AND THE ACADEMY AWARD GOES TO...

Hello everyone,

Wow! The year is almost to an end, but we are still working away in science class! During the last two weeks, students have been working on their Astronomy Stop Motion pictures, and I could not be more pleased with how they turned out. The videos cover various topics, and they are on my YouTube channel Mr. Weather's World in the Science with Silverwood subsection. You can also watch them all below.

Students voted for their favorites in 4 different categories after watching all the videos in class. All of your 8 Gold teachers also voted for their favorites. Congratulations to Shane N., Cooper L., Yusif M., Madison G., and Jonnathan A. on winning Best Stop Motion Picture and Best Stop Motion Editing. Congratulations to Peyton G., Mia W., Sadie D., and Avaah L. on Most Creative Storyline, and congratulations to Eva S., Abeliz P., Scarlett P., Serenity G., and Paola S. for their win on Best Use of Comedy.

Now, students are learning about Natural Disasters, more specifically, Earthquakes and Volcanoes. We started our final unit this week and began by studying the structure of the Earth. Tomorrow, we'll begin to explore the interactions between tectonic plates, and then Friday, we'll discuss Earthquakes. Next week, we'll have a quiz on the Structure of the Earth and Earthquakes and begin to investigate Volcanoes.

Before the year ends, students will have a second quiz solely on Volcanoes. This unit does not have a large unit test. This unit is a great introduction to more geology topics your student will learn in 9th grade.

In addition, this will be the last blog post of the year. With less than two weeks of school left, the time has flown! I'm so happy to have gotten to know your students this year. We have had many memorable moments in the classroom, and I feel like they are all ready for high school! We've had a rollercoaster of a ride from the IU to the new building, but your students made every day such a great experience! I'm truly grateful to have had this time, and I hope they can take what they've learned in science this year and apply it to the real world and future classes. I feel like there are some future scientists among 8 Gold! I am proud of everyone in 8 Gold, and my words of wisdom for them is never to let someone tell you that you are no one. You are SOMEONE, and you are WORTH IT. I encourage all my students to be 100% true to themselves and embrace people who allow them to be their best selves. I've witnessed so many of them truly mature this year and grow. I can't wait to see them all graduate in 4 years! STAY GOLD!

As always, if there are any questions, please let me know at curtis_silverwood@conestogavalley.org.

Thank you,

Mr. Silverwood

MAY THE FOURTH BE WITH YOU...

Hey all,

I wanted to check in and let you know what's down the pipeline in science class! Right now, we have been taking our PSSAs and we are almost done! Tomorrow is our final day with the science PSSA and it's also STAR WARS DAY! If you're a nerd like me, then you are probably just as pumped! Don't forget to wear any Star Wars gear. I think all the students are going to love my sciencey Star Wars shirt.

After we are done with our science PSSAs, next week students will be finishing their Astronomy Stop Motion projects. Students can bring in materials from home or use whatever resources I have available in the classroom to create these video projects. Students chose groups of between 3-6 people to work with and picked from various topics. I'm really excited to watch what creative projects are made! I'm enjoying seeing the storyboards that students have so far.

On May 12th, we'll do a viewing of all the projects and vote for three different categories: Best Stop Motion Short Film, Most Creative Storyline, and Best Use of Materials & Editing. Then the winners will be rewarded with 6-inch "Oscars". The group that wins Best Stop Motion Short Film will also win their class period a visit by Coco and some sweet treats! All winners in each category have the opportunity of getting 2 bonus points for their project. These incentives are to make the project more fun and to increase student productivity. I will be providing students as much support during next week with editing their projects.

When we finish our Stop Motion project we'll move into our final unit of the year! Natural Disasters/previously called Catastrophic Events. In this unit, students will learn about Earthquakes, Volcanoes, and the structure of the Earth. It is going to be primarily student paced with collaborative labs and classroom demonstrations.

There will be NO unit test for that unit, I'll only be giving two 15 or 20-point quizzes.

As always, if there are any questions feel free to reach out at curtis_silverwood@conestogavalley.org

Thank you,

Mr. Silverwood

POEMS & PARODIES OF SPACE

Hello everyone,

During the past two weeks, students have been learning about Planets, Kepler's Laws of Planetary Motion, Dwarf Planets, Moons, Comets, Asteroids, Meteoroids, Meteors, and Meteorites, as well as the Life Cycle of a Star and H-R Diagrams. This Friday is our Astronomy: Part 2 - Quiz. The quiz will mark the end of the Astronomy unit. Moving into next week, students will begin their PSSA testing in ELA, the following week will be focused on Math and Science PSSA testing. Between testing, students will begin working on a Stop Motion project creating 30-second to 1-minute-long stop motion videos about different Astronomy topics we focused on during this unit. They will have the ability to bring in materials from home or use in-class resources to make their projects come to life.

The Stop Motion project will be the last Astronomy-focused assignment before moving onto our final unit of the year! Yes, we are so close to summer! The last unit will focus on Natural Disasters/Catastrophic Events. Students during this unit will be working primarily self-paced with some group work mixed in throughout. We'll focus on why volcanoes and earthquakes occur and how natural disasters like those impact human life.

Below are some examples of great poems/parody songs that students wrote for our recent project on small celestial bodies (Dwarf planets, moons, comets, asteroids, meteoroids, meteors, and meteorites).

Although next week will include special schedules and PSSA testing, if students need to make up any work or turn in any late work they should use the limited class time available to do so! Some students are missing work and have "X"-s in the grade book.

As always if there are any questions, feel free to reach out to me via email at curtis_silverwood@conestogavalley.org

Thank you,

Mr. Silverwood