WINTER BREAK CHECk IN!

Hello everyone,

I hope you are all enjoying the Winter Break with your student at home. I know it was needed after how hard everyone worked through the Simple Machines unit! Students did absolutely fantastic on their Rube Goldberg Machine designs and did a great job on the building performance based assessment. Grades are now up for both of these assignments.

See photos below of some stand out Rube Goldberg designs.

Next week, when we return from break, we will be starting my favorite unit! Weather & Climate! I'm excited to start this. We will be having a 3-week long project coming soon... in my next blog post there will be more details about that.

I wanted to keep this short and sweet. Students who read this, be sure to check your grades! Parents/guardians, if there is an "X" in the grade book that means your student has not turned in an assignment. If a student's grade is low then they most likely have missing assignments. If they turn them in, even late, they will get partial credit which can boost their grade.

Enjoy the rest of your break!

Mr. Silverwood

'TIS THE SEASON... FOR SIMPLE MACHINES

Hello everyone!

It's been a minute since the last blog post, but that's because of the Thanksgiving break. I wanted to wait 2 weeks after break to send out a new update. During the past two weeks, students have been hard at work learning about Simple Machines.

The 6 Simple Machines that students have learned about are: Levers, Pulleys, Inclined Planes (Ramps), Screws, Wheel and Axles, and Wedges. Out of those 6, students have done labs and have been practicing building Levers (First and Second Class), Inclined Planes, and Pulleys (Fixed, Moveable, and Compound).

Pictured below: a photo of some lab materials used to build inclined planes.

Overall, students have really enjoyed the hands-on nature of this unit.

In the past two weeks, I have been out 3 days for a conference/training. During those days, students watched videos on the Maya, Aztec, and Inca. These videos were a crossover with what they were discussing in their Civics/History class. The focus on these videos were on the impressive nature of these ancient civilizations' building techniques.

Tomorrow (12/15), starts our 5-day testing period. HOLD ON, 5 days?! Well, it won't be as intense as it may sound. This is how it'll work:

• Students will be building ONE pulley, ONE lever, and ONE inclined plane. They will choose and decide which one will have an ideal mechanical advantage (IMA) of 1, 2, and greater than 3.

• Students will be rotating throughout the 5 days on who is building. Only 7 students per day can do the building based on the set up of the classroom.

• While some students build, the students who aren't will be designing a Rube Goldberg machine using 4 of the 6 simple machines we've learned about in class.

Overall, it is a very relaxed atmosphere for a test. Everyone will have all the formulas they need to do their calculations, and they will be able to go home each night and review their notes if needed.

This testing is Performance-Based, meaning that they are mostly being tested on their knowledge of how the simple machines work and their ability to build them.

Students will be working on the testing independently.

The Simple Machines testing period is how we will be finishing out the month ahead of the Winter Break!

When students return in January, we will be starting the Weather & Climate unit! This unit is one of my absolute favorites. For those who may have struggled with the math during the fall, will find that the units moving forward are not very math heavy. *cue sigh of relief!* 😅

Pictured below, a wasp/hornet's nest (Bald Faced Hornet) donated by a student and their dad, it's really cool! If you have cool science-y things you'd like to donate to the classroom feel free to reach out 😁

As always, if you have any questions/comments/concerns you can email me at curtis_silverwood@conestogavalley.org

Sincerely,

Mr. Silverwood

HAVE A GREAT THANKSGIVING BREAK!

Hello everyone! Since the last blog post, students have had their Motion & Energy Unit test and have nearly completed their Forces Unit!

It has been fast pace but full of fun! We started Forces off with playing Tug of War and using a beach ball to see how those activities related to balanced and unbalanced forces. Unfortunately, not all classes played. But, regardless we have done other lab activities in the past two weeks like our Penny Drop Activity, Newton's Second Law Lab, Marble Collisions Lab, and Balloon Rockets Lab (and many demos).

Instead of a big test for Forces, the unit was split into two large quizzes. One quiz was on Newton's 1st and 2nd Laws of Motion and the one that students have tomorrow (11/17) is mostly focused on Newton's 3rd Law of Motion.

All grades for Trimester 1 are pretty much final, if students are missing work, I encourage them to have that in by Friday the latest. Everything from this week will be on the next Trimester.

(Below a slo-mo video of an Alka Seltzer Rocket demo for Newton's 3rd Law)

After the Thanksgiving Break, students will be starting their Simple Machines Unit! This one is very hands-on and a lot of building of levers, pulleys, inclined planes, wedges, etc.

I'm very excited to do the Simple Machines Unit. This unit will take up until winter break. After the winter break, we'll be moving into Earth Science topics, starting with Weather & Climate.

I hope that everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving Break! I'm looking forward to meeting those who will be in for conferences.

As always, if you have any questions/comments/concerns you can email me at curtis_silverwood@conestogavalley.org

Sincerely,

Mr. Silverwood