Middle School: Celebrating 8th Grade Experts & Week in Review

Posted on by Michelle Lamb

On Wednesday, April 22nd, the Middle School Community came together to support our graduating 8th graders as they presented their Expert Projects. These 10-15-minute presentations were a wonderful representation of the research they have been doing since early January. Additionally, students wrote a research essay using interviews they completed with experts in the field as a resource. The 8th-grade students should be proud of their hard work and dedication to their projects. Bravo!

They presented the following topics:

  • Camden: Blitzkrieg: The Tactic that Reinvented Warfare
  • Aryan: The Memory-Decision Loop
  • Bennett: CrossFit: Redefining Fitness
  • Tristan: Organized Crime: Underground Groups and Markets
  • Allie: Understanding the Criminal Mind

Coming Up:

  • MS Trip: Complete the required medical form and submit medical authorizations for medication distribution ASAP.
  • Please submit the initial $500 deposit for the MS Trip that was due Monday, 4/20
  • MS Musical: Willy Wonka, Jr., May 21st @ 7 pm.
  • SAVE THE DATE! FAREWELL TO THE CLASS OF 2026 on Friday, May 15 @ 4:30 pm
  • SAVE THE DATE! Middle School Dance on Friday, May 22nd 
  • MS ARRIVAL BEGINS AT 8 am

Humanities

6th and 7th-grade Humanities classes are wrapping up their studies of Animal Farm. Much like the animals from Manor Farm, they staged a Humanities Rebellion and overthrew Mrs. Lamb, taking control of Humanities classes. With Mrs. Lamb out of the picture, the classes had to move forward with making plans for the future of Humanities class. With those plans, they were allowed to run a class period. Mrs. Lamb enjoyed being the student and having both of the 6/7 sections as the guides. Currently, the groups are drafting literary analysis essays. Students chose from three prompts and will use examples from the novel to support their focus. The 7th-grade students will find and use direct quotations from the novel as well.

After wrapping up expert projects last week, this week was spent immersed in history. The class began reading the Constitution and learning more about its development. Using resources from the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia and segments from the PBS Series “Constitution USA with Peter Segal”, they are having a deeper understanding of the text and its current use. Additionally, the class began reading the biography, She Came to Slay: The Life and Times of Harriet Tubman by Erica Armstrong Dunbar.

Math

Pre-Transition: This week, students focused on the short division algorithm, strengthening their ability to divide multi-digit numbers efficiently. They practiced breaking down division problems into manageable steps. Students worked on both independent problems and guided examples to build confidence.

Transition: This week, students continued practicing solving one- and two-step equations to find the value of a variable. They focused on using inverse operations and checking their answers to make sure they were correct. Later in the week, students were introduced to graphing linear equations by creating a table of values. They learned how to choose input values, find the corresponding outputs, and plot the points on a coordinate plane to see the line’s pattern.

Algebra: This week, students wrapped up Chapter 6 by reviewing and taking the Chapter 6 assessment, which demonstrated their understanding of all concepts related to slope. They worked with concepts like finding slope from graphs, tables, and equations, and interpreting what slope means in real-world situations. At the end of the week, students began previewing Chapter 8, which covers exponent properties and how to simplify expressions using exponents.

Geometry: This week, students learned about reflection and rotation of symmetric figures. They explored how shapes can be flipped over a line (reflection) or turned around a point (rotation) while still maintaining their size and shape. Students practiced identifying lines of symmetry and determining how many times a figure can be rotated onto itself. They worked with a variety of shapes to better understand how symmetry appears in different figures.

 Algebra II: This week, students reviewed key concepts from Chapter 5 and then took the Chapter 5 assessment to show their understanding. After completing the test, they began Chapter 6, where they were introduced to quadratic equations. Students began exploring what makes an equation quadratic and examined the basic form, beginning to understand how these equations create parabolas when graphed.

Science
Middle School students continued working on lessons from the Discovery Education e-book. This week, 6th and 7th-graders started learning about atoms, their structure, and their subatomic particles. Students learned that an atom is composed of a nucleus and energy levels around it. They learned that the subatomic particles in the nucleus are protons (positively charged) and neutrons (uncharged). Also, they understood that electrons (negative charge) are in the outer shells or energy levels. In addition, they learned the concept of atomic numbers (number of protons) and atomic mass (protons + neutrons). They had a general introductory class on the Periodic Table, with 118 elements and their organization. They also learned how to look for the atomic number and atomic mass for each element using the periodic table.
8th graders finished working on their hands-on project about Fermentation, analyzing its results and comparing them with the Fermentation virtual laboratory. With the use of a tool in Google Sheets, they were able to record their data in charts and do the graphs for better analysis. They worked on their analysis and their conclusion. Summarizing, they also learned the importance of being organized and focused when it is time to record data in a laboratory experiment. All these lessons and new concepts are supported by classwork, videos, readings, and explanations in class, followed by weekly science articles where students can practice their critical thinking to answer the questions.
It is also important to mention that Middle school students celebrated Earth Day on April 23. After an explanation about it and its origin that supports the environmental protection of our planet, all middle school students participated in an outdoor scavenger hunt with environmental science topics.