Physics and so much more...

On Monday it was Martin Luther King Jr. Day so we didn't have school. The fact that we had a four day week instead of a five day week made the week go so much faster.

On Tuesday we started a new unit which was Physics. When reviewing notes we learned basic vocabulary terms used in Physics. I learned the difference between scalar and vector quantities.While reviewing  my notes, I learned that vector quantities cannot be added to scalar quantities and can be abbreviated with an arrow over  the first letter. For example -> for acceleration.
                                                             a

On Wednesday we started a new lab. This lab taught us about distance and displacement; two terms we also learned on Tuesday. In this lab we used something living that was very squirmy and slimy. Can you guess what it was? It was a SUPER WORM!!! The super worm wasn't really a worm it was beetle larva. To begin the lab we separated our large sheet of paper into three parts. Two parts for the graph and one part to track the worms course. We set our timer for one minute and every ten seconds we marked the  spot where the worm was. We drew a dot in the center of the page to track the distance and displacement from that point. Then we put our super worm on the dot and then started the timer. Our worm squirmed around a lot making it hard to figure out where he was going. I thought watching a worm move around was a lot more fun way of learning distance and displacement.

On Thursday we worked on our lab questions. The rest of the day, the entire Science Olympiad team went to Panera Bread to have lunch and study for our events. I can definitely say I got a a lot done on Picture This. I think I spent around three hours practicing and drawing scientific terms. We got more words in four minutes than we had in the past. We got about ten words in the past but after we practiced for a while we got about twelve words per minute which is not a lot but shows progression.

On Friday we finished our lab. This lab helped me understand some terms I did not understand such as, acceleration and velocity.  On thing I can improve on this week is remembering to print out the notes and remembering to tweet. I hope next week feels as short as this week did.

For Science Olympiad I not only worked on Picture This, but on Sunday afternoon Emma and I met at school with our coaches.  We both broke two of our bridges each and spent about an hour working on Science Olympiad.



For this week's link is all about caring for super worms. https://www.wardsci.com/www.wardsci.com/images/Superworms.pdf

Review Week

On Monday we reviewed for our midterms that we will take next week. This week we reviewed each section day by day. On Monday we reviewed chapter one, the scientific method. We did this by reading cards that were placed around the room. We were then given a worksheet to put the answers to the questions that were on the cards. This was definitely a review for me it helped me remember some things I had forgotten overtime such as independent and dependent variables.

On Tuesday we did another activity to help us review for our midterms. With a partner we answered questions on flash cards about Unit 2. Doing this with a partner really helped because the material I didn't know they helped me understand and I helped them understand what they didn't know as well. After we completed the questions we compared our answers as a class.

On Wednesday we played a "minute to win it" science review game. It was all fun and games until I got cookie dust in my eye. There were two teams. Each team had to answer science review questions to get the chance for one team mate to try a minute to win game. My question was, "what is the top number in an element box?". I guessed atomic mass but the correct answer was atomic number. Now I know what questions I should study for the midterm. My favorite minute to win it game we played was where you had to put a cookie on your face and get it to your mouth without touching it. Unfortunately, my cookie rolled on the floor.

On Thursday we played a review game where we had to answer a series of questions in groups. We answered questions on the periodic table and atoms and elements. The questions were on slides and each slide had a different question This review game definitely helped me remember some of the material I had forgotten over winter break. The questions were put into categories. Each category corresponded with the material that we had covered. I think our team did well we got second place and got only one or two questions wrong. My favorite round was the bonus round. We had to guess characters from movies and our team got everyone right!

On Friday we did the same review game but with a different topic. We reviewed chemical bonding. I had some trouble with some material but after I knew the answers,  it all came back to me. Labeling what type of bond it was by looking at a diagram was also kind of hard. I did not do as well as I hoped but that just leaves lots of room for improvement.

For Science Olympiad this week I met for Picture This for about an  hour. We reviewed Life and Earth science in guided study. I think we are getting a lot faster and interpreting each others drawings allot better.

One thing I can improve on this week is writing down the questions or topics I don't understand and reviewing them for homework. This will make it allot easier when it is time to take the test.
The following link provides very useful tips on how to properly prepare for a chemistry exam.

http://antoine.frostburg.edu/chem/senese/101/examtips.shtml

Answering Questions with Partners

 

Doing Review Questions