Math Lesson 5

We wrapped up our rain forest unit in math class today! We practiced utilizing social bookmarking sites, like delicious, to gain information. Students read articles that I bookmarked, or selected for them because they related to rain forest deforestation. We gathered data about how many acres are destroyed each day, and then converted to other units of time (month, year...). Feel free to ask your students about rates! They are pros! :-)

Since our unit is now complete, the Unit Rubric is posted on our Blackboard site. This will give you an idea of how students will be assessed for the week-long unit.

Thanks for reading :-)

Grading Rubric

I have posted the grading rubric on Blackboard so please look it over and let me know if you have any questions about expectations for this paper. Please keep in mind that this research paper is counting as the final assessment for the rainforest unit, so students will be using comprehensive knowledge from this unit to complete the their paper.

Math Lesson 4

Today we talked about precipitation in math. Students watched a short video clip (check out our Blackboard page!) about rainfall in the rain forest. Next, they paged through almanacs to gather information about monthly precipitation totals in a particular rain forest and in Pennsylvania. This helps give a better idea of how much rain really falls in tropical regions! Students made graphs to represent the rainfall for the months. Together, our class calculated the mean or average rainfall for each month in a rainforest and in Pennsylvania. Students should be able to explain to their grown-ups why knowing each month's precipitation is sometimes better than knowing the average. Check out the class blog to see students' great ideas! We projected them on the smartboard in class and we were able to highlight some of the important parts of a graph.

Keep in contact :-)

Social Studies Lesson # 5

For the last lesson, I will be introducing students to their final project for the unit. They each will be assigned to write an individual research paper on a specific tribe of indigenous people from the rainforest. The paper will require them to incorporate knowledge from the previous lessons on this unit. It will focus on such aspects as the culture, population, history,leisure activities, etc.of the tribe of choice. The research paper will be completed in small stages. Each stage will be turned in and graded. This grade will contribute to the overall grade of the paper. This paper will be counting as the final assessment for this unit. I will be posting a grading rubric soon so you can better understand the expectations for the paper. Also, I will be handing out the guideline and outline of the paper for students to follow. We will review these and I will answer any questions they have about the project. These are posted on Blackboard so feel free to look over them to familiarize yourself with the paper. The majority of the writing and researching process will be taking place in school. I have scheduled time each week to utilize the computer lab.
After reviewing all of this information with them I will explain how to log onto the class wiki so they can download Stage One worksheet. I will be making a tutorial to walk them through the process of retrieving the worksheet. We will be working through the wiki during this entire process to try to reduce paper in order to save trees. These last few lessons we have focused on the environment so this is one way we determined as a class to help green the planet.The students will then complete the worksheet and send it to me via email. I will review their topic choices and approve one through email. If, they do not complete the assignment during our computer lab time they will be expected to finish it for homework.
Please feel free to contact me with any questions. This is a large assignment so I will constantly be updating you with new information as it becomes available. Thanks for your support!