Weekly Science News 4/15 - 4/19

Wow have we been busy in Science these past two weeks.  The first week back from Spring Break, OAKS testing ate into our content time.  Now though, we're in the thick of serious learning.

In 6th Grade Science, we've been doing a quick unit on the human body (structure of system down to the organelle level of cells) as they studied the body pretty thoroughly last year as 5s.  We're moving on to study how organisms interact with other organisms next week.  We're finishing out this unit with one of my favorite assessments - students writing their own tests!  Today students had a "test swap" and tested their classmates knowledge of the body with the test they wrote.  I'm grading them not on how well they took a classmate's tests, but on how well they wrote their own.  I always love seeing the questions students come up with!

The 7s are in the thick of a Climate Change unit.  We're looking at a lot of questions, theory, and ideas that support and deny/muddle the theory of Climate Change.  This interactive unit is full of models and experiments, games and guesses, finishing with testing for Carbon Dioxide in our air.  The 7th graders are deeply engaged in the unit and have brought such great questions forward.  I love teaching about things that make kids question, wonder, and think.  I believe that's so much more important that a list of facts to memorize.  I'm glad we have thinkers at MRA.

My 8th grade birds, excuse me, students have been studying Darwin and his theory of Natural Selection.  We've been defining Evolution and the amazing observations Darwin made during his journey on the H.M.S. Beagle.  This short unit has been jam packed, as we still have 3 units to fit in before the end of the year!  I've highly enjoyed working with these 8s to make sure they have their science content covered before they part ways from MRA.  I can't talk about that though.  It's too early to start crying over our 8s leaving....  I will not cry this year...  maybe... 


All in all, we're super busy in Science with the seniors.  The 6s and 8s start new mini-units next week that I'll update on soon!  I'm glad to be back in the swing of posting on this blog!  

Enjoy your weekend,
- Mrs. Nilsen