Math:
This week was a busy one for the 7th graders. They covered finding the volume of rectangular prisms, triangular prisms, rectangular pyramids, and triangular pyramids. The 8th graders also started their volume unit with finding the volume of cylinders and cones. The Algebra students began their final unit. They learned how to graph quadratics in standard and vertex form.
Humanities:
A new quarter means new reading! On Tuesday the Epsilons jumped into a holdover from our look at the World Wars by starting The Diary of Anne Frank. They set up a stage in a spare room and took on the ten roles within the play. We first broke down information about the genre of drama. We dissected the focus of characters and performance on stage.
After learning these different terms, students began reading through the play, acting out the scenes and using props. We will continue the play until we focus on our last theme: Astronomy. We will switch gears and jump into science fiction by reading 2001 A Space Odyssey.
Theme:
5..4..3..2..1 Blastoff!! Into our new quarter theme of Astronomy!!
This week students took off into our first subject of Force and Motion. They learned that within the universe all motion is governed by the gravitational forces that space bodies produce. Demonstrating the concepts in class feel first to simple discussion about why we are not just floating around in the air, and why things drop, especially pencils in the classrooms!! They learned to apply these ideas of Force and Motion starting on the Earth, moving to the Moon, then out to the Solar System before taking off into the interstellar reaches of the vast universe: other stars and galaxies.
To demonstrate the ideas of force and motion, Epsilon students participated in a demonstration of how craters are created. Using bins of flour and cocoa powder, which was a lot of fun to work with in 20-mile-an-hour winds. Yes, we all got pretty dirty in our quest to understand how impact craters are created in the Universe. Students dropped various-sized balls, which represented different space objects of various masses, into a bin of flour and cocoa powder, simulating the crust of the Earth. They measured the resulting crater’s depth and width. Hypotheses about the results were recorded. The demonstration kicked off the Space unit.
We ended the week in Theme by starting projects based on topics of Force and Motion on the Earth. Students were assigned topics from eclipses and tides. They are preparing presentations and models of their topics to teach the other students next week. TO INFINITY AND BEYOND!!!
Students used balls of various mass and size to simulate meteor strikes. They measured and collected data from the event to draw conclusions about how meteors have helped shape the Earth through force and motion.
Humanities students kicked off the new quarter by diving into drama, not the kind that causes issues, but the genre of reading. Students set up a stage to perform The Diary of Anne Frank.
Students take on the characters and perform the scenes from The Diary of Anne Frank. Set during World War II, the play helped students to act while reading.
