End of March

Students have continued to work on their zoo projects over the last few days, but we have moved on to some new topics as well.

The first new topic we've discussed is biodiversity - how many species are present in an ecosystem. We did an activity where students "planted" different species of plants in a plot of land and they tested the effects of a plant disease attacking their crops. They should have noticed that when they planted many different species all intermingled with each other, they had better totall crop survival. When biodiversity is low, a single infected plant can spread the disease very quickly through an entire field. Hopefully they learned that saving species is not only good because they are pretty, but because having a variety of living things protects everything else from disease.

We've also started talking about extinction, both in the past and in the present. Students will continue to work on their zoo project over the next few weeks as well.

Happy Spring Break Everyone! See you on Tuesday!!!

End of Quarter Stuff

We finished our unit on plate tectonics a few weeks ago. Recently we've been talking about the abiotic and biotic factors that affect ecosystems. Students learned that abiotic factors are things that are non-living (i.e. water, topography, pH, sunlight, temperature, wind, space, etc.). Biotic factors are living things (i.e. bacteria, plants, decomposers, predators, prey, etc.). They interact in a variety of ways. For example, an overpopulation of cows grazing in a grassland causes the plants to die, the roots to shrivel, and for erosion of the soil to occur.

Next week we will be talking about extinctions, and students will be designing their own zoo enclosures as they research the different biomes and the requirements for different animals.

March 8-12: Tectonic Test & Abiotic/Biotic Factors

Students will be tested on the plate tectonic unit that we've been working on this Wednesday (March 10). Please help your students to study - ask them about the different types of boundaries, and how plate tectonics affects the other parts of Earth's system (for example, how do mountains affect the atmosphere, the biosphere, the hydrosphere, etc.). They also need to understand Wegener's theory of continental drift, the evidence for it, and how that theory has changed with increasing technology (we can actually see the tectonic plate boundaries from space!). This unit has come at a unique time of history where we've experienced some pretty serious earthquakes. Students should be able to explain to you what happened in the last Chile earthquake.

At the end of the week, we will move on to a new topic. Here at the end of the quarter we will be discussing ecology - and we'll start with biotic and abiotic factors that influence different ecosystems.

March 1-5: More on Plate Tectonics

Ironically, this week we will be discussing plate tectonics and the interactions of the plates that make up the crust of the Earth. Hopefully we will be able to tie in the recent events in Haiti and Chile to help students understand what is happening - and to show what an impact geology has on living things. Students will be working on pages 17, 18, and 19 in their notebooks this week. They will also be tested on this material sometime next week (just a heads up).

To look at plate dynamics, students will be making observations about where volcanoes and earthquakes are most common. They will also be doing an "Oreo Lab" to look at the different interactions of the plates.

I appreciate all of you who were able to come to student-led conferences, especially those who came to chat with me. Often students get into a 3rd quarter slump - please help them stay driven during these last few weeks of winter.