Science
Mr. Mahoney | [email protected]
NetPals Science Fair deadlines have been established and each student has a hard copy of due date as well as the one posted in class. Parents should see students beginning their long term science fair project as they develop their own question, construct their experiment, and analyse data to create a tri-fold board or digital presentation to deliver to their NetPals later in the semester as the year end celebration of the program. All science fair work is done outside of school, and completed by each individual student or team of two students by deadlines set in class. You can support your student by asking them to pull out the dealines and check how they are doing. Our physics curriculum continues in class as students explore falling objects, a pendulum, a bouncing ball, playground equipment, and springs to learn about kinetic, gravitational, and elastic energy, and multiple ways in which energy is transformed from one type to another. Ask your student to share with you examples of how energy is transferred. At the end of the unit students will be expected to demonstrate an understanding of energy transfer and energy transformation, as well as the idea of conservation of energy when they are challenged to design a product that incorporates these ideas.
Social Studies
Ms. Motto | [email protected]
Students will be exploring the amazing culture and history of India. The goal of this unit is to have students develop greater perspective and empathy for people from different cultures and religions. Some of the big questions students will be grappling with during this unit are: How does religion impact society? How did Hinduism, Buddhism and Islam impact social structure in India? How have different civilizations contributed to our global society? What makes for a strong historical argument? Students will engage in simulations and grapple with the effects of the caste system on modern day Indian society. Ask them to share with you what they find interesting about India and Hinduism.
ELA
Ms. Gonzalez | [email protected]
and Mr. Mitchell
7th grade readers and writers have been building their background knowledge around various aspects of identity through reading informational texts. They will be focusing on one aspect of identity to study more deeply in order to answer the question: What are people doing to change social constructs around identity? How effective do you think this will be in changing the construct? Afterwards, they will be reading the play, A Raisin In the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry and will explore how class, race, gender, and occupation intersect to shape an individual’s perception of the American Dream. Readers will conduct several close reads of the text through whole class and small group readings. We will be reading it primarily in class. The study of A Raisin In The Sun will be accompanied regularly by other texts to allow readers to understand the author’s intent in addressing the dreams of the African-American community in the 1950s (and prior) and the social injustices that got in the way. You can ask your student who their favorite character is in the play or what the most powerful moments are in it. Readers will be taking notes along the way to write an an essay about how conflict affects a selected character’s perception of the American Dream. You can ask them to share their notes and talk about how their thinking is evolving as they move through the play. For homework, readers are expected to be independently reading a book of their choice for 30 minutes
Math
Ms. Damiani | [email protected]
Student are in the first stage of our new unit, Expressions, Equations, & Inequalities. In this unit students are tasked with real-world representing situations with algebraic expressions and equations and using the algebraic method to solve for an unknown variable. Students see visual representations of algebraic equations with tape diagrams and hanger/balance puzzles. Another major learning goal is creating equivalent expressions using algebraic properties of addition and multiplication. Check out this link to get more in depth explanations of the sections of the unit, the big idea questions, and even practice problems for you to complete with your student! Encourage them to explain the problems and their solution using mathematical terms. (Answer Key included!)
https://bit.ly/2DqQQ9p