Week 6 In Review

Periodic Updates

Week 6 In Review

Important Dates & Assignments:

• Avogadro's Number Practice:
• Student's worked on the concept of a mole on Friday.
• How many is 602 hexillion? Ask them about doughnuts.
• They were given a practice page to work on how to use these ideas in Chemistry.
• We will do more work on that this week.
• Labs:
• Many students have been trying to go back and finish labs or redo parts of past labs that they did incorrectly. This is great and encouraged. I will do a lab review this week!
• We will do a lab on Tuesday, remind all students to wear appropriate lab clothing!
• This weeks lab will be centered around the mole.

What happened last week?

• Atomic Researchers:
• The students gave great presentations using twitter about the researchers that founded atomic theory.
• Ask your student to show you their twitter for each researcher.
• Kahoot!
• We did a review using Kahoot!
• Each student will get feedback on their results this week.
• This is a great check to make sure they are understanding what is going on in Chemistry.
• What is the mole?
• We started a new idea in our unit on atomic theory with a look at the mole.
• This will continue this week.
• Digital Citizenship:
• Wednesday, we discussed lesson 4 of our digital citizenship curriculum.
• CBA has chosen commonsensemedia.org as a source for teaching our students about digital citizenship.
• This lesson was on the dangers of "Overexposed: Sexting and Relationships"

From the desk of Mr. Terry:

We continued to focus on the lifeskill of creativity this week as students gave great presentations using twitter about atomic theory. We also had to be creative when trying to understand the number 602 hexillion. This number is so large that it is really hard for students to imagine. We did some activities in class to try and help students understand what it means to have 602 hexillion of anything. To help you see how large this number is written out in long form is 602000000000000000000000. That is crazy big! We also continued use our lifeskill of perseverance as we learned words and phrases that are specific to chemistry that students may have never used before. They are doing great persevering when writing isotope notation, dealing with atomic numbers and atomic masses. Finally, we want to continue to encourage our students to give their lifelong guideline of personal best. It is easy to complete an assignment and then want to turn it in and walk away. Here at CBA we want students to revisit their work and make it better. To truly show what you know and give your personal best in everything you do. 

I am available to help any morning between 7:45-8:15 and during Flex on the "A" day schedule 4th block. Students can make arrangements to miss their 4th block class to meet with me.

terryk@claytonbradleyacademy.org

Week 5 In Review

Periodic Updates

Week 5 In Review

Important Dates & Assignments:

• Chemistry Assessment #1:
• Students got feedback results on our first assessment this week.
• You should have received an email with a shared document of their results.
• Any scores students would like to revisit to show understanding, please have them meet with me in the morning from 7:45-8:15 or during flex time 4th block on "A" days.
• If you have any questions concerning the assessment, please email me.
• Edpuzzle.com
• Students are assigned videos to watch on edpuzzle.com.
• These videos will have questions throughout.
• Student responses will be reviewed and feedback given on any questions they get wrong.
• Please ask your student to see their results from last week.
• Atomic Theory Researchers:
• Students have been working on reporting to the class a researcher that helped form our understanding of Atomic Theory.
• These presentations will take place on Monday

What happened last week?

• We worked on our Atomic Theory Researcher presentations.
• We learned about three laws:
• Law of Conservation of Mass
• Law of Definite Proportions
• Law of Multiple Proportions

From the desk of Mr. Terry:

This week started with a fun challenge for the students called, "Think Tube." Ask students if they figured it out before I told them the "trick." This demonstration kicked off our discussion on Atomic Theory. We are exploring the question, "How do we know what we cannot see in the molecular world?" This allowed us to focus on the lifeskill of Creativity as students began their first project of Atomic Theory Researcher report. Students got to select a fun way to present their assigned researcher's contribution to Atomic Theory. Ask students how they are presenting their scientist to the class. We also focused on our lifelong guideline of Personal Best as we got our assessments back. Students are encouraged to revisit the material and come to me with questions. We want students to own their learning in Chemistry and keep working with the concepts until they master each one. If your student didn't get 3's on each question, encourage them to use their Personal Best and keep at it. As always this year, we want students to use the lifeskill of Perseverance in their studies. Sophomore year can be challenging as the work gets harder and through perseverance we will finish with excellence!

I am available to help any morning between 7:45-8:15 and during Flex on the "A" day schedule 4th block. Students can make arrangements to miss their 4th block class to meet with me.

terryk@claytonbradleyacademy.org

Week 4 In Review

Periodic Updates

Week 4 In Review

Important Dates & Assignments:

• We have done several labs in class. All labs will be scored using a rubric that is shared with students through their Google Drive. Anything not a "3" can, and should, be fixed and turned back in for review. Once reviewed, their rubric will reflect the changes.
• We took a summative assessment on Friday. Those are currently being scored and you will be notified of the results as soon as those are finished.
• This week we will be starting a new unit: Atomic Theory

What happened last week?

• We worked on the differences between physical and chemical changes in the lab.
• We explored ways to get density of different types of metals.
• Curriculum night was great. To those that came by, thank you for your visit. If you did not get to attend, click here for the link to the handout.

From the desk of Mr. Terry:

This was another week with a focus on perseverance. I remember so many times trying to get ready to take an assessment for the first time in a class. I tried to reassure the students in their understanding of the information. It takes perseverance not to get overwhelmed with the amount of information and just take it one thing at a time. Another lifeskill we are learning right now is courage. Courage is being willing to say you don't understand and you need help. As we get into the heart of our first real unit it will take courage for students to seek out help from their peers, me, and/or you as the topics get more complicated and abstract. If you have any questions for me or feel you student needs tutoring please email me so we can set this up. Have a great week!

terryk@claytonbradleyacademy.org

 

Week 3 In Review

Periodic Updates

Week 3 In Review

Important Dates & Assignments:

• Friday Aug. 14 is our first assessment. Matter, Mass, & Density
• We have done several labs in class. All labs will be scored using a rubric that is shared with students through their Google Drive. Anything not a "3" can, and should, be fixed and turned back in for review. Once reviewed, their rubric will reflect the changes.
• Practice Conversion sheets were given to students last week to work on the process of conversions. Please make sure they are keeping up on the practice.

What happened last week?

• We learned about conversion, SI Units, Significant Figures, and Physical and Chemical Changes.
• We all passed our lab safety quiz!
• We accidentally set off the fire alarm! We learned that our buildings are equipped with very sensitive smoke detectors. All is well and no one was ever in danger.

From the desk of Mr. Terry:

We are rolling along very quickly as we have now completed 3 weeks of Chemistry. The students are getting back into the normal swing of things and once again feeling the weight of what we are trying to do at CBA. The students have been trying to "own their learning" by doing what they need to do whether it is for a grade or not. We want to practice the lifeskills of "personal best" and "perseverance" as we get into required projects, assessments, and practice. Encourage your student to learn strategies to be more organized and use a planner system to keep up with important dates and assignments. If you have any questions for me or feel you student needs tutoring please email me so we can set this up. Have a great week!

terryk@claytonbradleyacademy.org

Week of Density

Week 2

This week was very exciting in the Chemistry lab.  This was our "Week of Density" that was used to introduce matter, volume, mass, and density.  The students have been assigned to read the first three readings that will be tested over next Friday.  We will continue our work on density, but we will be adding significant figures, conversions, and percent error. We will also be working on our lab safety quiz this week. The students will be watching a lab safety video this week and then taking a pass/fail quiz to show their safety knowledge. This must be passed by each student before they can do future labs. The lab on Thursday will require students to handle various metals, one of which is lead. We will also be looking at the difference between pre-1982 pennies and post-1982 pennies. Have a wonderful week. As always, if you have any questions or concerns email me at terryk@claytonbradleyacademy.org.

**Don't forget to look for your student in the images below. They worked so hard on this liquid density lab this past week.