Congratulations on being part of Jefferson-Morgan Elementary’s launch year of Project Lead the Way!  I am excited to be your child’s teacher for this amazing program.  Please stay current with our class website for important news and links throughout the remainder of the year.

What Is PLTW? Project Lead the Way (PLTW) prepares students to be the most innovative and productive leaders in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) and to make meaningful, pioneering contributions to our world. PLTW partners with middle schools and high schools to provide a rigorous, relevant STEM education. Through an engaging, hands-on curriculum, PLTW encourages the development of problem-solving skills, critical thinking, creative and innovative reasoning, and a love of learning. The PLTW middle and high school STEM education programs give students a brighter future by providing them with a foundation and proven path to college and career success in STEM-related fields. STEM education is at the heart of today’s high-tech, high-skill global economy. For America to remain economically competitive, our next generation of leaders must develop the critical-reasoning and problem-solving skills that will help make them the most productive in the world. PLTW sparks the ingenuity, creativity, and innovation within all of our students.

Course Outline: Project Lead the Way’s cutting-edge program addresses the interest and energy of middle school students, while incorporating national standards in math, science and technology. PLTW is activity oriented to show students how technology is used in engineering to solve everyday problems. The instructional units excite and motivate students to use their imaginations and teach them to be creative and innovative, while gaining the skills they need to develop, produce and use products and services. Your child will be learning about automation and robotics using VEX robotics and Robot–C programming. Students will trace the history, development and influence of automation and robotics. They will learn about mechanical systems, energy transfer, machine automation and computer control systems. Students acquire knowledge and skills in problem solving, teamwork collaboration and innovation.

Volunteers/Engineers: If you are interested in volunteering your time, we would love to have you! It would also be a great experience for the students to receive feedback or evaluation from professional engineers and programmers. If you have an interest or connection to design, building, or programming in your field of work/study/hobby/interest, please consider visiting our classes during the semester. Remember you will need to have updated Pennsylvania Clearances in order to be part of this course. Contact me if you would be interested.

Thanks to our partners:

 

Absences: The hands-on nature of the course will require daily participation and effort. Daily attendance is very important. Alternative assignments may be assigned as make-up work, however missing out on the work in class will result in missing key concepts.. Since make-up work can vary, it is essential that your child check-in with me after an absence to ensure that the correct work is completed. The design and completion of our robotics projects CANNOT be completed at home.

Grading Policy: The Project Lead the Way course will be graded using a 0-4 grading system for each project.

Work Place Standards/Agendas/Missing Work: Project Lead the Way will support many of the work place standards that are key to being competitive and successful in today’s world, such as cooperation, listening skills, critical thinking, problem solving, communication, computer skills, programming, project management, timeliness, and many more. Organization is another key to success, so it is important that your child use the planner that the school provides in a purposeful, meaningful way. For example, writing “project” isn’t very informative to a parent or forgetful student after a long day. I will frequently monitor your child’s entries and may provide feedback in the planner. Even though the planner should really be a helpful tool for your child, s/he may need your help in monitoring assignment detail and due dates, so I encourage you to check it as well. If your child has any missing work, I will often write the missing assignment and sign the note in the planner. This is a quick and immediate way to provide written feedback while reminding your child verbally. In Project Lead the Way, it is very important that your child participate actively during class. If missing work or lack of participation start to become an issue, we will work together to create a plan for success. Please sign your child’s planner in today’s section to show that your child has discussed and reviewed this “Course Overview” sheet with you.

Click Here to login to your PLTW Account. 

Click Here for Science is Fun! Trivia Quiz

Here is the link to the Jeopardy Review for your Levers Test on February 14, 2018 - Click to Play Jeopardy

 

I've also attached your study guide that was sent home on Monday. 

 

 

Attached is the Christmas Mystery Picture Coordinate List.  

 

Please allow students to use the key if they get stuck as a reference, but NO TRACING IS ALLOWED! 

As we are approaching our Christmas break, we are spending some time reviewing our first half of the school year.  On Dec. 8 in class we discovered more in depth information about the smallest form of life, cells!  Our students are completing a guided Webquest in class using www.cellsalive.com

 

We also took a break from our work to build cell puzzles and match the parts of cells in a memory card game to help us remember the cell parts.  

 

Attached is the guide we worked on in class. You will need software to open a .PDF file such as Adobe. 

 

Thank you to all of the parents who are continually checking your student planners and the website each evening!  Keep up the good work, especially during the busy holiday season!  

 

For those who did not catch the change to the Science Test date, the Biology test has been moved to 12-6. I felt the students needed some extra time to study.  Scavenger Hunts were completed and lab books sent home today for last minute studying.  The key to the Scavenger Hunt is on the Science assignments page if you would like to print and study.  As our students grow academically, it is nearly impossible to gather the abundant amount of information for work just by completing class work alone.  It is crucial that the students spend their own time studying, reading, and researching in order to fully grasp our science content!

 

Have a great day!

-Mr. Roszak

Attached is the PowerPoint file for our online Jeopardy game.  You will need PowerPoint to open the file.  View as a slide show in order to play the game! Enjoy! 

Students will complete their "Scavenger Hunt" Study Guides on Friday 12-1 in class.

 

Here is the answer key/study guide: 

• Flying is not a life process.
• Red blood cells carry oxygen to all cells in a human body.
• Scientists usually do not classify organisms by their color and size.
• Bacteria are one-celled organisms.
• Species have only one kind of animal in it.
• Species are a group of organisms that have the same traits.
• Members of species can interbreed.
• A hyrdra traps tiny organisms that pass in and out of its hollow body.
• Membranes control what goes in and out of a cell
• A nucleus directs the way the cell grows, develops, and divides.
• Cytoplasm is a jellylike substance that fills the cell.
• A wall helps the cell keep its shape.
• Chloroplasts capture energy from the sun.
• Viruses do not grow the way living things do.
• Viruses cannot release and use energy.
• Viruses can only reproduce when they are inside a living cell.
• Mollusks are invertebrates that have soft bodies.
• Some mollusks are supported and protected by one or two shells.
• Viruses cannot carry out all life processes
• Animal cells do not have a cell wall.
• The largest group to which scientists classify living things is called a kingdom.
• Scientists sort the organisms in a genus into smaller groups
• The organisms in a genus are similar
• A genus is a smaller group than a kingdom
• For hundreds of years, living things were classified as either plants or animals.
• Hydra uses tentacles to capture its prey.
• Sea stars live on the ocean floor, eat clams, and have powerful suction cups that anchor them to the bottom of the sea.
• Organisms that begin their lives breathing through gills, and then develop lungs are called amphibians.
• Bears, bats, and dolphins are all examples of mammals.
• The tubes in ferns can carry water long distances.
• Scientists classify flowering plants into two groups. The groups are based on the number of leaf like structures inside their seeds.
• Nerve cells carry messages from one part of the body to another.
• Red blood cells carry oxygen to all cells in the body.
• Tissues are groups of similar cells.
• The heart pumps blood throughout the body.
• Organs are tissues that work together
• Some protists have a green pigment like the one in the chloroplasts of plants. They trap the sun’s energy and produce sugar.
• Conifer seeds develop when a pollen grain carried by wind lands on a seed cone. A tube grows from the pollen down the cone into an egg cell. The two cells join and the seed develops.

 

Attached is a blank copy of the "Classifying Living Things" Lab/Outline Book that the students have completed in class.  This will be coming home on Friday the 1st.

Good morning JMES Important People! 

 

A few weeks ago I posted about our students being able to earn bonus points in class by completing current event articles and summaries. (AKA: IN THE NEWS)

 

I found an excellent resource with kid friendly articles.  DOGO NEWS is interactive and easy to use.  Check out DOGO NEWS HERE! 

TEST - MICROSCOPES AND VOCABULARY - 10-16-17

Attached you will find the study guide for Monday's Test on Microscope parts and vocabulary.  Students will need to know how to label a blank microscope and the meanings of all 12 vocabulary words.  I also may include several of our observation properties of magnifiers from class. 

"In The News" is an exciting way for our students to discover what's happening in Science, Technology, and Social Studies in the real-world!

 

Each Friday, students have the opportunity to print or cut out of a newspaper, a current Science, Technology, or Social Studies article.  Then, they are to write a one paragraph summary about the article in their own words.  The summary should be attached by staples or tape to the original article.