Days+of+Future+Past

This page is old stuff that I use for my records alone. It really will not apply to anything current so please do not confuse any dates herein with anything going on now. There is really nothing interesting or worthwhile for you here, so feel free to hit that Back Button. Thanks

=2012-13= Thursday 5/30 - Environment Test Friday 5/10 - Water Cycle Quiz Thursday 4/18 - Classification part 2 (The Six Kingdoms) Wednesday 3/20 - Classification part 1 Tuesday 1/29 - Genetics - study all notes! Monday 11/12 - Living Things, Discovery of Cells, Microscope Parts Test Here are some things to study: 1. Study Guide Packet #1: Six Characteristics of Living Things 2. Study Guide Packet #2: Discovery of Cells 3. Study Guide #3: Microscope Parts 4. Diversity of Life Book pages 5-10 5. Cells and Heredity Book pages 4-11 6. Notes on how to use the microscope 7. Summative Study Guide (found here) Friday 10/12 - Scientific Method Test - know the 6 parts of the Scientific Method and some facts about each Friday 9/21 - Measurement Quiz - know the 6 prefixes and 3 bases, their abbreviations, and how to quickly convert metric units

Wed 5/29 - 10 Q&A for review Wed 5/29 - Per 3, 4, 5 - get Wetlands Notes

Mon 5/20 - Biome Assignment

Wed 5/15 - Water Droplet Project

Fri 5/10 - Watch this video on what kind of foods contain GMO's, then raid your kitchen. Make a list of as many foods in your kitchen as you can find that contain genetically modified ingredients.

Thurs 4/25 - Find 2 articles about food (eating or practices), one showing healthy practices and the other showing unhealthy practices. Read the articles and write an ACE about each. Tomorrow be prepared to summarize both articles and read your ACEs to the class

Wed 4/17 - 10 Q&A for review, read 115-163 and answer all questions

Wed 4/3 - protist wkst Thurs 3/28 - 2nd bacteria wkst Tues 3/26 - read p 46-55, bacteria wkst Fri 3/22 - read p 40-45, virus wkst, bring in bad hats and sunglasses Tues 3/19 - Dichotomous Key questions, 10 Q&A for review Fri 3/15 - Shape Island Thurs 3/14 - Latin Parts wkst

Wed 2/27 - Future Bunny Adaptations Tues 2/26 - Read 166-175, do "Darwin's Theory" wkst Thurs 2/14 - Read 118-123, do both Mutations worksheets T ues 2/12 - Scratch projects are due at 4:00 pm (midnight for period 7) Wed 2/6 - 1. Come up with an idea for your game 2. Go to scratch.mit.edu, scroll down to the bottom of the page, and download Scratch (onto your computer) 3. Do the Scratch tutorial @http://info.scratch.mit.edu/sites/infoscratch.media.mit.edu/docs/ScratchGettingStartedv14.pdf

Thurs 1/31 - GHP- Data Analysis & Conclusions, typed and signed Tues 1/22 - All- Dimples wkst, GHP- all graphs (computer-made) and logbook Mon 1/14 - Handy Family Tree Tues 12/18 - know the entire Wee Cell Song by heart Tues 12/18 - period 3 - study guide (found on Notes link) Mon 12/17 - finish foldable if you didn't do so in class Wed 12/12 - Cell Poster due - Information here

Wed 12/5 - book p 16,17, worksheet "looking inside cells" Tues 12/4 - book p 13-15, 18, 19 -read and do all questions/activities Wed 11/28 - Bring both books to class, bring all microscope drawings Fri 11/9 - 10 Q & A for review

Thurs 11/8 (or the next time I see you) - GHP ONLY - You're turning in 2 sets of things:

Set 1 1. Page 21 of the binder- this will contain your Hypothesis amongst other things. Make sure it's signed. 2. Hypothesis- I want this on a brand new sheet of paper. So copy and paste your hypothesis that you just wrote, but put it on its own sheet of paper 3. Materials- This should also be on its own sheet of paper. Type out your materials. Follow the rules. 4. Procedure- Write your final version of your procedure. It should follow all the rules we stated earlier in the year. Check your notes and do not miss any steps!

Set 2 1. Research Plan (page 26 of the binder)- this can all be put on one page, you do not have to separate like you did in Set 1 above 2. Science Fair Approval Form- found in the "Type On Me" section of my site 3. PJAS Registration Form- found in the "Science Fair" section of my site- only kids going to PJAS need to do this 4. Any additional forms- only for kids with problem experiments (bacteria, hazardous chemicals, human or other vertebrate subjects, etc)

Wed 11/7 - read p 8-11. Answer all questions Mon 10/29 - read p 4-7 of the Cells & Heredity book. Do the Study Guide Mon 10/29 - GHP ONLY - Read p 17 & 18. Page 19 is due in class (signed) Wed 10/24 - GHP ONLY - Logbook, pages 15 & 16 (signed) due in class. Read p. 14. Keep a copy of 15 & 16 in your logbook. Mon 10/22 - Six Characteristics Study Guide Fri 10/19 - GHP ONLY - Topic Choices sheet due with parent signature (binder p. 13) Fri 10/12 - GHP ONLY - read p 6-12 of Binder, turn in p 9 & 12 Tues 10/9 - Finish Foldable, do the Study Guide Thurs 10/4 - REG ONLY - finish hypothesis paper Wed 10/3 - Per 3, 5 ONLY - bring a recipe to class Fri 9/28 - GHP ONLY - p 4 of Binder

CONGRATULATIONS!!
Big congrats to everyone for finishing and turning in their projects. I got a chance to see all the display boards, and they were unbelievable! The judges had great things to say about the oral presentations too! I'm so proud of every one of you. Here's a list of all the Piranhas who placed at PJAS. Congrats to everyone!! Not one single third place or honorable mention, everyone got either 1st or 2nd place. Most impressive!

__PJAS 1st Place__ (will go to the State Competition in May) Max Broekhuis Laurel Campbell Kara Fagerstrom Jack Jenkins Andrea Maghacot Habeeb Salau Simon Saliby Amanda Verna

__PJAS 2nd Place__ (better luck next year) Grayson Federov Sumedha Kanthamneni Emilio Perez Vanshi Singh Sarah Soloman Nicholas Wertman

For a full list of all PJAS placements, click here

Again, good job all. It's over! (well for most of you.) You can breathe now. (well, for a little while anyway.) I hope I get to judge you next year! (seriously)

It's almost over.. Your experiment should be FINISHED now. Now's the time to put the finishing touches on your Conclusions. Don't forget to support all your findings with real scientific research! Remember, Science Fair isn't about doing an experiment, it's about what you learn from it. So learn. Don't guess why you think things turned out the way they did, find out why. Do research and back up your thoughts with real science. That's how you get an A. Start making those display boards or oral presentations. Make them look nice, creative, and professional. First impressions count, so make the most of that. Put as much effort as you possibly can. Keep oral presentations simple and clean-- no weird font colors or backgrounds. Display boards should make quality use of space. Keep a good color scheme too. Everyone should read all the tips in the binder.

=2011-2012= =**__Upcoming tests__** =

5/30 - Ecology 5/9 - Agriculture & IPM 4/13 - Classification part 2 Thursday 3/8 - Classification part 1 Friday 1/20 - Genetics Thursday 12/22 - Cell Parts, Organization of Body Tuesday 11/8 - Six Characteristics of Living Things, Discovery of Cells, Microscope Use and Parts Friday 10/14 - Scientific Method Test Friday 9/23 - Measurement Quiz - know the 6 prefixes and 3 bases, their abbreviations, and how to quickly convert metric units

=**__Homework__** =

**(the date shown is the date the assignment is due) **
Mon 5/21 - Water Droplet & Biome Activity due Fri 5/11 - Insect Poster due Tues 5/8 - 10 & 10 Q/A for review Tues 4/24 - Two articles, one on healthy eating, one on what not to eat. Present a summary in class Wed 4/18 - Kingdom Scavenger Hunt Wed 4/11 - Online book, click To Do -> sec 3.2 -> Elaborate -> Directed Virtual Lab Fri 3/30 - Energy Poster Wed 3/28 - Protista wkst Mon 3/26 - Bacteria wkst 2 Fri 3/23 - read 46-55, Bacteria wkst 1 Wed 3/21 - Virus wkst, bad hats, sunglasses Mon 3/19 - Dichotomous Key questions 1-8 Wed 3/7 - Shape Island Tues 3/6 - Latin words wkst Thurs 2/23 - GHP ONLY - Science Fair Fri 2/10 - Future Bunnies Thurs 2/9 - Darwin's Theory wkst, read p 166-175 Fri 2/3 - GHP ONLY - Mutations wkst, Cancer wkst, read p 118-123 Fri 2/3 - REG ONLY - Cancer wkst Thurs 2/2 - REG ONLY - Mutations wkst Tues 1/31 - GHP ONLY - Final Graphs, Final Data Analysis, Final Conclusions, all signed Mon 1/23 - GHP ONLY - logbook, rough graphs, data, anything else for peer review Thurs 1/12 - GHP ONLY - Dimples and DNA Tues 12/20 - Wee Cell Song

Mon 12/19 - Cell Poster Project
Thurs 12/15 - Ecosystem wkst

Fri 10/28 - GHP ONLY - Background Info
Thurs 10/27 - REG ONLY - Glob From Planet X Mon 10/24 - 6 Characteristics wksts

Mon 10/17 - GHP ONLY - Topic Proposal
Wed 10/12 - GHP ONLY - Topic Choices sheet, Purpose/Problem Table

Tues 9/20 - Metric Conversion Worksheet
Right now you should be gathering ideas for what you want to do for Science Fair this year. You're doing your own experiment, basically anything of your choosing as long as it's safe and legal. Don't fret too much about this, I'll start talking about Science Fair a lot towards the end of September. But if you want to get started on some ideas, check out the binder. I've left a lot of last year's stuff up for now just so you can check things out and see what you're getting yourself into. These will be deleted soon and replaced with new dates and info so for now do not worry about dates.

Right now you should be getting ideas for your experiment. Do some searches for "Middle School Science Fair Experiment" or add words like "winning" or "fun" or "easy" or "challenging". The most important thing is that you want to do something that you will personally be interested in. I can not stress this enough. If you like the experiment and you have fun with it, your grade will be higher. It's proven. But for now you should come up with a list of 5 experiments that you want to do for Science Fair. Start filling in pages 9 and 12 of the binder with your choices. After you turn them in, I will return page 9 to you with my approvals, denials, or questions.

At this point you already are well aware of what Science Fair is and what you need to do for it. It's time to start working on getting ideas for your experiment. Google some middle school science fair experiments, go to the library for a book on experiments, or check out some websites like sciencebuddies or the one listed at the bottom of this page. Get your ideas together and work on the upcoming assignments that are listed in the timeline. I HIGHLY recommend printing out a copy of the Timeline and putting it in your binder or agenda book so you're always aware of upcoming dates. And always remember to work ahead! These dates are gonna come fast and furious. October is a month of a lot of homework and preparation so do yourself a favor and get started early.

There are a LOT of due dates coming up all at once. You should be working on everything that is due up through November 2nd now. Pick your final topic, find at least 5 sources for research, work on your background info, and start typing up your hypothesis, materials, and procedure. You will not have enough time to do everything if you wait til the due date for each, so I suggest you work on everything now and pace yourself better than the timeline suggests. At this point you should be doing some work every single night.

It's time to decide. Pick one of your approved topic choices and commit to it. There's no backing out after Friday because once you're locked in, you're locked in. Projects can not be changed midway. So choose a topic that you can handle and you're sure you can get data to use. The next few weeks are going to be rough, there is a lot of work that you have to do all at once! Make sure you're staying ahead of the game. Look at the next few things that are due on your timeline and work on them all together. Don't procrastinate! Start researching now. Even though your bibliography isn't due until later, the reason why for your hypothesis MUST be based on research. So do as much research now as possible in order to save yourself a headache later. So start researching, start typing your Hypothesis, Materials, and Procedure, start filling out the forms, etc. Keep working ahead, don't procrastinate, and if you're not sure what to do just ask!

It's time to experiment! If you haven't started your experiment yet, do it now! Some experiments might take months to complete, others minutes. Either way you should do it now and get it over with. Time is moving fast, and winter is coming.

We're doing a project real soon that involves the candy Dots. We need as many large boxes of plain old regular Dots as can be spared! I'm offering 3 extra credit points per large box, with a maximum of 15 points (or 5 boxes if you can't do simple math). If you'd like to donate more than 5 boxes, you'll get a smile, my gratitude, and maybe even a backflip.

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PJAS Registration Form *UPDATED AS WORD DOC*

PJAS Permission form-- Fill this out and return it on ___ (note, parent must sign as the sponsor) []

Link to PJAS website (includes regional schedule, category info, etc) []