Don't worry about buying seeds -- all you need are your kitchen scraps! You can plant orange or lemon seeds, an avocado or mango pit, or even a whole sweet potato!
How sweet it is"Is that whipped cream?!" you ask. "And graham crackers??" Why yes! Seventh grade got hands on this week with an fun activity to model the different types of plate boundaries. Don't worry, they didn't eat anything off the lab tables. (Though they sorely wanted to!) It's magneticEighth grade started their new unit on magnetic and electric fields this week. First they identified rules of magnetic behavior, and later they investigated factors that affect the strength of a magnetic force. #BETournamentSeventh graders enjoyed a field trip on Friday to the Big East women's basketball tournament. With no local team playing, students were split between cheering for Providence and Georgetown. It was a great game and came down to the final seconds for Providence's win!
A-puzzling we goSeventh grade is learning about natural resources, and to find out why our resources are so unevenly distributed around the globe, we have to learn more about the geologic history of Earth. Students did the Continent Challenge and then tried to create a puzzle connecting all the continents together. In the end, they found Pangaea -- a landmass merely 230 million years old! May the force be with youEighth grade finished off their force and motion unit by applying their knowledge to solve a real-world problem. They got to choose whether to create a set of movie stunts, improve the safety of a sport, or design a new series of cars. There were some pretty neat applications of physics to make the world a better, more fun place! CSI: BudlongEighth grade spent the last week and a half investigating a car crash crime scene. First they earned a crash scene investigator license by getting 100% on a physics calculations sheet. Then, using only the evidence left at the scene, along with Newton's laws, they determined which vehicles were involved in the crash, what their initial velocities were, what the vehicles' masses were, etc. With all the evidence analyzed, they were able to ascertain which driver was at fault and present their conclusions to the class. Quarter 2 AwardsCongratulations to our award-winning students! We celebrated strong attendance and the habits of work, mind, and heart. Students from 408 with perfect attendance were Alexandra, Andria, and Luis, as well as Cynthia and Arthur. Well done to our Habits winners: Jayden for Habit of Heart, Kristin for Habit of Work, and Nour for Habit of Mind. DeforestationSeventh grade students participated in a science seminar this week, building on their discussion skills from ELA class to consider how deforestation affects carbon dioxide levels in the air. They did a great job using evidence and responding to each other's comments in a student-run format! Donation requestWe are in need of donations of 2-liter pop bottles for a seventh-grade activity. Please send any you might have with your students to room 408.
One chip here, one chip thereSeventh graders learned about the carbon cycle by playing a game to explore the total carbon in the global ecosystem. Another game!The fun and games weren't over yet for seventh grade! They got to play a second game, this time examining the causes of deforestation and how deforestation affects carbon on Earth. Washington comes to BudlongCongressman Mike Quigley visited Budlong this week to talk to 5th-8th grade students about his work in the U.S. House of Representatives. Students had excellent questions to ask, ranging from questions about impeachment to taxes in Chicago. Other Announcements
Launching our learningEighth grade continued learning about force and motion, using Alka Seltzer tablets to set up a roller coaster launcher in a film canister. It was a lot more difficult than expected, so they just might have to do what scientists do... and repeat the activity next week. Good thing, since students were heard saying, "This was the best science experiment we've done yet!" Junior AchievementWe welcomed Junior Achievement to Budlong for our annual day of learning about personal finance and business. Seventh graders had fun playing a game like Life to explore how education and work can affect their earnings. They also practiced budgeting for earnings in various careers. Regional Science FairWe are very proud of our 7th and 8th grade students who competed in the Regional CPS Science Fair last Friday. Congratulations to Lilah, Angelica, and Ben for earning an honorable mention recognizing their hard work. And a big congratulations to Yuri, who won an award for outstanding research with his robot. Yuri will now represent Budlong for the second year in a row at the city-wide science fair in March. Well done, all! It's all about the colorSeventh grade has been diving deep into photosynthesis and cellular respiration this month by designing their own experiments to see whether plants, snails, and blackworms release or take in carbon dioxide. Yes, that means we now have an aquarium in our classroom! Students have gotten very good at using BTB to identify the presence or absence of carbon dioxide. Rollin' alongEighth grade started their force and motion unit by learning about distance-time graphs. What better way to do that than to make a marble course to practice drawing their own graphs? 过年好 (Gong xi fa cai)!Or... Happy Lunar New Year! We celebrated with a parade through the school this afternoon with our first grade buddies. In other news...The second quarter ends January 30, so there is no school next Friday. Students should be checking their grades on Aspen to make up any final missing assignments. The final day to submit make-up work in science class will be Wednesday, January 29.
Congratulations!Congratulations to all of our science fair winners this year! While all students developed great scientific skills by working on their projects, these students particularly excelled, both in their written reports and their presentations to the judges. Here are the winners:
Candy cane calamityHomeroom 404 celebrated the last day before winter break by designing packaging to safely ship two candy canes. They worked hard within a limited budget to make sure that no candy cane would break, even if the mail carrier should slip on ice or the mail truck get in a fender-bender. Mood waterSeventh grade learned how to use a chemical indicator for the first time this week. They used their very own carbon dioxide to change the color of bromothymol blue, better known as BTB, from blue to yellow. As one student said excitedly, "It's like mood nails!" Keeping careful countTo learn about control and experimental groups, seventh graders participated in an investigation of whether more drops could stay on a penny when using cold water. They had fun testing their dropping skills, and they quickly recognized the importance of using a control group! Go wildcats!Middle school enjoyed a KW field trip to the Northwestern basketball game on Monday. We saw them wallop the Mavericks from University of Texas at Austin. The energy in that arena was deafening! RedesignEighth grade wrapped up a long unit on energy and energy efficiency by redesigning their own home to make it more efficient. Their presentations on the changes they would make showed how much they learned about insulation, double-paned windows, LED light bulbs, Energy Star appliances, and much more. Some students went all out and spent hours building their homes on Minecraft or on online architectural blueprint websites. Well done, eighth graders! Have a wonderful winter break, and see you all back at Budlong on Thursday, January 2!
-Ms. Scheiber We did it! Science fair was a big success, so a big congratulations to all students for participating this year. Students' hard work paid off as they presented to judges from the community as well as other students, parents, and staff members. Thank you to parents as well for all of your support, especially to those parents who came to view the projects.Winners will be announced at an assembly next Tuesday, so stay tuned!
The fairest of them allStudents spent all week working on science fair. They began by examining real student examples of work to determine what makes a well-written conclusion. Afterward, they wrote their own conclusions about their project. Poster bonanzaTrifold boards abound in room 408 right now, as students in 7th and 8th grade spent two class periods designing their boards. First they saw old student samples to get some inspiration for their posters, and then they got down to work gluing, taping, cutting, printing, etc. We can't wait to see the final results next Wednesday, December 11, at the Budlong Science Fair! Please join us to view student's projects! The fair will be from 9:45-12:20 and 1:25-3:05. The schedule for 7th grade is: 408 will present from 10:40-11:20, 404 from 2:25-3:05, and 403 from 11:40-12:20. Doing your homework can be sweetIn quarter 1, homeroom 403 had the highest percentage of homework turn-in (82%) in seventh grade! Homeroom 408 was at 75%, and 404 was just behind them at 73%. Room 403 got to choose a reward activity to celebrate, and they selected re-designing their candy grabbers from Halloween to pick up and sort the fallen candy pieces. What a great way to put engineering thinking to use! Packing food, winning smilesWho knew that scooping rice could be so fun? Seventh grade took a service and team-building field trip to help pack food at Feed My Starving Children. All reports were that they loved the field trip. And what's more, we packed over 37,000 meals in our 2-hour session! Congratulations!Way to go to 408 students Arthur, Kristin, Luis, Alexandra, and Dania for having perfect attendance during first quarter. And congratulations to Enis for earning the Most Improved award, Mervin for the Habit of Heart award, Cynthia for the Most Creative award. I am proud of you all! |
What's Up in Room 408?Check back regularly to learn more about what's going on in science class! Archives
April 2020
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