Description
This year our students do an integrated unit combining physics, chemistry and life science by understanding living things and ecology as a means of learning transferable foundational science skills. Students will have homework each week to prepare for our next live class. Parents and students will be participating in an online portal to keep on top of assignments and progress.
Our lead teacher is trained at the graduate level by American Modeling Teacher’s Association. This method doesn’t create “the right answers”–it creates a true understanding of the science. An aspect of Modeling Instruction that is different from traditional science education is that students are shown a series of demonstrations or participate in labs that help THEM develop the scientific theories and information on their own. Labs and demos are carefully chosen to hasten the process by highlighting critical differences. Please see this page for more information–including a short video that helps explain how Modeling is different from traditional teaching.
Middle School Science – Living Together
Lab Science
In-person class Mondays, 10:30am-Noon with an additional approximately 1-2 hours of work to be done between classes. (Parents may opt to enroll in our Flex Work Session/s to contribute toward completing–or complete–work done outside of group class time)
Registration is for the 2024-25 school year (26 weeks)
The key concepts for this year’s science course are:
- Observation and experiment – The scientific process of observation and inquiry, experimentation and documentation are fundamental to science.
- Tools of science – Using the appropriate scientific tools in research and experiments creates consistency, accuracy and technological advancement.
- Documenting scientific works – Capturing data and documenting it in the most appropriate format is necessary to participate in the scientific community and create understandable information.
Minimum content covered in the course include:
- The classification and structure of living things
- Ecosystems
- Water quality
Additional content may be covered depending on the pace of student learning and the direction their discovery moves.
Students will need:
- 1″ to 1-1/2″ binder with 100 sheets of filler/looseleaf paper and at least 2 dividers
- colored pencil set (at least red, yellow, green and blue)
- covered pencil sharpener (blade not exposed)
- 12″ ruler
- pencil bag to contain items
- double pocket folder for handouts.
Additionally, students will need technical ability to access Zoom, EdPuzzle, FlipGrid, Nearpod.com, Discovery Education Streaming, Study.com and Canvas (our learning management system).
At home, students will need access to the internet (home or library) to look up information, related published materials and/or videos and do work through our class learning management system. Some videos will be subscription-based and issued by illuminat-ED (all students will have accounts for Discovery Streaming and Study.com for additional video support). Some videos will be freely available.
Live class time will assume students have done their pre-reading, writing assignments, online content and any offline work. We will be collaboratively discussing and analyzing our offline work and doing lab experiments and activities.
Students will also regularly be on point to share ideas in front of a group. Shy students will not be bullied into participating by any means; but if your student does not have a habit of “warming up” after getting to know a group–this may not be a comfortable setting for them.
