Monday, January 6, 2020 (HS-LS2-7, HS-ETS1-3): Welcome to the first week of school in 2020! We have a lot to accomplish, so our work today is broken down into three steps:
Step 1: Take the Continent Survey – this will inform (but does not guarantee!) group placement for our work tomorrow.
Step 2: Join Mr. Swart’s Newsela classroom. After joining the classroom, students are instructed to read the article titled, “Earth’s Systems: What is a biome?” and highlight key ideas in the article using the highlighting feature in Newsela.
Step 3: Open the HHMI BioInteractive BiomeViewer and work through the accompanying Student Worksheet.
Tuesday, January 7, 2020 (HS-LS2-7, HS-ETS1-3): We will extend our learning of biomes from yesterday with the Ted Ed video below (Why is biodiversity so important?):
After a brief discussion about the video, students will read the Newsela article titled, “What is biodiversity?” and and highlight key ideas in the article using the highlighting feature in Newsela..
After reading the article and completing the notes, students will learn of their continent team assignment by checking their student Gmail account. Based on data from the continent survey yesterday, students were placed into one of five different continent teams:
The first team assignment is for each team member to read the articles about the Physical Geography and Human Geography of their continent through the Newsela classroom.
After reading the articles, team members will cross-reference the content from the article with the HHMI BiomeViewer and decide as a team which biome to move forward with the research project.
Wednesday, January 8, 2020 (HS-LS2-7, HS-ETS1-3): Student groups have the class period to work on yesterday’s work.
Thursday, January 9, 2020 (HS-LS2-7, HS-ETS1-3): With the Newsela website down during class today, students had two options: complete the BiomeViewer work from Monday (required) or, if finished with the BiomeViewer work, to watch the Popped Secret video below and complete the accompanying student handout.
Friday, January 10, 2020 (HS-LS2-7, HS-ETS1-3): Today is the final day of class time for students to complete the individual work for the Continent Biome project. Students have the class period to complete the work. Any additional time should be used to complete the BiomeViewer Student Worksheet activity from Monday or the Popped Secret bonus handout from yesterday.
The BiomeViewer worksheet is due today for full credit. Late work will receive 60% max credit. The Popped Secret handout is due next Friday for bonus.
The Art of Science 