Lucinda Trudeau, Eighth Grade
Science
Rules and
Regulations
August 20,
2011
As we begin
a new year, many questions arise about expectations from the students and
expectations from the teacher. It
is my hope that many of these will be cleared up in this letter being sent
home. First of all, eighth-grade
science is the study of bridges and bridge building, forces and motion, Earth
in the Solar System, and Chemistry.
This is a curriculum that ties a variety of topics together and aligns
with the Connecticut state frameworks.
All of these topics will be explored using scientific inquiry. This allows the students to work
through problems on their own and come up with reasonable explanations.
The
mysteries of the world we live in can be explored from many points of
views. My approach will be based
on sixteen years of experience in the medical field. These years taught me that everything that happens could be
related to many types of science.
I will require that the students find a “Science in the News” article
each and every day. This is an article from some news source that is placed in
their notebooks. They might be
called upon in class to share this or they might not, but is will be part of
their overall notebook grade. They
will need to have a “SIN” for FIVE days a week. The SIN makes the kids look to the real world for science
around us.
Your
daughter or son will have plenty of opportunities to excel in this class. We will be doing projects, tests,
quizzes, homework questions and outlines, notebooks, and participation
grades. These variations allow
each student to do well in one or all of theses areas. All homework assignments will be on a
syllabus, which will be given out at the beginning of each new chapter. This will change based on students’
achievement and other things that come up. This syllabus will also be posted online and upgraded daily.
I will send home information explaining every large project that we will be
doing. This will have a signature
page for both parent and student so that I know everyone is aware of what is
expected of them.
Notebooks
will be a large part of the learning tool in science this year. I have included a table of contents
that NEEDS to be included in the notebook. I also have these available for the students or they can
make their own that is similar to this one. This notebook MUST be a THREE-RINGED BINDER!!! They will
have to add things to this and include worksheets and other handouts as part of
it. This cannot be done to a spiral notebook. The notebooks will be graded at
least once a quarter. Students
must bring their notebooks to class and a pencil to take notes with. All quizzes and test MUST be done in
pencil. The only time that a pen
will be allowed is when the students are writing a lab report to be handed in
for grading. Lab reports MUST be
written in pen or typed.
Students
must come to class ready to work each day. They will be doing numerous hands-on activities because this
is the only way to learn science.
They will learn how to make good observations, how to analyze data, how
to write a good lab report, and how to work well with each other. Most importantly, they will learn how
to ask good questions. Questioning
is the key to successful learning in science. In each activity, they will answer many questions but
hopefully they will come up with many questions to ask also. This will be the springboard for
learning how Science, Society and Technology go hand and hand and are critical
to the future of our world. We
will explore this on a weekly basis.
Students
will be graded weekly on participation, positive or negative. They can earn up to 75 participation
points per week. If a student is
disruptive, never has a Science in the News, doesn’t stay on task, they will
earn negative points because of negative behavior. If they do what is asked of them in a positive manner, they
will earn 75 points.
Grades
are all done on a point system similar to one done in math. Every assignment will be graded so
homework is extremely important.
This means that, for example, a test might be worth 150 points and a
project 200, homework assignments 125 and quizzes 55 points. Add these points to your 50
participation point for a 5-week period and you have a total of 580 points you
could earn. If you have earned a
total of 500 points, you have earned approximately an 89 for those 5 weeks of
class. It would be a very good
idea to keep track of your grades in the front of your notebook and the
possible totals of all these. In
this way, you will always know where you stand and you don’t have to rely on me
for this information. All projects
will have plenty of advance notice; tests will also be given with notice. Homework will be graded daily and
quizzes will sometimes be a SURPRISE and at other times will be announced.
The
last topic that I would like to address is discipline. I expect the students to have good
behavior at all times. W will be
using a variety of tools in this class and doing a variety of activities. If I cannot trust them to be well behaved,
we cannot do these activities. I
will issue both detentions and help session forms. These both will be sent home to get a signature before
either one can be served. No
signature, you cannot stay. I also
keep track of the time wasted in the class. This is posted on the board and when it gets to 40 minutes,
the entire call will be issued a detention and will be after school to make up
the class period that they wasted.
I have only had to issue such a detention one time. This works very well to keep the class
on track.
With hard
work from all of us, I expect a very, very successful school year!
Lucinda (Lucy) Trudeau
ltrudeau@thompsonpublicschools.org
860-923-9380 ext 103