Groom Welcome Letter – keep at home for reference!
8th Grade Earth and Space ScienceRoger Groom
Room 214503 916 5646
Please take home to share with parents/guardians!
To the Families and Students of 8th Grade Earth and Space Science:
Welcome to another year of Science! I am looking forward to an invigorating year designed to expand knowledge of scientific concepts, enhance inquiry skills, and spark interest in the world. My dream is that students look at the Earth and themselves with a new inquisitive and knowledgeable lens. Two mottos that guide my teaching are: “Dare to risk failure” and “Think outside the box”. Students should not be afraid to make mistakes because that’s how we all learn and grow. Students will be encouraged to challenge their own assumptions about the world around them as this is how some of the greatest scientific discoveries have been realized.
Curriculum and Standards
This year’s Science curriculum is titled “Issues and Earth Science.” Please contact me if you’d like further information about it. Regarding standards, in the spring of 2014, Oregon adopted the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) as the Science standards for Oregon. To learn more about the NGSS, please go to: In addition to Science content standards, the NGSS require students be taught ‘Science and Engineering Practices’ (SEP) and ‘Crosscutting Concepts’ (CC).
Science and Engineering Practices:
“The practices describe behaviors that scientists engage in as they investigate and build models and theories about the natural world and the key set of engineering practices that engineers use as they design and build models and systems.” (NGSS website – link above) These practices are:
Groom Welcome Letter – keep at home for reference!
- Asking questions & defining problems
- Developing & using models
- Planning & carrying out investigations
- Analyzing & interpreting data
- Using mathematics & computational thinking
- Constructing explanations & designing solutions
- Engaging in argument from evidence
- Obtaining, evaluating & communicating information
Groom Welcome Letter – keep at home for reference!
Crosscutting Concepts:
“Crosscutting concepts have application across all domains of science. As such, they are a way of linking the different domains of science.” (NGSS website – link above) They include:
Groom Welcome Letter – keep at home for reference!
- Patterns
- Cause and effect
- Scale, proportion and quantity
- Systems and system models
- Energy and matter: flows, cycles and conservation
- Structure and function
- Stability and change
Groom Welcome Letter – keep at home for reference!
For Science content, the following are the units being taught: Erosion and Deposition, Plate Tectonics, Earth in Space, Exploring the Solar System, Weather and Atmosphere, and Rocks and Minerals. Furthermore, we will continuously use the inquiry process to DO science, not just learn about it. Specific subtopics may be added depending on student interest and current scientific events and discoveries.
The student textbook and some of the handouts we use are available onlineat
Username: sciencePassword:inspires
In addition, there are CD-ROMs of the textbook (also available in Spanish!) that students can check out and download to a computer at home. They can print what they need from my classroom computers, too. And finally, there will be several textbooks available for check-out from our school library. It is the expectation that work not finished in class be finished at home using the variety of textbook materials available.
Science Notebooks
Students will use a Science Notebook daily for journaling, vocabulary, lab write-ups, diagrams, etc. It will be self-assessed,checked by me and scored, and will be part of the Academic and Effort grades. Students will be expected to have it at all times, so DO NOT LOSE IT !
Home Education
I refer to homework as “home education” simply because it’s an opportunity for students to educate themselves outside of class. Home education will ebb and flow depending on the subject. Larger assignments or projects will obviously require more time, so students need to plan how to best utilize their outside-of-class time, rather than doing all the work at the last minute.
Resources
Feel free to contact me at the phone number or e-mail above. I welcome communication with parents and/or students. I am conscientious about keeping up with home education and classroom activities and students will be using theirdaily planners. I post all assignments in the classroom and students mustrecord all assignments in their planners. I also keep an up-to-date calendar of daily activities and due dates on my webpage on the Mt. Tabor Middle School website. Unfortunately, the District has not finished migrating my old website to the new version, so I will let you know as soon as possible when my website is available.
In case of absences, students will my webpage calendar to review what they missed and whatever handouts are necessary. Students are responsible for completing missed work in a timely manner.
Additionally, I will be using the online Synergy grading system for posting assignment scores. You will get information regarding Synergy from the administration, and from the District, and there is a link on the Mt. Tabor website.
Rules and Procedures
My ideal is to have a class run itself, where students feel comfortable with my expectations, and where they have high expectations for themselves. Responsibility, mutual respect, safety, positive attitude, and honesty are the benchmarks of my classroom. I anticipate students making good decisions about their behavior in class and will ensure that all students have an environment conducive to learning and succeeding. Students will have a Portland Public School Safety Agreement, and a few Groom room specific rules to follow. More specifics on policies regarding assessment and discipline will be addressed in a separate handout to be reviewed with students first, and then families. You will be asked to sign a slip indicating you’ve seen the policies.
I am looking forward to this year and the opportunity to be a part of your child’s education.
Sincerely,