Sustainability Project Report June 16, 2009
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Grade 8 Sustainability
Students are working feverishly in class to meet the Wednesday/Thursday deadline for the sustainability project. This daunting project which challenged students to design a sustainable community for 30 people has met a number of roadblocks along the way but throughout it all students were able to surmount all the challenges through their increasingly confident problem solving approaches.
Using logic trees and systemic problem solving techniques many students have managed to build a hydropowered generator that can power up to 5 LED lights in the village, developed a water filtration system to service the water needs of the residents and figured out a way to lift 500g weight 20 cm in the air using only water power.
Through it all students have expanded their undertanding and appreciation of simple machines and the essential role they play in keeping our societies running. They have gained an appreciation of the amount of energy required to sustain many of our lifestyles and many have been suprised to find out the extent of their impact on the environment.
Students in Day A classes will be presenting their project for evaluation on Wednesday of this week and Students in Day B classes will be presenting their project on Thursday of this week. Takedown will take place in the last hour of those classes as well.
Eco Crisis Report June 16, 2009
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Grade 7 Eco Crisis
The last few months have been the most exciting in our science classroom- students in grade 7 have taken to heart some of the key messages from the interactions and ecosystems unit and have turned their understanding into action projects in a number of different areas. Students have decided that there is an eco crisis affecting many different systems on our planet and have decided to take head on the task of championing a particular cause over the next few months and years.
Some students have taken on the daunting task of raising awareness around little known issues such as the decline in Shark Populations, the Amphibian crisis, Pollution, Acid Rain and Endangered species among many others. Some have gone as far as contacting local developers to change their land use practices to try and save wetland areas from being paved over. Students have realized that the value of what they learn did not end with their report cards but rather real learning required them to engage with the real world to truly understand issues at a deep level. Many students have surprised me with their sophisticated approaches in dealing with the myriad number of issues and concerns they are faced with in engaging in real action projects. Some of the students have made it clear to me that they are going to be engaged in these projects over the summer break on their own time. The issues are just too important to be only done in school!I would like to wish the grade 7 students continued success in their projects.
My sincerest apologies to parents and students for not posting an update much sooner however the CBE servers have decided to block all wordpress pages from loading properly. Something that is being tackled all to slowly in my mind from the powers that be, hence the update had to wait a little longer than I wished.
Machines- Engineering- Sustainability- Madness!! May 5, 2009
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Students in grade 8 are currently trying to build the best possible water wheel to capture the mechanical energy from falling water. This is phase 1 in what is an ambitious project to create an entirely self sufficient and sustainable small scale village for about 30 people on a 70cm X 70cm space.The current favorite seems to be a water wheel that involves spoons and a cork based on a design one of the students discovered.
Testing of this water wheel under running water seems to meet expectations of a device that can transmit mechanical energy effectively and based on the amount of water splashed around in class those wheels are efficient. The next step off course is to try and link a generator to the wheel and see if we can generate enough electricity to power 6 small bulbs. The current water wheel design might need to be changed based on our results at that point.
Over the next few days we will also be introducing students to pre made solar panels to explore another venue of generating usable energy. I am also looking to pull in an engineer who will hopefully come in to talk about the process they go through when they are designing and or trying to solve problems.
On another note students were surprised to find out to day that motors can actually generate electricity as well in a separate but fun investigation, the insight came from experimenting with a blower motor and testing it on my Car! I do believe there are a few students who now have a different appreciation of Alternators as well since I took advantage of the situation by boring a few students with my long story about how my alternator seized and the consequences of that on my car and my pocketbook!
The project continues over the next little while all are encouraged to visit the Sustainability Tab to keep track of all the tinkering going on in the project. As an aside due to the lack of computers in class and the building and experimentation going on in class, most students are encouraged to contribute to the class discussion from home.
Earth Day 2009 April 23, 2009
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Earth Day has come and gone and the 100 + students in my classes celebrated the event with a number of different events including watching some multimedia presentations, calculating the size of their footprints and for some classes putting acting to make a clean school yard. Students prior to the winter snowfall also opted to do a short Garbage collection exercise and were extremely surprised by what they collected within 15 minutes.
The discussions that some students participated in online and in class, gives voice to the surprise many of them felt about the impact their lifestyle has on the planet. Many of them have pledged to a lot more to try and reduce their impact and a few students have some big ideas about raising awareness of environmental issues to people they are connected to. Quite a few students expressed frustration that we seem to pay attention to the Earth only once a year case in point earth hour or earth day.
One of the multimedia presentations was a powerful speech made by Severn Suzuki aged 12 at the Earth Summit in Rio De Janeiro- the following is a reflection based on a student’s perspective about the impact of the speech.
A students perspective-
I thought that Severn Suzuki`s speech was very enpowering especially since she cares so much about the world. But most kids her age would not really care as much or at all about the earth and how the future is on our shoulders. I was impress by the fact that for Severn to make a speach she and her school had to work to make the money to get there so they could have an impact on the world and on our socitey.
Enrichment Set: Observing the natural world April 17, 2009
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Spring is probably my favorite season, mostly because of all the changes taking place in the natural world. The current enrichment set is put forward to celebrate this special season and to help us find out more about this beautiful time of year.
At least a third of all amphibians all over the world have disappeared over the last few decades, it is extremely worrying that this loss in biodiversity extends to species such as bees, certain species of mammals, birds etc. This enrichment set assumes that by understanding more about the natural systems we live in we will be more in tune with them and thereby appreciate the beauty and sheer genius of living systems and perhaps be in a position to act to reduce the loss in biodiversity.
The assignment:
Visit a local pond or series of ponds in Calgary as well as wooded (wild) spaces and make observations in your science journal as well do reflect on those observations and the changes you see. Quality of observations and deep reflection are essential in this assignment- the enrichment set will be considered complete if daily observations are kept going for a period of 2 weeks. Will look forward to seeing student journals!
Sustainability project launched April 16, 2009
Posted by mrsajan in Announcements.Tags: grade8science, projects, science, science8
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Grade 8 Students will be launching into the Sustainability project on Monday to support their learning in new, intresting and relevant ways as part of the Salt and Freshwater as well as Mechanical Systems units. More details on the project can be found on the top tab.
We welcome parent donations of any kind especially copper wire as well as large hard plastic sheets to help us during this project. We would also welcome any input from parents particularly if they are personally involved or know of professionals in infrastructure projects such as waterworks, electricity grids, renewable energy initiatives or in city planning- expertise available to consult with us would lend greater depth and meaning to our project.
A successful field trip April 14, 2009
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Students, volunteer parents and teachers arrived back at David Thompson School on April 7th tired after a long and busy day at the museum. Students were able to tour this amazing facility and take in with all their senses the magnificent history of life that is displayed so evocatively in this museum.
We would like to thank all the students and parents for doing all they could in ensuring this trip was a success. A special thank you to the 3 parents who volunteered for the trip their help was indispenseble.
Amphibian Crisis April 14, 2009
Posted by mrsajan in Announcements.Tags: amphibians, science7
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Based on class discussions within grade 7 we have discovered that there is a crisis affecting amphibians all over the world. As part of our interest in how living and non living things interact as well as ecosystems we are extremely curious to find out more about this crisis and what if anything we can do about it.
A special Amphibian Page has been set up as a part of this blog to capture our conversations and learning. Grade 7 Parents and students are invited to participate in this online ‘learning’ community to share knowledge and possible solutions. Being a new initiative this blog will evolve over time and I beg your patience with the current format as I try and make it even more interactive and relevant.
5 sleeps from Dinosaurs! April 2, 2009
Posted by mrsajan in Announcements.Tags: dinosaurs, fieldtrip, grade7, grade7science, trip, tyrell
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Grade 7 Students and the science teachers all over the school are on pins and needles as they anxiously count down the days and hours till we leave for the Royal Tyrell Museum. Mr. Sajan’s classes have almost 100% of students sign up and he couldn’t be more pumped.
Many thanks to the 3 parents who have volunteered to come on the trip- 2 From Ms. Epps 7D class and 1 from my7C class. The trip would not have been possible without their help. I sincerely know that they share first hand in the excitement that is sure to ensue during the trip.We will depart at approx. 8:45 AM from the school and be back at 4PM parents and students are reminded that transportation back home from the school as always is their own responsibility.
Tension in the classroom! April 2, 2009
Posted by mrsajan in Announcements.Tags: "salt and freshwater systems", grade8, grade8science, Water unit
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Grade 8 Students and Mr. Sajan have dived into the deep end with 4 different investigations all in the last day; all exploring the special nature of water- In particular the Surface Tension of Water/liquids- We have pushed around styrofoam blocks- poured water down a string- poked holes in containers- floated pins- seen insects walk on water- and melted snow- realizing that water is pretty much the only substance that can float as a solid (ice) when put into liquid water.
We hope to continue exploring the special nature of liquids- within the bigger story of matter and in particular the unique behavior of water as we wander our way to interesting places in the salt and freshwater systems unit which has been combined with the mix and flow of matter unit.
Parents and students are invited to follow along by regularly visiting this blog as well as deepen their understanding of science for grade 8 by checking out the actual Alberta Science 7,8, 9 curriculum at
http://education.alberta.ca/media/654829/sci7to9.pdf
Look forward to hearing from you if you have any questions.
