Sixth grade Earth/Space Science students are finishing up their Plate Motion Engineering Internship where students design a tsunami warning system to protect the island nation of Sri Lanka. Students will use their knowledge of plate motion, plate boundaries, and earthquakes to design an effective, efficient, and affordable warning system. Later this month we will begin the Rock Transformations unit where students will work on answering the question "How do rocks form and change?"

7th grade Life Science students are wrapping up learning about Traits and Reproduction. Inside virtually every cell in every organism on Earth, genes provide instructions for making proteins that govern all the functions of an organism’s body. An organism inherits its genes from its parent or parents, but different combinations of genes can lead to striking variation even among closely related organisms. Understanding the role of genes and the process of inheritance has allowed researchers to explain variation in life on Earth, breed plants and animals with new traits, and develop cures for devastating diseases. We will be moving on to the next unit, Natural Selection, around Mid-Winter Break.

8th grade Physical Science students will explore phase changes by investigating the mystery of a methane lake on Titan, Saturn's moon, which disappeared between 2007 and 2009. Acting as chemists for a fictional space agency, they analyze whether the lake evaporated or froze using simulations, articles, and hands-on experiments. Through this, they learn how molecular movement, kinetic energy, and molecular attraction vary between phases and apply this understanding to explain the lake’s disappearance under Titan's unique conditions.

Celebrations will be held across the board for sixth-grade students this week. Mrs. Duncan and Mrs. Jarvis have been working alongside our Goodman Librarian Mrs. Nielsen to foster a love of reading. We are proud of the student ownership and collaboration that we have been seeing in Language Arts during Literature Circles time. Students have been working in small groups to 

In these small groups, they’ve been reading and discussing a novel, exploring key themes like internal conflict and setting. They’ve focused on internal conflict, looking at how characters face tough choices and emotions, which helps them understand the story and characters better. They also studied the setting, considering how the time and place influence what happens in the story and how characters act.

Working in groups has encouraged students to share ideas, ask questions, and learn from each other, all while improving their critical thinking and communication skills.

Thank you for supporting your student’s learning journey!