MATH AND SCIENCE:

Building Stax

The seventh graders are learning about saving and investing along with their study of rational number arithmetic. They will meet with a couple of financial advisors in conjunction with their research project. This week they fell in love the the simulation Building Stax by Next Gen Personal Finance. According to NGPF, STAX “teaches students how to invest using an engaging, fast-paced game in which students will make 20 years of investment decisions in....20 minutes. They will choose among stocks, bonds and index funds while also learning about the importance of having an emergency fund as ‘life happens’ to them in this simulation.”

LANGUAGE ARTS AND HISTORY:

This post is not flashy, but it is important as it reflects our daily practice of reading. At the beginning, or occasionally, the end of each Language Arts class, we set aside ten minutes to read. We actually do this in my other classes, too-- in 6th, we end the day with a read-aloud, and in 5th, students read individually for 10 minutes. Reading for pleasure holds immense value. The key to this practice is allowing student choice. Students may read any book, from our current class novel to a graphic novel that they can finish in an hour. Regardless of the title, reading a book of your choice fosters not only independence and validation of your interests, but it also enriches your life by opening you to new ideas. Students can learn so much that they can apply to their daily life--empathy with characters, appreciation of their own circumstances, knowledge about a historical era. Reading also exposes students to new and familiar vocabulary, reinforces literary elements of theme, mood, tone, imagery, etc. The list is endless. In these photos, two 7th graders read graphic novels and one reads a realistic fiction book by a well-known middle-grade author. Although I’m not in the photos, I am reading, too, to model good practice for my students. When the timer goes off, it is often unwelcome. As much as I don’t want to, I sometimes have to close students’ books! Afterward, we talk a bit about our books and recommend them to each other. These minutes represent a gift to ourselves to quiet our brains and absorb ourselves in another world.  

LANGUAGE ARTS AND HISTORY:

Seventh grade has been studying the imperative case for verbs in Latin. This case is used when making a command. You merely remove the last two letters of the infinitive for a singular command and when giving a command for more than one person, you add “te” to the singular stem. To reinforce the purpose of the imperative, the students practiced giving commands to the 5th grade class to determine if they were using the right form (and if the 5th grade heeded their words!).

MATH AND SCIENCE:

Aquaponics in the Classroom

Life science has truly come to life in 7th grade at St. James Day School! Thanks to a generous grant from the Junior League of Texarkana, our students gained the opportunity to build an aquaponic ecosystem in the classroom. Aquaponics combines aquaculture (raising fish) with hydroponics (gardening without soil). The waste from the fish fertilizes the plants, and the plants purify the water, creating a symbiotic relationship once equilibrium is achieved. The students first researched the best model for classroom use and then consulted with a representative from the AquaSprouts company to learn how to successfully start and maintain their system. We have also made several trips to our local pet store, DogPatch Pet Shop, to learn from owner Lawrence Braswell how to properly care for our fish.

It has been a labor of love for these students, and they have spent countless hours researching and cultivating their aquaponic system. Their learning extends beyond the school day into evening hours, weekends, and holiday breaks. They have become intimately familiar with the nitrogen cycle and how essential nitrifying bacteria are to the health of their system. They have learned the hard way how a spike in ammonia can negatively impact the life of their system, and they are careful to test and treat their water chemistry on a regular basis.

Not only do they care for their system on a macroscale, observing and nurturing visible growth and vitality, but they also study the microscopic components of the plants and water. It was an exciting moment when they successfully identified under a microscope the cell wall and chloroplasts in the leaves of plants they had grown themselves. It is one thing to see diagrams of cell structures in a textbook or website, but seeing these components in real life is much more impactful. Every day presents new opportunities for meaningful learning in seventh grade!

LANGUAGE ARTS AND HISTORY:

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to lose one of your senses?  What about losing your sight and your hearing? As an anticipation for reading The Miracle Worker, 7th graders practiced being blind and losing some of their hearing. They donned blindfolds and headphones and spent 10 minutes walking in the classroom and the commons. This exercise not only helped the students understand the life of Helen Keller, the main character of our play, but also taught the students the important life skill of empathy for people with disabilities. We often take for granted our abilities, but now we realize how much more in tune with the environment blind and deaf people are, and how much their perspective can offer to the rest of society.

MATH AND SCIENCE:

Yet Another Field Trip

Seventh grade hit the road again, this time we headed northeast to Little Rock. We spent the day at the Museum of Discovery downtown and saw, among other exhibits, the Guinness World Record musical bi-polar tesla coil. The interactive, hands-on exhibits at the museum kept us engaged for hours!

After spending the evening at 4-H, we dedicated our next morning to a volunteer project called Recycle Biles for Kids. We learned how to take apart old bikes and sorted reusable parts for use in upcoming repairs. It was hard work, but we enjoyed knowing our work would benefit the local community.

Our next stop was Heifer International, another charity organization based in Little Rock. We learned about their mission to end world hunger and poverty as we toured their urban farm and completed a scavenger hunt in the global village simulation. We also toured their platinum LEED certified headquarters, which is the highest attainable “Green Building” rating. We learned a great deal about how to plan building projects to care for the environment.

Before we ventured home, we took a moment to honor the memory of Anne Frank by visiting The Anne Frank Tree on the grounds of the Clinton Presidential Center. “Young people should be able to go to places like this and see symbols of life, unity, and hope. And we will remember the wisdom of a 14-year-old girl, whose spirit is depending on us to redeem the years she didn’t have.” ~President Clinton

MATH AND SCIENCE:

Out of This World Field Trip

Seventh grade students traveled to Houston to share about the St. James Day School Drone Academy with educators at the Technology Curriculum Conference of Aldine (TCCA). While in Houston, we toured NASA and saw historic Mission Control, the ISS mockup facility where astronauts train, and the Saturn V rocket. From there we visited the Neutral Buoyancy Lab (NBL), a 6.2 million-gallon pool with submerged components of the International Space Station. At the NBL, astronauts prepare for spacewalk missions to simulate minimal gravity conditions. The learning experience was truly out of this world!

LANGUAGE ARTS AND HISTORY:

Seventh grade is completing its month long ancient and medieval African kingdoms unit. Not only have the students studied the influence of geography and natural resources on the development of these kingdoms, but they have also learned about the importance of trade, scholarly learning centers, and Islam as the main religion of these kingdoms. The growth of civilization depends on these factors and more, and the 7th graders are making connections between these empires and civilizations they have studied previously. They learned vocabulary, studied maps, and wrote summaries and journal entries to demonstrate their learning in a variety of formats.  To review for a unit assessment, the students played a Kahoot online game as well as Quizlet Live, and even I participated on a team. What fun we had, displaying our knowledge to each other. “I enjoyed learning about Timbuktu,” says D.P. “I think it is interesting that these kingdoms had so much gold while at the same time Europe was exploring America looking for gold,” commented D.Y.

LANGUAGE ARTS AND HISTORY:

Seventh graders are steadily writing their DAR essays for the annual contest offered by the Lonestar DAR chapter. St. James students have participated in the DAR essay contest for the last 5 years. This year’s topic, women’s suffrage, is proving to be challenging and interesting to the students, according to student D.P. The students must imagine that they are living in 1919, at the height of the suffrage movement and Congressional passage of the 19th Amendment. Each student has created a character to discuss the pros and cons of women’s suffrage on American society from that character’s perspective. Not only did 7th graders research the origins of women’s suffrage in America and use note-taking strategies to gather pertinent facts, but they also have converted their notes into an organized format and then inserted their opinions to create a cohesive and expressive essay. Students are deftly combining three different writing styles--narrative, expository, and persuasive--into one essay. How amazing that a multitude of skills are utilized to produce just a few pages!

MATH AND SCIENCE:

St. James 7th graders had a very unique and rare learning opportunity in Science. They’ve been studying anatomy recently. Dr. Benjamin DuBois and Dr. Jason Yost conducted a lab in which they guided our students through the process of dissecting hearts. A cow heart and two pig hearts were donated by a local butcher shop. The doctors were able to help them actually see and touch the things they’ve been studying.

It was an amazing experience being able to see the details of the muscles, the intricacies of the arteries and veins, and establish with visual understanding the actual flow of our blood through the heart and our bodies. Thank you very much, Drs. DuBois and Yost! The students, and teachers alike, learned many things and have a deeper level of understanding of the circulatory system.