April Happenings
We have spent a lot of time reviewing for MAP testing in 8th grade this month. Students will be taking the Science portion of the MAP test this Monday, April 23rd. This year will be a pilot year for testing Science in the state of Missouri and marks the first time students will be tested using our new science standards that were generated from the Next Generation Science Standards. Thank you for all of your cooperation, we ask that you please continue to ensure your child is getting plenty of sleep each night so they are ready and alert for testing this coming week.
High School Physical Science just finished up a unit on thermodynamics and got their test scores back today in class. Next week we will begin our final unit on waves. High school has truly entered their “busy season” with all of their athletic events, contests, and prom, and graduation in the near future. So far students are doing a great job with their juggling act and keeping up with everything.
High School Ecology has been studying the environment and human health. We have been discussing both human and natural causes of the spread of bacteria and viruses across the world. Next week we will begin chapter 21 to discuss economics, policy, and the future. We are also looking forward to having a clean up day of part of the school grounds in Ecology now that the weather is cooperating again.
STEAM Wednesday for the month of April consisted of spring related engineering and art activities. Students had multiple maker space stations to visit each with a spring theme. Makerspaces consisted of:
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Jelly bean bottle flipping (empty water bottles were filled ⅓ of the way with jelly beans),
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Peep nest building (materials included jelly beans, toothpicks, legos, and marshmallow peeps) where students try to build the sturdiest nest.
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Tower building; (jelly beans and toothpicks) weights are applied to test strength.
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Egg gum drop (egg shaped gum had to roll down the pool noodle tracks taped on the wall without falling to the floor)
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Chromatography butterflies (coffee filters, markers, and pipe cleaners)
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Peep-apult (catapults made from pencils and rubber bands had to launch marshmallow peeps into boxes worth different amounts of points.)
Students had a fun time using critical thinking skills going from station to station to participate in each makerspace station. As always, I am amazed to see the different ideas each group comes up with and how each individual truly has their own way of thinking to create a solution to the problem.
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