STEM Day Oct 20th

New Investigations 8th grade students are starting this week:

Cannan and Keagan: Bouncing Objects

Brady and three others: Paper Airplane Design that flies longest or farthest

PSAT This Week

A main focus of students in 8th Grade will be completing the PSAT test on Wednesday this week. Please be sure to get plenty of rest and eat a healthy breakfast before this test.

Monday and Tuesday in class we will be investigating phase changes with GIZMO and discussing the locations of Potential and Kinetic Energy in physical changes.

I have observed that most students are enjoying the opportunity to pursue STEM investigations during class.  Students are taking advantage of STEM Enrichment days to perform chemcial reactions, create computer code, create electrical circuits with Arduino Processors, disassemble computers, create movies, prepare for science competitions, and a variety of other pursuits.  I'm excited to see your enthusiasm.  Keep up the great work!

We will resume normal class routine on Thursday after the PSAT on Wednesday.  There is no school on Friday so enjoy the three day holiday - be safe and have fun!

September Recap

We have completed our first full month of school and I wanted to share some general patterns I have noticed.

Everything Starts with Attitude

Student attitudes toward learning are very positive.  Most students are completing their assignments and are working hard to do a good job.  I see evidence that most students have a growth mindset, and those with a fixed mindset are beginning to try new strategies for a more effective path to learning.

Performance

Student performance so far is excellent - overall A's and B's for most students in both 3rd and 4th Block.  There are a few students that have not transitioned to 8th grade expectations, but I hope they will adjust to our faster pace during October and that their grades will improve as they become accustomed to the workload.

The charts at right were generated from my teacher account on Powerschool and show me the overall class statistics.  You might notice most of the assignments so far have been in the Classwork category, and that the overall performance, identified as Percentage, is 80% or better for both classes in the Test, Classwork and Lab categories.

You are all good students and I know you will keep working hard to do your personal best and constantly improve.  Keep up the good work!

STEM Enrichment: Your Personal Blog

Blog Titles

I'd like you to think about whether the name on your personal blog accurately reflects the posts you have made.  You are welcome to change the name of your Blog to better reflect its content as long as you keep your first name in the Title so that I can identify you as the auther when I open your blog.

Creating Blog Posts

A shout out to Amya/Marissa/Jersey, Zach/Sam/Luke/Nathan, Ethan/Hannah, Madison, Zach, Isabel, and Hailey for doing a great job brainstorming and then organizing ideas into categories for their Sept. 29th blog posts about STEM Enrichment Day #2.

Please look at your blog posts and read any comments I may have written.

I hope that you will begin sharing your blogs with each other as we become more comfortable with this medium of communication.  I also am wondering if we could make your blogs a part of the portfolio that is shared with your parents duing parent-teacher conferences.

Looking forward to an Excellent October!

Mr. Delemeester