Good Afternoon Dynamic Team!
Upcoming Events: Feb. 21st – Term 4 Report Cards Mailed
Below is the link to sign up for the Student Conferences on Tuesday, 11 March or Thursday, 13 March; the 20 minute time blocks begin at 4:00 and the last appointment begins at 7:40. Choose any one of the Dynamic blocks: A, B, C, or D.
http://www.ptcfast.com/schools/Hixson_Middle_School_1Important Information: Click here for information on the Family Enrichment Fair. If you would like to activate your Edline account, please contact Mr. Daniels or Mrs. Pettid for your activation code.
The 8th Grade registration is open and forms should be turned into the Hixson Middle School office as soon as you are able. Remember the electives are scheduled on a first come, first served basis.
English –
Susan Artkras – artkras.susan@wgmail.org
Math-
We started a new unit this week (Comparing and Scaling). This unit will cover Ratio, Proportion, Percent, and students will develop several methods for comparing quantities. The math grades are updated, please check the portal. Be aware that some grades went down this semester, because the (Stretching and Shrinking) unit was difficult for some students.
Wilma Slaughter – slaughter.wilma@wgmail.org
Science –
In Dynamic Science this week the students continued to develop the concepts about weather and climate. On Tuesday the students went outside to investigate specific heat capacity by measuring temperatures of 4 different materials: asphalt, concrete, grass, and water in sunlight and shaded. We reviewed the data on Thursday. The students collected temperature and barometric pressure data every day for 4 weeks, graphed it, and wrote a conclusion using this evidence to interpret the relationship between temperature and barometric pressure. The lab on Friday had the students measuring temperatures of sand, soil, water, and vegetable oil. which were placed in front of a heat lamp. They will see different materials heat up and cool down at different rates, which reflects specific heat capacity. Students are continuing to interpret weather station plots, see example below.
Because of the disruption in our week the students will take the Weather Unit formative quiz for the third time on Monday, 24 February. You should be seeing their scores improving every week. This is a Quia online quiz (www.quia.com/web) which covers the concepts of the entire weather unit. I RECOMMEND your student takes the Quia quiz two or three times over the weekend using their notes as a learning experience. As you check the portal, remember Weather Unit Formative Quiz is just a road sign to help students check their understanding of the major concepts of the unit and do not figure into their semester grade. Since the quiz covers all the concepts of the unit, the total points possible has been adjusted down to the topics covered up to this point in time to more accurately reflect their level of understanding.
We have covered the following concepts so far this semester:
- Kinetic temperature theory with the 3 temperature scales Fahrenheit, Celsius, and Kelvin, including absolute zero.
- Density of air and air pressure.
- Properties of cold and hot air masses.
- Weather caused by the center of a low pressure and weather caused by the center of a high pressure.
- The Direction of winds around a low or high pressure centers.
- The three states of matter (solid, liquid, & gas) and the freezing/melting & boiling/condensation transition zones.
- The 3 ways of heat energy is transferred: convection, conduction, and radiation.
- Heat energy moves up and from hot towards cold.
- Winds blow away from the high pressure and towards the low pressure.
- Interpreting weather station plots.
- Understanding cold fronts, warm fronts, and stationary fronts.
- Understanding the how the rain, sleet, hail, snow, and freezing rain are formed.
- Specific heat capacity of different materials.
If you have any questions or comments please let me know.
Dynamic Science Course Website
Dynamic Systems Science – Coach Daniels - daniels.mark@wgmail.org
Social Studies –
Well it has been another exciting week. Due to the "bonus day" on Wednesday, we have had to move some of our activities to next week. However, we were able to wrap up our geography activities and begin looking at the development of the Roman Republic. Early next week we will be looking at the Punic Wars. I will be asking students to look at the question “How does a Republic become an Empire?” I have posted the notes for Rome on my Edline website, and encourage students to, at least, preview them at home (if they want to copy the notes into their notebooks that is fine, too.). This will facilitate our class discussions and help us to make up some of the time we have missed.
After school help is available in my room every Tuesday until 4:00
Dynamic Social Studies Course Website:
Lisa Pettid – pettid.lisa@wgmail.org
314-918-4602
Please visit the following links for more information:
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