What did Santa bring Lakeview?

Maybe it wasn't a fat guy in a red suit --- more like a skinny science geek in jeans and a t-shirt.

There was no sleigh and reindeer, instead he had a ladder, drill and some clamps, but he was jolly and on the roof top. And now Lakeview finally has their weather station installed.

When you get back to school we'll have a monitor display in our room that will give us readings from the station -- temperature, wind speed/direction, rainfall, humidity and barometric pressure.

Next we'll install some software on one of the classroom computers and build a Lakeview Weather Page for the web site.

Let me know if you're interested in becoming a Lakeview weather expert!

Could This Really Be Science?

Candy bars in class, kids smiling, could this really be science class?

Sure --- if you are doing "gedynamic modeling of tectonic plate boundaries". Now you know all about divergent, transform and convergent boundaries, right? Well maybe not all but you have a good start. Check the gallery for more class pictures.

Plate Tectonics

As we continue to study the movement of plates around the Earth, I thought I'd give you another resource for more information. Click on the image below

This Week

We are going to be moving very quickly this week as we finish plate tectonics and move on to earthquakes and volcanoes. Monday we'll identify the major plates; Tuesday we'll study interactions at plate boundaries and Wednesday we'll do a fun lab "Mars Bar Investigation of Plate Boundaries".

For those of you using the Prentice Hall Earth Science Textbook, either the online version, CD or hard copy, plate tectonics is Chapter 9 pages 246 - 277.

For those using the EarthComm book it is Unit 1 Chapter 2, pages G60-118. Focus your reading on the Digging Deeper Sections.

Science FCAT

Its not too early to begin thinking about the science FCAT. The state of Florida recently released the full FCAT test from 2007, along with the answers. You can find a number of study aids for FCATs on the Home Study page. Below are links to the 2007 test. Print and take the test, then use the answers to correct your test.

2007 FCAT Test

2007 FCAT Answers