With the winter ending and spring arriving, fresh new things are happening in 7th grade!  The students have enjoyed using the new Lion’s Den and Reading Nook, learning and applying 21st Century skills in EEE, and participating in clubs and activities at Mountain View!

In science, it has been an exciting winter exploring the nervous system and cell processes.  The students had fun building huge neurons, simulating nerve impulses, testing reaction rates, building models of the human brain, and diagnosing Traumatic Brain Injuries (TBI). Students practiced writing CER’s (Claim, Evidence, and Reasoning) to argue which portion of the brain would be the most dangerous location for a TBI.  Over the next month, students will be studying photosynthesis and cellular respiration, as well as, mitosis and meiosis. As they look forward to spring, Mrs. Clark looks forward to watching the 7th graders build upon their solid life science foundation and continue to work on their note-taking and study skills….8th grade is right around the corner!

In Math, students are about to finish up the unit on Percents. They have been testing out the flipped classroom model in class, where students watch a pre-recorded video from Miss Huang on the lesson and complete the guided notes at home, and then come into class, ready to apply these topics. Percents have many rich applications, and each student has been creating their own Google Site to explain each of the six topics, like some of the other math help websites already out there. They created their own examples and word problems, and even incorporated a Screencastify explanation video. At the end of each lesson page, there are student-created mini-quizzes for those that visit their websites to check. After this unit, they will finish the rest of the year with 2D and 3D Geometry, Statistics, Probability, and Linear Equations.

In Language Arts, students have been practicing and developing their argument writing skills, so if they have been extra persuasive lately, this may be why! The students began this unit with an exploration of Aristotle’s persuasive techniques: Ethos, Logos, and Pathos.  The students realized the persuasive power of each technique and how it applies to winning an argument. Next, they began the writing process, in which students selected an intriguing, controversial topic to write about, such as: “Is social media making us more narcissistic?,” “Should video games be considered a sport?,” “Should everyone learn at least one other language?,” or “Is it ethical to genetically engineer animals?” In order to write their formal arguments, students needed to research their topics to formulate an educated, professional opinion, develop interesting thesis statements, support their claims with convincing evidence, and explain how their evidence supports their claims using persuasive reasoning.  After they finish their essays and the flowers start to spring up pushing away the cold snow, Miss Stiner is very excited to move into the next unit (her favorite), Science Fiction Reading and Literary Analysis Writing!

In Social Studies, students have finished learning about colonial America and have started to learn about the causes of the Revolutionary War.  Therefore, they will be learning about the war’s progression, and the characters involved. Shortly after, students will be working on writing a document based question, also known as a “DBQ.”