1 week away...

We are 1 week away from the chemistry final!  Can you believe it??
Time is flying!
I'm very proud of the work that you have done, but now it's time to put it all together.
When planning for a big test...

• Get organized!  It's important to look back over the information, which can at times be messy and put it into a new format that can look a bit cleaner and can help you to review.  I recommend making a mind map.  Think about all of the concepts that we have covered in chemistry and have each of them be a circle on a piece of paper.  Then add spokes to your wheel with information that you remember about that topic.  First try this without looking at your notebook, then look through your notebook and add to your spokes.
• Think about these topics to get your circles started: periodic table, substances, energy transfer, concentrations, solutions, density, chemical reactions, physical vs chemical changes, types of substances
• After you are organized, you can use some study techniques like...
• create flash card from your circles & definitions
• write study questions based on each circle
• cover up the spokes of the circle and see what you can recall
• The important thing is to come back to this often and frequently to help keep these things in your mind!
• Good Luck as you start to prepare!

For Tuesday's Quiz...

To help yourself prepare for Tuesday's quiz, make sure that you take advantage of the tools you have available to you!
Tools:

• Rewatch Videos on the archived video page - specifically: Energy Transfer Steps 1 & 2, Big Ideas about Energy Transfer, & Energy Transfer Step 3 
• Use the Virtual Classroom - specifically: Energy Flow, Particles in Solids, Liquids and Gases, Energy Transfer by Collision 

The main topics that will be covered by the quiz are:

• Energy Flow in a System 
• Conduction 
• Calories - definition and solving for 
• Liquid/Solid/Gas particles when heated and cooled (aka contraction and expansion) * 
• Kinetic Energy - Be able to solve an energy transfer problem - knowing the equations * 
• Understand the correct order of energy transfer equations 

 * topics will require you to show and explain more work on the quiz

Rules from Element Walk

Rules for Identifying Objects in Our World
1) Living things  = hydrogen, carbon, oxygen
2) Once living things (plastic)= hydrogen, carbon
3) Air = Nitrogen, Oxygen, Argon
4) Rock Based = Silicon, Oxygen
5) Metal = Iron, Carbon

Study Guide for 1st Quiz

Who organized the Periodic Table of Elements?
What are the two ways that the Periodic Table is organized?
Pick any chemical formula in your chart - Can you identify how many atoms are in the formula?  Can you identify how many elements make up the substance?
What are the three parts of a conclusion?
What are some important things to remember when writing a conclusion?

*longer questions are based on Periodic Table organization and evaluating a conclusion - is it a good or bad conclusion?

Note Taking...

As outlined in the video, it is important not only to watch the videos, but to be an active participant and take notes while viewing.  There are many ways to take notes and 8th grade is a great year to practice and hone your technique.

Here is some background information about the Cornell note taking technique:

A short handout from Cornell

A short video about the Cornell method - Gives a more indepth explanation about this technique and tips for how this method can help you to study for quizzes and tests

The classic way of note taking -outline form!  Click here for more information about Outline Note Taking

One of my favorite techniques is mind mapping.  Its probably because I'm a visual learner!  You can mind map in your notebook or you can do it online by using sites like -Bubbl.us.

I encourage you to try different styles of note taking over the year to see what works best for you!

ISS

The ISS - or the Independent Space Study Project - is designed to prepare and challenge students for high school by allowing them to practice the skills of textbook and test-taking as well as designing an independent study project.
Students can apply to be a part of the ISS by clicking on this form --www.tinyurl.com/ispacestudy.
This is an application, I'm not just looking for volunteers.  Students who participate in the ISS will need to be independent and self-motivated students who will use online textbooks and videos to enhance their learning.

If you have any questions, please let me know!

Congratulations!

I am so proud of all of the work that you have done on your science fair projects.  This batch of projects were incredibly creative and inventive!  I am truly proud of the journey that all of you have made.

This year's winner is Ryan E. for his project about slope of the roller coaster hill.  Ryan had an engaging presentation that thoroughly explained his concept and engaged audience with interactive features.

New this year, I offered an extra incentive with the Best in Show award voted on by the public.  There was a tie this year - Hannah C. and Spencer M. & Caleb R.'s projects!

Lastly, the 7th graders honored David F. with the highest presentation scores.

Job well done by everyone!

Science Fair...

It's that time of year again!
Science Fair!
I call it a gift that I give to you.  The gift of learning about anything that you want!  During this time you are in control of your learning.  So it is really important that you choose a topic you are interested in.  Relate it to your interests in or out of school...really sky's the limit!
You will be using the scientific method to guide you through this process.
Question
Hypothesis
Procedure**
Data Collection
Data Analysis**
Writing a Conclusion**
The topics with stars listed next to them are the ones that have videos on the flipside site.

Wildlife Monitoring

Humans monitor wildlife to learn better understand connections and relationships in our world.  When we are monitoring populations, we will often see patterns that will help us to better understand an animal's species.

Some types of wild monitoring we discussed in class are: radio telemetry, mark & release, and motion sensor cameras.  Each one of these have specific uses in different areas and can give researchers a much better understanding of animals.

adaptations

There are two main types of adaptations:
Physical - which is part of the body make-up and behavioral - which is something that someone does or is part of their instincts.

Ecological Relationships

This week we are studying about three types of symbiotic relationships.

1) Mutualism - where both species benefit from the relationship
Example: Honey Guide Bird & the Honey Badger - the bird leads the badger to a hive and the badger knocks the hive down and feasts on the honey, then the bird feasts on the honey
2) Commensalism - where 1 species benefits and the other is not harmed or does not benefit
Example: Barnacles on the whale - the barnacles get shelter and the whale is unharmed
3) Parasitism - where 1 species benefits and the other is harmed
Example: deer & tick - tick feasts on the blood of a deer and the deer is harmed

Food Webs

Food webs are a great way to show how energy travels in an ecosystem.

Before you start drawing out your food web, it's important to look at who is in your food web.
Do you have producers (organisms that make their own food) or consumers (organisms that have to consume their food)?   What type of consumers do you have? Primary/Secondary/Tertiary?  Herbivore/Omnivore/Carnivore?
When you have all that figured out, make sure you have the two main components of a food web - sun (the source of energy) and decomposers (which break down matter and help the cycle start again).
Then ALWAYS draw the arrow to the thing that gets the energy.  If you and an apple were in a food web, there would be an arrow going from the apple to you.  Imagine that the arrow is going right into the mouth of the thing that is going to get the energy.

Limiting Factors

Limiting factors are anything that effect a population's size either positively or negatively.  We often relate them to the basic survival skills of food, water, and shelter.
This past week we looked at three different species populations' to observe how these things effect their population sizes.
We also focused on carrying capacity - or the limit to how big a population can get for a certain area.
It was a great week with very active labs!