We've had a busy start in middle school science! After we got to know our classroom community and procedures, we moved on to a pressing matter: how to identify poison ivy. We're going to spend time working on and learning on the Nature Trail this year and don't want While the 6th grade drew scientific illustrations of Toxicodendron radicans, the 7th and 8th grades came up with solutions to this itchy problem. Then the students presented their solutions (Pull it out! Avoid it! Spray it with herbicide!) and debated the pro's and con's of these proposals.
Last week (Sept. 14-18), we focused on the question, "What is Life?" and learned about the Six Characteristics of Living Things. Students in all classes generated questions about life on Earth, many of which we'll be revisiting as this year of LIFE SCIENCE progresses.
This week (Sept. 21-25), we'll begin to learn about the vast biodiversity that exists on Earth. We'll come up with our own ways of classifying items and learn about the classification systems that scientists have developed. Next week we have two guest speakers coming to our classroom-- Mary Lou Forward will share her own experiences with biodiversity in Madagascar, and Jesse Palmer will do trail work with us and discuss his upcoming trip to Antarctica. 7th and 8th graders met Jesse last year before he left for the South Pole, and he told me he's looking forward to seeing them again!
