7th & 8th Grade

Stock Market Game 2025

January-April 2025: This year's 7th graders will be introduced to the Stock Market Game. The 8th graders that competed last year will be able to help support the 7th graders. The 8th graders will compete again. Students will learn all about the stock market. We will watch videos that teach us about the stock market, vocabulary, how to find information, and how to buy, sell, and trade stocks. We will use all of the information to compete in a stock market game online. The students' accounts will update in real time and mimic the real stock market. Students will be required to keep their portfolio up to date and make changes as needed to make the most money by April 11. There will be an Arkansas regional winner as well as a statewide winner. This is an invaluable real world experience.

Debate Unit

First Semester 2024: As this is an election year, we will be working through the voting process by creating a school friendly debate. Students will choose a debate, learn vocabulary, research the pros and cons, create a professional poster, present the debate to their peers, create a ballot box, create ballots, collect votes, and finally, display the results in a creative way. We will incorporate technology to deliver information to the classes. Adjustment: As we moved through the unit, students wanted to video their debate and use green screen to enhance the presentation.

The Stock Market Game

January/February/March 2024 Students will learn all about the stock market. We will watch videos that teach us about the stock market, vocabulary, how to find information, and how to buy, sell, and trade stocks. We will use all of the information to compete in a stock market game online. The students' accounts will update in real time and mimic the real stock market. Students will be required to keep their portfolio up to date and make changes as needed to make the most money by April 4. There will be an Arkansas regional winner as well as a statewide winner. This is an invaluable real world experience.

Update: Decatur Middle School came in first place out of 9 Schools!

December 2023

Escape Room with analogy practice. Begin a Quiz Bowl Team. Students will learn how to play Quiz Bowl for the upcoming tournament.

October and November 2023

Passion Project or Stop Motion

Student were given a choice to work on either a passion project or a stop motion project. The goal for the passion project is to research something that they really want to know more about and then create a unique product to use with a presentation. They were given a list of about 100 product options. The stop motion project requires students to use creativity by creating a setting and character to use for the stop motion video. Both projects use divergent thinking in order to complete. This includes flexibility, elaboration, and originality. Students have been given a rubric for both projects as well as a packet to help keep them on track.

Great Arctic Challenge-2023

We are getting ready to complete The Great Arctic Challenge. Your child will complete different STEM challenges for this unit.

We will learn about the engineering design process. This will help students learn to think through a project before they dive in: Thoughtful planning to make quality projects. The process also allows for students to reflect and go back to make their project better. This is a lifelong skill that will carry over into all areas of their lives.

I will give the scenario each week for the next 5 weeks, and students will plan for and complete each task. They will show me their planning before they begin each challenge. I may give more than one scenario each week depending on how quickly students can complete the projects.

Let the challenges begin!

7th and 8th grade students have been participating in the Rube Goldberg Minecraft Challenge since September! They are creating simple machines in a Minecraft world and submitting their work every two weeks. In January, students will begin working on their final project, a HUGE Rube Goldberg machine in their Minecraft world. They are competing against thousands of other students across the country!

2022

WHAT IS 7TH & 8TH GRADE UP TO?

Along with the Minecraft Challenge, 7th and 8th grade GATE students are working on the content creation unit! We know that content creation is very popular right now with the popularity of TikTok, YouTube, Twitch, Instagram, and other social media platforms. Creating online content takes brainstorming, planning, creative thinking, and communication skills, which are all skills needed in the real world. Students will learn how to communicate to a certain audience on the platform of their choice (all accounts will be private and only viewable by the teacher and the student).

After winter break, students will begin working on a "student choice project". This means that students were given a list of possible units they could learn--and they collectively chose Forensic Science as their next unit! The students are really excited for this--stay tuned for updates and pictures.