We'll miss you Hemang! Have a great trip!

Dates

Assignment Date: 

06/08/2009

Due Date: 

06/12/2009

All 8th grade "quotations" are due on Friday. Please be sure that your quotation is appropriate and tasteful; if you are not sure, please check with a teacher BEFORE Friday.

If you find good quotation websites that you would like to share, add them to comments below!

I have uploaded a bunch of new videos and photographs from our human body expedition. Please take a look at the menu on the right to check them out!

Check back again tomorrow for more -- I will be uploading another batch tonight!

Please see attachments below for a copy of today's class notes (Monday, 4/27).

Attachment	Size
Classwork April 27 Monday Blue.pdf	320.11 KB
Classwork April 27 Monday Gold.pdf	553.05 KB

As you all know, a group of 8West students organized a clothing drive for Lazarus House this winter, which was a huge success!

Attached is a wonderful letter of thanks from Lazarus House. Congratulations to everyone who participated, and especially our organizers:

Leah, Jessica L, Sai, Sean, Emily, and Mandy!

Attachment	Size
Lazarus House Thank You Letter	160.15 KB

If you did NOT receive your Scoring Rubric/Grade for your Elements Poster project, please add a note to this announcement. I will print out a copy for you and give it to you in class on Wednesday. Thanks!

I just stumbled upon this "Friday the 13th" list on the website for the Environmental Defense Fund, and thought you might find it thought provoking. Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section below it!  

  

Global Warming by the Numbers

Friday the 13th just got a little scarier. Here are 13 facts about the realities of global warming. Even Jason would be scared.

The numbers speak for themselves -- we must make 2009 the showdown year for global warming action. There is no time to lose.

You can help by spreading the word any way you can -- through email, Facebook, Twitter, blogs, whatever works for you.

35%

Increase in the global carbon dioxide emissions from the burning of fossil fuels since the Kyoto Protocol was signed in 1992.

388.57 ppm

Average concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere in May 2008, a record high.

541 – 970 ppm

The projected concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere by 2100 under a business as usual scenario where we don't dramatically reduce global warming emissions.

260 – 280 ppm

Average concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere before industrial emissions.

50 – 200 years

Length of time carbon dioxide stays in the earth's atmosphere before it is absorbed into carbon sinks.

1000 years

Length of time changes in the earth's surface temperature, rainfall, and sea level will remain even after carbon dioxide emissions are completely stopped.

34%

Percentage that 2008's Arctic seasonal sea ice melt outpaced normal levels.

70%

Increase in the rate of Greenland's ice melt over the last five years.

1.7 days

Number of days earlier seasons are coming than 50 years ago.

1.5 million

Number of acres of forests in Colorado destroyed by the pine beetle, which is better able to survive warmer winters and is wrecking havoc in America's western forests.

$427 million

Amount spent by the oil and coal industries in the first six months of 2008 in political contributions, lobbying expenditures and advertising to oppose climate action.

0

Number of global warming bills passed by the Senate.

0

Number of global warming bills passed by the House.

Sources:

• NOAA CO₂ Trends
• IPCC Third Assessment Report
• Carbon dioxide in the Earth's atmosphere
• Atmosphere, Climate & Environment Information Programme
• ESRL News: New Study Shows Climate Change Largely Irreversible
• Arctic Sea Ice News & Analysis
• An Accurate Picture Of Ice Loss In Greenland
• Pine Beetles: Worse Than You Thought
• Early seasons : article : Nature Reports Climate Change
• Hill Heat : Oil and Coal Industries Spending Two Million Dollars a Day to Shape Political Debate

I will be available for math extra help this Monday (2/9) before school to help with rotations and translations. I suggest practicing a few rotations and translations over the weekend, and coming in at 7:15 on Monday morning if you feel you need assistance.

Progress reports were handed out to students on Monday afternoon. The report, signed by a parent, must be returned to your homeroom teacher no later than Wednesday morning.

Due to technical difficulties, we had to restore our website from a December backup file. Therefore, anything (comments, homework assignments, calendar items) that were added from the middle of December until today no longer exists. We will re-enter any information that is currently important, but will not bother re-entering things that have already past (such as homework that was due before today).

Please see Mr. Lawrence or Mrs. Parker if you have any questions. Thanks so much for your patience!

Talk about a chemical reaction...this one would be fun to do in chemistry class. No?

The question is, why does Cs react so violently with water?

Hint: it has to do with it's placement on the periodic table of elements... 

Today (Tuesday), if all goes well we will have our very own Smartboard installed into room 204!

Who knows...perhaps someday even our classroom desks will be interactive!

Experiments with Dry Ice and other sublime activities...

This week, I will be available Monday and Tuesday morning (7:15 - 7:45) for SCIENCE extra help in preparation for Tuesday's quiz.

I will NOT be available for my regular Tuesday afternoon session due to outside obligations.

Math extra help will be available Tuesday afternoon from 2:05 to 3:05.

http://nlvm.usu.edu/en/NAV/frames_asid_201_g_4_t_2.html

Science quiz on the following learning topics:

Designing Experiments

• I can describe the three different types of variables in a well designed experiment.
• I can write a good investigative question.

Density

• I can define density.
• I can explain the relationship between density and sample size.
• I can explain how density affects the behavior of substances.

Due to Tuesday's holiday and Thursday's math quiz, I will be providing the following extra-help sessions:

• Monday (9/29): "Flex Time"
• Wednesday (10/1): 7:15AM to 7:45AM
• Thursday (10/2) 7:15AM to 7:45AM

Extra-help is open to everyone; please come prepared to do math, with graph paper, pencils, erasers, straight edge, your math binder/text book and calculator.

PART I