Homework

Today in Science, students were introduced to Mitosis and Meiosis. Students are encouraged to continue researching for their flip book task illustrating how mitosis and meiosis work. Students will be given class time on Monday to share their task progress with peers.

Today in Humanities, students completed their Chapter 1 Assessment. As well, students were given time to begin writing their Gattaca response.

Announcements

Student-Led Conferences:

Thursday, October 30 (4:00-8:00pm)
Friday, October 31 (10:00-1:00pm)

November 5 -Take Our Kids to Work Day

Today....

Humanities:

Chapter 1 Assessment- Thursday, October 30 
To prepare: study vocabulary, branches of government, bill to law process, media and lobbyist groups.

Announcements:

Student-Led Conferences:
Thursday, October 30 (4:00-8:00pm)
Friday, October 31 (10:00-1:00pm)

November 5 -Take Our Kids to Work Day

Upcoming Assessments

School Spirit:

Dress up in your best Halloween Costume on Wednesday for Cougar Cup Points! 

Math:

Unit Assessment - Wednesday, October 29

Humanities:

Chapter 1 Assessment- Thursday, October 30

Announcements:

Student-Led Conferences:
Thursday, October 30 (4:00-8:00pm)
Friday, October 31 (10:00-1:00pm)

November 5 -Take Our Kids to Work Day

This week....

Math:

Unit Assessment - Wednesday, October 29

Science:

DNA worksheet --answer questions and provide visual

Humanities:

Presenting Lobbyist/Journalist Tasks to Peers on Tuesday, October 28

Chapter 1 Assessment - Thursday, October 30

Announcements:

Student-Led Conferences:
Thursday, October 30 (4:00-8:00pm)
Friday, October 31 (10:00-1:00pm)

November 5 -Take Our Kids to Work Day

Humanities

Today we:

1. Did a quiz regarding Short Story elements and Sound of Thunder.

2. Handed in storyboard for Sound of Thunder
- some students have requested an extension until Monday. This has been provided, however it is expected that come Monday, the storyboard is completed.

For Your Information: (Ray Bradbury theater episode of Sound of Thunder)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wkLT57mVnGE&list=PL17C7D5ACAA8F5645
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kqd4Ol8FlGc&list=PL17C7D5ACAA8F5645&index=2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kqd4Ol8FlGc&list=PL17C7D5ACAA8F5645&index=2

3. Worked on the Journalist OR Lobbyist task
- this is to be completed (in a rough copy) for Monday
- on Monday we will share our work, make revisions and additions to arguments/details and this will need to be completed in a good copy and presented in class on Tuesday (no exceptions)

Humanities

Humanities:

STORYBOARDS (completed, colored, quotes, title/author) due Friday, October 24!

Short Story Elements and "A Sound of Thunder" Quiz - Friday!

Lobbyist/Journalist Task - we will work on this in class on Friday!

CHAPTER 1 TEST - Thursday, October 30. Please review vocabulary, notes, handouts, journals, concepts, and look through your textbook.

October 23 - Math/Science

Reminder that you have a Fraction Operations Check-up on Friday in class.

I will also be collecting your Science Journals and looking at the following 3 items:
         1) Plant and Animal Reproduction Task
         2) Discrete and Continuous variation lab Questions
         3)  Your reflection about what you learned about the topic of Nature vs. Nurture.

Homework

Science

Please read "Nature vs Nurture" article and highlight nature characteristics, highlight nurture characteristics, and highlight both nature/nurture characteristics. Be ready for a discussion!

Humanities

"A Sound of Thunder" storyboard completed for Friday.

Current Events

Check out the news tonight and be ready to discuss the happenings of today in Ottawa.

Humanities

Bill to Law cut and paste activity due Wednesday. As well as a quiz (branches of government and how a bill becomes law)!

Storyboard "A Sound of Thunder" due Friday.

Link to find copy of the story:

http://www.wpcsd.org/Downloads/SoundOfThunder.pdf

Math/Science Homework

In Math, keep working on the problem solving questions on page 68 #9-15 (9-03).  9-04 were assigned #19-21 as well.

In Science, we continued working on the lab from yesterday where we gathered the classroom frequencies of continuous and discrete traits.  Please have the analysis questions complete in your notebooks for Wednesday to be collected.  Lab sheet posted in the D2L shell.  Might be a good idea to read first part of Topic 4 to help with your understanding of discrete and continuous traits.

Lab Questions:

1.     What do you notice about the frequency of the various traits? Which are more common? Which are least common?  

          

2.     Is the data from your small group representative of the class? Do you think our class represents Alberta population? Canada population? Why or why not?          

                                                                                                                                         

3.     What does it mean to have a Dominant Trait?  What is a Recessive Trait?  Does frequency (how often a trait occurs) relate to dominance or recessiveness? Is there any correlation between frequency and dominance?                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              

4.     In the traits we observed in the lab, which do you think are continuous? Which are discrete? Give evidence for your answers.   

5.     Do you think dominance or recessiveness relate to the desirability of a trait? In other words are “bad” or harmful traits recessive and “good” or beneficial traits dominant? Give examples to support your position                                                                 

Math

Math Questions: Page 68 # 7-8.

For help with Questions #7-8, refer to Example #2 on Page 65. Write your answers in lowest terms.

Humanities:

1. Students start working on your storyboard and include details from the beginning, middle, and end of story. Your storyboard should include title and author of story. Storyboard needs to be completed with colored visuals that represent quotes from the story. This task will be due for Friday, October 24.

Story "A Sound of Thunder":

http://www.lasalle.edu/~didio/courses/hon462/hon462_assets/sound_of_thunder.htm

2. "A Sound of Thunder" - 8 questions for Tuesday, October 21.

3. Bill to Law: Ensure you have found a bill that is currently being debated in Parliament. You need to know what steps are taken to bring a bill to law. Use the following website as a reference. You might want to review the website and take some notes/add to your notes in your visual journal to support your learning.

http://www.parl.gc.ca/about/parliament/senatoreugeneforsey/inside_view/follow_bill-e.htmlhttp://www.parl.gc.ca/about/parliament/senatoreugeneforsey/inside_view/follow_bill-e.html

Here is a great website to refer to throughout our government unit. It is interactive and will help you visually see a lot of the information we will discuss in class.
http://www.parl.gc.ca/about/parliament/senatoreugeneforsey/inside_view/parliament_in_action-e.html

Quiz on Wednesday, October 22 - branches of government and how a bill becomes law.

Science Homework

Great work in Cougar Community today! Pumpkins are coming along and can't wait to see the finished product! Students please read Topic 4 "Wearing Your Genes" in Science Focus 9 (Pg. 37-45) for Monday.

Announcements

Today some Grade 9 female students had an amazing opportunity to attend the Women in Engineering Expo at Telus Spark. The girls had time to network with engineers from a variety of backgrounds and visit booths. We ended our afternoon by viewing the Telus Spark exhibits and the girls continued their conversations about Science and careers.

Cougar Community:

Come prepared to work on your pumpkins during Cougar Community!!! Bring all supplies needed to create your pumpkin characters!

"Take our Kids to Work" Day --November 5, 2014 - this opportunity is for all grade 9 students wanting to spend the day with his/her parent and learning about their work day. For more information on this opportunity check out the following website:

http://www.thelearningpartnership.ca/what-we-do/student-programs/take-our-kids-to-work/surveys-and-resources

October 16th - Math/Science

Reproduction Tasks

Plant Reproduction
a)  Label the diagram of the flower in your notebook.
- Describe the function of each part
- Imagine that you have been shrunk by Ms. Frizzle and find yourself inside a pollen grain. Trace the steps of fertilization from pollen to fruit. Describe the process in a paragraph using vocabulary of the flower.  What is the order of structures that you will encounter,
-What is an Angiosperm and Gymnosperm.  How do they differ?

Animal Reproduction
a)  Read the information on page 35 and summarize what is needed for sexual reproduction to be successful.  Be sure to include descriptions of internal fertilization and external fertilization and the advantages and disadvantages of each
b)  Sketch Figure 1.47 on page 51 in your notebook and label the steps/vocab
c)  Compare and contrast the advantages and disadvantages of sexual and asexual reproduction.  Create a table to summarize your understanding.

Please have this complete for Thursday

Cabinet Minister Task

Please complete Question 1 - Go online and research the cabinet today and compare to the cabinet in 2007 (Page 25 of your textbook). Compare types and numbers of portfolios, female/male ratios, perspectives and regions represented. Why do you think Prime Ministers change the structure and people in the cabinet. Make a chart for your comparisons.

Useful website: www.parl.gc.ca

We will complete Question 2 next class.

A Sound of Thunder Vocabulary

This week we will be reading "A Sound of Thunder" by Ray Bradbury. The students worked on a quick write to think about time travel and were finding definitions for the following words:

Annihilate
Expendable
Infinitesimally
Primeval
Revoke
Sheathed
Undulate
Dictatorship
Franchise
Temperament
Expedition
Cavernous
Subliminal

Dictionary definitions due for Wednesday. Student understanding of definition can be completed through a sentence, visual, or diagram.

This past week we have been reviewing fractions. Students completed a yellow sticky for a vocabulary word associated with fractions (numerator, denominator, mixed number, improper fraction etc.)

Math Word Wall

Friday, October 10th Math and Science Long Weekend work

Hello 9's
Great work this week in Math and Science.  For Tuesday, please ensure that you complete the Fraction operation questions that I assigned yesterday in Math.  Circle, highlight any questions your are stuck on and bring those to class Tuesday.

In Science, please finish labeling the parts and functions of the flower.  Your task this weekend is to use any resources you'd like (text, interweb etc) to complete the Ms. Frizzle Pollination Scenario.  Please write your paragraph in your Science Journals:

***Scenario:  Imagine that you have been shrunk by Ms. Frizzle and the Magic School Bus and find yourself inside a pollen grain. Trace the steps of fertilization from pollen to fruit. Describe the process in a paragraph using vocabulary of the flower.  Try to use each part of the flower once.  What is the order of structures that you will encounter.***

Homework

Humanities:

Completed our story analysis and watched "The Veldt".

Students should work on their government visual and have it completed for Tuesday, October 14.

The visual representation of the Canadian Federal Government should include:
Executive Branch: PM, Governor General, The Queen, Cabinet and their individual roles
Legislative Branch: House of Commons/Senate and their roles
Judicial Branch: Supreme Court of Canada and its role

Announcement:

"Take our Kids to Work" Day --November 5, 2014 - this opportunity is for all grade 9 students wanting to spend the day with his/her parent and learning about their work day. For more information on this opportunity check out the following website:

http://www.thelearningpartnership.ca/what-we-do/student-programs/take-our-kids-to-work/surveys-and-resources

Dare to Care

Grade 9 students and staff had the opportunity to participate in our first session of the Dare to Care program. This comprehensive approach creates a common language which allows for more consistent intervention and follow-through when dealing with challenging issues. Ask the students to share their learning with you. The Parent Information Session is Thursday, October 16 at 7:00pm. Our homeroom 9-03 will participate in the second half of the program next Wednesday, October 15. Please see website for further details: http://daretocare.ca/middle-school/take-the-time/

Math/Science - Tuesday, October 7

In Math today, we looked at solving positive and negative decimal operation questions and implementing strategies of Order of Operations.  Students are to complete page 60 q #4-9

In Science, students were given an opportunity to continue their work on researching strategies of asexual reproducing organisms.  Summary of research is due next class.  

Humanities

Today the students started to make a visual to represent the 3 branches of government: Executive, Legislative, and Judicial. Students can use their textbook Page 22 and some resources posted in D2L to make a cumulative visual to represent their understanding of government structure. As well, we listened to "The Veldt" our first short story (story posted in D2L).

Math and Science Homework

Math:

Students are reviewing their estimating and BEDMAS skills.
Complete questions on Page. 60 #4,6,8,9

Science:

Students need to complete their textbook notes on their Asexual Reproduction Graphic Organizer. Information for Fragmentation can be found through Internet research.

Homework for Monday, October 6

Math:

Complete your Real Number Systems worksheet.

Humanities:

Complete up to #12 on your Green Chapter 1 worksheet.

Complete the cut and paste worksheet for Short Story Elements.

October 2 - Humanities

Government:
We completed our discussion of effective government and students decided which of 4 choices was the most effective government: choice 3 was the majority.

For homework this evening, students are to complete in their journals the following questions pertaining to choice 3: (booklet is on D2L).
1. Explain why Choice 3 is the most effective government
2. Consider the role economy plays in this government system
3. Consider the impact of this government system on the citizens (and collective identity)
4. Consider the impact of this government system on individuals (and individual identity)

Short Stories:
We reviewed short story elements (PPT on D2L). Students received terms and definitions that will be match tomorrow during Hum class.

Journals - Students, please hand in your learning journals tomorrow. Please be sure that all paper work is attached within the journal correctly. All pages should have a heading or title. Any revisions to previous pages should be completed this evening.

Humanities

In Humanities today, students handed in their completed Ebola tasks. We started looking at what characteristics make up an effective government. As well, students began to analyze some different government compositions. Finish up your D.I.R.T. response for your chosen setting.

Students brainstorming characteristics of an effective government.

Science Test - Thursday, October 2

In preparing for our Biology Science Quiz Topic 1 and 2: Consider the following questions.

1) Examine the picture of the eagle.  What structural and behavioral adaptations does it have that enable it to obtain food? 

2)  What are the advantages of a broad niche?  When can these advantages turn out to be disadvantages for different species?

3)  Define the term 'species'  using your own words.  Are all organisms that look alike the same species? Are all organisms that look different from separate species?  Explain your answer. 

4)  If an area of tropical rainforest were cleared to make room for a farm, how might the local wildlife be affected?  Would the consequences be worse for specialists or generalists?