El Sereno Middle School Superintendent of Schools

Los Angeles Unified School District Michelle King

El Sereno Middle School Superintendent of Schools

International Baccalaureate World School

2839 N. Eastern Avenue Jose P. Huerta

Los Angeles, CA 90032 Superintendent, LD East

Telephone #: (323) 224-4700

Fax #: (323) 223-9024 Joyce Dara

Principal

Dear parent/ guardian:

I want to take this opportunity to introduce myself and express my excitement about working with your child this year. The main goal of this course is to provide all students with science concepts and ideas that build upon the students K-7 experience. The 8th grade integrated course model is divided into four Instructional Segments. Each Instructional Segment tells a coherent story that includes two or more science disciplines that meaningfully connect with each other.

Earth and Space Science content provides the conceptual “glue” by separately linking with physical science (solar system, orbital motions, and asteroid collisions) and with life science (human impacts on biodiversity and geologic time scale via fossils in rock strata.) The overarching guiding concept for this academic school year is “The processes that change Earth’s systems at different spatial scales today also caused changes in the past”. Below you will find a table providing you with more details regarding the new 8th grade integrated science curriculum, the title of each Instructional segment, the disciplinary core ideas along with the Science and Engineering practices.

IS / Life Science / Earth & Space Sciences / Physical Science / Engineering, Technology, and Applications to Science
1 / Objects move and collide.
The fossil record documents the existence, diversity, extinction, and change of life forms throughout Earth’s history. / Newton’s Laws explain the forces and motions of objects on Earth and in space.
Velocity and mass determine the results of collisions between objects. / Design Criteria
Evaluate Solutions
Analyze data
Iteratively test and modify
2 / Noncontact forces influence phenomena locally and in the solar system
Models explain lunar phases and eclipses of the Sun and Moon.
Gravity plays the major role in determining motions with the solar system and galaxies. / Gravitational and electromagnetic fields are the basis of noncontact forces.
Changing the arrangement of objects in a system affects the potential energy stored in that system.
3 / Evolution explains life’s unity and diversity.
Mutations in genes affect organisms’ structures and functions.
Evidence from fossils, anatomy, and embryos support the theory of biological evolution.
Natural selection is the main mechanism that leads to evolution of species that are adapted to their environment. / The geologic time scale organizes Earth’s 4.6 billion year history based on evidence from rock layers. / Chemical reactions make new substances.
Mass is conserved in physical changes and chemical reactions.
4 / Human activities help sustain biodiversity and ecosystem services in a changing world.
Changes to environments can affect probabilities of survival and reproduction of individual organisms, which can result in significant changes to populations and species. / Annual cycles in the amount of sunlight absorbed cause Earth’s seasons.
Increases in human population and per-capita consumption impact Earth’s systems. / Waves are reflected, absorbed, or transmitted through various materials.
Wave-based digital technologies provide very reliable ways to encode and transmit information. / Design criteria
Evaluate solutions

Materials:

Parents should provide students with paper, pens/pencils, and a backpack. The following materials will be needed when a take home project is assigned: Color pencils, markers and a calculator. I will provide the student with their Science Interactive Notebook. The notebook will be a major part of their grade as it will contain the bulk of their work.

Homework:

Students will have homework twice a week. If the student is absent he/she is responsible for the assigned homework. Homework will be collected the following day. Students will be given a homework-log that will be stamped the day the homework is turned in. Parents please make sure to keep track of your child’s homework-log, this log will notify you of any incomplete homework.

Parents must sign homework log and check that their child completes homework each night. Parents please be aware that all homework and projects will be posted on the school website. You can also sign up to receive Homework reminders via text messages. Please see website for more information. (www.elserenoms.org)

Grading Scale:

Grades for each report card will be based on the following grading scale:

100%- 90% of total points = A

89% -80% of total points = B

79%- 70% of total points = C

69%- 60% of total points = D

Less than 60% of total points = Fail