Science Fair!

Micah presents his project.

Showing Off!

This last week has been sooooo busy with science business. First, of course, we had our yearly science fair. Every year I ask for a little more from my students, and every year they don't disappoint. The science party started with a cool (and cute) performance from the pre-school class. They taught us about DNA and how it works in the body.

Imagine the sinful amount of pride I experienced when one of the judges told me how inspired she was by the children's experiemnts. Below  are some photo highlightts from this week and the names of all of the winners from this years science fair. 

1st	5th
1st-Cosby McDowell	Zakiya Nickson
2nd-Michael Brewer	Selah Payne
3rd-Kami Davis	Christina Harris
2nd	6th
1st-Raelyn Marshall	1st-Joshua Lambert
2nd-Kaeden Buford	2nd-Azia Papillon
3rd-Eric Werner	3rd-Marquan Wordlow
3rd	7th
1st-Nicole Sanders	1st-Kennedy Springfield
2nd-Morgan Springfield	2nd-Zari Nickson
3rd-Tryphena Guice	3rd-Kourtni Barber
4th	8th
1st-Nailah Lewis	1st-Nikkia Ferguson
2nd-Pierre Papillon	2nd-Trinity Thomas
3rd-Cameron Pickett	3rd-Micah Payne

Students watch the Shop Bot cut out their name plates

Students solder potentiometers as they prepare for the next week's project. 

Careful, those irons are hot!Safety first.

Students show off another great project!

Kennedy is learning to program an Ardruino

Adding code to Micah's project allows it to move

Joshua learns to make his servo "walk"

It's Been a Long Time

Missed You  All... 

It's been a couple of weeks since my last post. So much has happened!

I enjoyed talking to all of you on Monday. Meeting and talking with parents who are so passionate, involved, and invested in their children's education renews my faith in my student's future. 

Students hold up their sculptures and chains.

We've made another visit to the FabLab. Students made linked chains with pendants on the end. They also made 3D sculptures of themselves using an Xbox Kinect. 

Last Week(s)

Students took a LOT of approaches to learn content

Christian examines two mixtures. One is a mixture of yeast and sugar.
The other is a mixture of yeast, sugar, and water. He wants to
see if there will be a different type of reaction. 

6th and 7th grade learned to improve their study skills. We learned how to "unpack" and "deconstruct" our tests so we can get clues on how we can do better next time. We also created different types of mixtures and substances and talked about their qualities.  

Donovan uses post-it notes to write down questions,
vocabulary, and thoughts about the text

 I've noticed that many of my students have some poor study habits. They haven't learned how to "interrogate" a text. They don't seek understanding of what they have read. This poor practice results in poor reading comprehension leading to critical understanding. So I've taught them to notate text with questions and comments. We also used the "four-square" method to create vocabulary with context. The study week ended with group presentations by the students. 

Kennedy and Azia record a spoken word that was used to teach about
pure substances and mixtures click here to hear it.

The 8th grade decided that they wanted to be teachers. So I gave them a crash course on lesson planning, we discussed what would be taught, and I gave them a week to educate themselves and another week to teach me. I will grade them based on their knowledge of key subject matter. In the meantime, they are having fun learning and teaching me about new subjects. 

Nikkia scoops pumpkin seeds out of her pumpkin.
 Besides being a fun activity, this is an opportunity for me to teach knife safety
ahead of our first dissection. 

This Week

6th and 7th grade will be learning about changes in matter. This makes for a lot of fun demonstrations and labs.

8th grade will be teaching me about homeostasis. Pray for us. 

I am available for any questions you have about Science Projects. I am looking forward to seeing the fruit of some of this work.

The Importance Of Being Earnest

We Work Even Harder 

Students show their coins at MSI's Fab Lab.

Our student's visit to the Museum was so exciting. They actually had a chance to get see their first 3D prints. They made custom coins. This week, they put those coins on chain. I can't wait to see the finished products. 

This week: 

Experimenting with mixtures.

The 6th and 7th graders continued their study of Pure Substances and Mixtures. I've increased the number of formative assessments (those are like non-graded pop quizzes) to get a better picture of their daily development. I've increased the amount of support that I've given the class. Unfortunately, the classes test average was very low. My formative assessments showed me that the students were struggling with basic vocabulary. Yet, my students had little to no inquiry about what they were reading about. I felt their was little ownership of the material and all of the efforts seemed focused on a rote memorization of the vocabulary. The poor reading comprehension stems from poor reading habits that we are working on breaking. 

8th grade pretend to be ribosomes producing proteins.

8th grade spent this week visualizing the cell and it's organelles as a city: ComEd = the mitochondria, UPS= the Golgi Complex, factory workers = ribosomes. We even made an assembly line to represent the production of proteins. Most of the class did an exemplary job on their assessment. Please check Engrade and congratulate them on their excellent scholarship. 

Next Week:

6th and 7th grade will practice independent study in class. They will be broken into study groups and given study tasks that will start with creating an experiment and end with a presentation. I'm am concerned that many of my students are not "leaning in" and taking the initiative to understand ideas. One of the skills they will practice is called interrogative reading. They will be given text, they will have to read a portion of the text and use post-it notes to "ask questions" of the text. These questions can range from vocabulary to passages that are confusing or unclear. Then the student will have to answer that question. This is a skill that all readers have. If you are not asking questions... then you are not reading. 

8th Grade will build upon their knowledge of the cell to learn how they build organisms. They will also be doing specialized projects to visualize and understand how cells, tissues, and organs are related. 

Look out for information about Science Fair research papers. 

Cellular Service

Does It Really Matter?
(see flashcards below)
This Week:

Students have been getting into the fundamentals of the universe. 

Zari and Kennedy watch bubbles form in a mysterious
chemical reaction brought on by electrolysis. 

The 6th and 7th graders have been learning about the nature of chemical and physical properties and changes. They used electrolysis to split water molecules and create rust. They then learned about different mixtures and their definitions. We will continue to explore these concepts as time goes on. 

Trinity is demonstrating how phospholipids
pull water into the cell. 

The 8th graders have been learning about the cell. We experimented with cellular structures and functions. We even went on a "special mission" that allowed us to operate a virtual cell. We had fun  as we were able to actually see our DNA as it was freed from the cellular membrane. 

Both classes used their new 3D modeling skills to make custom "coins" in the MSI Fab Lab. The Chicago Public Library has a similar program. Click here to learn about it. 

Micah waits for the DNA strains to appear in a solution of
dish detergent, blue dye, and alcohol.

Next Week:

We will continue to explore these subjects as we take the IOWA tests. Please make sure those brains get the calories and rest they need to be powerful. Complex carbohydrates and and Omega fats are the order of the day (ask your 8th grader)!


Concerns from the Teacher:

I consider the parents of my students as my primary partner in the education of my students. What you do with them at home has a direct effect on what happens in my classroom. I believe the parents of my students are the real key to Cambridge's successes. So I need your help on 3 different fronts. 

1.Please talk to your child about public decorum and paying attention. We've been at the museum for 3 weeks now. The primary challenge that we have has been a lot of the students being off task. Some of them don't even finish in- class assignments. We want to get the most out of this experience. Please help them by talking with them about task management and personal discipline.  Unfortunately,  to maintain safety,  I may have to ask some of the students to stay behind if they can not remain focused and follow directions. 
2.Make sure you child is actually reading their homework!  My students are given weekly reading assignments. Most of my students do NOT do the reading. They "read over" the words without attempting to comprehend the text. It is my hypothesis that this is their primary struggle with reading comprehension. It's not that they CAN'T decode what they are reading, they don't CARE to decode. If you don't believe me, try this experiment. While you are speaking to your child, use a big word that you know they don't know. Later, ask them if they know what that word means. I predict that they will not know and they WILL NOT ASK. This is the primary cause of poor comprehension and small vocabularies among our students. Ask them about the text and hold them accountable. It will pay off in high school. Teachers often teach "flipped" classes where all of the lectures are done online, at home, and class time is only for labs. Children who do not read or SEEK to understand will be left behind. 

3.Watch more TV with them. Less reality TV and more educational TV. No television is just as bad as too much television. Sometimes I find that my students have a knowledge gap that I attribute to not seeing enough of the world. Television, although imperfect in a lot of ways, does a great job of delivering a variety of images and visual experiences that inform one's world view. A little History Channel or Discovery goes a long way. Nova Science Now! is an exciting and relevant sow on PBS. Television is like food. It makes more sense to judge the chef rather than the dish. (I LOVE metaphors!) See the Parent Resource Center to the right of this post for Nova Science Now! and the Mythbusters online video sites. 

Evolution of the Producer

Look What I Can DO!

Last Week:

Mr. Payne is SO happy
about his paper cell.

The GC6-DC2 spent the week reviewing concepts that we have not mastered. Some of our children have suffered when the lesson schedule takes precedence over mastery. If a majority of my students show that they are deficient in a skill or subject area, I feel I am obligated to put on the brakes, and do it again. That is where we found ourselves this week and the test scores were so much better. Please check Engrade and congratulate your child appropriately. 

Joshua Lambert uses InkScape to design his keychain.

The highlight of this week had to be our first of 10 classes and the Museum of Science and Industry. Our students took a tour of the Fab Lab. They learned that the lab they were in was one of hundreds around the world that not only provide the same services, but collaborate with each other in real time over video conference. We were fascinated at the large screen in front of us showed people working in a lab just like our in Germany, Africa, and South America. 

I am going to need each household to make sure the InkScape and Google SketchUp software on the right are downloaded and installed on each computer.  I will be sending homework to reinforce the skills that children will be learning at the museum. You may call me for tech support. You can click on the underlined words in this paragraph or the link in the Parent Resource center. 

Marquan watches as an infrared laser cuts plastic.
He can't wait until it's his turn.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with a Fab Lab, let me explain. 

As a teacher and again citizen, I have anxiety about this generations ability to MAKE things. We have become a consumer culture that do not know how the machines and electronics that we rely on work. Yet, we are increasingly dependant on them.

There students are proud of their creations. 

My goal for the students at Cambridge is to turn them into a class of students that knows how things work and how to produce things that are useful to themselves and to the world. This can be any skill from fixing electronics, making vehicles, to growing and cooking food. In my quest to fill the skill vacuum that is becoming larger in our society, I have a philosophy that I make each student memorize: "I am a producer, not a consumer."

Remember it!

History:

What does this man's dress
and facial hair tell about the time
in which he lived. 

We learned about timelines and how American music and Fashion have changed over time. Most of my students didn't get it. Many of them thought that Elvis was popular in 1910. I will own those misconceptions. At the same time, help your child's history teacher and watch historical films with them. Some suggestions: Roots, Shaka Zulu (warning: there is some tasteful yet frequent nudity in both), Titanic, Lincoln, Glory, Eyes on the Prize, Far and Away, Little House on the Prairie. The point, let them see how people behaved and acted at different times in history. This will give them a fundamental perspective that is so important to understanding history. 

F.Y.I. The phrase,"Back in the day," will be treated as profanity and has no place in my classroom. 

Next Week:

6th and 7th will be learning about the properties of Matter. I will be sending a message in Engrade with a "study rap" don't dismiss it just because it is fun. It is VERY informative. 

8th grade is also receiving a message that will have a song about the functions of a cell. They will be learning about cellular function and the organelles that carry them out. 

Family Study

Study With Me!

This week, I have learned how to embed study cards in my blog. Use the cards embedded below to help your child study for my difficult yet fair tests. 

Your child has also signed up for a Study Stack account (studystack.com). Please look it over for them and ask them for the username and password. This web site also works with several apps for iPhone and Android for in-transit study. 

GC6 and DC1



DC2

Investigation!

Last Week: 

6th and 7th grades learned about matter, mass, and volume. We measured volume and I demonstrated how mass does not always effect volume. The students seemed to have some problems with these themes so we will be covering them again. 




8th grade learned about cells and cell theory. Cells are the building blocks of all organisms and our first stop in the study of biology. We collected samples from outside and looked at cells under microscopes. 


This Week:

6th and 7th will take another approach to the concepts behind matter. These concepts are the building blocks to our understanding of the physical world. Therefore,  we will try more interactive activities to make sure that we are able to understand the concepts and their implications. 

8th graders will reexamine cell structure and theory. They need to understand the types of cells and how these structures are useful to different organisms.We will build models. 

History:
Students are going to be learning about the TIMELINE. In the pre-assessment, most of students could not properly place a series of events on a time line. They could not a match a costume with the time that it came from. This week students will learn about the difference of B.C. and A.D. and what American looked and sounded like from the 20th to the 18th century. 

Extra Credit:

I have a lot of students who could use some extra points. Here is what you can do to get them. In the parent resource center (to the left) there is a link to the podcast of two radio shows that often educate me: RadioLab (Science) and Back Story (History). Listen to one of these shows and give me a 2 page paper on them. A properly written paper will get you 20 bonus points. Try it!

ASK THE RIGHT QUESTIONS

Let's do it again! 

Last week we studied the scientific method. Many of the students didn't do well on the test. In order to make sure that no child is left behind, we took another approach to the material. We made an instructional comic. This was a great reinforcement for those who did well and a multi- sensory approach for those who didn't. 

What is the best way to cut a glass bottle in half?
Le'ts find out. Safety first!

We also practiced inquiry in the classroom. I can't wait to display the work we did! 

This Week the 6th and 7th grade are learning about Matter. Do you know the difference between Mass and Weight? You child can. Ask them. 

8th grade is leaning about Cell Theory. We will be collecting samples and examining plant cells under microscopes. 

Both classes are learning to organize ideas and text by outlining their text. This will teach them to recognize the patterns and identify main ideas in the text and reference it more efficiently. Check their homework and tell me what you think.

Look out for an e-mail about the Science Fair.

Remember to check Engrade. Most are doing great... some need some help. Help me keep your children on track.

Please comment!

First Week Out

Welcome And Welcome Back!

 I am so happy that you are with us. I am full of energy and optimism and I can't wait to see the harvest from the seeds that we have planted this week. 

This week:

We spent a lot of time testing. I made sure the students were acquainted with procedures and philosophy. I will be posting the results from the pre-assessments on Engrade. Please keep in mind that pre-assessments DO NOT count towards your child's grade. This is simply a tool that I use so that I can measure their growth throughout the year. 

We focused a lot on outlines and methods for planning our writing. 

We also went on our first field trip to the Blackstone library.  The students drew so many comments as they walked the ivy-lined sidewalks. (Those uniforms were worth it.)

"Are these children as smart as they look?"
remarked one motorist as she cruised by.

At the library, the students became familiar with the tools the CPL provides for research and recreation. (I think I'll be giving extra-credit for library cards.) 

Vocabulary that we've used this week:

Scientific Method, Irony,Source

Don't ask your child for a definition of the word, ask them for an example.

Next Week:

Science: 
We will be studying the fundamentals of the Scientific Method. Last week's project has shown me that an introduction/ review is needed before we get into the science fair season. 
Vocabulary: Hypothesis, Control, independent variable, dependent variable, objective, and subjective

History:
According to the pretest, 47% of my students can not place the city of Chicago on a map. A few of them weren't able to place the city in Illinois. So we will begin our unit on geography with local, national, and global regions. We will also be learning about time line structure. 
Vocabulary:

Hemisphere, district, county, western, eastern, first-world, third-world

TED is not a guy

Here is a video I want to share with you 
This came on PBS on May 7th. Talks about education by the big thinkers in education. Please give it 55 minutes and you will not be sorry.
--

Watch TED Talks Education on PBS. See more from TED Talks Education.

The Cambridge Code

Programming and Presenting

In technology, our students are learning to code. This means that they are learning to speak the language that computers speak. Most school do not teach this skill and, as a result, are under-serving our students. They will be able to design and write their own computer programs and apps. 

Unfortunately, there is not enough class or homework time to give them the practice they need to become proficient. That's why I've put a bounty on practicing code.  The students have a code academy account. I am giving extra credit for every point they get for completing lessons. This site is an easy and accessible way of teaching them how to program (or "code" as the kids say nowadays.) I encourage you to help them set aside time to practice on this web site. I encourage you to learn. You are not too old or too dumb. This is a very valuable skill in the workplace. See the video below this post. 

The Dialectic classes have been learning how to create Prezis.
This is next generation presentation software that will make the conventional slide show obsolete. This is an outstanding way of presenting ideas and and making a great impression. See what your children have done. Just start the presentation and navigate using the arrows at the bottom of the window.

Trinity Thomas

Kamaal Power

Isaac Stinnette

Micah Payne


Below is a video that articulates why teaching code is so important in school.

Sun and Sea

Sunshine in a Bottle

For Earth Week, we made ethanol. It was easy and fun. A little sugar, water, and yeast and we had ethanol alcohol. This is the fuel of the future.
"Smells like red wine," one student observed.
We filtered it and bottled it. (It is not for sale, so don't ask). It was not combustible or even flammable so it would not make a good fuel. Our next step is to try different mixtures to see if we can create something more volatile. This falls in line with our studies about chemical reactions, mixtures, and pure substances.
You can try it at home. Just remember: Safety First!

The sixth graders are learning about the sea. I would love to tell you what they have been doing in class but my students have been learning how to program their own interactive lesson and I would like them to show you themselves. Here is a sample of their work.

Amar Power



Joli Papillon



Josiah Malcolm


Joli Papillon

Kennedy Springfield

Boldly Going

(Here is a post that was originally intended for the February 3rd.)

This week, Dialectic Class 1 and 2 learned about the relationships between science and nature. We learned that scientist are sometimes inspired by the life sciences. Bacteria to make our cheese tasty, fungus to help us fight infection, and machines that fly like a bird. All of these inventions are but a small flavor of how what happen in God's creation inspires us spiritually and scientifically.

Grammar Class 6 began their education on the solar system. We learned that there are only eight planets, that we measure distance in the solar system by A.U.'s, and the difference between rotation and revolution. We made a hanging model of the solar system and we look forward to annotating the model with the things we will learn about each planet. The million dollar vocabulary words for the week? Aphelion and perihelion. Ask your child what those words mean and watch them spin!

Next week:
We will be taking a different route in science. We will discuss some of the more philosophical applications . Since we've done a lot of work on the interaction between science and society, we will be reading Issac Asimov's "A Feeling of Power." A story about a world where basic math skills have autotrophed in a world of computers. This will also serve as a reading comprehension, vocabulary, and writing exercise.

We will be learning about how the movement of planets effect the season's.

Students use mobile devises to see virtual overlays of the space above their 

heads.

Joli hangs her version of Jupiter in our model of the Solar System

Systems Analysis

Before the break, I asked the students to consider a topic for their science project. They returned with some wonderful ideas. Please continue to work with them on developing ideas. Formal communication on the specifics of the Science Fair will be going home this week. 

Remember, students will have one chapter to read per week. I will usually follow that with a comprehension assignment. Please follow up with them to make sure these things are being completed. 

This week, DC 1&2 are learning about systems.
Systems are any group of things or ideas that work together to fulfill a purpose. We compared different types of systems and learned the vocabulary to help us articulate that types of systems that we see in action every day. In this picture, students have built a doorbell. Then they removed and replaced parts of the doorbell to see if it was possible to learn what was the purpose of each part. 

Next week, students will be learning about the different types of materials that are used in engineering and technology and how to judge their properties. These studies will be in Unit 3 and Lesson 4 of their science book. We have almost wrapped up this study of Science and will be studying the sciences themselves. 

These students are designing and trouble-shooting a
small vehicle with 4-wheel-drive.

The Grammar Class 6 rocked this week!
They learned about the three types of rock and how they are affected by the rock cycle. We demonstrated how a chemical rock is formed by evaporating salt water in the classroom, and we examined the physical properties of rocks to determine what type of rock they were and how they may have been formed. (Did you know that stone-washed jeans were made by washing blue jeans with pumice stones. Pumice stones are igneous rocks used for many scrubbing projects.)
Next week, we will dive even deeper into the rock cycle. And learn to use use tests to identify rocks.