Middle School Minute Take 3

I realized I have had this sitting as a draft for some time now.  I wish I had been able to record more of the funny things my students said.  As for now, here are a couple of laughs:

Students quiet during a quiz. 
Student: Raises hand
Me: Yes?
Student: (big grin) My stomach just growled three times.

Student: You should name your baby Raul.
Me: No.  I'm not going to give my baby a Spanish name when it's going to be a white kid.
Student: Oh.. then you should name your baby Gringo.

Student A: Miss!  You have a little belly!
Student B: Aww, it's so cute.
Student A: Can I touch it?
Me: um... (as student A touches my baby belly)
Student B:  (to student A) That's kind of weird.  ... (to me) Can I touch your belly?

Class is quietly taking notes in Mr. S's class.  I walk in and take a seat.
Student:  Miss.  This is my cow.
Student places small cow figurine on desk. 

Potential and Kinetic Energy Roller Coasters

We finished our unit on matter and have two weeks before Christmas Break left, so why not start a new unit, right??  I'm just focusing on a small point (potential and kinetic energy) and hoping that they'll retain that information when we come back after the break!

I only saw the eighth graders twice this week (as we're on an every-other day schedule), so the first day we introduced the ideas, took notes, and then spent a lot of time on this website exploring the relationship between potential and kinetic energy:

http://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulation/energy-skate-park-basics

 

It's a great resource that the kids love as well.  There are different ramps, and option to add or take away friction, and a space to make your own ramp.  The last option, where we were creating our own ramp, was the best part because we could have a lot of teaching opportunities with that––why something worked or didn't work, why the boy couldn't make it through the loop, why he fell off at the end, etc.  At the end of one of my classes there was a little bit of extra time so a couple of kids came up and made ramp options that were ridiculous but fun all the same. 

 

 Day 2 was applying what we learned last class to their own roller coasters.  The rubric was as follows:

20%: Draw a roller coaster that is neat, colorful, and could actually be built in real life.

40%: Have a Potential/Kinetic/Total Energy graph at four different spots on the roller coaster that accurately represents the energy at that spot. Write a quick sentence explaining what the graph means there.

40%: Write a short paragraph explaining what potential energy is, what kinetic energy is, and how they relate to each other on a roller coaster.

The kids did pretty well with this.  I have a few stragglers who aren't done (and one student who is autistic and he's been so focused on getting his roller coaster drawn as awesomely as he can that he hasn't accomplished anything else. *sigh*), but for the most part, I think the kids enjoyed this creative project and I think that for special education they showed good understanding of the concepts.  So I give this lesson two thumbs up. 

Here are some examples of finished (or near finished) products:

 

On the wall outside.  I told the students at the beginning that this would go outside, so they should do there best.  They also wrote their paragraph on a separate sheet of paper first, and I helped correct it for spelling and accuracy so that good work was put outside for them to display.   When more kids finish I'll put them to the left of these posters.

Separating Mixtures

In follow up to our lessons on elements, compounds, and mixtures, we talk about how we can separate mixtures.  Our curriculum requires us to teach 4 different separation techniques: filtration, evaporation, magnetism, and screening.

The first day I introduce this, I give small demonstrations of each one. 

• I make a mixture of salt water and have that boiling throughout the lesson until it's all gone and only the salt is left.  
• I have a screen and put a mixture of rocks and dirt through it.  
• I have a filter and put some stuff through it. 
• And then this year another teacher let me borrow her mixture of iron filings and sand with her magnet, so we got to show the kids that one as well.  (I also took the kids outside and showed them that the magnet will pick up the iron in the dirt.  One kid came back the next day and said he tried that in his backyard and it worked. Happiness.)

We don't spend much time on this, so there's just a few activities plus a couple of worksheets.  Here's the worksheet I created for this:

Click below for worksheet

Elements, Compounds, and Mixtures

In eighth grade right now we're finishing up our unit on matter.  Last week we went over elements, compounds, and mixtures.  My kids are very visual and need to "see" examples of these things in order to really understand.  But I was happy with how they did and how they caught on to the concepts.  We've focused on separating mixtures this week, so I need to go back and do a quick review later, but this is the main way that I introduce these concepts.

Elements are easy.  I've used the word "element" throughout the unit as we talk about atoms, properties of matter, etc. But not until now did I give them a real definition for it.

I use a smart board file that I made for this.  Each slide has a different example of either an element, compound, or a mixture.  They write their answer on a whiteboard and I come around and check.  Once everyone has the right answer, we discuss why that was the correct answer.

My teacher friends wanted access, but their computers/smart boards use a different program, so instead I just took screen shots of each smart board slide and made it a power point.  

ELEMENTS COMPOUNDS AND MIXTURES

POWER POINT

Example Slides:

The kids did pretty well.  This group activity of identifying each example is followed by an independent worksheet where they are identifying them again.  I didn't make the worksheet, so I'm not going to post it, but there are plenty of worksheets you can find when you google images for "element, compound, mixture." That's where many of my worksheets come from!

Photosynthesis and Respiration

This is a great unit with my seventh graders.  It's easy to start because the kids usually remember something about photosynthesis from elementary school.  If not, they already know that plants need sunlight and water.  This is not a very long unit.  Maybe 2-3 weeks.

The goals for this unit are:

• The students will be able to write the word equations for photosynthesis and respiration
• Photosynthesis is
  "sunlight + water + carbon dioxide --> glucose + oxygen."  
• Respiration is
  "glucose + oxygen --> ATP energy + water + carbon dioxide."
• The students will identify that photosynthesis occurs in the chloroplast and respiration occurs in the mitochondria. 
• The students will identify that they are reverse/opposite reactions.
• The students will understand the words "reactant" and "product."
• The students will use their knowledge of the reactions to answer various questions.

Some (not all) of the activities we do for this unit:

1. Acting it out!

I have little cut outs from card stock paper (nothing fancy!) and one kid is assigned a role (either a reactant or a product, or the plant).  I make up a little narrative and the kids have to listen for their part and come in and "act" it out appropriately.  It's just a fun little activity, but it gets the kids up and moving and helps them visualize what's going on.

This class actually happened on Halloween this year, which was perfect.  None of my kids dressed up for school (sad!) so I told them I had brought their costumes: sunlight, water, carbon dioxide, glucose, oxygen, and a plant. haha.

2. Worksheet practice:

Worksheet practice throughout the unit, used in whatever order makes sense for that year and how that group of students is progressing.   This is only two of my worksheets.  The others ended up as a mix of things from other sources that are not directly mine, so I'm not putting them on here.  I know I've got others, but they're probably on my work computer (I'm on my home computer right now).  If I find them I'll put them on here, too. 

(Get the worksheet at the bottom of this page)

Worksheet A: Identification

 

WORKSHEET B: Chemical Formulas

I use this more for my 8th graders who are working on the periodic table and interpreting chemical formulas.  It reinforces what they learned last year and applies their new knowledge to familiar situations. Link for worksheet at the bottom of this page.

3.  WALL-E Day!

from google image search

No, we don't watch the whole movie, although that would be awesome and less planning for me!  But there's no time to do that and it would be a waste when a few clips can aid your discussion quite nicely.  The kids love this class because we get to watch some of WALL-E and understand that it actually has real science in it!

The clips I show (I may or may not show all of them)
       1. Opening Scene
       2. WALL-E's day at work
       3. WALL-E finds a plant
       4. WALL-E first date scene (EVE takes the plant)
       5. WALL-E in space
       6. Human dystopia
       7. Directive A113
       8. End Credits (I show this so we can talk about what the people are doing and how the earth changes)

WORKSHEET FOR WALL-E (link at bottom of page)

4. Yeast Lab:

It's hard to tell, but the red balloon is a little bigger.

It would be fun to also do a plant lab, but I haven't figured out how to do one of those in our small little country school with limited resources.  So yeast lab is how we'll have to do it! The kids love watching the balloons fill up. I use this towards the end of the unit to really push their thinking and application of what they have learned.  Deeper level questions like "How can you prove the yeast are doing respiration and not photosynthesis?" (possible answers: we added sugar as a reactant; they're not green, so they don't have chloroplast; etc.) "What is filling up the balloon and how do you know?" (CO2, because it's undergoing respiration).  My kids have a harder time with these questions that make them think.  It takes more prodding as a teacher to get these SPED kids to that level.  We can get there, it just takes longer.

LAB WORKSHEET (link at bottom of page)

 

And that's photosynthesis and respiration.  We do a lot of group lecture, discussion, and practice.  I draw a lot on the board and I have them practice the equations every day.  Today was our last day on the unit, but we have two days of review before our cell test (the overall unit), so we'll have some talk on it before the test next week.

Points

Our classroom runs on a point system. I base it off of the Whole Brain Teaching's method of classroom management and points.  It's students vs. teacher points.  Their points are the difference between the two (e.g. If they have 5 points and I have 2 points, they have 3 points for that day). 

These points accumulate over two weeks, and then whichever two of the four classes I have that have accumulated the most points win a spin for a prize.  Prizes are things like 10 minutes free time, board game time, 5 extra points for everyone, etc.  Easy things. 

I keep track of how many times the class has won the 2-week challenges with class trains.  Each train has a different color.  If they have a "gold"/yellow car then that means they won that week. The top train is behind because that class was originally all together with the red class.  During the second week they split into two classes.

The kids are pretty motivated by the competition aspect, which is new this year. I like the little trains.  Each car represents 2 weeks.  Last week was the end of one challenge and I have yet to put those cars up.  The red and blue team won. 

The Cell Project!

This year I had my students complete a cell project.  I had two weeks of introducing the cell (more like 1.5 weeks with PTC one week), completing sections in our notebooks, and letting them know this project was coming up.  They also had Fall Break in there, and so there was plenty of time to do the project.

Sideways, but this shows one student's pages in her ISN of the cells and her labels. 

Upside down, but this foldable opens up to reveal the name on one side and the function on another side.

I didn't have my students complete a project last year at home, mostly because I was afraid no one would actually do one.  But I let the kids know, I told the parents about it at PTC, I sent home notices about it, and reminded the kids every single day that they had this project.  I was pleasantly surprised with how many kids actually completed one and how well they turned out!  Remember, I teach special education.  Remember, I teach in a poorer area where kids don't have resources and most parents work late into the night.  So this was awesome.

There were still some students who turned it in late, and then I still have a couple who haven't completed it all together.  But we've conferenced and they know they can bring it in at any time (for reduced credit, since it's late; still, it's much better than a 0).

And now, without further ado.... the projects!

 

This is a cake with candy on it.  The kid forgot to label the parts but quickly completed that after he completed his work that day. 

There were two cakes, and they were beautiful.  Unfortunately I didn't get pictures of the other one before it was cut up and shared with the other students (after receiving a grade, of course!).

These aren't all of the projects, just a sampling.  I'm so proud of my kids.  They did a great job.