Sunday, March 31, 2019

Fusion Communication: March 31



Hi all,

It’s getting really muddy out there. We are in that middling week period where the light at the end of the tunnel is not yet in view but students continue to make progress, and move forward.

Dance Success - Glow-in-the-Dark! (So many black lights!)We made about $50 after costs - thank you to all who donated. It was amazing!

8th Grade Career Unit UpdateStudents began developing budgets for the salary of their job shadow, and are beginning to create materials for the posters and the presentations. 
 PLEASE NOTE: any appointments or absences the morning of April 16 should be communicated to the team as soon as possible - that is the official morning of presentations for the career unit.

**Trifold posters can be purchased from Mr. Pless for $4 (which is a very good price).

Team blog link:
https://teamfusion78.blogspot.com/

All laptops should remain at school over the weekend.
Calendar:April 10: Delayed Start
April 16: 8th Grade Career Presentations (during school day in team area)
April 18: Change! 8th grade Career Fair - 5:30-6:30pm
April 20-28: Spring Break (no school)
May 8: Last Delayed Start
June 3: Tentative Move-up Day - 8th Graders to MMU
June 5: Tentative Great Escape Field Trip for 8th Grade
June 12: Very Tentative Recognition Night for 8th Grade; last day of middle school for 8th grade
June 17: Very Tentative Last day of school for grades 5-7

Curriculum Updates
LA

Will return next week.

Math
7: This week, we combined our understanding of circles and prisms and developed strategies for calculating surface area and volume of cylinders. Next week, we will be doing some review in preparation for a unit test on Thursday or Friday as well as some extension work for students are ready for it.

8: This week, we have been developing rules for working with exponents as well as strategies for operations with Scientific Notation. Next week, we will be reviewing and assessing the learning from the unit. We will assess students understanding of exponent rules and Scientific Notation on Tuesday, with an assessment on exponential vs. linear functions on Thursday or Friday.

Science
7: Students focused on patterns of inheritance by reading about Gregor Mendel’s experiments with pea plants, by creating Punnett Squares to predict the probability of certain traits in offspring, and by modeling the inheritance of dominant/recessive, co-dominant, and incomplete dominance pattern of traits in fictional critters. (Students created their final critter offspring using styrofoam balls, push pins, colored straws, and pipe cleaners! Of course, they now all have names!)

8: Students began a new set of investigations focused on chemical reactions this week! They explored how chemical processes are used to create circuit boards; in small groups, they designed a circuit board pattern, etched their sample circuit board overnight, and tested their designs to see if it could create a circuit and light a bulb! They are now exploring several different chemical reactions to clarify which pieces of evidence can be used to suggest a chemical reaction is taking place.

SS
7 - Students continue to build background knowledge about the major economic systems/theories and collect evidence to support those ideas. One activity asked students to compare findings from the World Happiness Report to economic systems, and then World Population to “Happiness”. Many questions arose when they made those comparisons….

8 - Students delved into a deeper exploration of the Industrial Revolution through note taking activities, comparisons of inventions and a survey of artwork produced from the time period. Ask them about the interpretation and meaning of the Experiment on Bird in Air Pump, Joseph Wright, 1768.

Looks Spring has sprung… with the usual mud and rain. Just three more weeks until the next break.

The Fusion Team