Category Archives: Integrated

Plants and Zombies Update — Weeks of 4/27 and 5/4

It’s POL Time!  Crazy to think — but integrated class wraps up in two weeks.  Please note the special class time on Wednesday, May 6th.

For obvious reasons, this POL this Spring is going to look very different.  Full details are in the POL task description   I’m excited to convene LIVE all together to share and present our learning from the semester on Wednesday, May 6th.  Assignments Due in Green.
  • Friday, April 24th:  Ecology Game Due (See Step 11 on Game Task Description)
  • Monday, April 27th at 11:30am-11:50am:  Google Meet.  I’ll be introducing POLs during class.
  • Monday, May 4th at 11:30am-11:50am:  Google Meet (Optional) I’ll be online and I’ll walk through semester rubrics, but no new material will be introduced.
  • Wednesday, May 6th at 2pm-3:30pm: (NOTE SPECIAL DATE/TIME)  Google Meet.  Live POL.   Class is Required.  This will be our final class.  Students will be delivering POLs and we’ll have a few end of semester festivities.
  • Thursday, May 7th at 9am:  Semester Rubrics due via Google Classroom.   Last day to turn in any assignments from the semester.
I am always available to hop on Google Meets and answer questions or just hang out.  Thank you for all your continued support.  I miss you all!

Plants and Zombies Update — Weeks of 4/13 and 4/20

We’ll be introducing an ecology game project in class this week.  Included in this task description is a day-by-day flow of student’s game design.   The FINAL game is due in two weeks on Thursday, April 23rd.
 Here is the upcoming schedule: Due dates are in red. (Note — There WILL be class on 4/20. Ms. Daerr will have an update about this soon.)
  • Monday, April 13th 
  • Tuesday, April 14th: POL Survey due (should take 60 seconds)
  • Wednesday, April 15th:  Completely OPTIONAL show at the CU Planetarium.  If you have any interest in Astronomy, the planetarium is doing “dome to home” shows every Wednesday for 6th-12th graders at 11am.  The first one is on “patterns in the Solar Systems” on 4/15.  Here’s the link.
  • Monday, April 20th: Google Meets at this link at 11:30am.  Students should be on step 7 of the Ecology Game Design by this day.
  • Thursday, April 23rd:  Ecology Game Email due to me with the following:
    • Picture of you and your family member playing your game.
    • A paragraph or two summary that includes
      • An overview of your game.
      • How it went to play your game.
  • Monday, April 27th: Google Meets at this link at 11:30am.  We’ll be introducing POLs.
 
Students — if you have any questions (or even if you don’t), feel free to reach out via email.  I’m always available for a quick google meet.
Thank you for all your support and for your AMAZING students.
Best,   -JF

Plants and Zombies — Week of 4/6

Students will be creating 3D Models of their LTP Future Organisms this week.  Here is the Task Description
Upcoming dates:
I’m always available for a quick google meet as needed or just to check-in.  Students are welcome to reach out via email.
Sending everyone lots of good wishes!  Thank you for all your support and for your AMAZING students.
Best,   -JF
Ps.  If you are looking for additional life science extension projects to do at home, there are a bunch of ideas located here.

Plants and Zombies Update — 3/30

Hi Plants and Zombies folk!
I miss you all and I’m excited to reconnect with you!  Our class will be meeting every Monday 11:30-11:50am through Google Meets at this link.  This link is also posted on Google Classroom.
A few ponderings about class:
1) Science is CHALLENGING to do remotely.  It is so collaborative and it is hard to let go of some of the hands on projects that were planned. The good news is that from a material standpoint, we have covered most of the life science curriculum already.  At this point, less is more.  This upcoming week will be heavy simply due to the LTP, but my hope is to keep work meaningful and lighter during home learning.  Students are welcome to reach out to me at any time with questions.
2) With the exception of the LTP work (which should be mostly done), I am also going to try and keep most of the learning “offline”. There is only so much screen time that is healthy for middle school, and Science is a good excuse to get a bit more “maker-space-ish” with the learning.  Your students may need access to materials — but there is no “set” list.  They are encouraged to get creative.
3) This week — our focus will be twofold.
              A) LTP due via Google Classroom by Friday at 8:30am.  If students want strong draft feedback on their LTPs, they can email me before Wednesday at noon and I’ll try to turn it around within 6-12 hours. The LTPs should have been mostly written prior to our hiatus, but I know some students still have significant work to do.
              B) Our first project is for students to simply grow something or try a botany experiment.  Here’s the task description. First post to Padlet is due Tuesday, April 7th.
Upcoming Dates of Note
After we finish the LTP, we’ll be developing ecology boardgames.  More details on that in the next update.
Thank you so much for your support.  -JF
Ps.  Students — if you have NOT used Google Meet before, you may wish to connect with a peer and give it a try before classes start.  It’s really simple to access through the “9-dot” menu in the top right area of any Google Screen.
Pps.  Corbin, one of the students in the class, made this very fun poster.  Just wanted to share!  Microbes-Corbin

Plants and Zombies Update — 3/20

Just wanted to reach out and tell you that I miss you all!  We are planning for home learning commencing March 30th.  Schedule is still being sorted out, but I’m excited to reconnect with you all.
Scary how all the virus work we did in January has become so prescient!  I hope you and your family are staying well, enjoying one another, and not doing too much screen time!
I think we are going to be virtually meeting as a whole class integrated class every Monday (starting 3/31) from 11:30-11:50am through Google Meets.  I will then be available via email or Google Meets throughout the week as needed.
In the meantime, feel free to reach out if you have any questions or just to say hello.
Happy (almost) Spring Break!
Best, -JF

Plants and Zombies Update — Weeks of 3/9 and 3/16

Big LTP week in Plants and Zombies.  Here’s what’s happening:
1) Strong Draft Magazine Article LTP due Monday, March 16th at 8:30am via Google Classroom.   These should include:
1) Writing.  (See Outline Template and/or Graphic Organizer)
        5) Additional Pictures as needed
6) Bibliography.  (Using “easy bib” add-on in Google Docs.)
2) Body System Lesson Simulation due Thursday, March 12th.  Students are working in teams to research body systems and then develop an interactive simulation/game for the class.   We’ll be engaging in these simulations on March 12th.
3) Giant Insect Museum Exhibit Project.  Commencing March 16th, we are going to be studying insects, creating (sculpting?) reproductions of those insects, and then using Makey-Makey kits and Scratch to program the insects into interactive exhibits.
Thank you for all your support (and your awesome kids!).  Best, -JF
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Plants and Zombies Update — Weeks of 2/24 and 3/2

Here’s what’s happening in Plants and Zombies over the next few weeks:
  1. LTP.  The Plants & Zombies LTP is a a magazine article about the past, present, and future evolution of an organism of their own choosing.  They’ll collect research sources to learn about the habitat, the food web, the ancestry, and most importantly — the specific adaptations (and selective forces) that have enabled their organism to survive.  Much of this work will be done in class, but there will be spillover into homework as well.  Here’s the complete LTP write-up fyi…
  2. Natural Selection.  We are going to be conducting a “peppered moth” lab (modeled after the changing phenotypes of moths in Industrialized Britain) to learn about how selective forces can create conditions for natural selection.   (Parents — if you need a quick refresher on Natural Selection, check out this video.)
  3. Flower dissection!  What exactly are the parts of a flower?  How do flowers reproduce? Why do flowers exist?
  4. Food webs.  Producers, Decomposers, and Consumers!  Oh my!  (Students will be creating food webs as part of their LTP.)
  5. Field Trip to the Museum of Nature and Science on 2/28.  Students should bring a sack lunch.  Students will be looking at Human body systems (in support of a Makey-Makey based body system project that I hope we have time for in March!) and looking at various organism adaptations.  If you are interested in chaperoning, please let me know.
Upcoming Due Dates and LTP Guidelines: (Tentative)
Thank you for all your continued support!  Best, -JF

Plants & Zombies Update — Weeks of 2/10 and 2/17

This upcoming week is genetics week!  We’ll be exploring heredity as we learn about Mendel, Punnett squares, and genetic diseases.  We’ll even create and breed our own zombies to learn how traits are inherited!  In addition, my wife who happens to be a genetic counselor, will be joining us  on Wednesday to help us understand both what genetic counselors do and how to draw a genetic pedigree for our new zombie families.
The following week will be focused on classification and learning more about Darwin and his theory of Natural Selection.  We’ll do a peppered moth activity and commence initial research of our LTPs.  Students chose their LTP topics last week.
Upcoming due dates:
 
Your students are amazing — I’m so impressed with all of their good work in class.  Thank you for all your continued support.
Best, -JF