Thursday, March 29, 2012

After Gym we began to explore our Science unit on the Human Body.  The students have done some initial brainstorming about what they know about the body.  We used jot notes to get the information written down instead of writing sentences.  This skill will come in handy when we begin doing a research project on the body.

We watched a Bill Nye video on the various body systems and had the students take some more jot notes, which I reviewed and was very pleased with.  With the exception of a couple of students, there was sufficient information written down.  This growing familiarity the students are developing will make our conversations in class easier and, I hope, interesting!

As we were reading the book, Half Brother, an interesting issue came up about animal testing.  In the book, based on the incidents surrounding the documentary, Project Nim, they mention how NASA sent up 2 chimps to outerspace to see how they would respond to the change in pressure and atmosphere.  With a computer handy, we looked up the image of the Life magazine cover of the chimps.  I then proceeded to ask a question -- for the journals -- on the ethics of using animals for testing.

It will be interesting to read the responses and provide a forum for a discussion about ethical matter.

We were planning to begin our next unit in Math but ran out of time.  We did prepare some counters for a game tomorrow involving the coordinate plane.

 

Our work on our SBR (Strength Based Resiliency) will resume tomorrow.  The quote I posted by Nelson Mandela on Tuesday's blog has been changed a bit but is now on the Word Wall in the classroom.  The idea of being able to bounce back from spending 25 + years in prison is inspiring.  I hope the spirit of being able to "bounce back" will be helpful for the students in Room 52.

Nelson Mandela

Robben Island (where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned)

 

Some words for our Word Wall (defined to assist in some of the in class exercises)

A group exercise looking at past and future uses of the skill set of being resilient

 

HOMEWORK:  Complete any necessary improvements to the Science work (title page, jot notes), complete journal on animal testing, have Math tests from last week signed.