Just Breathe!

SCIENCE
The Human Body Seminar and Respiratory System

This week we were honored to have three AMAZING guest speakers for the Human Anatomy Seminar.

Amy Vance is Kevin Yascur's aunt and the Chief Operating Officer of Presbyterian Hospital. She brought in organ tissue samples of the heart and lungs. Your children were able to observe a lung that had cancer, a lung that that emphysema, and a healthy lung. They also observed the human heart. It was an amazing opportunity! Ms. Vance also explained how many tests are preformed such as a MRI and CAT scan. Ms. Vance reviewed the respiratory system and the circulatory system. Your children impressed me with their retention of the respiratory system!

Pam Black is Bailey Black's mother. Ms. Black is employed at CMC as the Nurse Manager for the Special Events Department. She has a wide range of nursing experience and was willing to share it with your children! Ms. Black spoke about how chemistry & math are used in pharmacology, drug compounding & dosing, toxicology and statistics in research, This was wonderful as it proved how useful science and math are in medical careers!

Audrey Stasky is a teacher at CSD. Before her teaching career Ms. Stasky was a histologist. Histologists are involved in biological science that studies the structure of human, animal and plant tissues. Histologists study muscles, bones, nervous tissue, blood, liver, lungs, heart, ears and eyes. They study the organization of tissues at all levels, from the whole organ down to the molecular components of cells. Ms. Stasky shared her various experiments with the students. Ms. Statsky explained that some of her experiments gave data to research physicians that could save millions of lives.

I would like to extend an enormous thank you to all three women who shared their vast knowledge and talents with our children. We are so fortunate to have such wonderful people in our community who can help guide that way and explore many types of career opportunities for our seventh grade students to find their passion!

The respiratory system was the main focus this week in class. We had three very exciting lab activities this week. We tested our lung capacity by blowing into a plastic bottle submerged in water. This was a really fun and enlightening activity. We were able to see that your life style had a direct correspondence to our lung health through this cavity! We also made models of the respiratory system with plastic bottles, balloons and plastic wrap. The students were able to move the lungs and observe how the diaphragm works to exchange gases in the lungs! We also tested our breathe to determine if it was basic or acidic. Please take a moment to ask your child about acids, bases, pH, and how our lungs work this weekend!

MATH
The Art of Solving Word Problems

I have found that there are three major components that hold kids back when solving complex, multi-step word problems:
• Not comprehending what the problem is asking
• Lack of organizational skills
• Not following the problem all the way through to its conclusion

In his book, Comprehending Math, Arthur Hyde outlines a terrific method for addressing these concerns. It is through the use of a graphic organizer strategy entitled KWC. K represents what we “know for sure”, W represents what we “want to know”, and C represents any special “conditions”, tricks, or other things to remember in order to solve the problem. Click here to see a visual.

I absolutely LOVE this method as it forces kids to SLOW DOWN, an all too common problem amongst many students. They read the problem quickly, and then without really taking time to ingest the information stated within the problem, they jump right into “solution-mode.” Many times they have misread the problem which results in erroneous solutions due to the fact that they didn’t answer what was being asked. Or often in their haste to get through to the “answer”, they only partially complete all of the necessary steps required in order to arrive at the correct answer. Test makers are smart and tricky. You can bet your bottom dollar that at least one of those answer choices will be some of the steps along the way to the correct solution!

I also love KWC because on top of forcing them to slow down, it also provides an extremely helpful visual aid for organizing information. Many kids are not what I would call natural organizers. However this is definitely a skill that can be acquired through practice. As you can imagine, I am catching a little bit of grief from the kids because of the “work” involved to solve one problem, but I truly believe that over the course of time, they will see the benefits of “frontloading.” In other words, the more time they spend upfront, the less likely they are to arrive at an erroneous conclusion.

To see this process in action, please visit the samples that can be found in your child’s math daybook. Also, as your child works through the study guide at home, hold him/her accountable for using this method, particularly when they seem stumped by a word problem. Chances are this method will slow them down, deepen their understanding of the problem, and then get them on the right path without much guiding required from you!  Happy problem-solving!

Be sure to check out the great Problem-Solving and Test-Taking resources found on my website by clicking here!

EOG Study Guide Reminder:
Assignment for this week: Algebra Pdf Pg. 30-36; 46-47 Due April 22nd.
Click here to access the EOG Study Guide, Answer Sheets, and Answer Keys.