MS SCIENCE TEACHER CONNIE POTERSNAK
I'm happy to say that this will be my 34th year of teaching at TSD! I teach Middle School Science (mostly 7th grade) and I am known as the teacher who has the most classroom pets.
I believe that students should involved in their learning so I make sure all students know that this is not MY classroom, it's OUR classroom. I encourage them to participate in generating procedures on classroom expectations with my guidance. I also encourage them to engage, introduce their own ideas, and be a complete part of the process of learning.
We have just adopted a new science curriculum that is aligned with TEKS called Green Ninja. It is unit based, meaning that everything the students learn has a purpose and is connected. Each unit culminates into a project where the students have to solve an environmental problem using what they have just learned. The 7th grade units are as follows:
Unit 1: Food: (challenge: reduce the carbon footprint)
Concepts: The students expand on concepts of energy to estimate the environmental impact of different foods. Study chemical reactions. Analyze data showing the amount of energy needed in food production. Design investigations to study the rate of dissolving to form a solution.
Culminating experience: Students create nutritionally-balanced, low-carbon-footprint menus for a day and write out recipes for two of the items on the menu.
Unit 2: Water: (challenge: create solutions to mitigate and adapt to flooding)
Concepts: Model the behavior of water. Apply heat transfer concepts to forecast atmospheric changes. Analyze data related to thermal expansion, water access, and the Gulf of Mexico Dead Zone. Use technologies to mitigate impacts of natural hazards.
Culminating experience: Students participate in a multi-day role-playing simulation to design resilient cities.
Unit 3: Humans and Life (challenge: develop a solution to help an endangered species survive)
Concepts: Use models to describe why mutations can result in changes to an organism and how humans influence the inheritance of desired traits in organisms. Research body systems.
Culminating experience: Students create a documentary to help protect an endangered species.
Unit 4: Exploring Early Earth (challenge: Use an understanding of Earth’s history to plan for a sustainable future)
Concepts: Analyze data to establish a geologic time scale. Create and use models to explore the Laws of Motion and Gravity. Analyze evidence to show how continental drift is occurring. Construct and communicate arguments as to the existence of a new anthropocene epoch.
Culminating experience: Students create a story about Earth's history and why we should protect its future.
