The March of the Penguins

Click here for the worksheet handed out in class.

Happy Holidays!

Mr. F :-)

Happy Holidays!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Mitosis Demonstrated

The stages of Mitosis

The wanted Organelle Posters are here!

Most Wanted Organelle Project!

Use this poster for the organelle project!

Mr. F :-)

The Protists are here!

Here we go....

Protists have arrived and we were back on the microscopes! On Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday we will observe and asked meaningful questions about paramecium, euglena, stentor, blepharisma, and more! It was exciting to watch them move and interact and allowed us to refine our microscopy skills.

Here is a website with a few images of the organisms we observed:



Click Here

Here are some links that will allow you to learn more! Write some notes and submit them for extra credit!!

1) Protist Link #1- good info

2) Protist Link #2- good video clips

3) Protist Link #3- collecting and studying protists

This should be fun!

Mr. Forde :-)

We help endangered species!

They wrote about my adivisory's work to help the Diamondback Terrapin in the Stamford Times!


Here is the article!

Mr. F :-)

Egg-cellent Lab Report!

Hi Students!

Here is a list of the items i expect in your lab write up:

1) A title (on the top of the page)

2) Your testable quetion (from your Think Sheet)

3) Your prediction (from your Think Sheet)

4) Materials

5) Procedure

6) Data Chart (from your lab notebook)

7) Graph (done in excel or on graph paper)

8) Conclusion (What did you learn? What were the sources of error? Did your result match your prediction?)

This should be done in a report format. NO POSTERS. Keep it simple.

AB2, AB3, CD2, CD3 DUE ON MONDAY!

AB1/CD1 DUE ON TUESDAY!

Have a great weekend!

Mr. Forde :-)

Egg-speriment 2008!

Here is a slide show highlighting some aspects of our latest eggsperiment. I think the kids found it eggciting and a nice eggsperience. (groan)

Post some comments about your individual eggperiments Black Team-ers!





Mr. F :-)

Diffusion...what's next?

Tell me what you think will happen next in this picture?

The separator is a "semi-permiable membrance", just like a cell membrane.

Mr. F :-)

Cell as a factory!

Go to this link to help you with your cell as a factory homework.

Click Here!

Mr. F :-)

Cell Organelle Games

Click here for some cell organelle games.

good luck!

mr. f :-)

Audubon 11/24

It was yet another wonderful Audubon of Greenwich experience for the black team!

Mr. Forde :-)

Terrapin Blog!

Here is a NEW blog that will be maintained by my advisory to teach the world about our terrapin work!

http://terrapinkids.blogspot.com/

Please comment on the site!

Mr. F :-)

Real life FURBY?

HI All!

Here is a picture of a recently rediscovered primate that looks just like a furby and fits in one hand!




Click on this linkto find out more!

Mr. F :-)

Hyper-Cells!

Hi All!

We just started working on our hyperstudio cells! They will be clickable images that can teach a user about the parts of the cell.

Here are a couple of great students hard at work in the computer lab!





We will be working on these until friday!

Mr. F :-)

Can you read this? :-)

I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the first and last ltteer be in the r ghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can still raed it wouthit a porbelm. This is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Amzanig huh? yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt! if you can raed this psas it on !!

Audobon 11/17

What a great day we had in Greenwich!

I hope you enjoyed this ecology experience.

Mr. Forde :-)

Greenwich Audubon Trip!

Hi All,

Just a reminder that our trip to the Greenwich Audubon is tomorrow fro groups A/B! Please dress WARMLY and wear shoes that you won't mind getting WET and/or MUDDY.

Here is a link to the greenwich audubon web site!

Click Here

This should be a fun way to learn more about our local environment.

Mr. Forde :-)

Aldrich Museum (last week)

HI All it was great going to the Aldrich museum with both groups of kids. Do you have any reactions to that trip? I loved the large moon....




and the wormy pictures in the front room.






What did you think?

Mr. F :-)

Don't Click this microscope!

What are these? Name them for extra credit!

Here they are...good luck! Mr. F :-)


Picture 1:

Picture 2:

Picture 3:

Picture 4:

Picture 5:

Chia Head Posters

Hi All,

I hope all went well with your poster creations! Post any last minute questions or requests here. Also, see the previous two postings for questions that came in earlier this weekend.

Mr. F :-)

Hi All,

Here we are at Sound Waters learning more about the Diamondback Terrapin and discovering how we can help preserve them. We are hoping to do all we can this year to raise awareness of the issues associated with the health of the LI Sound. We are also hoping that we can help collect data on, and inform the public about, the great Diamondback Terrapin!

As you will see in the photos, it was a blustery day!



We can't wait to head back to the Cove next month!


Mr. F :-)

Comm Srvc Day is coming!

Hi All!

We have been preparing in 231 for community service day this Tuesday 10/28!



As you see in the above pictures we have "save the sound" banner ready to be posted over our doorway in order to remind us daily of our mission!



We also have a rather large turtle on our back wall. This is to inspire us for our upcoming work with Sound Waters to try and locate migrating/nesting diamondback terrapins at Cove Island Park. (BTW- This is the only north american turtle that lives in brackish water.)

See the following image.



What do you need to remember for Mr. Forde's community service day:

1) Bring a BAG LUNCH!
2) We will be away from school from 8:45 - 12:30
3) Students will not eat lunch in school but will have their exploratory classes.
4) Students should wear comfortable clothes and shoes that they don;t mind getting a little dirty. This is field work and might get muddy.
5) We will definitely have fun!

Drivers: Please be at Scofield At 8:45 and pick up is at Cove Island (the first bridge) at 12:30.

Mr. Forde :-)

Grass seed population experiment

In this experiment I placed 3x more seeds on the left than on the right. What do you think will happen to the growth of each side? Why do you feel that way?

Mr. F :-)

Eco-links!

HI Students!

Here is the set of liks that will grow over the next few days.

http://scofieldmms.org/black/pages/ecolinks.htm

Mr. F :-)

When you look at this image you can really see two structures that are unique to plant cells. What are those again? What do they look like inside the cells?

Post a response! These are just like the microscope slides we used recently.


Mr. F :-)

Glowing Jelly Fish lead to nobel prize!

Read this article...



Click here.

To learn more about the implications of the important work of two japanese and one American scientist!

Mr. Forde :-)

Chia Heads Get Started!

Here are the chias at their earliest stage! Thanks for all of the containers and pantyhose. this controlled experiement will be testing the variables of darkness, sunlight, extra carbon dioxide (talkig to the plants) and a mega dose of miracle grow. Wish us luck as we collect our results over the next few weeks!

Mr Forde :-)

Plant experiment question.

Look at the picutre above and tell me what you think will happen over the next day or so. How does what is going to happen relate to the process of photosynthesis?

Mr. F :-)

Pantyhose please?

HI All,

If you have any old knee high pantyhose that we could use for an upcoming project I would really appreciate it! I would like to have 20 pairs to cover all of my classes. We will be using them to learn about photosynthesis and the impact of changing abiotic factors on that process.

Here are a couple of images of chias from last year!

Week of 9/22

HI All,

It was great getting to meet so many Parents on open school night! I hope that you encourage them to stop by the blog every so often to see what we are up to!

On Monday we finished the last of our eco-sphere creations. Hopefully we balenced them appropriately with the right amount of producers, consumers, decomposers and abiotic factors. We'll checking in on them this week and journalling our observations about them.

We then went over our returned lab reports on the mealworm experiments. For the most part they were very good. There were a few issues about graphing and the elaboration ideas that we reviewed. Next we reviewed the HW on testable or researchable questions and caught up on a few cornell notes.

Wednesday and Thursday we conducted "mini-bio-blitz '08!"



We searched the campus for insects, plants, trees and other living things that were not already identified on our pre-existing bio-blitz list for 2007! We did pretty well and had a good time discovering the producers and consumers on our own property! We then used them in the Inspiration food web project being produced in tech class and discussed their role in the Scofield energy pyramid.

Classes on Friday (due to rain) stayed inside and produced powerpoint energy pyramids. Great job!

Ms. McMInn in the Wilderness!

Click here to hear about a REAL adventure that Ms. McMInn (our 8th grade purple team science teacher) is having in the Tundra!

Drop her a comment on her blog as she researches the northern forest and tundra ecosystems!

Ask her some questions related to biotic/abiotic factors, food webs, and enrgy flow!

Mr. Forde :-)

I'm running for president!

Beach Clean up SUCCESS!

Hi All!

Twenty four students and three adults descended upon Cove Island Park from 10 am to 12 pm on Saturday and did a wonderful job improving the beach ecosystem by removing many pounds of dangerous debris and recording it for the International Beach clean-up effort. We were the largest group present at the event. Our group represented an large increase over last year and impressed our Sound Waters host. Here is a picture of our group! Great job!!


Thank you to Mr. Fallon (and his son) and Ms. Sileo and the following students:

8th graders: Anna D., Janet C., Francine B., Nicole C., Daniela R., Stephanie P., Sydney P., Jennifer Y., Gabor K., Nikita J., Harsha B. Deepali P., Alden P. , Erin M.

7th graders: Jineida H, Frank G., Brian D., Jack H., Sirish B., Enesa P., Michael I., Matthew I., Skyler I.

Week of 9/15

Hi All,

It was an eventful week at Scofield! On Monday we finished cleaning up our notebooks. On Tuesday and Wednesday we conducted out our population study (see last posting.) On Wednesday and Thursday we started learning more about food chains and webs and we discussed why we are solar powered. Did you know that we are all really solar powered?

Here are two images from our attempt to make an actual food web using yarn and playing the roles of producers and different level consumers.





On friday our first teams tried their hands at creating their own balanced ecosystems. They carefull measured and then included abiotic factors, producers and consumers. These are sealed up to make them air tight. Let's see how long they will survive! Hopefully they will do well! Here are some pictures from their efforts.








I created a mini-ecosystem of my own. It is a minnow, a water plant, some gravel and a snail. I sealed them up and will observe how long they will work as an ecosystem. What do you think will happen? Why do you feel that way? Respond to these question for extra-credit! :-)

Population study

Hi All,

I thought I would show some images from our mini-population study that we did overt he last few days. Student teams were given samples from plants on a section of our property and the they were challenged to do a population census or count. This reinforced the definitions of the words organism, population, community and ecosystem.

The students did a great job! Here are a few of the images of them at work.

Week of 9/8

It was another fun filled week in science class!

The students started off the week by preparing for our first lab report of the year (Due Monday 9/15) and by planning their own research by developing and investigable question about mealworms. They then spent the entire next class actually conducting their research! The diversity of projects was amazing. Teams were testing the response of mealworms to different tastes, sounds, lighting and temperature conditions and textures. Some even developed mazes to use with their worms! What an interesting set of inquiries!!

See the short slide show to see some of the teams in action.



Next we turned out attention to the nature of life? We pondered the question, "What does it mean to be alive?" We brainstormed what living things have on common. The students then met my "sewer lice" and "glue monsters". These demos were designed to show how something can appear alive even when it is not. I hope they weren't too creepy for some students! (ask your child about them) We then examined soil samples for signs of living (BIOTIC), non-living (ABIOTIC) and once living components.

Here are two pictures from that activity.







We ended the week by cleaning up our binders a bit and reviewing the "martian and the car" HW sheet and doing our last ALIVE activity where the students separated items into categories of "living", "not living", "once living: and "not sure". In some cases it wasn't s easy as it sounds. For example, a chair is non-living unless it is made of wood that was once living. :-)

It continues to be a blast working with the new 7th graders.

All the best. Mr F :-)

Week of 9/2

HI All,

The first week of science went very well. I learned more about my students and we started using our science process skills to get started in class.

On Tuesday we did the "Are you squeamish?" and "Are you a scientist?" inventories. We then analyzed the data as a group. This helped me learn more about the students better and produced some great questios about the upcoming school year in science class.

On Wednesday we looked at images and tried to describe them in great detail. This was a way of working on our observation and description skills. After mixing them up we then tried to match the team descriptions to the images.



On Thursday we worked with mealworms and observed them and created a notice/wonder t-charts. This allowed us to generate questions that could be reviewed to determine whether they were researchable or investigable. We discussed this at the end of class.

The following slide show shows the kids at work.




On Friday the students conducted a teacher designed investigation to determine if mealworms would be attracted to vinegar, sugar or salt solutions. It involved careful observation and data collection. We will discuss the results on Monday. I hope to have student generated investigations next week along with coverage the topics of "What s life?" and "Abiotic/Biotic factors".

I hope you enjoyed this week! It was a nice start.

Mr. Forde

Black Team 08-09

HI All!

It was a pleasure meeting you all today! If you're reading this then you made it to my BLOG!!

Congratulations and drop me a comment!

See you Tuesday!

Mr. Forde :-)

NEW ADVISORY FOCUS!

This year in Mr. Forde's Advisory we will be focusing on helping our local environment by providing assistance to the SoundWaters organization.

You may them as the group with the great 3-masted schooner and the cool house you can visit at Cove Island Park.


There are so many ways to help. What do you think would be a good way to assist Soundwaters?

Thanks in advance for your ideas!

Mr. F :-)

ps- The Food Bank of Lower Fairfield County was an awesome advisory topic last year but anohter advisor will take over that topic! We can still help them also! :-)

My Yearbook photos...

Which of these looks should i sport this school year? Hee Hee. Mr. F :-)

Beaker Sings Yellow by Coldplay

Beaker is my favorite muppet. There, I said it!

Back to School Meter :-)

Countdown Clocks at WishAFriend.com

Watch Solar Eclipse on Nasa TV!

HI All!

ON August 1st from 6 - 8 AM there wil be live coverage of the solar eclipse on nasa TV! I know it is Summer and that is pretty early but this will be cool! Get up and check it out!


Click HERE to see NASA TV!!

Post a coment if you get to see it!

Mr. F :-)

A lungless frog discovered!

See this link to find out more about this cool discovery in Indonesia!



Mr. F :-)