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course information chimacum middle school eighth grade life science syllabus eighth grade science consists of a full year study of life science our year in life science will focus on the diversity of life on this planet as we study living things from the microscopic to the macroscopic we will use the foss kit called diversity of life this course is designed to involve students through a variety of learning techniques that emphasize inquiry project-based learning and using technology by participating in a variety of activities that require them to observe experiment communicate and manipulated science equipment and materials students learn to solve problems make decisions and function as productive and responsible global citizens materials needed for class one or two black composition notebooks wide-rule one pee-chee type folder one roll of tape two glue sticks a set of colored pencils a handheld pencil sharpener and pencils and pens course outline science inquiry measurement the microscope botany plants kingdoms lab procedures and techniques cells animals comparative anatomy dissections the foss diversity of life science kit links http lhsfoss.org/scope/folio/html/diversityoflife/1.html and http www.fossweb.com/modulesms/diversityoflife/index.html progress reporting and skyward please refer to the enclosed science standards your child will be learning in science this year your child will be assessed based on his or her understanding of those standards i will send home paper copies of a progress report showing your child s progress as well as post progress reports online at http csd49.org/cms/grades/gonzalez every 4 to 6 weeks you just need to use your skyward family access password to view your child s progress report online email me if you forgot your password and i ll give it to you if you check skyward all you ll see there will be a midterm and final grade not much information because grades are just letters that don t tell you anything about what your child knows i will be encouraging students to focus on what they are learning and to pay attention to the feedback they get because what they are learning is far more important than any number of points percentage checks number or letter grade if one student gets a c and another gets a b what does that tell you is the b student really smarter or really know more than the c student hard to tell from a letter that is just an average of other averages because i must put a grade on skyward i will negotiate with individual students as to what grade will go on skyward i can also just give a p for pass so we can skip the whole letter grade thing letter grades are worth points on skyward that factor into a student s grade point average gpa if you would prefer to get a pass i can put a p on skyward and that p will have no effect on the overall gpa the feedback your child gets in class and the work your child produces along with my progress report will give you a lot more information on how your child is doing in science anyway.

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21st century learning my primary goal is to provide a student-focused environment where responsibility is practiced and all students are challenged and engaged in meaningful learning through inquiry i will help foster that environment by having students create connect and collaborate i strongly believe that all students can be successful and learn science i do my best to provide exciting learning opportunities using the tools of the 21st century i incorporate technology into many of my lessons because technology is an excellent way for students to create communicate share and comment on what they are learning i want my students to learn the way they learn best and the way that people learn and share information now even though students can use home computers laptops or cell phones and mobile devices they are not required to use any of those if your child does not have a computer or the internet at home and cannot stay after school to use my class computers or library computers assignments can still be turned in using paper and pencil no need to buy anything please we will have 10 imacs 1 dell desktop 1 hp laptop 1 macbook laptop and sometime in september we will have 5 dell netbooks and sometime in october we will have 12 ipads that means that each student will have access to one machine each to work on when we need computers i m very excited about the opportunities that will provide one idea i have for this year is to have students use their blogs as either their whole electronic portfolio or as part of their electronic portfolio for student-led conference day it will be very exciting student expectations in this classroom students will be given the privilege and the important responsibility to take a great deal of ownership over how their time is spent in class planning and managing time and workload takes self-control and motivation these skills are essential for student success in middle school high school and college as well as being a contributing member of our society projectbased or problem-based learning is a great way to learn responsibility success depends largely on how hard a person works even if we re not good at something by working hard at it and practicing and getting better we will succeed in order to get better at something mistakes will happen so in science i value hard work and taking risks without fear of failure because that s how students will learn and improve when it comes to working together the key word is respect so my main rule in this class is that students show respect to me to each other to any guests in our school and of course to you their parents al gonzález

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chimacum middle school 8th grade standards mr al gonzález science here are the wa state science standards that 8th graders will be learning this year through our study of life science http educatoral.com/life_science.html inquiry f 6-8 inqf it is important to distinguish between the results of a particular investigation and general conclusions drawn from these results describe the differences between observation and inference students will be practicing all of the inquiry standards with regards to lab experiments as they learn how to design experiments i m not putting them all here because there are so many of them and our focus in middle school is on the standard written here notebook as part of the inquiry process students will use their science notebooks to do the following activate prior knowledge connect to real world applications review and evaluate info and synthesize life science 6-8 ls1a all organisms are composed of cells which carry on the many functions needed to sustain life life science 6-8 ls1b one-celled organisms must contain parts to carry out all life functions life science 6-8 ls1c multicellular organisms have specialized cells that perform different functions these cells join together to form tissues that give organs their structure and enable the organs to perform specialized functions within organ systems life science 6-8 ls1d both plant and animal cells must carry on life functions so they have parts in common such as nuclei cytoplasm cell membranes and mitochondria but plants have specialized cell parts such as chloroplasts and cell walls because they are producers and do not move life science 6-8 ls1e in classifying organisms scientists consider both internal and external structures and behaviors.

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life science 6-8 ls2a an ecosystem consists of all the populations living within a specific area and the nonliving factors they interact with one geographical area may contain many ecosystems life science 6-8 ls2b energy flows through an ecosystem from producers plants to consumers to decomposers these relationships can be shown for specific populations in a food web life science 6-8 ls2c the major source of energy for ecosystems on earth s surface is sunlight producers transform the energy of sunlight into the chemical energy of food through photosynthesis this food energy is used by plants and all other organisms to carry on life processes nearly all organisms on the surface of earth depend on this energy source behavior student comes to class prepared student uses class time wisely and works student gets along with others and respects others student contributes to the flow of learning in this classroom.

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21 st century learning tools dear parents in an effort to help prepare my students to use the tools they will need for their futures i have been learning about using 21st century tools in the classroom in education students can use blogs wikis chatrooms social networks and mobile devices among other tools to communicate with people on different schedules or different locations students can post their ideas and allow others to read and comment on their work i use such communication tools to have students reflect on what they re learning so they can demonstrate what they are learning getting feedback and learning together is what makes global communication a powerful learning tool we have been using a class blog so that our students can share their ideas and what they are learning in science with you their parents each other and other students around the world as with every internet activity that i sponsor at school i will monitor all activities your child participates in here at school i would request you also monitor them on the computer and cell phone at home too since i am responsible for what is posted to our blog site i will approve any posting in the way of articles or comments on our articles if i do not approve a posting i will explain to your child what the reason is and give him/her an opportunity to edit the posting or to repost if your child has an account with some other service using his or her email i will only be responsible for what your child submits to me please be assured that this is not a myspace.com site or activity the web address is on classblogmeister.com which was set up by a former educational technology director in north carolina for the purpose of teachers using it with their students our specific class blog site is http mrgonzalez.org and on this site you will see the assignments on the left with my class lists on the right clicking on your child s name will take you to your child s blog page where you will see the things your child has written and has been approved by me if you are looking at your child s site your child can log into the site and look at any article that has been written and is awaiting approval but not published yet too your child can edit and resubmit anything from home once i have your approval for your child to participate in this project you will need to send a password back to me and i will change the password to the one you and your child chose this year i am looking forward to offering other opportunities for students to participate in online discussions through forums wikis and even using their cell phones i offer many opportunities for all my students to share their learning but i am not asking any family to purchase anything they don t already own i still accept all work on paper i also have email accounts that my students share to create accounts on certain school approved websites if your child wishes and has your permission to use his or her own email to create accounts that is fine albeit it is not required i will be happy to answer any questions you might have and would appreciate your comments either at this blog http mrgonzalez.org or my other blog http educatoral.com/wordpress you can also share your thoughts with me via email at al_gonzalez@csd49.org text me or leave a voicemail at 360-4537021 or we can talk face to face please sign the next page and have your child return it to school tomorrow.

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i am willing to have my child try this project parent signature [please choose the password for your class blog i would like to decline participation in this project parent signature if your child cannot complete our class blog assignments on the internet here at school at the library from a cell phone nor at home then your child can always complete the assignments on paper your child will only miss out on sharing ideas with other students in class in my other classes and from classes around the world blogger s contract acknowledging that blogging is a legitimate and authentic form of journalistic publication student and teacher bloggers must adhere to essential principles of ethics the free exchange and publication of information can help people in important ways at the same time information can also harm people either intentionally or unintentionally being a responsible participant in the great online conversation i pledge that i will use information to honestly and joyously express the truth and that if challenged i will be able to prove that what i write or say is true always treat all people with respect i will never use information to cause harm or appear to cause harm to any person or group of people and respect and protect information tools and that i will neither do any harm to a computer system network software or other person s information nor will i allow others to do harm to a computer system network software or other person s information i will always be accountable for the information that i produce and publish willing and able to defend my information or acknowledge when i have made a mistake and fix it teacher student

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