OF LIFE & DEATH
How does the species – any species – continue? Why, through reproduction, of course, whether asexual or sexual. Some organisms are genetically identical to their single parent. That is not the case with humans, of course, and seventh grade is making a study of the reproductive cycle and human development.
Did you know that blood cells begin to form by the time an embryo is a month old? Before the second month is over the embryo has a heart, brain, spinal cord, limbs, muscles, nerves, fingers and toes. It can even swallow and blink and only measures sixteen millimeters.
Thanks to Adam and Eve’s failure to comply with God’s single rule, however, there’s a lot of stuff out there to give us: viruses, bacteria, any number of other pathogens. 7th grade will learn how the body is formed to protect itself from infection, and what happens if something gets past our defenses.
Miss Kleinschuster
NEED TO LOSE WEIGHT FAST? GO TO THE MOON
Sixth grade has learned why you weigh less on the Moon – and why you weigh more on Jupiter: gravity. It’s not your body that changes (that’s your mass); it’s the strength of what’s keeping you on the surface. In fact, if you climbed a mountain, you would weigh less even on Earth, because the top of the mountain is farther away from the center of the planet’s gravity.
Did you know that if you drop a feather and a hammer at the same time on the Moon, they will hit the surface at the same time? Sixth grade knows! They learned that since there is no air there, there’s nothing to make the feather float. That experiment couldn’t be performed effectively on Earth until anti-gravity chambers were invented, but Galileo Galilei, an Italian scientist from the 16th Century, did some of the initial tests to theorize that all objects fall in the same rate in a vacuum.
Miss Kleinschuster
PIMPLES ON THE FACE OF THE EARTH
Pressure builds, the cap may explode, red stuff flows… I’m talking about a volcano. 8th grade will never forget how one works, and now, neither will you. You are probably familiar with dramatic explosive eruptions, but they are actually quite rare. For instance, magma is constantly welling up at the bottom of the ocean, creating new land. There are several different types of volcanoes, and even different types of lava and the formations they make. Did you know that a single eruption can affect the entire globe? The gas, ash, and dust resulting from the 1991 eruption of Mt. Pinatubo affected the global climate!
Miss Kleinschuster
GETTIN’ ON YOUR NERVES
Without our nervous system, we wouldn’t be able to sense or react to anything. We wouldn’t even be able to breathe! Seventh grade is learning that the brain, our control center, is responsible for both voluntary and involuntary functions, and stores an incredible amount of information. There are different types of nerves, as well; the nerves in your skin are not the same as the nerves in your eye, and neither do the same job as those which carry messages to and from the rest of our body, through the spinal cord. Did you know that your brain notices and processes thousands of pieces of information at once? Up to – even more than – 40,000! How’s that for multi-tasking?
Miss Kleinschuster
FASTER THAN A SPEEDING BULLET
But what is speed? It’s not just how fast you go, it’s how fast you go over a certain amount of time. As the academic year speeds toward its end, sixth grade is beginning their unit on physics. Maybe this news letter should go under the math heading!
Did you know that going too fast can affecting your heart and breathing rate? That’s why racecar drivers are more physically fit than you might expect. They might be sitting, but the effects of driving hundreds of miles an hour (depending on the type of car) have a great physical impact. (Let alone if the car crashes; now THAT’S a great physical impact.)
Miss Kleinschuster
SHAKE, RATTLE & ROLL
Remember when we talked about tectonic plates? Well, when they interact and stress builds up in rock, eventually it will snap and trigger seismic activity. Now, we as New Yorkers are used to low-level magnitude: all we have to do is feel a subway rumble beneath our feet. But in other places, that’s cause for panic. Eighth grade is learning how scientists pinpoint the focus and epicenter of an earthquake and will become familiar with some ways to strength buildings and remain safe during an earthquake.
Miss Kleinschuster
IN & OUT
Everyone loves to sit down to a good meal. Did you know that your digestive system doesn’t help you eat? It helps you digest! (It’s not called the eating system, after all.) Seventh grade discovered some gastrointestinal knowledge in this chapter: both mechanical and chemical digestion are required to churn all that stuff you ate into a soupy mixture so that the nutrients can be absorbed into your blood. The blood also carries liquid waste that needs to be filtered. If the kidneys didn’t exist, your blood would be toxic! If you couldn’t sweat, how would you effectively cool down? Think about it!
Miss Kleinschuster
GIVE PEAS A CHANCE
As spring rolled around, sixth grade learned how the Father of Modern Genetics, Gregor Mendel, a 19th Century German monk, studied pea plants to learn about laws of heredity. His observations led to the discovery of dominant and recessive traits – traits which help us determine where the color of our eyes or hair, our blood types, and even certain inherited diseases come from.
Miss Kleinschuster
TALKIN’ DIRT
We are charged to be stewards of the Earth, and 8th grade is learning about the importance of soil. Soil isn’t like any other dirt. Soil can actually support vegetation. Since it can also be moved around or depleted, it’s important to maintain it. It takes a long time to form, after all. Students learned about different types of weathering (the breakdown of rock) and some methods of how to slow down erosion.
Miss Kleinschuster
FEARFULLY & WONDERFULLY MADE
Bones ‘dem bones ‘dem dry bones…
Actually, they are responsible for the production of some blood cells, so they’re pretty wet while you’re still alive! Students studied how the body is put together and how the organ systems function. No system stands alone. For instance, your muscular system would be useless without bones. You would be a blob of jelly. A very muscular blob, but a blob nonetheless. And those muscles would not function without oxygen obtained from the respiratory system and transported through the cardiovascular system.
Miss Kleinschuster