Summary of today's work & Homework 11/1

8th Grade

We are still working on timelines in 8th grade.  This week we will be creating a timeline of the Earth's History.  We did a simple math problem today that introduced the students to using a scale for creating a timeline.  We will be using a 1mm = 1 million years scale for our Earth History Timeline.  Students were asked to complete pg 41 in their Lab Notebooks during class today.  Whatever was not completed is assigned as homework.  The ENTIRE table must be complete when they come in tomorrow.

To do this, we will use simple math.  If 1 million years is 1mm on our scale, we just have to place our age (years) into millions of years.  For example, the Quaternary Period is 1,600,000 after the Earth was formed.  Turn this into a decimal for millions of years - 1.6 million years.  The distance on our timeline is 1.6mm.  To find out how many centimeters this is, divide by 10.  1.6mm divided by 10 = .16cm. 

HINT:  Each row's answer will be bigger than the previous row.  If your answer gets smaller, you've made a mistake with your decimal point.

Here is a great timeline of events in Earth's History for the curious. 

Don't forget to check Powerschool for your benchmark scores!

7th Grade

We were scheduled to watch a video (National Geographic's For All Mankind [VHS]) about our voyage to the Moon in 1969.  HR 305 had dificulty settling down after their Halloween weekend and after repeated warnings, the video was turned off for them.  They were unable to stop commenting and talking long enough to get anything out of the movie.  Instead, they will be writing an essay about how their behavior should be.  These essays will be turned into Contracts - which they will be required to sign and uphold a code of behavior.  This was not their only incidence of excessive talking, this has been progressing for the past few weeks.  I have been repeatedly warning them that it is unacceptable and hopefully this will be all we need to do.  Essays were begun in class and should be completed for HW tonight.  Also - many students did not get their benchmarks signed this weekend and must do so tonight.