Why survey a community's use of resources?

In class today, we discussed some of the underlying reasons for doing surveys on communities, and how they use their resources.

In your opinion, what are some of the reasons that communities should be surveyed for their resource use?

Why should surveys like this be done?

What new information do you have about our community now that we have done these surveys?

Homework: Taking Action

Hopefully you have all been busy reading your "Action" Packets, and deciding which actions you might convince the adults in your life to take in order to reduce our contribution to global warming. What have you decided? Keep in mind, some actions might be easy to take, but give little benefit. Other actions might be difficult, but might be greatly beneficial.

Keep in mind, people are reluctant to change. Whatever action you choose should be something that they can easily fit into their life, routines, and personalities.

Also remember, we want to convince people to take action, but also to continue to take action. For example, we don't want people to just take a 3 minute shower one time. Rather, we want people to take 3 minute showers from now on. That's when you know you have made a real change, when its not just a one time thing.

So, in response to this post, please do the following (BEFORE 11/8):

---Click on the "comment" tool below

---In the comment box, write your reponse. Which "action" do you think is the easiest one to take, with the biggest benefit? Why do you think so? Be sure to include real examples from your own experience (see the instructions on your homework page).

---After you are done typing, click "other" under the "choose an identity" section. Once you have selected "other", it will give you a space to type in your name. ONLY TYPE YOUR FIRST NAME, and last initial if you share a name with another MASTERS team member (i.e. Sydney G.)

---After typing your name, click "Publish"

once you have clicked publish, your comment will automatically be emailed to Anastasia for approval (just to make sure you didn't type anything silly!). Once your comment is approved, it will appear on the blog. This can take a few minutes, or a couple hours, depending on how close Anastasia is to a computer.

Thanks for completing your homework on time!

Selecting New Members for our Team...

Today you have learned something new about what it means to apply for a special group. You have reviewed all of the incredible applications that our 4th and 5th graders have submitted. You have used a very detailed scoring guide to assign a point value to each application. And --you have made the tough choices about which applicants you would recommend to be part of the MASTERS team.

We would like to know more about what you have learned about this process, and what it means to be an "Admissions Director".

Please reflect on today's lesson and respond to the following questions in the blog:



1. How did it feel to be the applicant reviewer, instead of the applicant?

2. What was difficult about reviewing the applications? What was exciting?

3. What have you learned about the process of selecting new members for the MASTERS team?

4. Why do you think it was important for you to be part of the review process?


Thank you for your thoughtful answers!

What is energy?

In your teams, you have participated in a variety of energy related experiences. You have learned that energy can be categorized as "potential", which means stored energy --or it can be "kinetic", which is the energy of motion. You have learned some key energy terms and you have experimented with various tools used to measure energy and energy output. Finally, you have preformed a lab, and reported your discoveries to other team members.

In reflecting on the learning experience, please post your thoughts in response to the following questions:

What is energy?


What are some of its forms?


In what ways does energy change its form?


What are some misunderstandings we have about energy?


How does energy's ability to change form cause us to "misunderstand" energy use?



Good Luck!

Ms. Hiss and Mrs. Betts

Homework: Who is BP? Why did they give away 5 million?

Each year, British Petroleum (BP) gives away millions of dollars to teachers across the nation to fund projects devoted to energy education.

For homework, you have been investigating the BP Education website, trying to discover why in the world BP would want to give away over 5 million dollars each year to teachers. We want to know what you have discovered about BP and why energy education is so important to them.

Please click on the "comment" tool to post what you have found!

Building Mission Statements...

Have you ever wondered what it might be like to craft your own mission statement? Well our 6th grade MASTERS students found out that it isn't so easy! On the first day of MASTERS, our leadership team discovered that a mission statement is a sentence that describes "a group's purpose or philosophy." Putting this knowledge into practice, students used several key words (and added a few of their own) to craft several sample mission statements for the MASTERS organization. Click on the video to see the student teams in action!

After the student teams completed their missions statements, they posted them to the MASTERS blog. You can actually read their submissions in the previous blog post! Over the next couple of weeks, we will be evaluating, revising, and refining our mission statements until at last we have a single mission statement that defines who we are as a group, and what our mission is for this year. We are definately off to a great start!

Create a MASTERS Mission Statement

If you have come this far, then it means your group has created a mission statement for our MASTERS Program. Your have used ALL of the words from the “word association” activity at the beginning of this lesson. AND, you have added other words that your group felt were important.

We want to document (or keep track of) our thinking. This is a brand new program and all of you are like pioneers. You get to build the MASTERS program from the ground up!! The very first step is coming up with a Mission Statement that we not only define who are, but will act as a guiding force throughout our entire year.

We want a Mission Statement that really captures the important work we want to do this year. Each group is coming up with a suggestion. After all the groups have posted their suggestion, we will read them and make comments on what we like best about each.

TO POST YOUR MISSION STATEMENT FOLLOW THESE INSTRUCTIONS:

Click the "comments" button
Type your Mission Statement into the comment box, along with the names of the students in your group.
Reread your statement to make sure you typed it right
Click "publish comment"
You should be done!

Good luck!!!