Most 7th grade students spend 2nd period in a Focus class. Throughout the year students will progress through several different Focus classes, each lasting about 7 weeks. The topic for my Focus class is 'Scale, Proportion, and Quantity' which is a Crosscutting Concept of the Next Generation Science Standards.
Goals of this class include:
Increasing precision and accuracy of fundamental measuring skills used in science, math, and everyday life
Broaden understanding of the world through observations at different scales
Metric System basics
Historical perspective of measurement.
In the first few days of this class students may take a pretest. Students will also discuss which activities they would like to do in this class.
Past activities include:
Gain an understanding of the scale of everything using the Scale of the Universe website.
Inventing a measurement system and use it to record the length, record the weight, and record the volume of objects in the classroom. Converting between the types of measurement and to other measurement systems.
Researching measurement information and incorporating it into a web page.
Watch a TED Talk Video on the origin of the metric system.
Understanding the basic measurements within the Metric System .
Using Kahn Academy to learn or review Measurements in the Metric System and Converting Units of Distance in the Metric System.
Guessing the metric measurement of an object to become familiar with the various sizes of each measurement.
Participating in the Metric Measurement Lab and record answers on a form.
Creating a balance to measure an item's weight.
Review metric measurement terms by playing this Jeopardy Game or this Jeopardy Game.
Measuring an object using displacement.
Reading about the Metric System and Density.
Learning techniques to simplify measuring objects that seem difficult to measure such as the height of a tree or the width of a grain of sand.
Measuring and creating a scale model or drawing of an object that is of a magnitude difficult for us to comprehend. An example of this would be a properly scaled size version of a molecule or the solar system we printed on this template.
Drawing a large object on the floor using a grid to transfer the proportions accurately.
Converting a recipe for something like chocolate chip cookies, slime, Peanut Butter Energy Bites, Chocolate Mug Cake, Vanilla Mug Cake, fondant, or play dough to metric units and make a portion small enough for an individual portion.
Accurately measuring a small item's weight and volume to determine its density.
Measuring precisely enough and average results to know if more water will fit on the heads or tails side of a penny.
Determining the length of their pace.
Guess weights more accurately to accumulate more PlayDough than anyone else.
Experience how animals, like bees, communicate measurements
Measure the water content of snow and record findings in this Sheet.
Sometime during the last week of class students will be given a practice-test. Their grade will be based on participation during the class, a final test specific to classroom content and a NAPE test which is comprised of questions from a national test on measurement.