Mr. Geary's Science Class

Students have been working daily on their individual OneNote review activities. Today I did my first round of grading — if you do not see the grades starting to improve than please discuss with your student how they have been spending their time in class.

Note: in order for me to check the assignment, students need to be updating the “Date Completed” column on their data tracking sheets. I am not going to be able to grade something unless I know that it has been completed.

I will be doing my second round towards the end of next week 🙂

As I stated in class, we will be having regular assessments on the middle school science standards to help prepare for the SSA. Please mark your calendars for the following dates:

• April 12th– Life Science Benchmark Checkpoint
• April 18th– Earth & Space Science Benchmark Checkpoint
• April 26th– Physical Science Benchmark Checkpoint

Don’t panic!

Yes, I know there suddenly have been a number of zeros for classwork just added to the gradebook.  This is on purpose –The ZERO is to remind you about what you have reported now (before I have collected data). These grades will increase as you complete your Benchmark Review activities.  I will check your progress on your OneNote reviews once per week.

If you click on the assignments in focus it says the following:

“This score is purposefully starting as a 0. Students are working daily in class to review benchmarks they have not mastered according to their Mock SSA Data. At the end of each week I will check student progress and update these scores — if students are using their time wisely the total should be 100 by May 3rd. Please contact me if you have any questions.”

If you have a lot of benchmarks to review you may need to spend some time outside of class as well.  Please remember that you can access OneNote from your home computer!

Additionally,  I will be holding tutoring on MONDAY after school from 3:00-4:00 until the SSA.

In class today students carried out an investigation using the freefall drop towers. All classes completed multiple trials and calculated the speed.

Physical science students need to calculate the acceleration due to gravity using the formula provided in class.

Analysis questions:

1. Use today’s experiment to differentiate between repetition & replication.
2. Design a new experiment that you could do with this model. Identify the test (independent), the outcome (dependent) and controlled variables.

Phy Sci students wrapped up their Forces stations in class today. Check FOCUS for a make-up lab and/or the practice problems if you missed them.

Home Learning:
Penda due Sunday 11:59 PM

Today in class students received their data from the Mock SSA test. See information below for a quick refresher on setting up your OneNote review notebook. A copy of this Quick Reference guide can also be found in OneNote.

ONE NOTE QUICK REFERENCE GUIDE

• Make sure you have color coded your data based on your most recent assessment score (MOCK SSA).
• Identify the lessons that you need to remediate (red or yellow) and mark your data chart accordingly.
• For each standard you are not proficient in (color coded RED OR YELLOW) you need to pull ALL lessons from that standard in the content library and move the lessons to the appropriate folder in YOUR One Note Notebook.
• Complete ALL PARTS of EACH lesson.
• As you complete each lesson ask yourself if you understand the material, if not ask the teacher for help
• Once you complete a lesson, go to your tracking page and type in the date you completed the lesson
• You will have regular quizzes on these benchmarks whether you are already proficient or not, so even if you do not need to remediate it may be a good idea to review the lessons as you have time.

Home Learning

• All students must complete the four SC.8.N.1.1 Scientific Methods Lessons in OneNote (Due Friday)
• Penda Due Sunday

Today in class students have the entire period to work on their Nature of Science N.1.1 activities in OneNote. Students have until FRIDAY to complete the following activities:

• Scientific Methods 1
• Scientific Methods 2 (Guided Notes)
• Scientific Methods 3
• Scientific Methods 4

All work should be completed in OneNote before class on Friday.

HomeLearning:
Penda – due Sunday 3/31

Greetings students! Just a quick note to let everyone know that grades for the 3rd quarter are finalized. As always, take a look at Focus and let me know ASAP if you see any errors.

I know I still have a few students who still need to take a quiz/submit an assignment etc. As of now these grades have been entered as 0 in Focus — you need to get the assignments/take the quiz (etc) at the beginning of class Thursday in order to get these grades updated.

CPALMS Heat Flow Tutorial Link- Due Next Class

As I mentioned in class, students will receive two separate assessment grades for the District MOCK SSA based upon the following criteria:

• Growth – how many points have you gained from the baseline assessment?
• Mastery – have you mastered the middle school science content?

See rubric below for details

“A” 50 points	“B” 40 points	“C” 35 points	“D” 30 points
Growth – show at least 30 points in growth.	Growth – show 20-29 points in growth.	Growth – show 10-19 points in growth.	Growth – show 0-9 points in growth.
Mastery – score at least a 70%.	Mastery – score a 60-69%.	Mastery – score a 50-59%.	Mastery – score a 0-49%.