Wednesday, December 18, 2013

8-L News...


Team 8L December Blog

Science - In Science class we are studying the processes of erosion and deposition.  There are four agents of erosion that we are covering (gravity, water, wind, glaciers).  Students are drawing various features produced by some of the agents and identifying diagrams of other features.  We are doing a minimum of 3 labs associated with this unit.  We will finish up the unit before Christmas break.  Resources for the unit include our textbook, online textbook lab, and various graphic organizers.  There will be a unit test on the information.

Health - Understanding of the male and female reproductive system and how they function.

Math - Honors Alg students are nearing the completion of the linear graphing unit.  They have been assigned a small project in which they will gather data (about a topic of their choice), graph it, and obtain the linear function which represents the overall correlation of the data.  This process emulates that which cities, counties, and maybe even states use when they do population projections, anticipate utility usage during peak temperatures, and estimate the number of travelers during the holiday season.  The next unit, Writing & Graphing Linear Inequalities, will mimic much of the work in our current unit, with a few slight twists unique to the world of the algebraic inequality.

The Prealgebra 2 class are also nearing completion of a unit, Expressions & Equations, in which they've learned how to solve 1-step, 2-step, and multi-step equations, as well as how to apply the Distributive Property - an Algebra staple!  Yet to be studied in this unit are atypical equations, or those which do not have unique solutions.  Like their Honors Algebra peers, their next unit is Inequalities, in which we will focus on solving and writing them to model real world situations.

Algebra 1A students are about 4/5 of the way through Unit 1, which is the longest unit in their curriculum!  Thus far the focus has been on the solving and writing of linear and absolute value equations; yet to be completed are percent of change, dimensional analysis, and uniform motion topics.  These last three sections will invoke much of the equation work done throughout the earlier parts of this unit.  Students will be happy to know that Unit 2 is much shorter and may work the creative side of their brains, since we'll be looking at (among other things) patterns of number behavior and determining the equations that generate such items.

English - In English, Book Clubs are well underway. Student groups are reading and examining literature together in a fun and relaxed way. Individual assignments are prepared and then shared with the groups for in-depth analysis and discussion. At the conclusion of the unit, groups will be sharing their books with the rest of the class in the form of a presentation using technology. Also, students will complete a character analysis of one of the characters from the novel. Areas of focus include literary devices and techniques including irony, foreshadowing, flashback, symbolism, and allusion. Additionally, students are learning to analyze the craft and structure of fiction text to construct meaning.

Social StudiesWe have just concluded our unit on the American Revolution and are transitioning into how our Constitution was created.  First, we are learning about the Articles of Confederation and why the Articles needed revised.  From there, we will be learning how changing the Articles led to the forming of a whole new system of government with the ratifying of a new Constitution.  In this new Constitution, we will learn how power is divided in the three branches of government and how the Constitution affects our daily lives.

From all of us onTeam 8L – Have a terrific vacation and a Happy New Year!

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