Rosemary Krygowski's blog

Liz McCormick did a wonderful lesson on microwaves. I have  cut and pasted her lesson so that I will have it for class. This is a great lesson to teach the concept of how microwaves work. I especially like the idea of having the children do a concept map at the conclusion of this activity.

Evolution can be a touchy topic but I think Wil gave us some great web sites to check out. This one called  Squirrel/Sugar Glider has much more to it then Wil showed us. Go to the bottom of the page and you will can take an interesting side trip and  you can explore homologous structures in more detail. In college the phase" ontology recapitulates phylogeny" fascinated me. I always explain it in as development mirrors evolution. I never have been able to find good pictures. Click the below and wikppedia will get you to some great pictures.

Another important concept in seventh grade science is classification. I loved the way Wil started his lesson with the classification puzzle. Here is his web site http://www.brynmawr.edu/biology/franklin/LPN/animalpuzzle.html. Just click and copy and run off enough copies for each lab group. A perfect way to allow students the chance to classify by their own criteria.

Wil had a fantastic lesson on comparison anatomy. This web site will allow me to use virtual bones so that my students can make comparison.The site is called eSkeletons (http://www.eskeletons.org/). I know my students will love to just explore. I could see writing a lesson in which the students would pick out 2 different animals and I will ask them to search certain bones. They will then make hypothesis about these animals by looking at these bones.

                                               Image copied

 

fromhttp://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/wml/spaceandtime/planetarium/solar-system/graphics/solarsystem.jpg

 

In seventh grade we spend some time finding our place in the universe. I think this web site would be an interesting way to begin this unit http://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/cosmic/cosmic.html.

 I do spend some time teaching the watershed. I now have some idea how I can add some spark to this unit.

                                              

                   

                           I copied this image fro the following site

http://www.dep.state.pa.us/dep/deputate/watermgt/WC/Subjects/WSNoteBks/basin.gif

 

    I often kid that I am turning into my students. I know that I have learned many things this week but I'm afraid that I will forget them. I plan to use my blog to help me find my way back to Bryn Mawr when September comes.

My environmental club has a place in history. For the last twelve years our school community has helped me raise the funds to take my students to Canada. For years my students have been assisting teachers and staff at lunch and after school. This year  I wanted the students to be involved in service learning . Although I started this on a small scale last  year this year I want it to encompass more areas. Some new or improved activities will be:

   1.My club will be assisting our life skills class in collecting recycled papers throughout the building.

On the last day of school my principal had some great news as I was getting ready to leave for the summer.  Rosemary, I am able to get you a supplemental for your Environmental Club. This was great news to me except I really didn't have an Environmental Club. I had students pick up the recycling and clean up the outdoor classroom but it wasn't a club with meetings. For the past 12 years my students have been roaming the school on a daily basis looking for work to do. Teachers would then give them tickets as pay for their services. These tickets increased their opportunity to win a scholarship to Whale Camp.Last year I added environmental issues around the school  as part of the jobs available.This year I'll use this club to try some water monitoring around the school.