9/19

This week students were challenged to brainstorm characteristics that all living things share.  Not only did students actively come up with various characteristics, they were able to put their prior knowledge to work during a stations lab.  In the stations lab, students were asked to use their characteristics to identify whether a specimen was living, non living or dead.  After the two day activity students were quite surprised with some of the answers ( i.e.- living bacteria is in yogurt, grass seed is living, etc.).
To end off the week, students were given their Life Science textbooks to continue learning about living things.  With regards to the textbook, students can take these home for the year.  I have enough copies here at school where we will always have textbooks in the classroom for 7th graders to use.  I just ask that they are brought back to school in the same condition as they are today.
Looking forward, we will be exploring how to use the microscope next week.  Have a great weekend!!

9/3

Welcome back!!
Seventh graders are doing a nice job getting used to the science room and the expectations. Last week, we went over the science syllabus and completed a few activities where students demonstrated their readiness for 7th grade science.  The syllabus can be found on Google Classroom, under the "About" tab.  All important information can be found under this tab.
This week students will start going over lab safety and the scientific method.

Burrows/Gemmell, Science, 5/30

This week in Science, students learned about fungi. They studied the different kinds of fungi, parts of fungi, and how they reproduce.

Students finished the week with the pond water lab--taking pictures of protists, identifying them, and putting them in a Google Drive presentation.

Burrows/Gemmell, Science, 5/23

Students worked on the Pond Water Protist Project. Using the ELMO projector, computer, and microscope, students observed and captured images and video of protists in pond water samples. Students will create a Google Drive slide show presentation classifying, identifying, and labeling the protists they found.  All students were surprised to see so much life in just one drop of water and can't wait to share their findings with other seventh grade scientists.

Burrows/Gemmell, Science, 5/16

This week, students information about Kingdom Protista, discovering that most are unicellular eukaryotes. Students also created reference tools to help identify protists for the lab.  Finally, students began the pond water lab.  They were really excited and surprised to see how much life is in one drop of pond water! Students were able to see many organisms including an amoeba, parameciuim, and euglena--the same protists they have studied closely!  Next week, brings more pond water excitement as we use the water and technology for a project.

Burrows/Gemmell, Science, 5/9

Students completed their study of bacteria and viruses, and they were tested on Thursday. Our next unit will be about Protists--learning what they look like, how they move, and where they live.

Burrows/Gemmell, Science, 5/2

It was a bacteria-filled week!  After learning about the role bacteria plays in the world, students wrote questions and made hypotheses about bacteria growth in school. Then they collected samples to grow in a petri dish over the weekend.  Next week, students will compare their results with their hypothesis. Also, the test on bacteria and viruses will be next Thursday.