Mr Dickason's Science Blog

Citizen Science

2010-09-04T07:26:00.002-07:00

Since all students are expected to take part in at least one citizen science project this year, we are going to take a day this next couple of weeks to do some research about what kinds of projects are being done that could be done in Tucson. This will generate a list of projects for the students to choose from, but also give them some insight into what the projects are so that they can begin to think about what ones they want to do. A good resource for this is http://www.scienceforcitizens.net/ .

New School, New Year

2010-08-29T13:52:00.002-07:00

This year I transferred to Sabino High School where I am teaching 5 classes of Earth Science. What a great bunch of students!
We will be studying Earth and its systems along with its place in the Universe.
Topics will include Earth History, Solar System, Star life Cycles, Oceanography, Weather and Climate.
Students will be expected to participate in at least on Citizen Science project such as Dark Skies, Project Bud-Burst, Hubble deep field galaxy categorization etc.
I know that we will all have an interesting year that we will remember long after it is over for all the cool stuff we learned and did.

Science +

2009-09-26T16:18:00.003-07:00

This year we are serious about doing fun stuff outside of school and after school. We have had several meetings of the rocketry club and have made and flown our first rockets. This has been made possible by the generosity of volunteers who come and teach the class with us and supply all the stuff! Astronomy is another class which has met several times and is facilitated by a generous volunteer from the community who plans the lessons and brings the materials.
We have several other things planned for the future including an evening trip ti Kitt Peak and possible a trip to the Grand Canyon, one to the Uof A mirror lab, one to the plantarium as well as some activities at school.

Diapers and Oobleck

2009-09-05T08:58:00.002-07:00

This week we spent time in the lab making observations and inferences about diapers and oobleck. For homework we are making observations of the moon this month and drawing what we see so that we can try to figure out what pattern there is to the changes in shape. Next week we will try to determine why shadows point different ways and what we can find out from them

New School Year!

2009-08-22T07:47:00.002-07:00

Summer vacation is over and we have been back at school for a week. We have been working on getting to know each other and learning to work in teams.
This year we will be having several activities after school including rocketry, astronomy MESA. We are planning to go to Kitt Peak in the spring and to Cooper Environmental Center in the Fall. It is going to be a great year!

The Grand Canyon

2009-05-10T16:48:00.002-07:00

This week several of us went on a field trip to northern Arizona. We all had a great time. We had lunch at Montezuma's well and then spent time playing and cooking out at Fort Tuthill before going to a local middle school to stay in the gym. The next day we went to the Grand Canyon and hiked partway down the Bright Angel Trail. We had lunch in the canyon and walked back out. It sure seemed like a lot farther going up!
Later in the evening we returned to Flagstaff where we went out for pizza and then to the Lowell Observatory where we played around in their discovery center and looked at Saturn through the telescope that was used to discover Pluto.
The following morning we went to Sunset Crater where we were led by a great guide who showed us a lot of things about how the crater was formed and some cool stuff about the ponderosa pine trees there.
Finally we headed back for home. What a great 3 days!

Decomposers

2009-04-19T15:24:00.002-07:00

This week we will be talking about decomposers- always a favorite of middle school folks. We will also be starting mini-biospheres in 2 liter soda bottles. Students need to bring a clear, empty 2 liter soda bottle by Tuesday for this activity. Dont forget the lid! We will be creating our own mini- biospheres and finding out what it takes to keep them alive.

Spring Break!

2009-04-11T10:47:00.003-07:00

Last Tuesday we pulled buffelgrass for a few hours. We filled up several bags with it and got most of it pulled around campus. This is something that we will need to do over each year to keep getting any that comes up from seed. Eventually we will get most of it and will just need to stay vigilant for new patches.
This week we will be working on food webs. We will dissect owl pellets to find out what they eat. We may find that the owl's food web looks a little different from ours.

Buffelgrass

2009-04-04T08:10:00.002-07:00

Tuesday we will be pulling buffelgrass around the school grounds. Caliche bars and gloves will provided by the Sonoran Desert Weedwackers.
Buffel grass is an invasive grass that grows well in low water environments and which poses a high fire threat as well as a threat of taking over and crowding out or destroying by fire native species. The iconic plant in this areas is the saguaro cactus and it is especially threatened by fire.
For more information, see Buffelgrass.org

Rodeo Vacation!

2009-02-26T11:50:00.002-07:00

We are all enjoying having a long weekend. When we get back we will be finishing up our class presentations of Websites, PowerPoints, Posters etc explaining the rock cycle and how it relates to plate tectonics. By the end of the week we will have reviewed for and taken our unit benchmark and be ready to move on to Ecology.
This looks as if it will be a great year for wildflowers in the desert since we had a fair amount of winter rain. That makes it the perfect time to be studying ecology. Google "Buffelgrass" and be ready to talk about it by the end of the week.

Earth History Projects

2009-02-14T09:07:00.002-07:00

We are working on our unit projects for Earth History. Some students are creating websites. Some are doing PowerPoints and others are doing posters, flipbooks and/or trifold brochures. They are all due this coming week and will be presented to the class Thursday and Friday.

Sedimentary Rocks

2009-01-31T08:12:00.002-07:00

Last week we got a chance to look at some igneous rocks and learn how they are formed. This week we will be looking at sedimentary rocks. There will be labs most days as we try to create our own sedimentary rocks to see how they form in nature.
Also this week we will begin planning for our Earth History projects. Some students will be working independently on such things as powerpoints and websites explaining the rock cycle and its relationship to plate tectonics. Other students may choose to create a song or rap, a movie, a poster, a diorama, an animation...
to show their understanding of the concepts we have learned

More Rocks

2009-01-25T09:21:00.002-07:00

We got a chance to look at samples of some rocks and minerals and to try to define for ourselves what the difference is. Next week we will continue that by looking at igneous rocks and finding out how they form.

Rocks and Minerals

2009-01-19T09:07:00.002-07:00

Well, we didnt actually get to rocks and minerals last week, but we did finish up our study of tectonic plate boundaries. This week we will start looking at rocks and find out how the different kinds of rocks that we find help us to understand what was happening at the time the rocks were formed.

Boundaries and Rocks

2009-01-11T13:11:00.003-07:00

We are going to finish our plate boundary flip books this week and start learning about rocks and minerals by looking at the rock you brought in. Make sure you have your rock by Friday at the latest!

Happy New Year!

2009-01-03T19:27:00.003-07:00

I hope you all had as much fun goofing off as I did. On Monday we will return to studying about Earthquakes and move from there into learning about different types of tectonic plate boundaries.
Homework this week is to find a rock about the size of your fist that looks interesting. Try to find a rock that seems to belong where you found it instead of one that your great aunt Sally gave you or one that was delivered to help cover your yard or driveway. Write down the location where you found the rock, your name and anything you can about what other rocks, plants etc were nearby. Put the rock and slip of paper in a small plastic bag and bring it to school by the end of the week. We will be using these rocks for our lessons next week.

Earth History

2008-11-29T19:18:00.002-07:00

We finished up our unit on astronomy the week before last and watched the movie "October Sky" last week. This week we are starting on our Earth History unit. We are going to be learning about how the Earth has changed and is continuing to change. I will be making some suggestions for individual projects in the next week or so. I am especially looking for students to work on a geodesy project. See me if you think you might be interested.

Messages to the Stars

2008-11-15T08:42:00.004-07:00

Last week we discovered how difficult it is to figure out what to say to beings outside our solar system and even more so how difficult it is to find a way to get our ideas across without any language or symbols from Earth.
Next week we will be reviewing our astronomy unit and getting ready for the final exam. Then it's on to Earth History.
For extra credit, look up "geodesy" and come tell me what it means.

Messages From Distant Stars

2008-11-09T10:08:00.002-07:00

Last week we learned a little about constellations and built star-finders to help us find the constellations we learned about. We ended the week by watching the movie "Contact." This week we will finish watching the movie and look at the message sent from Arecibo observatory in 1974. We will attempt to create our own messages that can be understood by any being sufficiently advanced to receive them and will convey the meaning we want conveyed.

Scale of the Solar System

2008-10-26T08:58:00.003-07:00

Last week we got a chance to see how big the solar system really is and how small we are when we created a scale model of the solar system using a volleyball for the sun and a peppercorn for the Earth. We overlaid the planet orbits on Google Earth and were surprised to find that Pluto would be a pinhead 1000 yards away and the nearest star other than the Sun would be 4000 miles away in that scale.

The Solar System

2008-10-12T12:36:00.002-07:00

This week we will be looking at the solar system. We will review the names and locations of the planets and we will create a scale model to help us visualize the distances between planets.

Science-7: Out of Classroom Experience

2008-10-04T08:20:00.004-07:00

Wednesday we will have the first Meeting of the Experience. Come with your lunch to room 16 as soon as you get your food. We have a lot to do: electing officers, planning fund raising for the Halloween dance, deciding what other kinds of field trips and fund raisers to do.

On to the eclipse

2008-09-27T09:35:00.002-07:00

Next week we will be wrapping up our study of Moon phases and learning about eclipses and tides. We are finding out that the Moon has a big effect on our lives.

Phases of the Moon

2008-09-21T09:05:00.003-07:00

This week we will be exploring what causes the phases of the moon. We have been noticing and drawing what the moon looks like for the past two or three weeks and now we are going to use the data we collected to help us understand Why the moon looks different on different days.

Sept 12

2008-09-13T10:12:00.004-07:00

This last week we learned about what causes seasons. Next week we will start by reviewing this before moving on.
We added two more animals to the classroom this week. We already had a California King snake, two golden tree frogs and a tokay gecko. We added a day glow corn snake and a large tarantula. The snake came from my house, but the tarantula was a volunteer who just showed up and wanted to join our class.
Next week is parent teacher conferences on Wednesday and Thursday which means early out for students.

Moon Observation Sheets

2008-09-06T07:47:00.002-07:00

Remember to notice the Moon. Homework this month is to look at the Moon at least every 2 or 3 days and draw a picture of what it looks like. Be sure to write what day and time you saw it.
At the end of the month we will look at how the Moon appeared to change during that time.

Starting on Space

2008-08-30T10:03:00.002-07:00

On Tuesday we will begin our unit on space. We will be learning all about how the Moon, Sun and Earth affect each other. Meanwhile, keep an eye on the news over the weekend so we can talk about what happened with hurricane Gustav when we get to school on Tuesday.

Cell phones and popcorn

2008-08-23T11:30:00.002-07:00

It has been a fun second week. We watched a video that showed popcorn being popped with some cell phones and discussed whether students thought that it could have been faked or whether it might really be possible to do that. We did some research and most students agreed that it was a hoax and that it would not be possible to pop popcorn with cellphones, but there are some who believe that it could be possible and want to set up an experiment to try doing so. On Monday we will run some controlled experiments to see whether we can pop any corn using cell phones.

What a great school!

2008-08-12T16:35:00.002-07:00

This is a great school! All the students seem to be excited to be here and ready to learn. I can see we are going to have a great year.
The first couple of weeks we are going to work on getting to know each other and learning procedures, so there really arent any assignments that you can do outside of the classroom. If you are absent and want to do make-up work, go to the make-up section of the website and do a science news review. (We will be going over how to write one of these on Friday.)
If you have a question about anything, whether it is about science or about seeing if you can change your seat, write me an email or write me a note on paper and give it to me. I will make sure that you get an answer.
Keep up the good work!

Welcome to 7th Grade Science!

2008-07-10T10:49:00.000-07:00

In 7th Grade Science we learn about Space, Earth History and Ecology.
This year we are starting with space.
The Phoenix project landed a spacecraft near the north pole of Mars just after school ended last spring. This project is run by the University of Arizona from right here in Tucson! Here is a picture of the spare lander.
This is going to be an exciting year in space exploration.
I look forward to meeting all of you in August.