Science+Policies

= Christ King Middle School Science Policies and Curriculum = = (2017 - 2018) = =Mrs. Betty Olszewski=

Science Policies
Science is an area of study that is constantly changing and advancing. These advances require today’s students to be prepared to make informed decisions on many everyday questions. Therefore, the goal of the science program in Christ King Middle School is to develop each student’s questioning and problem-solving skills, as well as to increase their knowledge about the world around them.

__Some basic policies that apply to all grade levels:__ 1. The Christ King Middle School’s discipline code will be followed in all classes. 2. Most of the student’s work will be contained in a 5-subject spiral notebook. Each student is required to have this notebook with him/her for class each day. The first two sections of this notebook will be for class notes, the third section for the Science Journal, and the fourth and fifth sections for the Activity Reports. 3. Usually notebooks will be collected and checked on every test day. However, the notebooks will also be collected whenever I see a need to do so. I do not have to announce in advance when I am going to collect the notebooks for grading. Any homework that is not done when the notebook is collected will be counted as late. Late work will not be graded any higher than a “C”. The longer the homework is late, the more points will be taken off. Besides this, the student will stay in at recesses until the late work has been completed. 4. Lab activities are an integral part of the course. These activities engage the students in the use of scientific equipment, as well as improving critical thinking skills. Labs further encourage good organizational skills and personal responsibility for behavior. Graphing skills and data table creation will also be developed to give the students the ability to analyze their data correctly. 5. Each activity that is done in class time has an Activity Report to be done for homework, due the next day. Most activity reports are worth 10 points toward the quarter grade. Activity reports must be in correct numerical order and use the format discussed in class time. 6. Usually tests are given at the end of every chapter, but a few tests will combine chapters. If a student misses a test because of an absence, he/she is required to take that test on the day he/she returns to school. This will always be enforced unless a note/e-mail comes from the child's parent requesting otherwise. 7. A study guide for each test will be handed out on the first day of class notes for each unit. Students can use these study guides to begin studying immediately for the chapter test. 8. Every assignment, test and project will be assigned a certain number of points toward the quarter grade. The amount of points earned by the student for each assignment/project/test will be added together at the end of the quarter and divided by the total points that were possible for that quarter. This will give the student’s overall percentage for the report card grade. 9. Any assignment can be corrected or improved to raise the grade up to a “C” grade. Corrections are considered to be late work. 10. Usually the class period before each test will be devoted to using the study guide to prepare for the test. 11. When the test is returned to the student, the test will have the grade for the test on top, as well as the student’s current average in Science on the bottom of the test. All parents are expected to view the child’s test scores on Standards Score website after the grades have been posted. Posting will usually be done within 24 hours of the child taking the Science test, barring a major problem. 12. Science homework is expected to be done every night, whether it is going over the class notes of the day, reading the appropriate section of the textbook that was covered in class, finishing the Activity Report from the day’s lab work, studying for a test or quiz, doing some science extra credit work, or doing the Science Journal entry for the chapter. 13. Up to 10 points of extra credit can be received by each student each quarter. These points will then be added to the total points accumulated by the student at the end of the quarter. Extra credit work could be reading a science article from any age-appropriate science source and then summarizing it in the student’s own words. Personal opinions are not to be given in this summary. Ten good sentences in the summary will provide one extra credit point. Also the “Chapter Projects” at the beginning of each chapter in the textbook can be done for extra credit points. Other extra credit work will be considered if you ask me about it. **All extra credit work must be hand-written. No typed work will be accepted.** 14. No liquid "White Out" is allowed in the Science classroom. The white liquid ruins the Science tables. Correcting tape is fine. 15. When Scotch-taping in lab sheets, etc. into the science notebook, only one sheet should be attached to a page in the notebook. Proper taping rules must be followed for all papers put into the notebook. 16. If for any reason a student does not have his/her homework done on time, a parent needs to write a note with a good reason why the homework will be late. (Sports practice is not a good reason.) Otherwise, a homework demerit will be issued for the late work, and the student will be required to stay in at recess to finish the homework that day.

//The 6th graders// begin the year with an introduction to the metric system and the Scientific Method, as well as safety issues in Science. This is followed by studying Newton’s Three Laws of Motion, as well as simple machines, heat, magnetism, static and current electricity, gravity, and friction. In the second semester students venture into the study of cells, microscopes, and genetics, as well as volcanoes, earthquakes, plate tectonics, rocks and minerals, and finally finishing the year with meteorology. The students do a Cell Model Project to help them learn and understand the cell's parts and how the cell works.
 * Science Curriculum: **

//The 7th graders// begin the year with a study of ecology. Then we will begin our study of the atom and elements and how they interact. This will be followed by our study of the systems of the human body: skeletal, muscular, skin, blood circulatory, lymphatic circulatory, digestive, respiratory, excretory, nervous and endocrine systems. After this, we learn about the invertebrate and vertebrate animals, leading into bacteria, archaea, protists, and finally plants. The students get Earth Science by studying weathering and erosion of our landscape at the end of the year.

//The 8th graders// begin the year with chemistry. Then there is a review on the Scientific Method. The 8th grade students’ three-month Science Fair Project includes an experiment done outside of the classroom, a research paper, a backboard and display, as well as an oral presentation to judges. This is their major project of the year. The 8th grade students will also learn about the Earth's surface water and oceans in the first semester. In the second semester they learn about paleontology while studying geologic time. Finally, the students end the year by learning some astronomy, starting with our own Earth and moon, but expanding to all the planets in our solar system, and then to the stars and galaxies.

Lab activities are an integral part of each grade. These activities engage the student in the use of scientific equipment, as well as improving critical thinking skills. They improve the students science skills of classifying, dissecting, observing, communicating, questioning, predicting, measuring, comparing, inferring, collaborating, recording results, graphing, using mathematical formulas, illustrating, hypothesizing, creating data tables, controlling variables, interpreting data, and creating models. Lab work will be done at least 4 times each week, unless it is a test week. The students are then responsible for writing up their Lab Reports for each and every activity that we do. The Lab Activity Reports are due the very next day in class. The format of these Lab Reports will be given during class time. All lab reports are written into the last 2 sections of the Science Notebook. All lab work is considered to be material that can appear on tests also.
 * Lab Activity work: **

All students will be required to have his/her Science Journal up-to-date. The Science Journal is the middle section of the Science Notebook. I will be assigning various entries for the students, but the one that is common to all grades is the end-of-the-chapter entry. For 6th graders, this entry will be a simple 100-word summary about what has been learned in that unit. However, for the 7th and 8th graders, this end-of-the-chapter assignment is different. These students must write their 100-word essay on how the information that was learned in the unit pertains to them in their everyday lives. This year there will be several more Science Journal entries. The students will be doing Quick Write assignments during class time, along with other assignments that pertain to the general topic of each chapter.
 * Science Journal work: **

Students are responsible to take all the class notes that are given in class time and get them into their Science notebooks. They are then to use these to study for each test. These notes go into the first 2 sections of the Science notebook.
 * Class Notes: **

I grade all assignments with points. Usually Lab Reports are worth 10 points each, although there are several that will be worth more. Tests range in the area of 70 points each, depending on the amount of class notes for any given unit. Every assignment or project will be assigned a certain number of points toward the quarter grade. The amount of points earned by the student for each assignment/project/test will be added together at the end of the quarter and divided by the total points that were possible for that quarter. This will give the student's overall percentage for the report card grade. Any assignment can be corrected or improved to raise the grade up to a "C' grade. Corrections are considered to be "late work." These corrections must be done within one week of the low grade being first given on the assignment.
 * Daily Grading: **

Any late work will be graded no higher than a "C" grade. The longer the homework is late, the more points will be taken off. If a student has not done his/her homework, my policy is for that student to stay in at recess that day (or the next day) to get that homework done. During recesses, I am available to help students understand class notes, as well as help them with the lab activities.
 * Late work: **

All in all, students are given a broad informational base that follows the Wisconsin Science Standards (based on the Next Generation Science Standards) and the new 2017 Archdiocesan Teaching Objectives for Middle School Science.

Mrs. Olszewski