Blog - General

Week of September 24

Wed, 26 Sep 2012 01:36:51 -0000

Last week in Physical Science we finished our unit on the Nature of Science with a culminating lab. The students built drag racers out of two coffee cups, then altered something about them, and studied their motion. They used the scientific method, made measurements, and created a graph -- all of the skills they practiced in Unit 1. You can see the drag racing cup experiment at this here.

This week in Honors Chemistry we began the study of the atom. Our first lesson is the history of the important developments in the theory of atomic structure. After reading about 4 atomic pioneers, students were given time to create atomic comics, a comic strip version of the history. If you'd like to take a look at what they made, you can copy this link into your browser. Let me know what you think!

Week of September 10

Mon, 10 Sep 2012 01:00:51 -0000

This week in Honors Chemistry we will begin to tackle the math of chemistry. We will spend the beginning of the week working on density and the end of the week converting units from one kind to another. Students need lab gear (apron and goggles, available in the bookstore for $10) on Tuesday for the first of many labs involving an unknown. First lab reports will come back this week. Some students need to follow the guidelines more closely and make sure they are providing an adequate number of details.

This week in Physical Science we will also dabble in density and metric conversions. The students will practice making many types of measurements in a lab on Monday and try to solve a problem about density on Wednesday. Last week's lab went very well and I think the students enjoyed it. They followed it with many excellent quizzes about the scientific method.

Meet the Teacher night is Thursday. It's a busy, hectic evening with only 10 minutes with each teacher, but I hope to meet many parents that night and share some of the interesting work we have begun.

Sun, 2 Sep 2012 02:21:00 -0000

This week in Honors Chemistry we will start some basic introductory material -- scientific method, measurement, and density. After days of getting oriented, the students will work in the lab and use the scientific method to solve a problem.

This week in physical science we will also tackle the scientific method. We will use the method to solve a problem in the lab on Wednesday. We will take our first quiz on Thursday to assess progress in this area and then we'll move on to measurement.

If you're reading this as a parent, ask your son or daughter to show you the experiment we do in class this week. They are easy to replicate with home materials. I'll also have them on display at Open House on September 13.

Welcome back to school!

Wed, 22 Aug 2012 02:23:30 -0000

Welcome to Ms. Roediger's class! If you picked up your schedule today and you found my name, I am looking forward to meeting you next week. One of your first assignments will be to check out the things on my website, so if you're reading this, you probably already have one assignment crossed off your list. When I am finished here, I will type in the first few assignments in the online calendar so you can see how we will get started.

If you are planning to shop for school supplies between now and when school starts, here is what you should get for my class:

Honors Chemistry: 1.5" 3-ring binder (divider tabs optional!) and scientific calculator (graphing is ok, but it doesn't have to be a graphing calculator)

Physical Science: 1" or 1.5" binder (divider tabs optional!)

If you are in my Physical Science class and will attend Freshmen Orientation this week, I will be working in my classrooms (B201 and B202) that morning. Stop by and say hello! For everybody else, I'll see you in a week. Enjoy the last days of summer!