Wondering what a science notebook should look like?

Good Morning!
Many of you may be wondering, "What does my child's science notebook look like?" Some may be thinking, "Does my science notebook look right?" Well wonder no more friends! Below are examples of the work students should have finished in their science notebook as of 10/3/08. I just finished grading most of them and found a notebook with large, legible handwriting that is orderly and complete. If you want a really good look, click on the image and you can read every line, see every detail and point out every grammatical error. The class grades for the science notebooks on the whole were pretty good. I think this is going to be a good start to the year.







If you have any questions please feel email me at mark.russo@emid6067.net my teacher space can be found at http://www.emid6067.net/servlet/tspace?loc=crosswinds&who=68526249

PJ's cell analogy

Hi there,
In my diligent research for the best projects, I found this YouTube video that I have to share. PJ created a video demonstrating how parts of his house and parts of a cell perform similar tasks. This is great because it is both really good science and really funny. Cell theory and the parts of a cell will be our focus for the week of Sept 29 through Oct 3rd. Enjoy!






If you have any questions please feel email me at mark.russo@emid6067.net my teacher space can be found at http://www.emid6067.net/servlet/tspace?loc=crosswinds&who=68526249

Mid-terms are almost here

Hello there!
Mid terms are right around the corner (Oct 1st) and things are starting to move much faster in the Pangaea house. All the beginning of the year business, paperwork and procedures are finished and more time is being spent moving faster into the curriculum.
The week of Sept 29 through Oct 3rd will have students understanding the 6 traits of all living things. These are:

All living things are made of cells.
All living things reproduce.
All living things have DNA.
All living things respond to change.
All living things grow and develop.
All living things use energy.

Some scientists still argue over this topic mostly due to the fact that these 6 traits exclude viruses from the list of being technically alive.

Cell theory is the foundation of biology and one of the major standards students focus on this quarter. We will begin our investigation into the structure and function of the parts of cells starting next week. Below is a good visual of an animal cell which may aid in student study.


If you have any questions please feel email me at mark.russo@emid6067.net my teacher space can be found at http://www.emid6067.net/servlet/tspace?loc=crosswinds&who=68526249

Back for a new year

Welcome Back!

Crosswinds Arts and Science Magnet School is off to a pretty good start. Our 2008 / 2009 school year began a few weeks ago and we have hit the ground running. Students have received orientation and toured the grounds the first week. Students then took the Measure of Academic Progress or MAP test in math, Language Arts, and science (only 7th graders... not sure why) the second week. Finally, students have spent last week setting up their science notebook which they will use for the remainder of the year.
Somewhere in there we also found a little time to help out a non-profit in their efforts to gather 1,000,000 acorns used to start forests all over the world. Around the same time we made some leaf prints for a project students will not begin for some time. Leaf prints need fresh, green leaves to work well and this was the only chance we will have for many months.



















In the weeks to come students will begin their investigation of life science. We will explore the structure and function of the inner workings of cells, see how they clone themselves in the process of mitosis and start to apply this to the larger picture of tissues and organs of the human body.

If you have any questions please feel email me at mark.russo@emid6067.net my teacher space page is http://www.emid6067.net/servlet/tspace?loc=crosswinds&who=68526249

New Science Notebook entries

In an effort to keep the blog current, here are more entries in the science notebook. I found a different student to donate their work mostly because their handwriting is so clear.





If you have any questions please feel email me at mark.russo@emid6067.net

Science Notebook update

Howdy folks!
I am ready to update the science notebook entries. These are a backup in case you are absent and can not ask anyone from your table group for help. This is also to give parents an idea of the kinds of things we are talking about in class and what kind of things may show up on the test.



If you have any questions please feel email me at mark.russo@emid6067.net

How about this weather, huh?

Well folks, here we go again!


Quarter 3 for Crosswinds Pangaea house is all about the weather. Cool weather, hot weather, bad weather and winter weather we shall discover it all over the next two months.


Anna Barker will be helping us out this quarter in the lab. She has many specialties from Master Gardener to Language Arts teacher, to International Baccalaureate guru. Her focus will be to help students make connections from the text to the classroom. She will be working with students to help get them prepared for State tests coming up this quarter. She recently returned from visiting her daughter in India and has lots of stories to share.





In order to tackle the complex topic of weather, we have broken it down into the study of air, the study of water, and the study of heat. We will devote a few weeks to each and then take the last few weeks to tie it all together.


The year is half over so now the expectations will rise even higher to help prepare them for next year. This will manifest itself in the form of more homework, more tests, as well as more challenging projects and labs.


To help students with their science notebooks, I hope to be able to post entries which include the warm up question (and answer), goal, and quote of the day to the blog so students can keep their notebooks up to date even if they are absent.


If you have any questions please feel email me at mark.russo@emid6067.net