Welcome to the Blue Team!
Course Description:
When you enter room 220, YOU ARE A SCIENTIST!
Students in grade 7 will focus on systems and cycles using their understanding of structures and functions, connections and relationships and systems, and flow of matter and energy developed in earlier grades. A focus on systems requires students to apply concepts and skills across disciplines since most natural and designed systems and cycles are complex and interactive. They gain experience with plate tectonics, interactions of humans and Earth processes, ecosystem dynamics, and motion and energy systems.
Through grade 7, students begin a process from a more concrete to an abstract perspective. We will utilize scientific practices to discover concepts and investigate each of these topics through a hands-on learning approach: this means YOU will be hypothesizing outcomes, brainstorming and conducting experiments, designing models, and asking critical questions that will help develop the scientific principles that make up our world.
Materials:
Instruction: This course is aligned with the recently adopted Massachusetts Science and Technology Standards. The 7th grade science teachers plan collaboratively in order to provide consistent instruction, challenges, remediation and assessment to all 7th graders. Based on student understandings and needs, lessons and assessments are reviewed and redesigned as a 7th grade science team.
Homework
Homework is a critical element to practicing topics learned in class. It is a measure of your current understanding of a topic, and provides a foundation to grow. You should always try your best to complete the task at hand: homework is based on effort and completion, not perfection.
As you progress throughout the school year and grow as a student, our expectations of you will increase. Students who fail to bring in his/her homework on the due date will receive a zero for the assignment. This will be reflected in powerschool. Students have the opportunity to regain credit ONLY if they complete the assignment during after school hours. However, please be aware that the longer you wait to complete any assignment, the less meaningful it will be for your current understanding.
Late work Policy
Missing work will be reflected in powerschool and it will be your responsibility to devise a plan to address this with me. If there is an extenuating circumstance, please do not hesitate to reach out so that we can work together to get you back on track.
Please note that any credit is better than no credit!
Absent Policy
Upon your return to school from any type of absence or tardiness (illness, family emergency, vacation, etc), it is your responsibility to check in with me to find out what you’ve missed. Teachers will not provide assignments before absences. If the absence was extensive, an RTI drop-in will likely not be enough. Be prepared to stay after school to collect assignments, clarify directions, and review concepts you have missed. Assignments that remain missing by the end of the trimester will be reflected in your grade.
Additional Support:
You are welcome to contact me at any time to review and clarify material during RTI or after school. When there is a need, you may be asked to meet in smaller groups during one of these times. This will give you an opportunity for additional instruction and practice for improved understanding.
Grading and Assessment:
Throughout each unit, grades will be based on the completion of short formative assessments, learning set quizzes, labs, and other activities. Towards the end of each unit, a culminating assessment/project will be assigned. Grades will be entered into powerschool based on a point system, rather than percentages, to allow assignments and projects to be weighed appropriately.
Please know that grades are only part of the package. Work ethic is second to none, and attitude changes everything. Our impression of you as a student is based on more than just a number. Please take P.R.I.D.E. in putting your best foot forward every day!
Resources:
I look forward to working with you this year through this exciting and engaging curriculum! Please do not hesitate to contact me if any questions or concerns arise at laurenobrien@oldrochester.org !
~ Ms. O’Brien