Jan. 25-29: Oceans

At the beginning of the week students worked on a large sea water lab where they learned about salinity, water pressure, and the formation of convection currents. For the latter half of the week we'll be doing formal notes on these sea water properties, and we will start talking about ocean dynamics (currents, tides, etc.). To look more closely at ocean currents, students will be doing an activity where they trace the path of some Nike shoes that were lost in the ocean in 1999 and are still circling the globe today because of these currents.

Students were given their Quarter 2 report cards this week, so you should be seeing them at home. They have also been given a new weekly check-in log for this class (bright green). Week 1 should be crossed out because I was too slow, so this is Week 2.

Jan. 18-22: Finish Freshwater

We're finishing our discussions about freshwater this week. We'll finish taking notes about the reservoirs where water is found here on Earth (atmosphere, groundwater, icecaps, and oceans), we'll do a mini-lab about the properties of water (cohesion, adhesion, and dissolving power), and we'll make up any work that was missed last week. I was sick last week, so here's what they should have done: made new notebooks, read and discussed water conservation possibilities, read and discussed about water quality indicators, and read articles about pollution found in our local area. LOTS of reading...sorry... but it's hard to come up with more active things for subsitutes to do with a class of students they don't know.

Speaking of substitutes... unfortunately, my three 9th grade classes gave the substitute the hardest time. Please remember how to behave when there is a guest in our room. I expect better in the future!