 Our first 7th grade unit is entomology. You will learn about common insects, their characteristics, life cycles and anatomy. You will write a report on one insect and present that to the class. You will put together an insect collection of at least 50 different insects and label them with their common name, order and place of capture.
We will be taking a field trip to observe and collect insects on Wednesday, September 30. Permission slips are due by the 28th. Here is a link to the permission slip and parent letter :
Then we will do a unit growing corn (monocot) and beans (dicot). We will compare the two types as they grow. We will also be designing growth modules and experiments to test the effects of space radiation on cinnamon basil seeds. The seeds came from NASA and we have seeds that have been in space and seeds that have not. We will learn about trees and their leaves. The end of the year we will be studying earth science. We will learn about crustal plates, continental drift, volcanoes and earthquakes, characteristics of rocks and minerals and the rock cycle.
soybean plants Astronaut Clayton Anderson observes the plant growth inside one of the plant growth chambers on the space station. Image Credit: NASA In August 2007, the STS-118 space shuttle mission launched into space, and with it launched 10 million cinnamon basil seeds. Nearly all of the seeds were returned to Earth for students to grow in plant growth chambers they designed, but 16 of the seeds were left behind on the International Space Station for an in-orbit experiment. Along with the seeds, two plant growth chambers, watering devices and drink bags were also left on the space station for Expedition 15 and 16 Flight Engineer Clayton Anderson to use to grow plants from the seeds. Anderson documented the plants' growth by photographing the plants inside the chambers every other day for nearly three weeks. The objective of the experiment was to demonstrate growing plants in a microgravity environment using small plastic chambers. Students can compare the results from their plant growth chamber experiments with Anderson's results. There will be a science fair this year. We will do a research paper second quarter and an at home project third quarter. The Fair is scheduled for March 15, 2010. Details will follow soon!
This is a copy of our safety contract. Students must pass a safety test and have a signed copy of this on file before they can participate in science activities. |
