We're off to a great start!

Greetings Parents- Welcome to the TAISM 2015-2016  8th Grade Science Blog.  We have had a fantastic beginning to our school year which has made me feel really excited for the rest of the year.  Our focus in the first weeks of school has been on engineering design and beginning our astronomy content. 

My goal for this blog is to keep you more informed on the happenings in science class regarding our current units, upcoming projects and things you can do with your child at home.  Please enter your email address in the box to the right that says "follow by email" and then you'll get updates automatically sent to your email.    

Currently, we are in the final stages of our Team X project which serves as an introduction to astronomy, scientific questioning and the engineering design process.  This is a very hands-on project which we will complete this week with the landing of their payload.  I've modeled the project after the current NASA mission "Curiosity" and my experience witnessing this process when I visited the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California in 2006.  We've been focusing on how scientists and engineers test their ideas in order to be as sure as possible that they will work based on their predictions and EVIDENCE from design testing.  The project will give me a great window into the students' creativity, science background, strengths and areas for growth.  (You can see the project overview on my website in the "Resources-Astronomy" section.)

Our astronomy unit will be split into two parts: Patterns in the Solar System and Our Place in the Universe (everything beyond our Solar System).  Astronomy is a rather long unit because it is integrated with many of the physics standards, where appropriate.  I am looking forward to sharing many deep discussions and interesting lab experiences with your children.