OJCS Science

Below are all of the presentations, videos, and assignments for our unit on Biodiversity. Scroll down to the bottom to find the COULD DO section.

MUST DO

Lesson 1: What is Biodiversity?

Biodiversity Videos

Lesson 2:  The 5 Kingdoms and Classification

Here is a copy of the presentation used in the screencast above.

Lesson 3:  Classification of Trees

PDF of Classifying Trees Slides Presentation

Tree Identification Resources

Natural History Museum Tree Identification Key

Lesson 4: At Home Biodiversity Scavenger Hunt Presentation (links below)

Scavenger Hunt Bingo Card link 

Scavenger Hunt Evidence Sheet

Lesson 5: Classifying Animals – Invertebrates

PDF of Invertebrates Presentation

Lesson 6: Vertebrates

PDF of Vertebrates Presentation

Lesson 7: Variety of biodiversity within species, communities, ecosystems importance to survival and resilience. Intro to CoSpaces online software tutorial/account creation.

Lesson 8: Intro to CoSpaces Activity link

Lesson 9: CoSpaces Biodiversity VR Assignment link

CoSpaces Navigation Shortcuts PDF

Biodiversity VR checklist and reflection link

Check out one student project and screencast here.

COULD DO

Bill Nye Video: Biodiversity

Bill Nye Video: Biodiversity Handout

Ear Saver .stl file for use in TinkerCAD file

Practice your coding skills with code.org Minecraft or Dance party activities

Learn how to code, tell stories, and make games using Scratch

1. Getting started tutorial
2. Animate your Name activity and walkthrough
3. Use the Animate your Name Code Cards PDF to help you through the activity
4. Share your project with Mr. Ray, your friends/family, post to your blog!

Here is the presentation on Aerodynamics, or air in motion, and Bernoulli’s Principle. Below is the video from the presentation on Bernoulli’s Principle and low air pressure experiments.

Ms. G’s shared documents

• Heads Up Activity – Measuring Flight Distances (April 3rd)
• Aerodynamics catch up instructions and flight space video links (April 23)
• Glider Aerodynamics Assignment (April 24)

Extra Space videos

Star Wars – Code.org link

Please find the two docs that we reviewed in class below. These can also be found in the grade 6 weekly schedule in the science section. Good luck, and a reminder that your parachute build and questions are due for Monday March 30th before class begins.

4 Forces of Flight – Part 1

https://docs.google.com/document/d/15_WPv5Gb_aCGgyrXBNxNyxQxmPO7LjI26c1Ew3Mw70k/edit#

4 Forces of Flight – Part 2

https://docs.google.com/document/d/15_WPv5Gb_aCGgyrXBNxNyxQxmPO7LjI26c1Ew3Mw70k/edit?usp=sharing

Hello grade 6, please watch the video below and then answer the questions at the bottom of the post in a google doc. Please share your doc with me j.ray@theojcs.ca and have your answers with you when we meet during Monday’s live session. I hope everyone is doing well, and there is no baby update except that our bags are packed and ready at any point!

My apologies for the sound level in the video, you may need to watch with headphones if they are too quiet for you.

Properties of Air –

Before you answer the following questions, please create a folder in your google drive called ‘Science’ to put all of your docs/resources for Science in one spot and keep you organized.

Questions – share #1-6 with me

1.List the 4 Properties of Air discussed in the video (you may have to go back to the videos and find them!)

2. Define the following terms from the videos

a) flight                      b) compress                       c) insulate

3. What is in the 2L bottle?

4. What did you observe when the bottle was held in hot water? Why do you think this happened?

5. What did you observe when the bottle was held in cold water? Why do you think this happened?

6. Give an example of hot air rising, and explain why this happens. Use the words density and molecules in your answer.

Congratulations to the middle school students for successfully accomplishing their projects this year! I heard so many positive and amazing comments from parents, teachers, and this year’s judges. They were impressed with the level of research, the creative engineering, and imaginative presentations that YOU designed and created. Outstanding effort, I am very proud of the work you put into those projects! Here are the results from Innovation Day judging as well as the video we saw as part of the assembly. I can only imagine what creative projects you will dream up for next year. Well done!

Genius Hour Project Winners

Grade 6
1. Samara S. – indestructible dog toy
2. Maya S. – Magical illusions
3. Rebecca G. – Nail glue

Grade 7
1. Maayan S. – The perfect environment for horses
2. Sarah K. – A dollar makes a difference
3. Yamaya N. – Eco-friendly housing

Grade 8
1. Jayson R. – Braille Rubik’s cube
2. Zoe N. – Eco-friendly dill
3. Max P. – Music Production

STEAM Project Winners

Grade 8
1. Talia C. and Jesse A. – Clean Machine

Grade 7
1. Abby T. – Music and Memory
2. Sarah N. and Jordana W. – Mint Blast
3. Talia L. and Sasha S. – Sleep-Inn

Innovation Day is finally upon us! It feels like forever ago when students began thinking about their passions, ideating different topics, creating pitches, and starting the journey of their personalized learning.  As the teacher, I can’t tell you how excited I am to see all of the hard work put into researching their topics, the creative problem solving needed to engineer products, and the creative story they will tell, all come together for next week’s presentations.

Here is a schedule for both students and parents to look over to see how the set up, parent visitation, judging, and final awards ceremony is scheduled.

Wednesday, March 4th

2:25 – 3:05 Set up for grade 6, 7, and 8 (gym)

3:05 – 4:00 Open to parents to visit grades 6 to 8 projects (gym)

Thursday, March 5th

9:00 – 10:50 Judging of Grade 6, 7 and 8 STEAM and Genius Hour Projects (by external judges)

8:45 – 9:30 Open to parents and classes to visit grades K to 5 Projects in their classes.

10:50 – 11:10 Tefillah for grade 6 to 8 students.

11:10 – 11:25 Snack break in regularly scheduled class with teacher for grade 6 to 8 classes followed by class as usual

11:05 – 1:05 Grade 6 to 8 projects left up in the gym for K – 5 classes to visit with their teacher

1:45 – 2:25 Clean-up of grades 6 to 8 Projects in gym

3:15 Whole School assembly to announce the grade 7 and 8 bronze, silver, and gold medalists

Goose Chase P.D. session challenge: use Spark Post to create a visual featuring a strategy line. Add it to your blog and then upload a pic for points. Check

Welcome to Genius Hour! This is a project that encourages students to follow their passions as they develop their research and inquiry skills by learning about a topic of their choice, making, designing, or building a product based on their learning, and then presenting what they have learned and made.

While students will continue to practice the timeless skills of researching, testing, analyzing, and presenting to an audience like a traditional Science fair project, Genius Hour opens the door to amplify student learning. Along with the previously mentioned skills, students will also be practicing digital citizenship, heutagogy or self-directed learning as they work towards short and long term goals, media literacies, network literacies, and divergent thinking as they think creatively to generate innovative ideas, products, or solutions to problems that interest them.

As students make their own thinking visible by sharing their process, they will also be documenting for others to learn from, and practice metacognitive techniques as they document and reflect on their own process. The autonomy, and self-directed learning that genius hour encourages is student-centered, personalized, curiosity driven, and builds skills that are relevant in today’s rapidly changing world.  

Passion driven projects like genius hour provide learners the challenge to be creative, to design and build, to follow their interests, and to give their work a sense of purpose. Every teacher should strive to create students who are lifelong learners and Genius Hour is a big step in that direction!

What will YOU learn and create with the time?

Genius Hour Tracking Sheet

The Scientific Method

Writing a Bibliography

STEAM Tracking Sheet

Grade 6 Flipgrid Pitch Printout

Research and Learn Handout

Make, Create and Design Handout

TED Talk Presentation Handout

Judges Rubrics for Genius Hour, STEAM, & STEAM Innovation Projects