About the Notebook

The Notebook

This year in science, almost all of the work you do will be collected (and graded) in our Interactive Science Notebook - that's all of your notes, worksheets, labs, readings,  classwork, homework, etc. The notebook you use must be 8.5"x11" so that you can glue in handouts cleanly.

Every two weeks I will collect the notebook and score work that was due over the previous two weeks. Each page will receive a score out of 10 points. If an assignment is worth more points (like a larger lab), it will take up more pages in the notebook. The is the primary resource for this course, you will need it for study and most assignments will be graded this way. Coursework makes up the majority of the grade in Earth Science, so it's important to keep up with your work in the notebook. (And while there are no points for "neatness", keeping an orderly notebook will make your life easier!)

For more info check the notebook expectations (also glued into the front of your notebook, next to the syllabus).

The 4 Colors

Each page in the notebook should have 4 colors use to make the important information stand out - any four; students can choose the colors and the categories. (Highlighting should include just the important key word/words in a question or the most important part of an answer; it does not mean full questions or answers randomly underlined. If everything is highlighted, that's probably too much!).This is a step towards learning annotation of notes - sorting out the categories of important information and making key points stand out. This improves memory and information retention through engaging with the text.

Research to support using color coding:

1. Diachenko I, Kalishchuk S, Zhylin M, Kyyko A, Volkova Y. Color education: A study on methods of influence on memory. Heliyon. 2022 Nov 16;8(11):e11607. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2022.e11607. PMID: 36411932; PMCID: PMC9674548.

2. Dzulkifli MA, Mustafar MF. The influence of colour on memory performance: a review. Malays J Med Sci. 2013 Mar;20(2):3-9. PMID: 23983571; PMCID: PMC3743993.

3. Folker, S., Ritter, H., & Sichelschmidt, L. (2005). Processing and Integrating Multimodal Material — The Influence of Color-Coding. Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, 27. Retrieved from https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5ch098t2

4. Ozcelik, E., Karakus, T., Kursun, E., & Cagiltay, K. (2009). An eye-tracking study of how color coding affects multimedia learning. Computers & Education, 53(2), 445–453. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2009.03.002

CLASS NOTES

Page should be set up in the "Cornell Notes" style, although we use it a little bit differently:

1. Notes must be complete (slideshows can be found on the table of contents in case you've missed anything!)

2. Notes must be color coded (yellow= vocab, blue= examples, green= formulas/important numbers, red=key info or alerts). - Ideally this is done later that night, after class, to review.

3. Questions - The left-hand column should be used to add questions about the notes (There needs to be 3 level 1 questions, from Costa's Levels of Questioning, 2 level 2 questions, and 1 level 3 questions)

4. Answers - Notes should have a section at the bottom for answers to my Essential Question and the student's level 2 and level 3 questions (Together this makes a sort of "summary" of the notes, and lets you quiz yourself with your questions.)

LABS

Just as real scientists collect all of their work and findings in a lab notebook, we model this practice by keeping all of our lab work in the interactive notebook as well. Labs will generally include a handout with directions, data tables, and analysis questions to be completed afterwards. Sometimes we will draw this directly into the notebook together. As always students must submit only their own original work - though the data may have been collected together with a lab group, analysis should be their own!

If a student is absent for a lab, they must talk to me right away about a make-up option. Generally one scheduled hands-on make-up session is possible during Advocacy, if that opportunity is missed then an alternate assignment must be completed. It is NOT acceptable to simply copy a classmate's work!

Labs must be signed by the teacher before a student leaves the lab. This indicates that they helped complete the entire lab and clean-up process with their group. Students that walk away from their station without permission may not earn credit for the lab exercise! It is expected that students participate in the lab, leaving your group to do all of the work and clean-up is not acceptable.

OTHER WORK

This includes worksheets, activities, reading summaries, movie guides, etc.:

1. All questions must be answered completely

2. 4 colors should be added to make the important information stand out on the page - any four categories and colors that make sense to you, unless I've directed otherwise (this could include the important part of a question or the key part of an answer; it does not mean full questions or answers randomly underlined)

3. If the work was due next class, it will be stamped as on time. After this, corrections should be made when we go over the answers as a class.