Gene by Gene

What a busy week, and it's only Tuesday! We have spent the last two days inquiring into migration and innovations. We asked ourselves today what is migration and innovation, and we developed a definition for each of these terms that will guide our work for the next few weeks. We also worked to organize the term 3 social studies concepts by line of inquiry in order to help us see how it's all connected!

We also extracted DNA from spinach and sweet potatoes. Students used a lot of their inquiry and communication skills as we went about this process. Here are some pictures from our extraction.

Some students asked if they could have the information to try some other samples at home, so here it is: http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/labs/extraction/howto/  All of the needed supplies are common household items, so it should be pretty easy to replicate the process at home.

Finally, many of the students joined the Galley Book Club this week. We are lucky to be partnering with Little Shop of Stories for this amazing opportunity. Students are able to read books before they are released for sale and they get to keep the copies of the books. The only catch is that they have to write reviews for the books! These reviews may be used by Little Shop of Stories once the book is officially released to give other readers an idea of what a real kid reader likes and dislikes about the story.  Below you will see tweets from our Media Specialist with some pictures of our students after they selected their first galley book!

Galley Book Club with @lilshopostories is off the ground! pic.twitter.com/ZvXOkXnEbl

— Corinne Smith (@MsSmithFAVELMS) October 30, 2017

Galley Book Club with @lilshopostories is off the ground! pic.twitter.com/Rx2SGVgEhA

— Corinne Smith (@MsSmithFAVELMS) October 30, 2017

Thursday and Friday are also very important days for us because we will have visitors from the IB organization at FAVE to observe and give feedback to us about how we are doing!

I hope everyone is having a great week! Happy Halloween!

Sweeter Than Candy!

Friday was a great day! We made models of animal and plant cells out of candy. The students had a great time, and we learned a lot about cell organelles! Here are some pictures of our fun.

One Day....

What an adventure we have been on this week! Students have worked hard to inquire into structures that make us who we are and conflicts that cause change. We have also been working on thinking about our thinking, questioning things that don't make sense, and utilizing our self-management skills. I am proud of the connections that students have been making this week while taking a close look at the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments in social studies. Many students have realized that there are connections between the state of our world today and the issues that were present during the Civil War.

WAR

Study Guide Causes of War
Study Guide Civil War

I Won't Back Down

We continued our discussions of perspective during Morning Meeting this week. On Monday, students were asked what it means to 'take a knee'. This is a picture of their responses.

This week we began to work on our culminating project investigating how the American Civil War was a conflict that caused change. We also began our investigation of microorganisms around our world, and students are very curious about what places in the school will have the highest concentration of bacteria. Additionally, students continued to work on their micrography self-portraits during Genius Hour.

Here are some pictures of our work this week.