The Week of January 20

The third grading period begins and students have an excellent opportunity to begin successfully.
There will be guided class instruction for the following standards

DCPS
38. Recognize that a pattern of cellular organization occurs in plants.
39. Compare and contrast nonvascular and vascular plants.
40. Compare and contrast the three kinds of vascular plants (seedless, gymnosperms, and angiosperms).

and a new Performance Task to finish the unit on the cell.

(Performance Task) The Cell

Goal What effect do various concentrations of salt water have on plant cells?

Role You are a botanist working on finding plants that will grow in a salt water environment

Audience A group of farmers who are trying to find crops that will grow in salt water

Situation You will observe 3 samples or slides. Sample one will be made with
water. Samples two and three will be prepared with increasing concentrations of salt.
(1.7g, and 3.5g of salt per 100 mL of H2O )

Products Students will prepare a V report to include:
1. What will the effect of salt solution have on plant cells. (Your hypothesis)
2. What was the effect of salt solution on the plant cells (Your observations)
3. Did increasing the amount of salt in each solution cause any changes? (Your results)
4. What recommendation would you make for farmers near salt water


Your grade will be based on 3 criteria. Refer to the rubric for the project to see where and how you will be graded. You must receive “meets the standard” for all 3 areas to earn a C. An A will be based on earning 3/3 “Exceeds the Standard”.
Performance Task: THE CELL
Standards for
Grading
Meets


SC.F.1.3.2 Know that the structural basis of most organisms is the cell and most organisms are single cells, while some, including humans, are multicellular.
SC.F.1.3.6 Know that the cells with similar functions have similar structures, whereas those with different structures have different functions.
SC.H.1.3.4 Know that accurate record keeping, openness, and replication are essential to maintaining an investigator’s credibility with other scientists
and society.
SC.H.1.3.5 Know that a change in one or more variables may alter the outcome of an investigation.

The rubric can be found at
http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dchzhtwh_1cvhwhtf2

I anticipate that all of the data will be collected this week. The report will be due at the end of class on Monday, 01/26/09. It is worth up to 100 points. Specific paper will be required. This will be available in class. This is not an at home assignment.

Information for students going to NEFRSEF

If you are one of the 10 lucky individuals who have been chosen to attend the Regional Science Fair you must register your project.
Please go to
http://www.nefrsef.org/ and click on Enter Your Project. Just follow the directions.

FORMS -FORMS - FORMS

Each participant MUST have the correct forms or you may Fail to Qualify (FTQ) when the Science Review Committee views your paperwork.

You must have

1. FORM 1 - dated BEFORE experimentation and signed in BLUE ink.
2. Form 1A - Check your dates. You must have dates that correlate to Form 1 and 1B
3. Form 1B - dated BEFORE experimentation and signed in BLUE ink.
4. A RESEARCH PLAN that is COMPLETE. Parts A, B, C, and D. It must have a bibliography of 5 major sources (NO wikipedia sources for the top 5). One of the references must be the official rules (see info below).You must assess safety for your project and discuss it in your plan and fill out a Form 3.
5. Form 3 - Required for all projects.
6. Official Abstract (Florida not international) which must also be signed in BLUE.

There is a time CRUNCH for all of this. I must have it no later than 8:00 AM on Wednesday, January 21. Yes, this upcoming Wednesday. I have to hand deliver the actual paperwork to the SRC by a certain time or they won't accept it. No ifs, ands, or buts.... so get it in.

This is the info you will need for the reference to the rules.

Society for Science & the Public (2008). International Rules for Precollege Science
Research: Guidelines for Science and Engineering Fairs 2008-2009.
Washington, DC: Society for Science & the Public.
www.societyforscience.org/isef/document/Rule2009.pdf

If you have questions or need help then please talk to me tomorrow. I plan on staying after until about 3:45 so if you need to stay make arrangements to be late to practice or arrange for a parent to pick you up.

Science Project Research Paper Rubric

Here's the Science Project Research Paper Rubric. This is the same rubric that was distributed to students in early December.
I understand that some students are not able to access scribd at home and we are not able to access it in school. As a result I am trying google docs. I hope this works for all of us.

The rubric is publicly viewable at: http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dchzhtwh_0g7s3b2hc