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WELCOME TO 8 GOLD SCIENCE!

Hello everyone!


This is the year's first blog post, and by now, I've gotten to know all of the new students on 8 Gold this year. I'm thrilled to have a new group of students and be able to share my love and passion for science!


This year 8th grade science will incorporate more Earth Science and a little less Physics as some changes start to occur to prepare for the implementation of the upcoming PA STEELS science standards. Students are going to learn about these topics:

  • Nature of Science & Measurement (Current Unit)

  • Motion, Energy, & Forces

  • Astronomy

  • Earth Materials & Systems

  • Weather & Climate

  • Environmental Science (Not including Life Science topics covered in 7th grade)

To view our course Syllabus, you can go to this link here.


This year, I plan to reduce how much paper I'm printing for the class. To do this, we are using Strategic Notetaking and Digital Notebooks. Over the past few weeks, students have been learning how to take these notes. The method of notetaking will help prepare students for high school and beyond. This is a guide I created to help students understand how to use our digital notebooks (click here - this links to the file on Schoology). Strategic Notetaking helps students become better listeners, be more engaged in the content, and think deeply about what they are learning. Some other points are detailed in the linked guide.


Since school started, we have been focused on moving through the Nature of Science & Measurement unit. We have discussed topics including observations, inferences, parts of an experiment, and the metric system. This unit is to ease your student back into the swing of things and get acquainted with the flow of my classroom. Next week, we'll be doing a Bubble Inquiry where students will be provided some resources to create an experiment to see how large of a bubble they can make using different types of dish soap. It'll be a way for students to practice the parts of an experiment and write a lab report.


After we finish the Bubble Inquiry, the Nature of Science & Measurement unit will wrap up with a quiz on Measurement, and we'll move along to the Motion, Energy, & Forces unit. This unit will have reduced math-heavy content as in previous years and focus more on how these topics relate to Astronomy. It'll be an "introductory" unit to the Astronomy unit. We'll start small-scale and then work to the motion of the planets and our Solar System.


I'm very excited to focus more on Earth Science this year! I think your student will also really enjoy it!


If you ever have any questions, feel free to reach out: curtis_silverwood@conestogavalley.org


To see pictures of the classroom and photos of activities we do in class, you can follow @ScienceWithSilverwood on Instagram. Below are images of a post-it note activity we did at the start of the Nature of Science & Measurement unit, discussing "What is Science?".

Thank you,

Mr. Silverwood



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