8th Grade Updates - Quarter 3

It is hard to believe, but time is flying by for our 8th graders. This is an exciting time of year, and as we look toward the Spring, it is time to begin thinking about graduation.

Graduation Slides

One of the best parts about my job is being able to put together the 8th Grade slideshow. This year, students will be making their slides at home, and uploading them to Moodle.  I am asking for all 8th graders to have their slides uploaded to me no later than Friday, March 7, to allow me time for viewing and compiling them together.

If a student has photographs and needs them scanned because they are not available digitally, I am happy to do this. I ask that these photos be given to me by Friday, February 28 to allow me time to scan them and get them turned around to the student.

Data Collection

Students have been working with me to cover a variety of skills on their information and technology curriculum.  Currently we are working on data collection, and focusing on creating appropriate graphs with data entered onto a spreadsheet. We will move on to the main phases of a research data collection project:

A main goal is for students to see the ways they can apply these skills to projects outside of the computer lab; graphing and data analysis is very useful in a variety of real-world settings.

I will be working with 8th grade on the following phases of this mini-project:

1. Identify a research topic and question
2. Devise a plan to collect data
3. Submit a project proposal for approval
4. Collect, organize, and analyze data
5. Report the results

These  phases, or steps will cover a majority of technical and research-related benchmarks included in our curriculum, and hopefully give a new sense of the value of research and data in our world.  By the end of this week, some students will already have identified their research topic and question (they can indicate a topic of their choosing, or tie in with one of their classroom units/topics). In total, I project this project to be finished by our Easter holiday.

We will take breaks as needed when classroom projects come up, and I will communicate that information as needed.


Thank you!
Mrs. Cadran