Grade+08

Grade 8: Inquiring Minds Want to Know

 __Inquiry Task #1__: For your grade / course, identify the "generic" inquiry-based skills you currently employ with your students.
 * ===Create a prediction (or hypothesis) for an experiment. ===
 * ===Determine variables within an experiment (independent, dependent, controlled). ===
 * ===Determine groups (control vs. experimental). ===
 * ===Make qualitative and quantitative observations collecting data correctly. ===
 * ===Organize data into tables and convert data (when appropriate) into visual graphs by hand or on the computer (Excel). ===
 * ===Analyze data looking for patterns. ===
 * ===Utilizing field notebooks for both analytical and creative applications. Using a field notebook template to make both formal observations as well as pure open-ended discoveries. ===
 * ===Using your prior knowledge and scientific evidence to support your analysis of the data and the conclusion in which you have reached. ===
 * ===**Reading scientific texts and summarizing information, following directions and how to make connections and apply the data to relevant situations.** ===

 __Inquiry Task #2__: List the units that currently are taught in which inquiry skills appear.
 * ===//Cardigan Earth Systems Unit// - Sphere to sphere interactions as part of an entire Earth System ===
 * ===//Chemistry - Density Lab// ===
 * ===//Geosphere// - Life as a Rock, Generating Plate Boundaries based on events such as volcanoes and earthquakes, EQ Trends Lab, Crystal Structure Lab, and Crystal Growth Lab ===
 * ===//Atmosphere// - Weather Forecasting using weather maps and symbols, Energy and the Atmosphere Activity ===
 * ===<span style="color: #000080; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">//Hydrosphere// - Oceans and Climate, using patterns to predict future trends, Ocean Currents Lab, Density Currents Lab ===
 * ===<span style="color: #000080; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">//Anthrosphere// - Alternative energy: Building Solar Ovens and Wind turbines, Alternative Energy Debate ===

<span style="color: #1700ff; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 21px; line-height: 19px;"> __Inquiry Task #3__: Brain-storm ideas for how your current units or activities can be made more inquiry-based.

=<span style="color: #000080; display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; text-align: left;">Working during our PLC time and peers within the district particularly with the High School for expanding our ability to deliver more inquiry and scientific process experiences. Engineering and problem solving would be most easily delivered during our //alternative energy// unit as our culminating earth systems science project. We would ask the students to design and build their own Solar Ovens or Windmills. They would have to identify the variables such as //power, efficiency// and compete with factors like those that are made with the lowest cost and the most energy generated with the lowest mass. =