Prisms Homework Blog: 2010-04-04

Friday, April 9, 2010

It's On.

10-Day Weather Forecast for DC Parents: Watch this space to be updated daily during the trip. Students will be sharing their photos and reflections each evening during the trip, in addition to any mass announcements.

Thursday, April 8, 2010

General Announcements:

Fri., 4/8:
Due ASAP:
You must have an independent reading book every day. If you are getting close to the end of one, have the next one at school and ready to go.

Math:

7th Grade:
- Due Fri., 4/9:
  - Complete modified 1.3 sheet using your box. Separate sheet with parts C, D, E should be stapled to 1.3 sheet. Parts C, D, E should be answered in complete sentences using specific data to support your ideas.
  - Complete 1.3 Follow-Up, p. 8, as in the book.
8th Grade:
- Due Fri., 4/9: Be ready to turn inLooking for Pythagoras tomorrow. Erase any stray marks from the book so it's ready for the next person who uses it.

Social Studies:

Due Fri., 4/9: Complete Grandparents & Special Friends invitations. Mail by Sat. 4/10.

Science:

None assigned.

Language Arts:

Due Fri., 4/9: Choose an independent reading book for the trip to DC. Place it into your luggage for Friday's check-in.

Moment of Zen:

These Photos are 100 Years Old

Seriously. Taken at the beginning of the 20th century by Sergei Prokudin-Gorskii, official photographer to Russia's last tsar, Tsar Alexander II, they survey wide swaths of the empire from Russian peasants dressed up in their finest to monuments of Central Asian architecture to the railroad as it cut through the expansive empire, making it accessible as it never had been before. Also remarkable about Prokudin-Gorskii's photos is that they were, for all intents and purposes, taken before the advent of color film. Each color image is composed of shots from three independent lenses, each with a different color filter on it. These three images were overlaid to create a single, colored image. Click the picture to go to the front page of the gallery at the Library of Congress website or click here to read more about his color photography technique.

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

General Announcements:

Fri., 4/8:
Due ASAP:
You must have an independent reading book every day. If you are getting close to the end of one, have the next one at school and ready to go.

Math:

7th & 8th Grade:
- Due Thurs., 4/8: Math's Mates 3.7, work for * problems and last week's N/A problems on a separate sheet of paper. Begin with #s wrong from 3.6.

Social Studies:

Due Fri., 4/9: Complete Grandparents & Special Friends invitations. Mail by Sat. 4/10.

Science:

Due Thurs., 4/8:
1. Reflection on Dan Levy's genetics presentation this morning.
2. Complete color diagram and questions (*) about our plants and pollination.

Language Arts:

Due Thurs., 4/8: Choose an independent reading book for the trip to DC. Place it into your luggage for Friday's check-in.

Moment of Zen:

Cool Thought For A Hot Day: Glacier Farming

It may sound a little like something out of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, but the art of growing artificial glaciers has been in practice for hundreds of years in the Hindu Kush and Karakoram mountains of Central Asia (both spurs of the Himalayas). Glacier engineers manage runoff from natural glaciers to use as more accessible water storage. From a land where language has just as many words to describe vertical movement as horizontal movement, water that stays in one place is a luxury not underestimated. Click the picture to read more about how one goes about engineering a glacier, how a glacier can have "gender," and see more pictures of glaciers taken from space. (Also see: Wired's Gallery of "Stunning Views of Glaciers Seen From Space" where the article's pictures, including the one above, come from.)

Monday, April 5, 2010

General Announcements:

Wednesday, 4/7: Create-An-Ad due. Note the change in day to accurately match date. If you catch my goofs like this, please tell me! The sooner I know, the sooner I can fix it and un-confuse everyone else.
You must have an independent reading book every day. If you are getting close to the end of one, have the next one at school and ready to go.

Math:

7th Grade:
- Due Tue., 4/6: Complete 1.2 and 1.2 Follow-up on p. 7 of CMP book (about nets - flat plans - for non-cubic rectangular-faced boxes).
8th Grade:
- Continue working on Create-An-Ad and upcoming portions of 8th Grade Project.

Social Studies:

Due Tue., 4/6: Read pp. 35-38 "Constitutional Convention" answer starred question #2.

Science:

Due Tue., 4/6: Make a histogram of the full class's data (DAS 14).

Language Arts:

Due Tues., 4/6:
1. Review Children of Willesden Lane reading, Ch. 24-26 and Epilogue
2. Write a one-page LA journal entry on "What I Learned from Henry via Bruce B-G Today"

Moment of Zen:

Holy Senate Committee, Batman!

Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) is one of the most senior (longest-serving) senators and the Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, one of whose meetings we'll be sitting in on during our trip. The Judiciary Committee oversees matters like the confirmation of federal judges and examining the boundaries of civil law. Leahy also happens to be the Senate's ranking Batman fanatic whose enthusiasm for the character, which began in 1950 with a 10-cent comic book, has bumped him into being part of the character's canon. Leahy appeared in 1997's Batman and Robin, lent his voice to an episode of the 1990s animated series, and had a one-line speaking cameo in 2008's The Dark Knight. Yes, he's in the picture above being threatened by one of the Joker's thugs. Click the picture to read more about Leahy's history with Batman and more about his involvement in The Dark Knight, and, if you have one, consider bringing a Batman shirt to wear to the committee hearing in DC.