By this time EACH and EVERY student should have submitted step 1 and step 2 for the science project.** You know if it was acceptable (doable, age appropriate, large enough of a sample size ...) if it's stamed RECEIVED and there's a date. You should also have grades for those activities. If you don't have approval to start this is a perfect opportunity to get steps 1 and 2 finished this weekend. Remember, when preparing your RESEARCH PLAN this is a complete document that is so complete that ANYONE in 8th grade could follow the directions and replicate your study. If it's not complete - revise it.
Once you've started, make sure you are recording EVERYTHING in your SPDL. All of your data and observations should be written in this journal (in ink). I want to check for progress on experimentation the week of Veterans Day so be prepared to show me your SPDL with data (only for approved projects) on either Tuesday11/13 for A day students or Wednesday 11/13 for B day students.
The date of the school fair has not been announced yet so I am going out on a limb and opening up the dates of 12/7/2012 - 01/03/2013 for the due date window. I will have sign-up sheets beginning in early December for students to reserve an opportunity to present their projects. Each student will have 3-5 minutes to present their research to a group of peers and the teacher. I style the presentations like a science fair where small groups of peers rotate through the presenters. Bonus points will be added to any project that is presented on or before 12/14/2012. If I find out that the school fair is in conflict with the classroom presentation dates then I will need to make changes. Be flexible; it's part of middle school.
NO projects will be presented on the date of our trip to the magnet high schools. Late projects will be penalized. Projects that require special review to be approved may be treated differently on an individual basis.
** See October 5, 2012 for complete directions for steps 1 and 2.
No comments:
Post a Comment