2/24 and 2/25--whodunnit

Today in class we did a brief review (test on friday) and then got into the mystery minerals lab. Students were given samples of 18 different minerals, and then used different physical properties to identify them.

Feb 18th and 19th--The start of Earth Science

Today we dug into chapter one and started learning about minerals. We talked about four questions we use to determine if something is a mineral and then we talked about the major classes of minerals (silicates and non-silicates). We also discussed how minerals and chemistry were related.

We then used magnifying glasses to look at several different items, and we determined if they were mineral in nature.

We went over the mineral composition of the earth's crust, and then talked about carbonates, sulfates, native elements, sulfides and halides.

Feb 10-11--finally finishing our projects

It has been a while since my last post. We have been busily working on our atomic energy projects and will have the 10th and 11th to finish them in class. Those that don't finish will need to complete them at home, or come in early and work on them before school.

We will be switching books--so please bring back your interactions of matter book. We will start on Earth Science on Monday the 16th

Feb 2-3-4

We are still working on our atomic energy digital stories. We've had some problems saving the files on our wiki, and the latest news from Microsoft is that we need to save our files on our thumbdrives.

So, bring them in folks!

We will not have a test on chapter four, so please also bring back your textbooks.

If you saw the news today about the earthquake in New Jersey--excellent timing, we will be starting our unit on earth science, and will be covering earthquakes.