Egg Drop Challenge: Part 2

Egg Drop Challenge: Part 1

6th Grade's 1st Challenge

The 6th grade began their year in science with a challenge: Construct the tallest stable tower you can using only uncooked spaghetti and marshmallows. Many of this year's projects will involve designing, creating, and testing products; the Spaghetti & Marshmallow Tower was an introduction to product design and distribution of forces, as well as cooperative group work.

Newton's Laws of Motion

Check out this interactive website all about the 3 Laws of Motion--

http://science.discovery.com/interactives/literacy/newton/newton.html

We'll be studying Newton's Laws and doing experiments to further investigate them.

Welcome Back!

Building a safe and supportive community is a major focus in our middle school at the beginning of the year-- students will all experience the most growth in middle school if we have a strong community in which to learn and take chances. We have been dedicating our time to learning about what makes each of us unique and what brings us together as a community. These studies will culminate with our "Museum of Us" evening. All family members and friends are invited to see the middle school students' exhibits at the school on Thursday, Sept. 23, 7:00-8:00 pm.
After we finish the Family Tree piece of the "Museum of Us," we'll be moving on to study physics in science class. The first questions we'll be asking are: What is a force? What happens when forces are balanced? What about when they are unbalanced? In science class we'll become aware of forces all around us, how they interact and how they affect us in our everyday lives. Then we'll move on to describing and measuring motion.
On another note, as the school year begins, it's important to focus on building strong study habits. I recently came across the following article describing some of the latest research on effective study habits: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/07/health/views/07mind.html?src=me&ref=general

8th Grade Motion Experiments

Just before April break, the 8th grade presented their findings after conducting their own experiments involving MOTION. Many groups used toy cars; a few groups used ramps.
Here are a few questions tackled by our investigative teams:
How does the mass of an object affect the distance it will travel?
How does the surface material of a ramp affect a car's speed?
How does the steepness of a ramp affect how fast a car moves across the floor?

Update by Trevor, Alec, and Ethan

The nervous system in our body is the way we react to things like pain, laughing, etc. One nerve can be up to 2 feet long! But, it could also be microscopic. Our spinal cord is just a big bundle of neurons (nerves). If our spinal cord is broken it could cause major problems to our nervous system. There are millions of neurons in our body. The neurons have many parts like the nucleus, axon, myelin sheath, and dendrites.
Here are some suggestions for people who don't exercise. Exercise has a massive effect on your body especially the brain. Exercise helps the brain calm down. Exercise also helps organize your thoughts. And believe it our not it improves your memory. Exercise can increase a person's ability to plan and organize thoughts. The more exercise you get, the farther you will be able to run and you will become less tired. So those are some reasons you should exercise more.