It felt great to have a full, five-day week! The Middle School had a lot of fresh air and covered substantial content in their classes. Please note that students are encouraged to bring rain gear. We would love to take them out, even if it is raining.
8th year Life Science students are working on the Cell Theory unit. Students have been constructing three dimensional representations of a eukaryotic animal cell. 7th year Physical Science students completed a lab experiment as part of their unit, Combining and Separating Mixtures. The lab required students to determine what methods work best at separating a mixture consisting of iron fillings, sugar, sand, marbles, and water. 6th year Earth Science students are beginning to work on creating their own fossils for the unit, Fossils and Studying Earth’s Past. Students will use clay to make an impression of objects and plaster of paris to make molds.
Math class is off to a great start for all 5 courses. All students received their new textbooks and started working through chapter 1. Pre-Transition (grade 6) has been working on conversion rates and identifying measurement units. Transition (grade 7) has been working on using negative and positive numbers in real world situations and understanding the real number system. Algebra (grade 7 and grade 8) has been evaluating expressions and solving for unknown values while using a substitution method. Geometry (grade 8) has learned about and can compare Euclidean Synthetic Geometry, Graph Theory, and Discrete Geometry.
It felt really nice to get into a rhythm in Humanities classes this week. 6th years had their first vocabulary unit and continued to discuss and write about their summer read, Becoming Naomi Leon. Next week, they look forward to presenting about the independent novels they chose over the summer and learning about Mexican culture. The 7th years have been learning about Chinese history and culture. Their summer novel, Ties That Bind, Ties That Break, gave them a glimpse of changing ruling systems and culture. They researched and learned about the ruling dynasties beginning in 2100 BCE and learned further about the old practice of foot binding, which was mentioned in the novel. 7th years also presented round 1 of current events! The 8th years presented about their independent novels from the summer and also completed their first round of current events. Additionally, they discussed and wrote about their summer read, The Outsiders. Particularly, they discussed character development, the effects of socioeconomics and stereotypes in the novel (and in society at large), and began an essay that will dig deep into a single character.
Until next week,
The MS Team
