A New Beginning...

Just like all of us are anticipating the new Star Wars movie, you've all been waiting for my return to the technological side of teaching.  With your ability to use Facebook and Twitter you can not only reach out to me but also your classmates when you need assistance with classwork or exams.  I'll update the blog on a regular basis and you can post questions as needed.

Unit 7 Exam

The following topics will be on the Unit 7 exam featuring Weather & Atmosphere:

The water cycle

The layers of the atmosphere

Solving equations based on annual rainfall

Vocabulary terms from the unit (24 total)

The types of scientists

Instruments used in measuring weather.

Greece Essay

How does the government in Athens compare to the democracy in the United States?  What are some of the similarities between and Athens and America?  What things have we taken for granted as citizens?  What did the Athenians take for granted?  Did they think too highly of themselves?  What was the the ultimate downfall of Athens?

Unit 2 Review--Walk Like an Egyptian

Vocabulary

• Study the 13 vocabulary terms 

Label the following map locations

• Nile River Valley, Nile River, Red Sea, Upper Egypt, Kush

Label 5 of the following 10 locations

• Giza, Memphis, Theebz, Napata, Meroe, Nile Delta, Arabian Peninsula, Great Pyramid, First cataract, Second cataract

Essay Questions

• Describe how Egyptians are like humans today?  What traits do they have as members of organized civilizations?  How do we act similar to the ancient Egyptians? Please be very specific with your details.
• Explain why the pyramids were important to the ancient Egyptians.  Please provide specific details about what led to the creation of the pyramids.  What did they do to the bodies?  What was inside of the tombs?  How did the creation of the pyramids lead to advances in math and science?
• Describe and explain the differences between the rule of Ramses II and Hatshepsut.  Provide evidence to support your idea.  Was there anything unusual or strange about the leaders?
• Explain why the need for more land led to the growth of the Egypt and eventually led to its decline and disappearance?  What factors would lead civilizations to fail?  How was the rise of Kush partly responsible for this demise?

Surplus Fit for a King

Surplus Fit for a King

Egyptian farmers produced three times more food than they needed.  Explore the connection between a surplus of food and the rise of strong governments.  Create a short essay, 2-3 paragraphs that discuses “Surpluses Fit for a King”.  How did governments become strong with extra food?  How did this create social classes in Egypt?

This Week--September 23rd-27th

Science

• Notebooks will be collected Thursday for review
• Current Events #2--Article on your choice of science topics is due Monday September 30th
• Unit 1 exam will be on Friday.  It will cover the following topics
• Place in order the steps of the scientific method
• Be able to define independent, dependent, and control variables
• Know the difference between trial and test
• Study vocabulary terms
• Trial, placebo, hypothesis, process, dependent variable, independent variable, control variable, constants, observations, data, & mean
• We still start our Science Fair projects next week

Humanities

• Do Cornell notes for Section 2 in Chapter 1
• Study for a short quiz on Wednesday on all topics we have discussed up to this point in Unit 1

This Week--September 9th-13th

Science

• The scientific method Simpson activity is due today, September 10th
• You will have a quiz on Thursday
• It will be about the vocabulary from class
• The steps of the scientific method
• We will start an experiment on Thursday after the quiz

Humanities

• Finish  Cornell Notes for Chapter 1, Section 1, pages 8-12