Good evening 6th Grade Families! I hope you all enjoy your Memorial Day Weekend!

This week in science, your children continued learning about ecosystems. Your children started the week by studying prey and predator relationships. Your children completed a NearPod, a virtual learning experience, that had them identifying prey and predators in different models and using graph data to respond to questions. Your children also learned about the three different symbiotic relationships: mutualism, commensalism, and parasitism through a reading and graphic organizer. Your children watched a video and responded to questions that had them apply these terms to different animal relationships. Your children concluded the week with Fish Friday and checking the water quality our trout are in; we are getting ready to release them soon into the Manasquan Reservoir. 

Good evening 6th Grade Families! 

This week in science your children learned about the groups organisms are divided into based on how they get energy. Your children learned about producers, consumers, scavengers, and decomposers and how each role plays an important part in an ecosystem. Your children learned how chains and webs are connected to an energy pyramid and balance in ecosystems. Your children demonstrated their understanding through an activity that had them identifying the different levels of organization in different photos. Your children also completed a close reading activity on this concept and used the information read to answer questions on a food web model. Your children concluded the week by learning about limiting factors and carrying capacity; your children used these terms and applied it to real-life situations. Your children participated in an online interactive game that had them building their own ecosystems and maintaining them, so all organisms survive. 

Good evening 6th Grade Families! Happy Mother's Day!

This week in science, your children demonstrated their understanding of the plate tectonics by constructing an explanation using evidence from sources we discussed for support. Following their CER, your children began learning about ecosystems. Your children were introduced to the web of life and biotic and abiotic parts of the environment. Your children also started learning about the organization of environments and connecting this information to the ecosystems of our rainbow trout. Next week, your children will continue learning about ecosystems and the different ways they get energy and how they interact with other animals. 

Good evening 6th Grade Families!

This week in science, your children continued looking at the Earth's system. They looked closely at what the driving force is for plate tectonics -- convection currents in the mantle. Your children drew models of how the convection currents move inside the Earth and explained how this affects the crust by placing steps of convection currents in chronological order. Your children visually saw what primary and secondary seismic waves look like through a demonstration using a slinky. Your children learned about the three plate boundaries of plate tectonics and shared examples of each. Your children drew models showing how the plates move at the convergent, divergent, and transform boundaries. In  groups, your children worked together to model what happens when 2 continental crusts collide; also in their groups, they connected what we are learning in our classroom to our global world and made a current events slideshow on the San Andreas Fault and the African and Eurasian Plates. Your children concluded this week with an interactive review on Earth structure, plate tectonics, plates and boundaries, and the slipping, sliding, and colliding of the tectonic plates. Your children will demonstrate their understanding of this unit by writing a CER early next week. 

Good evening 6th Grade Families! 

This week in science your children began learning about Earth's systems. Your children began this unit by analyzing a map and noticing something interesting about our continents -- they all seem to fit together like a giant jigsaw puzzle! Like your children, Alfred Wegener made the same observations. Alfred Wegener, a notable scientist, realized that the location of the continents today are not how they appeared millions of years ago; he called this supercontinent that existed before our time Pangaea or "all of Earth". Your children used the geology of the continents to complete their own puzzles in groups of Pangaea. They used similar plants, animal fossils, and mountain ranges to place these continents together. Your children then followed up with the infamous question, how did this happen? This drove our lesson to learn about Sea Floor Spreading. Your children watched a video that helped them create models of what this process is. Afterwards, your children completed a guided notes worksheet to gather information on plate tectonics. Starting early next week, your children will continue learning about Earth systems and will learn about how the Earth's layers contribute to this motion and what seismic waves are. 

Good evening 6th Grade Families!

This week in science your children finished their group models on the reasons why we have seasons and participated in a class gallery work, so they can see similarities and differences between their visuals and their peers. Your children learned about the 4 important latitude lines on Earth - the Arctic and Antarctic Circle and Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn - and created  notice and wonder charts in their science journals based on different models. Your children worked in groups to complete a shadow investigation that had the students measuring different angles and lengths of shadows. Your children measured the shadow length of a chess piece when positioning a flashlight at different angles. Your children practiced using a protractor to get precise angle measurements. Your children reviewed their data and graphed it on a graph. From this, your children drew the conclusion that our shadows are the longest when the sun is lower in the sky and the shadows are at their shortest point higher in the sky. Your children also noticed that the shadow is always in the opposite direction of the sun and was able to prove this with the use of a compass. Your children demonstrated their understanding of astronomy at the end of this week through an assessment. Beginning next week, your children will begin our new unit of Earth Systems and will begin by learning about our new scientist of the month, Alfred Wegner.  

Good evening 6th Grade Families!

In the beginning of this week in science, your children learned and observed the solar eclipse on Monday, April 8th. Students had an assembly that brought students into a planetarium where they observed constellations, moon phases, and the moon's orbit around planet Earth. At the end of the day, your children were supplied with special glasses to observe the eclipse and to see what the moon looks like when it is alligned with the Earth and the sun during a new moon phase. Following the eclipse, your children began learning astronomy, specifically the moon and Earth. Your children learned about the different phases of the moon and why the different phases occur. Your children learned why the moon looks different during its revolution around the Earth and modeled each of the phases. Your children described the moon’s orbit and how it travels around the Earth and the length of time it takes. Your children concluded this week with learning about Earth’s movement and the reasons for the seasons. Your children learned about the Earth’s orbit around the sun and how its orbit is connected to changing temperatures and seasons. Your children completed a close reading activity that prepared them for a project they worked in groups for. In groups, your children modeled the seasons visually describing how the tilt of the Earth’s poles towards the sun affect the seasons we experience. Your children will finish these models and explanations early next week. 

Good evening 6th Grade Families. I hope you all enjoy this week with your children home!

This week in science your children demonstrated their understanding of electricity and electric fields through an exam and CER. Your children began learning about the solar eclipse, a very exciting day that is happening on April 8th. On April 8th, Holmdel has 90% coverage of the moon blocking the sun; this is happening around 3 pm. Your children learned this week what an eclipse is and why it occurs. Together we looked at a map of totality observing the path of the moon's shadow in the United States. Your children learned key vocabulary, like umbra and penumbra. Your children observed a model of the distance between the moon and Earth and how they compare in size. Your children learned how the temperature will drop and how it will get darker outside. Your children also learned the importance of safety during this event and wearing our special glasses that will be provided to all students and how they are encouraged to take breaks from their glasses and looking up. We concluded this week by decorating solar eclipse shirts, so we have them for our solar eclipse celebration Monday, April 8th. I hope everyone enjoys the break and I am looking forward to seeing you all when we return. 

Good morning 6th Grade Families!

This week in science, your children continued learning about electricity. Your children learned about conductors and insulators. Your children watched a video that had them guessing which materials would conduct electricity the best in an electrical circuit. Your children learned the Law of Electric Charges and and how charges attract and repel depending on its charge. Your children completed an online simulation that has students explain the cause of the interaction between a charged object and a neutral aluminum can. Your children drew models representing their results. Your children learned about field lines and how they are used to measure strength and direction. Your children did a close reading on field lines and practiced modeling field lines of different charges. Your children were introduced to the Van de Graaff generator- a generator that produces static electricity. The Van de Graaff helped the students visually see the transfer of electricity through conduction, friction, and induction. Your children were assigned a CER that has them explaining how a Van de Graaff generates electricity and electric fields and has them determine the charge of the Van de Graaff we used in class. In order to figure out the Van de Graaff's charge, your children completed a series of activities that showed different materials repelling and attracting to the static electricity that was building in the dome. Your children decided that our dome had a negative charge and confirmed this by our negatively charged balloon repelling from the dome. Your children will be assessed on static electricity and electric fields early this week before spring break.

Good evening 6th Grade Families!

This week in science, your children finished learning about the metrics system. In the beginning of the week, your children learned about volume and compared the customary system to the metric system. Your children used their background on volume from math to determine volume of regular shaped objects. Your children were introduced to a tool called the graduated cylinder. This tool had students using the meniscus to measure the amount of water in this instrument; they also learned how to use this instrument for water displacement. Your children began an activity that had them finding the volume of irregular objects in the classroom. In this activity, your children had to predict the volumes of different objects, measure the volume, and complete post-lab questions that had them apply their experience from class to our local and global community. Your children demonstrated their understanding of the metric system through an exam. Now, we are excitedly starting our new until: electricity. Your children began getting curious about static electricity and how it happens by watching different demonstrations involving a balloon. Your children charged a balloon (yes, through some volunteers hair!) and placed it next to different objects - pepper and salt, a can, and paper. Your children observed the balloon's attraction towards these objects and made some wonders about this phenomenon in their science journals. Next week, we will be explaining the science behind this "magic" and why we saw the results we did. We concluded this week by drawing models of the structure of an atom. We will continue with electricity into next week. 

Good evening 6th Grade Families!

This week in science, your children practiced metric conversions and the tools used in a lab to measure mass, length, and volume. Your children learned the three base units: liters, meters, and gram and the prefixes often attached to these bases: kilo, hecto, deka, deci, centi, milli. To help your children memorize these they learned the nemonic: kangaroo helps dingo because can’t multiply. Your children practiced converting these different metric problems by using different strategies taught in class. After a large overview of these metric units, as a class we explored each unit individually. Your children learned about mass and how to use a triple beam balance to measure the mass of different objects in the classroom. In pairs, your children measured a variety of objects using the triple beam balance and recorded the mass in a data chart. Your children used their knowledge on the meaning of the different prefixes to determine what unit is needed to measure different items. Your children then learned about length and how to read a meter stick; your children observed the decimeter, centimeter, and millimeter marks. Your children measured the length of an assortment of objects in the classroom and recorded their findings in a data table. Towards the end of week, we started discussing volume and comparing the customary system of volume to the metric system. Early next week, your children will be using a graduated cylinder to find the volume of various irregular objects. 

Good evening 6th Grade Families!

In the beginning of the week in science, your children completed different stations in the classroom that focused on Newton's Three Laws and net forces. At one of the stations, your children practiced solving different net force equations for balanced and unbalanced forces. Your children also applied all of Newton's Three Laws to a skateboarding scenario where we observed what happens when a skateboard carries 2 graduated cylinders and travels into a weight. Our last station focused on Newton's Third Law. In this station your children observed how a balloon attached to a string demonstrated "every action has an equal and opposite reaction". Your children drew models for this station and discussed their findings with their peers. Your children then demonstrated their understanding of Newton's Three Laws by applying it to a rocket being launched into space. In groups, your children collaborate with others to describe how during launch off each law is applied. Your children completed a gallery walk noticing similarities and differences between their work and other group members and used their own posters to answer initial questions that had been asked in the beginning of the unit. At the end of the week we began looking at metrics and will continue this topic in more depth early next week.

Good evening 6th Grade Families!

This week in science, your children closely studied Newton’s Second and Third Laws of Motion. Your children learned about Newton’s Second Law and how an object's acceleration depends on two things - force and mass. Your children visually observed this law by dropping two objects of different masses into a tub of flour and measuring the force extruded onto the flour. Your children also used this explanation and connected it with mathematical reasoning; your children used the equation F=MxA to understand the relationship between force and acceleration and mass and acceleration. Your children concluded that force and acceleration have a proportional relationship while mass and acceleration are inversely proportional. Your children created a model visually representing this. Your children studied Newton’s Third Law of Motion - every action has an equal and opposite reaction. In groups, your children used assorted objects to understand the reactions objects have once they collide; they were able to visually see the effects mass has on this law. Your children created a model representing this law in their notebooks. Your children also began learning about net force and vectors. Your children completed mathematical problems to solve the total amount of force in different scenarios considering multiple forces on an object. Your children went around to different stations practicing these skills and content learned this past week and will continue to do so into next week as they prepare for their exam. 

Good evening 6th Grade Families! I hope everyone enjoys the long weekend. 

This week in science, your children began learning about Isaac Newton and his Laws of Motion. Your children began exploring Isaac's Newton's First Law (an object will not change its motion unless a force acts on it) through various hands-on experiences. Your children performed a series of tests to model the lifting force and friction, compared the difference in resistance between air and water, and saw how inertia affects objects that are stacked on top of each other. Your children also began studying Newton's Second Law (an object's acceleration depends on two things - force and mass). Your children studied tension and manipulated three different exercise bands of varying resistance to explain Newton's Second Law. Your children concluded the shortened week with Fish Friday and testing the trout's water quality and measuring pH levels, nitrites, nitrates, ammonia, general and carbonate hardness. 

Good evening 6th Grade Families!

This week in science, your children added to our Gotta-Have-It checklist from Lesson 10 and did a close reading to add to and support our ideas for how really big hail forms and added that to our checklist. We created a final model to explain why some storms produce hail and others don’t and answer other storm-related questions. Your children applied our understanding to a new weather phenomenon, a hurricane, on a summative assessment. At the end of this week we began exploring our new unit Forces and Motion. Your children began studying Isaac Newton and his three laws and will continue studying his contributions to science next week. 

Good morning 6th Grade Families!

This week in science, your children specifically looked at "What causes more lift in one cloud versus another?"  Your children planned and carried out an investigation to determine what variables affect the amount of lift produced by transferring thermal energy into a fluid. Your children explained how the results of our investigation helps us understand how differences between air and ground temperatures can cause different amounts of lift and movement of air through a CER. In this lesson your children learned that: 

1) When one spot in a fluid heat sup, it becomes less dense, which causes it to rise. When it cools down, it becomes denser and sinks. This leads to a circular motion in fluids called convection. 

2) The greater the thermal energy input into the fluid, the stronger the lift or convection currents. The more of Earth's surface that is in the air above it, the more thermal energy it can transfer to that air. 

3) Some winds are the result of this convection. Air at the surface moves toward an area where warmed air rose, filling in the space left behind.

This week your children also had a daily weather log that we used to record the air pressure, the cloud cover, and precipitation outside. Your children ended this week by preparing for their Lessons 11-13 exam on Wednesday by creating a final model that explains why some storm produce hail and other don't. 

Earlier in this week in science, your children demonstrated their understanding of Weather and Climate Lessons 7-10 through an assessment. Following this exam, your children began considering why don't water and droplets or ice crystals fall from the clouds all the time?  To help  us better construct an explanation for this question, as a class we tried to lift and suspend different objects with air blown upward, and we recorded the weight of objects and the amount of force shown when air was blown toward or away from a digital scale. We learned through these investigations that the more mass something has, the greater force of gravity pulling down on it. We also took away that moving air pushes matter in its path. Your children saw through visuals that air moving upward can keep an object floating in the air when the force from the molecules in that air colliding with that object counterbalances the downward force from gravity. When those forces are no longer balanced, the object that was suspended in the air will start moving upward or downwards. We developed models showing the different directions the object may move in depending on the relative strength of two different forces acting on it. Next week we will be continuing with answering this question by using a barometer to record air pressure and observing cloud coverage and precipitation outside. 

This week in science, your children learned "Why do clouds or storms form at some times but not others?" This week, your children created a Gotta-Have-It-Checklist and used the information on it to test and revise a thunderstorm simulation; the goal of this activity was to figure out what conditions are needed to produce large and small storms. Your children figured out that a greater difference between near-ground and atmospheric temperatures and higher humidity are correlated with stronger and larger storm development. However, the students did notice limitations within their models; they realized that these models can only represent parts of a system which limits their use. This led to students thinking about additional features that would like to include in the simulation and revised their original model designing interfaces fro those features. Your children will be assessed on lessons 7-10 early next week demonstrating their understanding of the information learned since returning from winter break. 

Good morning 6th Grade Families! I hope everyone had a great weekend!

This week in science, your children learned about condensation through various investigations. Your children performed an experiment that had them observe a 2-liter bottle that had hot water inside the bottle and ice cubes placed on the top around the bottle. As time progressed, the students noticed that the water vapor inside of the bottle turned into water droplets that formed on the sides of the top of the bottle through a process called condensation. Your children learned that during condensation point, water vapor is able to change from a gas state to a liquid state; a difference in temperature is needed for this to occur. Your children also did an experiment that had them using a straw and blowing water droplets towards one another on wax paper; as they did this they noticed that like magnets, water molecules attract and combine with one another. Students used this information and applied it to a video they watched on with magnets and their analogy to water droplets; students explained that like magnets, water molecules attract to one another and grow in size resulting in cloud formation. As clouds form, they stick to a CCN (example: pollen, dust, ash, etc.) and then more droplets come to this part in the atmosphere and grow. These crystals and water droplets are larger which allows us to see them, especially when light reflects off of them and enters our eyes. Your children will continue learning about clouds this week, but focus on answering "Why do clouds or storms form at some times, but not others?"

Good evening 6th Grade Families and Happy New Year!

This week in science, your children started 2024 strong. Your children studied the question "Where did all that water in the air come from, and how did it get into the air?" Your children planned and carried out an investigation that had them measuring the humidity and temperature of air over samples of different Earths surfaces; these environments included the beach, lawn, puddle of water, snow on the ground, desert, and our control group (an empty environment). From this investigation, students learned that water can go into the air from multiple sources. Your children developed models that showed their initial thoughts on how water got into the air in these places. All of these models highlighted the process of evaporation. 

Students were introduced to Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit, a known scientist who made profound discoveries in weather. Student will continue looking at water vapor next week and will work towards answering "What happens to water vapor in the air if we cool the air down, and why?"

Good evening 6th grade Families and Happy Holidays!

This week in school, your children showed their understanding of "what happens to the air near the ground after its warmed" and "how can we explain the movement of air in a hail cloud" on their lessons 5 and 6 assessment. Your children also worked in groups to understand the life cycle of trout; each group was assigned a specific stage and had to research and create a visual that explains the stage they studies. Your children presented their findings to their peers and this knowledge will be used throughout the year when determining the stage our trout is experiencing. As a class, we also completed fish friday and examined the water quality of our tank, crucial for trout development. Students measured pH levels, nitrites, nitrates, ammonia, general and carbonate hardness and recorded the data in charts. Following break, as a class we will begin looking into humidity and answering the question "where did all that water in the air come from, and how did it get into the air"?

Good evening 6th Grade Families!

During this week of school your children worked on answering the question, "what happens to the air near the ground after its warmed?" In order to answer this question, your children completed 2 investigations in class to understand how the particles behave once the air is warmed and cooled. The first investigation completed was the Soap Bubble and Bottle Investigation. This investigation had students using a soda bottle and soap resolution to create a closed system to help us understand the larger, open system around us (air outside). Your children put soap resolution over the top of a soda bottle (acted as a seal) and observed what happened to the bubble when the bottle was placed in hot and cold water. Your children saw that in the hot water the bubble expanded and in the cold water the bubble condensed into the bottle. Your children connected kinetic movement to this investigation and learned: 

1) The bubble expanded in the hot water because the hot water made the kinetic energy and volume increase, so the bubble expanded with the particles (energy is flowing into the system).

2) The bubble compacted with the particles in the cold water because in the cold water there is less kinetic energy and volume so the density increased and the bubble came inside the bottle as the particles came together (energy is flowing out of the system).

The second investigation the students watched was a heated balloon investigation. In this investigation, the students watched a balloon get heated on a heating pad; the heating pad represented the ground as it absorbs light from the sun and the helium in the balloon represented the air particles. In this video, the balloon rose after it was warmed by the heating pad and sank once it reached the ceiling. The students connected this to convection currents. The big takeaways from this investigation are: 

1) When particles are warmed, their volume increases and density decreases (gaining thermal energy), so they are able to float into the air (energy is flowing into the system).

2) When the particles are rising they are moving further from heat source and losing thermal energy (energy flowing out of the system), so the air is losing heat and decreasing in volume/ increasing in density, so it will eventually sink. 

We looked at the energy flow for this model.

Students are now learning about clouds and connecting the movement of the air to the motion in the clouds. We are going to continue with this early next week to prepare students for their exam. 

Good evening 6th Grade Families! It was a pleasure meeting so many of you this week at Parent Teacher Conferences.

During this week of school, your children focused on the question "why is the ground warmer than higher altitudes". To help your children understand what contributes to higher temperatures at the surface, your children thought it would be appropriate to conduct and investigation that had them collecting data outdoors on sunlight and temperatures. Your children used different tools (light meters and thermometers) to record temperatures at different altitudes and to measure incoming and reflected light. Your children performed these steps in science groups and collaborated with 3-4 group members. Your children recorded their data on a spread sheet which was shared with the class, so we were able to identify patterns across all group's data. The big ideas your children concluded from this data analysis are the following: 

1) Incoming Light - Reflected Light = Absorbed Light

2) Darker surfaces absorbed the most light 

2) Lighter surfaces reflected the most light 

3) There are warmer temperatures at the ground level because as more light is absorber the greater the temperature is; as temperature increases, so does kinetic energy 

4) As altitude increases, temperature decreases

5) The air particles gain kinetic energy through conduction (colliding with the ground particles) 

Your children showed their understanding of these concepts through a Claim, Evidence, and Reasoning Response and an Assessment. Your children finished the week by studying out new scientist of the month, Vilhelm Bjerke, a notable scientist who is one of the Founding Father's of Meterology. Your children also had Fish Friday and measured the water quality in the tank and began studying the life cycle of a trout.  

Good evening 6th Grade Families! It was a pleasure meeting many of you at Parent Teacher Conferences this week. Congratualtions to everyone in Stuart Little!

During this week of school, your children started to learn about weather balloons and scientists send them into the atmosphere to learn about different weather conditions (humidity, temperature, geographical locations, air pressure, altitude, etc.) at different elevations; scientists use this data to help them predict weather. Your children used reliable weather balloon data collected from 4 different sites (Salem, Wilmington, Albany, and Amarillo) at 4 different times periods (January, April, July, and October) to try to answer the question how does the air near the ground compare to the air higher up in the atmosphere? These data sets recorded the temperature of weather balloons at different heights, so these scientists can compare what is happening at ground level opposed to higher levels in the atmosphere. Across all data, your children recognized the following patterns emerging: as altitude increases temperature decreases and January in all sites was the coldest month. Your children were able to connect prior knowledge from our thermal energy unit to descriibe the particles at the different altitudes; they believed that this can help us understand why it may be colder higher up. Your children remembered that as a subtsance gets warmer, particles move faster and spread out more (what is happening towards the ground) where as when a substance gets colder the particles move slower and come together (what is happening higher up in the atmosphere). Your children are going to be writing a CER that has them constructing an explanation on what patterns are emerging and using data to support their claims. Our next step is to figure out why is it warmer near the ground which we will be investigating early next week! 

Happy Thanksgiving 6th Grade Families! I hope you enjoy the time with your friends and family. 

In this shortened school week, your children worked on scientific literacy and built on their data analysis skills. Your children analyzed and interpreted data that was collected from weather stations in Central United States. Your children also practice the cross cutting concepts of scales and patterns to understand the data being examined. Your children created a summary table that let them easily identify patterns in different weather conditions (temperature, relative humidity, wind gust, wind speed, etc.) and easily locate outliers. From these patterns, your children were able to come to the conclusion that hail forms in areas with higher humidity and temperatures with wind changes; however, they are now questioning where hail actually forms as their data showed that the Earth's surface is too warm for ice to be made. Students are going to be looking at the air in the atmosphere next week to see role this location plays in the formation of hail. Your children concluded this week with Battle of the Grades and performed in various competitions amongst the fourth and fifth graders. 

Good evening 6th Grade Families!

This week in science your children continued learning about hail. The class consensus model we created last week that demonstrates what is happening in the air during a precipitation event led to many wonderings by these scientists. Your children shared their inquiries with one another and added it to our model, so we know areas that we want to further investigate during this unit. Your children created a list investigation ideas we can perform in class to help us solve the mystery of why does a lot of hail, snow, and rain fall at some times and not others?"  This week as a class we looked at maps and map data (an investigation idea students proposed) to see patterns in hail frequency across the United States. As a class, we practiced analyzing and interpreting data from a hail storm in Fort Scott, Kansas. Next week in pairs, your students will continue analyzing different hail storm cases throughout the United States and comparing them to their peer's cases. We finished this week with Fish Friday and studying our trout. Students got to record trout information and learn more about the importance of pH levels in a tank through an experiment. 

Good evening 6th Grade Families!

This week in science your children finished writing their CER's and continued exploring hail and working to answer "what causes this kind of precipitation to occur"? Your children acted as teachers on Monday and practiced grading CER examples, so they are familiar with the rubric and the expectations for their own writing piece. The students also created models showing what happens in the air above and around a precipitation event an hour before, during, and an hour after a hail storm. Your children also zoomed in on teh particle level of this hail that forms during a storm and drew what the particles look like at different times. Your children compared their models to their peers and looked for patterns among their work. Your children shared the similarities and differences they found to create a initial consensus model as a class of what they believe is taking place in the air and water above and around the site of the hail storm. Your children's ideas led to more inquiries that they are excited to share with one another next week as we continue breaking apart this phenomena to understand it better! 

I hope that everyone enjoys their four day break!

Good morning 6th Grade Families!

This week in science your children continued learning about thermal energy and were assessed on the information learned in the unit with a multiple choice assessment and a CER. Your children successfully applied concepts taught in class to real life scenarios of where one may see thermal energy; I have been noticing great progress with this and as the marking period closes your students should celebrate their success with it! Students have been going beyond rote memorization and have been connecting their knowledge to our local and global worlds. Your children were given a CER (claim, evidence, and reasoning) writing assignment that has your children quantifying, identifying trends, analyzing data, constructing explanations, and finding evidence; all of these practices are used by scientists regularly and help develop sense making skills. I am excited to read your children's ideas! The students began learning about hail and creating models that demonstrate their initial ideas of how hail forms and what happens as it falls to the ground. Your children watched 3 video clips from different times and areas in the world that showed hail falling. Students observed these videos and created a chart sharing what they noticed and inquiries they have. Students used these notes to develop these models that they annotated, labelled, and drew explicitly. We will continue with hail into next week and learning more about it! 

Good evening 6th Grade Families!

This week in science, your children have been exploring thermal energy. Your children started this week by doing a brief presentation for their peers on conduction, convection, and radiation. Your children applied the information learned in articles, educational videos, and through communication with one another to understand how convection currents work; the students followed the scientific process while doing so. Your children wanted to see what would happen if hot and cold fluids were placed in the same container. Each one your children created a hypothesis stating what they thought was going to happen using the information learned in class. Students tested their hypotheses by performing the experiment; these scientists used a tank of room temperature water and placed red (hot) liquid and blue (cold) liquid into opposite ends of the tank. The students made observations on the red (hot) liquid traveling to the top of the tank while the blue (cold) liquid sunk to the bottom. The students collected data on the movement of the ice, so they can compare their results with other scientists data. Your children looked for patterns across all data and quantified the number of groups that saw similar trends; your students drew conclusions based on these numbers and agreed that when these fluids are placed in room temperature water the hot water will rise because it is less dense than the cold water and the cold water will sink because of the particle composition makes it denser. Students will further explain their understanding of this next week through a CER. 

Good evening 6th Grade Families!

This week in science, your children became experts on one-way mirrors and demonstrated their understanding of how light interacts with this material through an assessment. Students began discussing thermal energy and how it applies to our everyday lives. Students began this unit through an exploration with ice, steam, and liquid. Students made observations on the three different states of matter and inquiries on the amount of energy within each one. Students learned how hotter subjects (like steam) have a greater amount of thermal energy compared to colder substances (like ice). Students learned about the three different ways thermal energy gets transferred in scientist circles. In these small groups, students researched conduction, convection, and radiation and shared their research with one another. Students used what they learned from their peers along with evidence from articles and videos to create a poster that explains the different forms of heat transfer; posters include model and diagrams of this heat transfer, definitions, and real-life examples! Students are presenting their discoveries to the class early next week. Students learned about insulators and brainstormed examples from their everyday lives; this included their thermoses and cardboard insulators for their hot chocolates from Starbucks!

Good evening 6th Grade Families!

This week in science, your children have been learning the anatomy of the human eye and how it interacts with our brain. We have used different resources (videos, diagrams, etc.) to help us understand the different parts light passes through in our eyes. Your children have learned about the corona, pupil/iris, lens, optic nerve, and brain. Our scientists learned that at the retina the light in our eye turns into signals that travels through the optic nerve to our brain, and our brain automatically responds to the strongest one! Isn't that cool! Our scientists applied this knowledge to our scenario with Pete and the music teacher to understand why Pete only sees his reflection in the one-way mirror and not his teacher. The students shared their thinking with a written assessment explaining how the different materials of the mirror, lights interaction with these materials, and how the human eye works all affect what Pete is seeing. This upcoming week we are going to wrap up our learning with the one-way mirror and begin exploring thermal energy! 

Good evening 6th Grade Families! 

This week in science your children studied some anatomy and learned about the different structures that exist in our visual system. Your children believed that understanding how our eyes respond to light and the way light travels through them can help with explaining this one way mirror phenomenon in greater detail. First, these scientists identified the important parts that make up our eyes; they created a visual model that showed how light enters the human cornea and travels to the pupil. From the pupil the light goes through the lens and changes direction as it focuses on a specific part in our retina. The retina sends an electrical message to the brain through the optic nerve which is why we see what we do! These scientist then explored how light refracts by comparing the humans lens to a magnifying glass. Your children will continue next week looking at the power our eyes have in choosing the light inputs we see daily. 

Good evening 6th Grade Families! The first month of school flew by!

This week in science your children have been working to answer what happens when light shines on the one-way mirror? In order to answer this your children felt that it was needed to carry out an investigation that helped us as scientists see the amount of light being reflected or transmitted on each material. These materials included the one-way mirror, glass, and a regular mirror. Your children used independent and dependent variables to create experimental questions that they wanted to test and learned how to use a light meter to ensure more accurate results. We analyzed the data that collected and came to the conclusion that when the light shines on the one-way mirror about half of the light reflects off, which slighlty more than the amount transmitted. We noticed that this material interacted differently than the regular mirror and glass did with light. We researched how the one-way mirror is made to help us understand this finding and used models as visuals to make more sense of it. 

Good evening 6th Grade Families! Enjoy the long weekend and for those who celebrate the holiday have a meaningful Yom Kippur. 

This week in the lab, your children have continued exploring our one-way mirrors and working on answering "what would happen to these one-way mirrors if we change light?" The students tried to investigate this question by closely examining our scale models and carrying out different investigations; these explorations include the reversing of lights turning off both lights, and turning both lights on within our scale models. These 6th grade scientists came to the conclusion that this phenomenon we have been studying works the best when a light difference is present. Inquiries have arise on how a reflection is shown on one side of this one-way mirror while the other is see-through. Light has been studied closely this week to guide them with solving this question. Your children brought in images from their local communities that remind them of one-way mirrors everyday! They presented their findings with the class and categorized them based on the material they are made of. These scientists are now curious on how different materials, like glass and mirrors, would alter this phenomenon. Your children are prepared to explore this variable more in depth next week. 

Good evening 6th Grade Families! It was so nice being able to meet many of you at Back to School Night this week.

This week your children began figuring out how something can act like a mirror and window at the same time. Your children have been developing models, forming questions, drawing diagrammatic models, and exploring with scale models to try to answer if light has an effect on a material being reflective or see through. While trying to explain this large phenomena, the students used systems thinking to break apart this bigger picture through the use of their Notice and Wonder Charts, individual diagrams, the class's initial consensus chart, and the creation of a driving question board to guide our ideas. At the same time, your children practiced the norms expected within this science community this week; these include being equitable, respectful, committed to learning, and moving our science thinking forward. The students concluded this week's work by brainstorming ways we can further investigate this light phenomena that we have been studying which we will be exploring next week!

Welcome 6th Grade Families to our first science newsletter! 

This week Ms. Weinstein had the opportunity to meet all our 6th grade scientists and learn about them academically and personally. We spent the past three days learning about one another, reviewing classroom expectations and routines, discussing the different topics that will be covered this year, and collaborating with one another on a STEM challenge. The students got acclimated to using Google Classroom and my Google Site. The students began working, communicating, and strategizing with their classmates through an activity that had the students create a tall structure using only pipe cleaners. Our tallest structure was from period 2 being 18 inches! We also reviewed lab safety and expected behavior and followed it by a fun Kahoot. Starting on Monday we will dive right into learning and begin discussing light and matter. Ms. Weinstein is so lucky to have this great group of students to be working with and is excited to see all the amazing discoveries this group of scientists will find!