Physical Science is a Lab credit science course that covers a variety of topics including the properties of matter, forces and motion, cosmology, and Earth science.  These topics are taught over 4 quarters.

 

Grading:  

Students will be graded on Mastery.  For each unit, a rubric will be provided for the students and teacher to use to assess if the student has mastered a specific learning outcome.  The score on the rubric will be reflected in the gradebook in the following way:

A     Student has mastered the concepts and is able to demonstrate their understanding in a variety of ways (labs, quizes, discussion, problem solving, projects)

 

B     Student has mastered most of the concepts with a few mistunderstandings.  The student demonstrates they need a little more guidance to master completely.

 

C     Student demonstrates a misunderstanding of several concepts and needs additional assignments or help to master the concepts. 

 

D     Student appears to be struggling with mastery and is unable to accurately demonstrate the concepts. 

 

F     Student fails to demonstrate any understanding of concepts either by choice or needs further assistance.

 

Student Work:

 

e-Science Books

Students will maintain an electronic science notebook and will be able to access assignments online when they are absent. Assignments will be posted to a blog or linked to a pbwiki page from the blog.

 

pbwiki page

The student pbwiki page will be used for storing completed lab reports, a written and spoken glossary, and links to resources, assignments, and blogs. 

 

Click on the links below to see the learning objectives and assignments for each quarter. 

 

quizzes

 Students will be given a vocabulary quiz every Friday (or last day of school week if Friday is a holiday).  The quiz will cover words used that week in labs and activities.

 

tests

There will be 2 exams each quarter (week 4 and week 9).  The exams will be in a format similar to the WASL and will not be offered on-line.

 

special project

Students will be assigned a special project each Quarter.  These projects are intended to broaden the student's understanding of the concepts by providing an opportunity for the student to apply the concepts to other disciplines and to issues or events that are culturally relevant.  Limited class time will be offered to work on the projects.  The overall assignment will be broken down into pieces with guidelines and due dates provided on-line. 

 

labs

Students will participate in labs every week.  The labs will involve direct experimentation, modeling, inquiry and problem solving.  As the year progresses students will be expected to contribute more to the written reports and will be graded on the content of their reports in addition to their performance in the lab.

 

Wellpinit Science Journal

Each quarter, student work will be selected for publication in the Wellpinit Science Journal.  Students will have the opportunity to select work they are most proud of for submission.  Work will be peer reviewed by other students and selected works will go through editing and layout revisions for publication.  All students will have access to the journal when it is published.

 

1st Quarter-Properties of Matter

 

2nd Quarter-Forces and Motion

 

3rd Quarter-Cosmology

 

4th Quarter-Earth Science