Beth Lemen's blog

If your child hasn't mentioned it yet, we're watching bread get moldy in class these days.  Specifically, we're learning about independent variables in investigations.  We are comparing two pieces of bread which have everything in common except one variable.  After getting our bread nice and moist, exposing it to the air for a while, and carefully sealing it up so that no mold could escape into the room, we have been watching our bread slowly get more and more moldy.  Students are learning about the importance of taking careful data.  Some of them are learning that some days, data collection can be a lot of work!

Concurrently, we are learning about cells.  We have been exploring the amazing world inside the cell, reading about organelles and watching some short animations of what it might be like to be inside a cell.  Next week we'll be starting a big project creating an analogy to a cell.

We are just finishing up our third unit of the year, on exponential functions.  The Growing, Growing, Growing test will be on Thursday, January 21st.  Make sure your kids look over their notes tonight.  We're starting a new unit next week, Samples and Populations.  This unit is on statistics, which have useful applications in many disciplines, including science and business.

If your child hasn't shared it with you yet, there's a great Connected Math website that allows you to practice the ideas from the investigations in each unit.  Here it is:

http://www.phschool.com/webcodes10/index.cfm?fuseaction=home.gotoWebCode...

The multiple choice skills practice links are a great way to make sure students have the basic skills needed for each investigation.

In science we have been having a lot of fun learning to use the tools of science.  Our big focus since I came on board has been making observations.  We've made qualitative observations such as shape, color, smell, etc.  One of our favorite tools for examining shape is a hand lense.  We're also studying quantitative observations (numbers).  We've learned a bit about the metric system, and have been making measurements such as length, weight, and volume. We're learning to accurately use rulers, triple- beam balances, and graduated cylinders.

Our next step is going to be taking some of those "science process skills" and putting them to work studying animals.  We will be finishing up the unit Mrs. Price began.  The big homework assignment for this week and next is our Animal Field Sightings- be sure to ask your student about it!

We're working on the unit Looking for Pythagoras.  One of our big ideas is that we can measure the length of a segment on a coordinate plane by seeing the segment as the side of a square, finding the area of that square, and then finding the square root.

I should have SnapGrades entries completed by this Thursday, November 12th.  You can expect students to bring home a grade print-out on that day.

I am really enjoying working with this group of 8th graders, and being at Sellwood in general.