8th Grade NGSS Science
What you should expect to learn this year:
Welcome Students and Families to 8th Grade NGSS Science.
This is a very exciting time for Science in Dearborn Public Schools. As students headed home for summer break, Unis science teachers rolled up their sleeves and attended training for a new science program. This will be a challenging year for students and teachers as we launch the Michigan Science Teaching and Assessment Reform, ”Mi-STAR”. Some things will be the same. Your young scientist can still expect to be engaging in science work, exploring and discovering how the world works with hands on experiments and investigations. Your child will still need to engage fully in the classroom activities and discussions to get the most out of their classroom learning experience. Some things will be different. There will be some changes in the units covered at each grade level and there will be lots of new activities.
For any of you new to middle school science, the classroom experience probably looks and feels very different from what you thought or remembered. High quality science instruction, designed to prepare students for high-school, college and the future, puts students at the center in the role of scientist and engineer. Students work together in small groups to develop solutions to challenging problems drawn from real life experiences. In order to solve the problems students must first learn about the natural forces and dynamic changes happening in the world around them. Instruction is carefully designed for students to develop those understandings in a way that will allow them to apply their learning to identify realistic and meaningful solutions to real world problems.
The new science curriculum that is designed to support the new Next Generation Science Standards or NGSS adopted by the state of Michigan in 2016. We will be using a style of learning called modeling instruction. Modeling instruction is an inquiry based instructional approach that takes students from the role of a passive learner to the role of being an active scientist and engineer.
This year 8th graders will engage in science and engineering practices while investigating natural disasters, natural selection, the history of life on Earth, weather, climate and agriculture and climate change.
What you want to know about grading:
Student work will be scored using a 1-4 scale. The students will work together to make a rubric that will help them recognize the quality of their work and help them judge if the work they do meets the standards that they are trying to achieve. Generally, a score of 1 indicates that little effort was made and that the student has a lot more learning to do to meet the standard. A score of 2 indicates that the student is making progress but does not meet the standard. A score of 3 indicates that the student meets the standard at a minimal level and a score of 4 indicates full mastery of the standard. Because of the use of a 1 to 4 scale, the following grading scale will fairly determine the students grade.
86% – 100%- A
65% – 85%- B
43% – 64%- C
21% – 42%- D
below 21%- E
All middle school science courses are year long courses. Your child will receive a single grade at the end of the year that reflects their level of performance on the Middle School Science Standards for the State of Michigan. Approximately 75% of the grade will be based on summative performance tasks which may include tests, labs, projects and writing compositions. The remaining part of the grade will be based on class-work which may include practice work, study sheets, vocabulary work, group projects and short writing assignments and on active class participation.
At the end of each marking quarter your child will receive a report of their grade that reflects the average of the work that they have completed to that date. If at any time you are concerned about your child’s performance please look at your child’s class record on “Parent Connect” and then contact me to find out what your child needs to do to meet the standard that you expect them to meet.
Students are responsible for completing all assignments. Students are encouraged to make up any assignments that might be missed for any reason, school activity, illness or otherwise. Students that miss class for any reason are responsible for getting any missed assignments.
Students are encouraged to achieve their highest potential. Students may redo most assignments. When a student completes a redo, the redo can be done on any piece of paper and attached to the original along with the original score card. In order to get credit, the original work and score card must be turned in with the redo. I want the student and myself to be able to see the growth and progress between the first effort and the redo.
You and your child can check your child’s performance and find out their current grade by accessing your child’s academic records on line at the “Student Connect” and “Parent Connect” web site: https://sisweb.resa.net/studentportal and https://sisweb.resa.net/Parentportal/.
* If you do not have a PIN and password contact the school office at 827-1700 to find out how to get access information.
What you should know about the behavior expected in our classroom:
The expectations in science classes are simply the same expectations of Respect, Responsibility, and Safety that are expected in all school activities. In addition to the PBIS expectations all students are expected follow the classroom norms that we established as a class at the beginning of the year and to represent and model The Dearborn Schools Core Values:
by David Bates