COMING BACK DOWN TO EARTH

Hello everyone,

As our Astronomy - Part 2 Unit comes to a close, we’re preparing to “come back down to Earth,” literally! We're transitioning from studying the skies to uncovering our planet's geologic history. We’ve had an exciting journey through the cosmos, and it’s almost time to shift our focus to Earth’s History. This is related to absolute and relative dating using information from rocks and understanding our Geologic Time Scale.

Where We WERE

Over the past few weeks, we’ve been all about the wonders of celestial movement. We dug into solar and lunar eclipses, learning why and how these events occur. Then, we shifted to tides, exploring how the gravitational forces of the Moon and Sun create the daily rhythm of rising and falling ocean waters. These topics gave us a deeper understanding of the fascinating relationship between Earth, its closest celestial neighbors, and the observable effects right here on our planet.

Where We Are

We’re wrapping up our study of tides and preparing for our final Astronomy - Part 2 test this Friday, November 15th. This test will combine everything we’ve learned about Day, Night, and Seasons and the Moon’s phases, Eclipses, and Tides. It’s a great opportunity to show all we’ve discovered and understood about how these cosmic patterns shape our world. So, students should take time each night before the test to review their notes, work on the review packet, and use the review Blooket to ensure they're ready to soar through the test on Friday!

Below are images from our Analyzing Lunar Eclipse Images activity:

Where We’re Going

After the test, we’ll shift gears and begin our Earth’s History unit right before Thanksgiving break. We’ll dive into Earth’s structure and explore the processes that shape our planet’s surface. This will include an introduction to sedimentary rocks and how they tell the stories of Earth’s past environments. After the holiday break, we’ll continue exploring the rock cycle and move on to the other rock types: igneous and metamorphic rocks. We’ll end with an exciting look at the geologic time scale to understand the vast history of our planet.

Instead of a traditional unit test, we’ll conclude this unit with a cumulative project. This will allow students to be creative, dive deep into a period in Earth’s history, and present their learning and exploration in a different and slightly less stressful way!

If you have any questions or want to connect further, please don’t hesitate to contact me at curtis_silverwood@conestogavalley.org. You can also follow our journey on Instagram at @classwithcatwood, where I share updates and snapshots of our exciting classroom activities.

Thank you for your time,

Mr. Catwood (formerly Silverwood)

SUN-EARTH-MOON INTERACTIONS

Hello families,

I wanted to take a moment to share all of the exciting things we’ve been up to in science class recently! Your students have been working hard, and I’m thrilled with our progress. Here’s a brief update on our journey in the classroom.

Where We Were

We recently wrapped up our first unit test, and the students did a fantastic job demonstrating their learning. Over the past few weeks, we’ve been busy exploring the concepts of day, night, and changing seasons. Through various hands-on activities, your students have modeled Earth’s orbit and axis tilt, gaining a deeper understanding of how these factors influence the length of days and the seasonal changes we experience throughout the year.

Below are images from our Day, Night, and Seasons lab:

Where We Are

Currently, we’re diving into one of my favorite topics—the Moon! We’ve been investigating the phases of the moon that we can observe throughout the month and connecting this to how ancient civilizations, such as the Mayans and the early peoples of Scotland, used the moon’s cycles to track time and create their calendars. The students are learning the science behind the phases and appreciating how these natural cycles have influenced human history and culture.

Where We’re Going

In the coming weeks, we will continue to explore the dynamic interactions between the Earth, Sun, and Moon. We’ll finish up our moon phases exploration and then focus on eclipses—both solar and lunar—before transitioning into learning about tides. We’ll study how the Moon’s gravitational pull (and partly the Sun) impacts high and low tides and the more extreme spring and neap tides. Once we’ve wrapped up our study of tides, we’ll conclude our "Astronomy - Part 2" unit and prepare for our next unit test.

If you have any questions or want to connect further, please don’t hesitate to contact me at curtis_silverwood@conestogavalley.org. You can also follow our journey on Instagram at @classwithcatwood, where I share updates and snapshots of our exciting classroom activities.

Thank you for your time,

Mr. Catwood (formerly Silverwood)

FIRST UNIT TEST!

Hello everyone,

I wanted to take a moment to share what we’ve been up to in science class and give you a glimpse into the exciting things we’ve explored—and what’s coming next!

WHERE WE WERE

We recently wrapped up our Small Celestial Bodies Poem or Parody Song project, and I’m so proud of the creativity your students brought to this assignment! From poems to parody songs about dwarf planets, comets, asteroids, moons, meteors, meteorites, and meteoroids, they’ve done an excellent job exploring these fascinating space objects. It was amazing to see how each student used their unique voice and creativity to understand the characteristics of these celestial bodies.

Below are some of the cover art creations from students from the project:

We also spent time looking at the scale of the solar system, creating models outside to understand how vast it is. This led us to an exploration of Kepler’s Laws of Planetary Motion, where we learned about how planets move around the sun in elliptical orbits and how their speed changes based on their distance from the sun.

A few photos from the Scale Model fo the Solar System activity:

WHERE WE ARE

Right now, we’re diving into one of my favorite topics in astronomy—the sun and other stars. That involves some of the interactions that occur in space between the Sun and Earth that scientists call Space Weather. A reason we had the Aurora in Lancaster recently!

Images from the recent Aurora (from Lancaster, Morgantown, and Pottstown areas):

We’ve been exploring the anatomy of stars, their life cycle, and what powers them—nuclear fusion! We even did a fun, hands-on nuclear fusion marshmallow lab to bring this concept to life. Your students are beginning to understand how stars are classified using H-R diagrams, and we’ll be exploring that in more detail over the next few days. This all leads up to our first big unit test, where students will show what they’ve learned so far in a more traditional format.

WHERE WE ARE GOING

As we prepare for our first unit test on Monday, October 21st, I encourage your students to review the material we’ve covered in the first part of astronomy. Students were given review packets (study guides), there is a Blooket they can use on Schoology to study, and on my agenda and the 8 Gold homework feed, I have linked the notes for each section of Astronomy - Part 1 to look back on. These slides have videos that their digital notebooks do not have. I also told students to look at their Quick Checks because they might have questions similar to the test. By saying "might," I really meant definitely! 😅

After the test, we’ll move into Astronomy - Part 2, focusing on closer interactions between the moon, Earth, and Sun. We’ll explore topics like day and night, seasons, moon phases, tides, and eclipses—fascinating concepts that will deepen your student’s understanding of our place in the universe.

If you have any questions or want to connect further, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me at curtis_silverwood@conestogavalley.org. You can also follow our journey on Instagram at @classwithcatwood, where I share updates and snapshots of our exciting classroom activities.

Thank you for your time,

Mr. Catwood (formerly Silverwood)