Ratio Quiz tomorrow...

Dear Families,

This Week in Math

• We have been working on these learning targets:
  6.RP.1: I can compare subgroups to each other or to a whole group using ratios.
  6.RP.2: I can calculate a unit rate and use it to solve ratio problems.
  6.RP.3: I can use a model to solve real world ratio problems.
• Today in class students took a practice quiz. The answers are stored on DropBox for you to see if you need them. [link]
• Tonight I have asked students to review their practice quiz from today and any of our classwork and homework over the last week and a half to practice for the quiz tomorrow.
  
• Tomorrow we are having a quiz on the second two learning targets. (We took a small one last week on the first learning target). 
  

Right now in Science

• When we learned about the fan cars, we defined average speed as the change in position divided by the change in time. 
  
• Now we are working on describing the motion of mousetrap cars so that we can compare them to the motion of our fan cars.

Field Trip Volunteers

We still need more volunteers to chaperone and drive for our upcoming field trips!

Red Group Parents can volunteer here: [link]

Blue Group Parents can volunteer here: [link]

Warm Regards,

Brian

"Blue Group" Field Trip: CALLING ALL DRIVERS!

Dear Families,

We are excited about our upcoming field trip to the Gordon Carter Environmental Site.

Many of you may know this as the Pioneer Site in 3rd grade. We will be teaming with Huxley College of the Environment (WWU) for two days of fun-filled outdoor, science and environmental education.

Field trip dates for your child are:

Thursday May 16 09:30- 03:45 and...

Friday, May 17 09:30- 03:45

I will send more details in the coming weeks.

This will be an all day trip: we will leave WMS around 9:30 and expect a 45-minute drive. We will leave at about 3:00 and arrive at WMS at about 3:45.

This email is a call for chaperones and drivers!

There are two vital jobs we need parent help with:

1. Chaperones volunteer to drive students there and then stay the entire day, supporting the hikes and activities.
   
2. Drivers volunteer simply to drive students to and from the site. 

If you would like to be part of this tremendous trip, please respond in this short survey:

VOLUNTEER SIGN-UP

Let me know if you have any questions.

Brian MacNevin

Math/Science Teacher

Whatcom MS

"Red Group" Field Trip: CALLING ALL DRIVERS!

Dear Families,

We are excited about our upcoming field trip to the Gordon Carter Environmental Site.

Many of you may know this as the Pioneer Site in 3rd grade. We will be teaming with Huxley College of the Environment (WWU) for two days of fun-filled outdoor, science and environmental education.

Field trip dates for your child are:

Monday May 13 09:30- 03:45 and...

Tuesday, May 14 09:30- 03:45

I will send more details in the coming weeks.

This will be an all day trip: we will leave WMS around 9:30 and expect a 45-minute drive. We will leave at about 3:00 and arrive at WMS at about 3:45.

This email is a call for chaperones and drivers!

There are two vital jobs we need parent help with:

1. Chaperones volunteer to drive students there and then stay the entire day, supporting the hikes and activities.
   
2. Drivers volunteer simply to drive students to and from the site. 

If you would like to be part of this tremendous trip, please respond in this short survey:

VOLUNTEER SIGN-UP

Let me know if you have any questions.

Brian MacNevin

Math/Science Teacher

Whatcom MS

Science Update: Rube Goldberg machines!

Dear Families,

I just wanted to let you know that today in science we spent some time trying to apply our understandings of energy, motion, and forces. We watched part of a video from a German artist called "The Way Things Go" (Der Lauf der Dinge). You can watch it here: [link]. And we watched a video that is supposed to be a continuous-shot Rube Goldberg contraption in the OK GO music video "This Too Shall Pass" [link].

I asked students to try and notice two things:

1. Where is friction being used to an advantage (so it's not just something that gets in the way).
2. Every time something starts to move, it has received some energy ("motion" or kinetic energy). So I asked students to think about where the energy came from.

It was a fun way to think about energy and forces and might be interesting to talk about with your child to try and extend what they are seeing in the classroom out of the classroom.

Afterwards, students shared with me about a Red Bull commercial that I'd never seen [link]. And that reminded me of a Honda commercial they'd never seen [link]. Then I found this one that is done in Minecraft [link]!

So now it's emailed, blogged, shared, and we can all watch Rube Goldberg-like machines all night! :)

Warm Regards,

Brian MacNevin

Progress Reports sent home today... science is being updated this week.

Dear Families,

Our progress reports are going home today and I wanted to let you know that the science progress report is not yet up to date. I have hardcopy information that I had forgotten to move into the gradebook system and I will update that this week, then send home a science progress report on Friday or Monday.

There have also already been updates to the math gradebook and you can see those online now.

I'm sorry for the confusion this may add to an already large set of printed pages, but I want to get you better information than what you are getting today.

Thanks so much for all you do for your child!

Sincerely,

Brian MacNevin

Math and Science Update...

Dear Families,

Well, our first week back is almost done and I wanted to update you about what we have been up to.

MATH

On Monday we started investigating ratios. Students learned that ratios are just comparisons of things. There are two kinds of ratios that we see commonly in 6th grade:

1. Comparing parts of groups to the whole group.
   Students know these more commonly as fractions. For example, if I have a group of seven marbles and three of them are red, but four of them are blue, the ratio of red marbles to the total number of marbles is 3:7 (pronounced "three to seven"). This can also be expressed as the fraction 3/7.
2. Comparing parts of groups to the other parts of the group.
   This was the new way of thinking about it. If I have the same set of seven marbles (three red and four blue), then I can compare the red marbles to the blue marbles using a ratio. The ratio of red to blue marbles is 3:4, and the ratio of blue marbles to red marbles is 4:3. Notice, the order of the parts is important. 

• You might be thinking to yourself, "so... if a ratio is a part:whole ratio, it's clear why it's a fraction. But why can we use fractions for part:part ratios? Sure, the ratio of red:blue is 3:4... but why can it also be 3/4 when there are more than four marbles?"
  
  
• Well, that comes down to the comparison of one part to another part. If we ask "what fraction of the number of blue marbles is the number of red marbles?" then we are comparing the number of red marbles to the number of blue ones. Since there are four blue marbles and only three red ones, we can say that the red marbles are 3/4 of the number of blue marbles. So the use of a fraction there works just fine as long as we remember that we are describing the size of one part of the collection relative to the other part of the collection.
  

SCIENCE

• Just before break we began investigating these fan cars as a way of looking at forces, motion and energy. The big question we are asking is "what causes what?" Does energy cause motion? Or does force cause motion? Or does motion cause force?
  
• This week we have been learning to use two tools to help us investigate this:
• Force Diagrams: These simple diagrams represent forces acting on an object as an arrow. If two forces are acting on the same object, we draw the greater force with a longer arrow. 
• Average Speed: This one was fun. Through a reading, students were introduced to the idea that speed is the change in position over a change in time. When I then asked a student to come up and change my position, in both classes someone turned me sideways! *laughing* They were reading the word position as pose. But for scientists, position means location. So we described that instead as the change in position divided by the change in time and we recorded the formula like this:
  
  speed= dx/dt
  
  where dx means the change in position and dt means the change in time (d is an abbreviation for difference). 
  
  
•  The two HUGE understandings in these experiments are:
  

1. I know that motion is the result of an unequal application of forces.
2. I know that a constant application of force results in increasing speeds (until "terminal velocity" is reached -- Shane pointed that out for us!).  

 Warm regards,

Brian MacNevin

Fwd: cross country

Dear Families,
I hope you are having a wonderful Spring Break! The weather sure has been amazing! Our team's other math/science teacher, Robert Knickrehm, is also our school's cross country coach. He asked me to forward this information to you about cross country starting up this spring. This is only the second year that cross country has been at the middle school and kids last year had a wonderful time!
Warm regards,
Brian MacNevin

Whatcom MS Cross Country

It is with great enthusiasm we launch our second district-wide competitive season of middle school cross country.  Last year we had over 75 runners join the team, and we expect even more runners this season.  Our goal is to support the joy of running.  We support runners of all abilities.  This is a fun, social way to be active and is truly a sport for everyone.  We will practice on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday.  There will be three dual meets and one all-city meet.  We are happy to work with runners that have other commitments such as music lessons or other types of practices.

Sign-ups will begin immediately after spring break.  There will be announcements in the daily bulletin.

Please let me know if you have questions, and I hope to see you on the trails.

Robert Knickrehm

Head Coach

robert.knickrehm@bellinghamschools.org

676-6460 ext. 4345