After the long weekend, we spent a majority of the class period reviewing Lesson 13. Students had a lot of great questions focusing on how to calculate the number of protons and neutrons in a given atom, how to wrote isotopes, and how to calculate the average atomic mass of an element given the frequency of naturally occurring isotopes. Pictures from the white board are shown below. At the end of class, students received copies of the Lesson 14 Worksheet and the Chart of Naturally Occurring Isotopes. Tomorrow, students will review the Lesson 14 PowerPoint, taking careful notes on slides 7-9 before working together to complete the worksheet and textbook questions 1-14. Email me with any questions.
Updates: Students had a substitute on Tuesday (10/13) and then took the PSAT yesterday (10/14). Today, we watched the final segments of Hunting the Elements (from 1:26:00 to the finish) to refresh student learning about neutrons and isotopes. After the video, we worked through a few questions from the Lesson 14 worksheet and from the textbook. Tomorrow (Friday) students will participate in a “write to explain” baseline assessment to support the science department’s goal of assessing how well our science students are able to clearly write scientific explanations so that we can work to improve their writing in that area.
The Art of Science 