Hello! I am Mrs. Harvey and I am excited for my third year on Team Washington. I came to 8th grade after teaching a year of High School Chemistry. I have also been a scientist within the biotech and pharmaceutical fields over the last 20+ years. I look forward to our adventures in Science this year as we use an Integrated Science approach.
Extra help is encouraged to seek clarification, assistance, or conferencing, as needed. Opportunities include Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursdays during Directed Study scheduled during the school day. Another great opportunity is for students to seek help during Homework Club offered Monday through Thursday from 2:15 - 3:15 in our school library through the POWER program.
In Science this year our class will work towards achieving competencies in Earth's Place in the Universe, Earth's Systems, Motion and Stability, Energy, Waves and their Applications, Heredity, Biological Evolution, and Earth and Human Activity. Students will not be bringing a text book home; however, we have text books in the classroom for resources.
This year we will be exploring the following topics:
Geology on Mars
Magnetic Fields
Light Waves
Earth, Moon, Sun
Natural Selection
Evolutionary History
Plate Tectonics and Rock Cycle
Weather and Climate
Throughout this year we will focus on using the 8 practices of Science and Engineering:
Practice 1: Asking questions and defining problems:
Practice 2: Developing and using models
Practice 3: Planning and carrying out investigations
Practice 4: Analyzing and interpreting data
Practice 5: Using mathematics and computational thinking
Practice 6: Constructing explanations and designing solutions
Practice 7: Engaging in argument from evidence
Practice 8: Obtaining, evaluating, and communicating information
along with the cross cutting concepts from NGSS:
Patterns: Observed patterns in nature guide organization and classification and prompt questions about relationships and causes underlying them.
Cause and Effect: Mechanism and Prediction: Events have causes, sometimes simple, sometimes multifaceted. Deciphering causal relationships, and the mechanisms by which they are mediated, is a major activity of science and engineering.
Scale, Proportion, and Quantity: In considering phenomena, it is critical to recognize what is relevant at different size, time, and energy scales, and to recognize proportional relationships between different quantities as scales change.
Systems and System Models: A system is an organized group of related objects or components; models can be used for understanding and predicting the behavior of systems
Energy and Matter: Flows, Cycles, and Conservation: Tracking energy and matter flows, into, out of, and within systems helps one understand their system’s behavior.
Structure and Function: The way an object is shaped or structured determines many of its properties and functions.
Stability and Change: For both designed and natural systems, conditions that affect stability and factors that control rates of change are critical elements to consider and understand.
All work is kept up to date on Google Classroom. This includes the classroom agenda, some handouts, and all due dates. Guardians can be added into the Google Classroom upon request; please email me if you would like to be added.
The content and assignments for our classes are on Google Classroom. If you are a guardian and would like to receive the Google notifications for your student, please email me and I can add you to the list.