Science

 Science Unit:                  Habitats

   We are currently studying the following skills within our Habitat unit.
   - Follow the Energy: Food Chains
   - Producers & Consumers
   - A Food Web
   - Our first junior Ecologist assignment: A Backyard Investigation
   - What are biomes? 
   - What are some of the largest biomes in the world? 
      - Mapping exercise to locate 9 biomes on a map of the world.
   - Adaptation:
       What is adaptation? 
        There are 2 types of adaptation: Structural & Behavioural
       - We will be discussing the structural adaptations of Polar Bears, Cheetahs and Monkeys.
       - We will be discussing the Behavioural adaptations of the Musk Oxen and Kangaroo.  
       -  We will head off to watch short video of a pack of wolves in Alaska attempting to attack a small herd of  musk oxen.
      - The class will be quite surprised to see that the musk oxen formed a circular wall of defense against a pack of wolves with no threat to the herd. 

Currently, we will be studying Adaptations and I will shortly introduce their first Junior project in Science.

 I will be showing the class 2 projects from last year's students who generously volunteered to leave their projects for this year's class.

As I walk through each Power Point Project Presentation from my previous students I will be walking your son or daughter through the project outline and their Success Criteria before the project is assigned.

We will be studying the Positive and Negative Effects of Humans on the Environment.
Today, we will discuss oil spills in the oceans of the world.
We will discuss slash and burn in Sumatra by companies who need a cheap source of cooking oil.
We will discuss a number of invasive species to Canada. The Zebra mussel, Asian Carp, and the Spruce Bug worm.


 Although we have to complete our discussions on the Positive Effects that Humans have on the environment.  

We will be Kahoot' ing. 

For those who don't know what Kahoot is....it's a computer program that allows me to input specific concept review questions on Habitats and then the program presents these questions to them on their handheld devices.
Students are given 4 multiple choice answers that they can play as a team or individually. Each student is rewarded points for the correct answer, as well as, bonus points for speed in answering the questions. 
 The kids love it....and our Kahoot Habitat review has begun.
Might I suggest you ask your son / daughter to simply take their Science Habitat duotang notes home and just READ one page a night. 
This strategy has been proven to work for many students.