The Indian School Trail is now clean!!

Today, Caleb, Layla, Gnasher, and I participated in the Albuquerque Open Space spring clean-up of the Indian School trailhead. I had never hiked out from this trailhead before, so it was a real treat to explore a new area. And, we did some serious exploring. Instead of focusing on the dog poop right at the trailhead, we decided to hike out as far as we could in an hour and a half and then pick up poop and garbage on the way back. Gnasher was kind enough to carry our bags and gloves and the recycling we picked up along the way. We came across some 4th year medical students that were doing a month long wilderness medicine course. They were practicing vertical rescue and had a stretcher hung up with climbing gear and they were securing and lowering a "patient." It looked really fun! The instructor had a really cool dog that Gnash had a ball running around with. They were running through a stream and across trails and through the bushes. After that, Gnasher was filthy, but he was about to get a lot dirtier. We climbed up some rocks next to a small waterfall and saw that the trail continued up next to the stream. We followed the stream and found a cave! Unfortunately the cave was full of mud and not very deep, so we didn't explore it. A little bit further up, we had to cross the stream and climb up some rocks that had been coated in mud. Our wet sneakers made climbing the muddy rocks quite slippery. I slipped and was falling into the stream. Layla tried to catch me, and I pulled her in with me. It was pretty hysterical. Afterwards, Layla commented, "You are really heavy, Mrs. Maggi!" and she received a dirty look in response. We continued up until we saw a good turnaround point and resting spot. Gnasher, Caleb, and Layla played Gnash's favorite form of tag (when you chase him) for a bit, and then we headed back down. It was finally time to work. We each had a plastic bag and plastic glove and picked up a bunch of dog poop and little pieces of garbage along the way. Back at the trailhead, we ate lots of snacks and waited for the raffle. Layla won fancy hiking socks and Caleb, and I both won reusable shopping bags (Gnash didn't get a raffle ticket). Caleb's is a really nice canvas bag that he filled with complimentary healthy snacks. After I brought Caleb and Layla home, Gnasher and I took the most amazing nap! What a wonderful day! Thank you Layla and Caleb!!!!

7th grade Weekend Handouts

Hey 7th grade!
Here is your weekend homework:
G7 HW April 13th
Please complete these 4 pages in full sentences when asked to free write and answer all parts of all questions. If there is not quality effort put into the assignment, there will not be a quality grade given!
Also, please watch the 4 genetics videos I posted for you.  You never know when there might be a pop quiz :)
Have a great weekend!

7th grade you HAVE to watch these!

I love, love, love these videos :)

Genetics 101 Part 1: What are genes?

More educational videos on Genetics at NeoK12.com  

Genetics 101 Part 2: What are SNPs?

More educational videos on Genetics at NeoK12.com  

Genetics 101 Part 3: Where do your genes come from?

More educational games & videos on Genetics at NeoK12.com  

Genetics 101 Part 4: What is phenotype?

More science lessons on Genetics at NeoK12.com  

6th Grade: Videos for Weekend HW

6th Grade
These are the 3 videos you are supposed to watch this weekend for homework. Please write down the 5 most important facts you learned from each video. The facts should be in full sentences and a fact cannot be repeated. If you are unable to write neatly, please consider typing. Staple the assignment to the back of your packet and hand it in on Monday!   

Waves

More educational games & videos on Light & Optics at NeoK12.com  

Reflection

More science lessons on Light & Optics at NeoK12.com  

Refraction

More educational games & videos on Light & Optics at NeoK12.com  

Paranoia!

6th Grade

Hey 6th grade! Here is your homework page in case you lose it (better not!) or your parents want to look at it when you are not around.

 G6 Homework April 9-13

Our Compass Relay game in class today was great fun! Everyone did a great job using the compasses. It was a little tough to navigate a triangle, but I am pretty sure everyone managed to navigate a square.  Wednesday we are going over the test and on Thursday we are starting chapter 8. Exciting stuff!

7th Grade

Here is the powerpoint presentation we started in class today. it should be printer friendly: all white backgrounds! 

Mendelian Genetics Power Points 

Here is a really great website to check out. It is an animation of sorts like the mitosis and meiosis site I gave you. Look at it ad read through. It will help you understand everything we are learning about in class.

Human Genetics Website 

8th Grade

8th graders are completing a big research project in class and at home this week. The rough draft is due tomorrow, Wednesday. We will do peer editing and feedback in class on Wednesday and Thursday in the computer lab so that you can continue to work on your research, final drafts, and powerpoint presentations. Remember, you can use wikipedia to learn about your topic, but you cannot use wikipedia as a source. All of your sources must be .org, .gov, or .edu. You can use a .com if there is a legitimate author and publication date. You can NEVER use wiki answers or ask.com. These are not real sources. 

** Your final paper and presentation is due on Friday when you will be presenting to the rest of the middle school (maybe more if they are interested and have free time). 

** This project is worth one test grade and one project grade. It will either really help your grade or really hurt your grade, so take it seriously and do a good job.

**You will be recruiting people to join your action team and help you complete your action plan to help solve the problem that you researched, so make sure your presentations are really amazing!

PE

Boys played games in the park today: one of my favorites, Paranoia. Everyone tucks a "tail" into their back pocket. If someone grabs your tail, you take a knee, if you grab someones tail, you stand back up and they take a knee. There is always someone after your tail and it really does make you paranoid. It is also hysterical to watch.

Wednesday boys are working out!

Thursday girls are yoga in the park.

Next week Girls have 2 days, games/running & park yoga

 Announcements!

This Saturday, I will be participating in the trail clean-up at the Indian School  trail head. Everyone in welcome. I have 2 places left in my car; if you want them, let me know. If you life SE or NE I will pick you up. If you live NW or SW we can meet at school. Everyone that participates gets a free homework or do now, or extra test points. And, a really fun day doing something good for the environment. Let me know if I will be seeing you there!

 

Weekend!

Hmm... I really love the weekend!

Today Sara, Marwa, Amina, Layla, Caleb and I helped clean up the Copper trail head. First we used shovels to pick up dog poop that had been flagged by other volunteers. Dog poop carries diseases to wild animals and changes the nutrient composition of the soil. When we got to the trail there were so many little pink flags it wasn't even possible to count them. When we were done, all the pink flags were gone and we had removed between 150-200 pounds of dog poop!! After we finished the poop project, we hiked into the foot hills, picked up broken glass, a soda can, a plastic shopping bag, and lots of candy wrappers! Caleb found a used car filter that he entered in the "most interesting" trash competition. At about noon, we ate our lunches and fruit and snacks provided by the open space volunteers and waited to see who won the "most interesting" trash competition and check our raffle tickets. None of us won anything, except an awesome morning and a feeling of accomplishment. The leader of the open space volunteers was really appreciative to have young people volunteering and he made a pretty inspirational speech. When you help clean an ope space or do trail maintenance, like we did today, you feel a sense of pride and connection to the land. I sure did! I am so proud of those of you who took time out of your weekend to volunteer and I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.

The last picture is of the interesting trash pile. Caleb's oil filter is the orange canister. The winner of the competition won a full day pass with rentals to the climbing gym!

Weekend Homework

7th grade, your workbook pages are 89-94. Don't forget to do everything except the foldables.

6th grade, STUDY!! You have a test on chapter 7 on Monday. Go over your old assignments, reread the chapter, do the online quizzes on red.msscience.com, look at your paper miniquizzes, study the vocabulary words, practice Ohm's law.

8th grade, your homework is to hand in an outline of your research paper. Here are two resources to help you with the outline. 

How to write an outline. 

Outline Guidelines  

***Next weekend there is another trail clean up on Saturday from 9-1. If you would like to go, let me know! Same deal with the free homework or extra quest points***

Tent Rocks!

Thank you all for one of the best days ever! I am so excited we all had the chance to experience the sublime together! Everyone was respectful and appreciative. I am pretty sure it was a day no one will forget!