MS+Science

= =

==All of the necessary forms are found on the "PLC Information and Tools Page" of this Wiki - (see link on the right). Most forms have been updated for the current school year so please use them when completing your work this year. If you need any assistance, let Dr. Cooksley know! Thanks==

Link to Next Generation Science Standards
[|http://www.nextgenscience.org/search-standards-dci?tid_1[=14&field_idea_tid[]=119]]

__**2014-2015 PLC Information**__
__**Our 2014-2015 PLC Norms/Collective Commitments**__ Start and End on Time At the beginning of meetings members should share goals for the meeting Focus on the tasks as planned Limit the sharing of concerns to the first 5 minutes Listen Respectfully Do your work End the meeting identifying the decisions that were made

__**Our 2014-2015 SMART Goal and Action Plan**__ = 100% of students will achieve a 2 or higher for all grade level benchmarks and 80% of students will = = achieve a 3 or higher on all grade level benchmarks. =

This is good goal. It is rigorous and achievable. The action plan is similar to some others. It draws out what will happen during instruction to meet the goal. What about what will occur during PLC time to meet the goal (i.e. Review Data, what are you going to do if the students are not meeting the goal?) Andy



__**Data Wall Analysis**__

__Wednesday, January 28__
Discuss whether 7th grade wants to have SIEDA come to do their program this year Talk about March Board Mtg.

__Wednesday, Nov. 18__
Mary will discuss new tools available to understand NWEA MAP results.

__Wednesday, Oct. 8__
Meeting Purpose: Look at Mid-term data and discuss how things are progressing with our students - look at mid-term GLB data - look at MAP Test data

__Wednesday, Sept. 24__
- What are some programs or tech things we want to be trained on before the 1:1 roll out.

__Wednesday, Sept. 17__
- Select possible PLC presentation time for School Board - Share data from recent assignments and discuss - Continue discussion about the handover of GLB's to 6th grade - Look over NSS

__Wednesday, September 10__
- Mary is invited to come meet with us to discuss the curriculum changes for 6th & 7th grade. Meeting Goal - to identify which GLB's will be shifted from 7th grade to 6th grade and whether there should be other adjustments to the benchmarks for the two grade levels.

__Wednesday, September 3__
- Discuss where 6th grade is going to take life science curriculum this year - Select a GLB from one of the grade levels and then identify 4,3,2,& 1. - Look at National Standards for Science in preparation for meetings later this year.

__Monday, Tuesday, & Wednesday, August 18 - 20__
1) Review and solidify PLC Norms 2) Determine this year's SMART Goals 3) Determine Action Plan for SMART Goals 4) How will we collect Data (Data Wall) 5) Develop Individual Technology Plan

= Minutes 2014/15 =

April 15
Kirsten and Susan were off with other PLC's. Jake, Liz, and Chad looked over the article about literacy. Perspectives on Best Practices - It identified 3 different rules for helping students. it requires practice, it is an internal process, and it requires purpose ( namely acquiring the knowledge residing in texts. Literacy should be taught within and across all content areas for authentic acquisition of knowledge. There should be a balance of teacher and student led discussions. It requires formative and summative assessments that reflect the complex and dynamic nature of literacy. Students should be able to select the reading materials that they want to promote literacy independence. Finally that technology needs to be used expand concepts.

Looked at MAP data for the first time. Saw evidence that students did better with the part of the test that covered material taught at that grade level. 7th grade did better with life science, 8th grade did better with earth science.

April 1
We looked at the two different organizers that have been presented to us for next year's 1:1 rollout. Google Classroom and Teachers.io. Teachers.io is a much better planner but the Google Classroom is a better at organizer work and assignments that are pushed out to students. Kirsten thinks that they do different jobs and can work side-by-side. We discussed whether using a planner like Teacher.io would give students any ownership over their planner but we also don't know how much ownership they receive with the current planner system.

March 25
Kirsten and Liz looked over their matter unit and discussed which key points about atoms they would cover. Chad shared a rubric he recently used to evaluate a biotechnology project. He felt the rubric needed to be tweaked in order to make the evaluation and project more rigorous. The group looked at several examples and discussed ways to make the rubric more rigorous. Chad decided to use the suggestion of weighting some of the categories differently so that students would put more emphasis on explaining the points that they were making.

March 11
Didn't get everyone together until 4:10. Discussed the board meeting. We made sure that everyone had requested subs for the March 30 meeting. Discussed Science Fair. Chad talked about how we might be able to get attendance up. It was suggested that we might want to have a "Science Fair" club and have students come in after school to work on projects to prepare for the science fair. Discussed pending dissections and when we were going to schedule them.

February 18
7th grade teachers discussed how they were approaching Punnett Squares. Liz is using a snail activity. Chad used a mouse genetics activity to introduce genetics. We are all going to use Bikini Bottom genetics to practice using punnett squares and identifying dominant/recessive traits. Discussed students that will be switching teachers. Shared information about those students so that we will be ready on Monday.

February 4
Discussed what we want Tech PD to look like this last third of the year. Susan thought that there needed to be some clarifications about what we will be doing next year. Flipped Classrooms, Google Classroom, How to do things for Chromebook. Etc. 8th grade discussed goals for the remainder of the 2nd trimester and going into 3rd trimester. 7th grade is working on heredity. Chad shared the webquest he created about Asexual Sexual reproduction. Jake and Chad are going to use it next week. Heredity will go into 3rd trimester before we begin working on the human body. Discussed filling in GLB scores for 2nd trimester and what work days will entail this year and next year. Briefly discussed end of the year things, how the district is handling the snow days with staff, room reassignments, etc.

January 21
Discussed the upcoming board meeting and what we will present at that meeting. We are each going to identify some projects that we want share with the board, create a presentation sharing those projects.

January 14
Discussed Building PLC minutes and the adjustments that are going to be made next year. We discussed the fact there will be only 2 science rooms for 4 science teachers. There will be a shortage of equipment because we are going from 5 teachers to 7 teachers. We are already sharing one set of microscopes, one set of scales, one set of lab stuff shared by 4 people. Now we will be sharing it with 7 people. 7th Grade GLB Data - Cells Unit 4 - 2% 3 - 85%  2 - 15%  1 - 1%

December 17
Discussed changes to 6th grade next year. 8 period day, 6th grade running an independent schedule except for 8th period when they would head to a "specials" class. The day would start at 8:00 am for 6th grade. Discussed how it will effect the science dept. Looked at Deb DeJong's 1:1 website and looked at the video that shows how to use Chromebook through a lesson through Versal. Chad discussed using QuickTime to record shot videos for review lessons. Use DwayneCam and you can record yourself as you discuss the material. Chad posted it on his website so students can review. Discussed where we want to be by break and where we are picking up when we come back from break.

December 3
Spent the first 30 minutes filling in the Tech Survey - Needs/Wants/Fears. Discussed 6th 7th grade life science. Discussed who would use the Human Impact PBL. 6th grade will teach about the characteristics of living things, the different types of living things, and biomes. 7th grade will talk about origins of life, evolution, how organisms interact, and how humans are impacting the ability of organisms to survive in their biomes. 6th grade 8th grade earth science. 6th grade will talk about rocks and minerals. Subjects that 8th grade didn't get to anyway. Liz and Kirsten worked on their force & motion: roller coaster unit. Chad and Jake talked about the cell analogy project that they will be doing before Christmas.

**8th Grade GLB data**
Earth Science Data: Part I 98.7% were at a 2 or higher NOT Achieved

GLB Plate Tectonics 1.3% Missed the 2 or higher NOT Achieved

Part II 89% were at a 3 or higher ACHIEVED

11% were below a 3 ACHIEVED

Life Science Data: Part I 97.5% were at a 2 or higher Not Achieved

GLB Organisms Survival 2.5 Missed the 2 or higher Not Achieved

Part II 89.5% were at a 3 or higher ACHIEVED

10.5% were below a 3 ACHIEVED

**7th Grade GLB data - 1st**
Classifying Living vs Non-Living Things 86% 3 or higher 14% 2 0% 1 Survival of Species/Evolution 79% 3 or higher 19% 2 2% 1

** 6th Grade GLB Data **
Differentiate organism and non-organisms and classify living things. GLB score of 2 or higher 98% GLB score of 3 or higher 80%

Understand organisms, changes in environment, and survival of species. GLB score of 2 or higher 98% GLB score of 3 or higher 80%

Mary shared the new NWEA reports that can be generated with the website. We spent time looking at reports.
Viewed Teaching Channel linked on Joe's email. We used the Tools for Improvement to evaluate the lesson that we saw. Discussed how we rated each component. We generally gave the lesson 2's.

November 5
Jake shared data from his masters' class. He investigated whether using exit tickets/cards would help improve test scores. He compared results from tests where he had used test questions regularly as a "ticket" out the door. He reviewed and responded to all tickets and handed them back to students the next day. He noted that it sparked conversations with some students who rarely if ever spoke in class. In the end he saw a 5.8% increase in test scores which he attributed to use of the exit cards. It sparked a lot of discussion about how and when we use this strategy. Very interesting data.

Chad showed Jake and Liz the links he had created for their PBL. He also shared the resources that Marian Raum had located for him. These resources are available through the AEA and provide a set of research resources with a lower reading level which was helpful for some of Chad's lower readers and IEP students. Chad has linked those sources along with passwords - to his PBL webpage. Chad also shared the online quiz he created using Google Forms. Results are sent directly to a google spreadsheet and he used Flubaroo to score the results.

Kirsten and Susan were absent for most if not all of the meeting on Wednesday because of prior commitments. 7th grade teachers discussed pacing and where we were going 2nd trimester. First trimester we focused on 3 GLB's. Classifying organisms, Survival of Species, and Scientific Method. The 2nd trimester will be focused on Cells and Heredity. We are seeing a lot of success with this group of 7th graders. Although they are low and struggle with more open-ended activities, they are relatively easy to work with.

October 22
Chad and Liz discussed their upcoming PBL related to Human Impacts on the Environment. Susan shared her most recent GLB data.

October 15
Chad shared out data from his GLB's. 86% of students are scoring 3's or 4's for the Classifying Organisms GLB. No one is at a 1 for that GLB. We just completed the work on Natural Selection/Evolution. As in the past, more students struggled with this concept. 2 students just couldn't show any real level of mastery and earned a 1. 19% were gaining understanding but were not quite there. 79% achieved a reasonable level of mastery. We discussed the specific students that earned 1's. Not sure that there is anything that I can do to help them wrap their head's around the big concepts and apply the knowledge.

Kirsten shared ITEC learning. She especially liked the Flipped Classroom information. She shared some of the tools she learned about. Ed Puzzle was a good starting point for keeping and finding videos. Explain Everything is a Google Ap that you can use to make Flipped Videos. You can video screens, notes, etc. She thinks that it would make sense for the middle school to set aside some 30 min. periods on Wednesday to do mini-lessons on tech ideas for our 1:1 roll out. There is a TwitterChat on Monday nights where people share ideas. There is also a Flipped conference that is held both online and in person. GetKahoot.com is an online quiz program that allows you to get real time feedback about how students are doing.

October 1
Discussed using Google Classroom for different projects. Chad is planning on setting it up for his PBL. Kirsten is going to experiment using it for her Enrichment class. We looked at the rubric which was distributed for Work Habits and discussed how they applied to our classroom. Chad showed Liz and Jake the web page and links for their PBL. They also looked at the Evolution web pages. Kirsten and Liz worked on Symbaloos for their next unit.

September 24
Kirsten discussed what they learned in their 1:1 visit in terms of flipped classrooms, structure of classes, team planning periods, etc. Chad asked the attendees to identify what programs, tech related training we would like to have before we go 1:1. Google Classroom training ChromeBook Training, trouble-shooting More mini-sessions about Google Drive, Google Docs, gmail Symbaloo development

September 17
Looked at a calendar and then selected March 2015 as our board presentation date. Kirsten presented quiz data from 6th grade. The Martian and a Car activity was a crash and burn. The retest scores were much better. 92% were a 2 or higher. 80% scored a 3 or higher. There were 6 really low 6th graders who got a 1 on an accommodated activity. Kind of frustrating. They are retesting the retest. The retake is simply matching characteristics with a description. We talked about having students use a rubric to evaluate their own work. 6th grade did that after the last activity and found a pretty close correlation between how teachers evaluated and students self-evaluated. Discussed concerns about some of the lower students. 22 6th graders have IEP accommodations that call for only fill in the blank activities. No sentences. Students are never asked to develop a full sentence or thought. Only identify a word to complete. Discussed PowerScience resource available through the AEA. A great resource for 1 - to - 1. Liz shared GoNoodle.com which offers physical "brain breaks". Pulled up NextGen standards. Spent a while just trying to get to them. Looked at the standard for Life Science: Ecosystems: Interactions, Energy, Dynamics. It seems that Science Fusion Book D would be a better fit to provide a resource for this standard.

September 10
Mary came to discuss the potential changes in 6th & 7th grade curriculum. Got agreement that we will move some GLB's. We need to look at the NextGen standards to make sure that we are transferring GLB's that still fit in in with those next generation GLB's. Chad shared data from his last quiz and then shared how he approached those students that didn't score a 3 or higher. He sat with them and orally covered missed questions and students were able to recover some of the points and show mastery of the concepts. Kirsten and Liz shared a "fail" with a question about characteristics of living things. They talked about what they did to retest the concept by making it more concrete of a question. We discussed retake policies and how we have been all over the place at various times.

September 3
Reviewed the norms for our group. We feel like we do a great job of treating each other with respect. Began talking about how far 6th grade wants to go. We decided that we would like to have 6th grade spend the entire 1st trimester covering life science. We invited Mary to attend our meeting next Wednesday so that we can discuss the curriculum changes. 7th grade looked at their assessment that will be used for the bacteria,archaea, and virus quiz. Chad printed off the NGSS standards for Middle School life science. Liz and Kirsten collaborated on use of Tools for Improvement to help "beef up" their lesson planning. Jake left for practice at 3:30. Chad looked over the NGSS standards for life science. Susan spent the remainder of the time working on an assessment for her and Jake.

August 27
Reviewed the Tools for Improvement as a group so that we are sure that we are documenting the components in lesson plans. Talked about how we can make sure to document accommodations for students on our lesson plans. Staff meeting ran long so we only had 30 minutes to meet on Wednesday. We also made sure that all knew about the Sci. Curriculum dates.

August 18 - 20
See above to find the PLC norms, SMART goals, Action Plan, and Data Wall Example Discussed specific identified students. 6th grade teachers discussed what worked with the 7th grade students. 7th grade teachers discussed what worked with 8th graders. Chad asked for help developing links for a Human Biome webquest.

__**Questions for Administration?**__ = =

=__ 2013-2014 PLC Information __=

__**Our 2013-2014 Norms**__ Start and End on Time At the beginning of meetings members should share goals for the meeting Focus on the tasks as planned Limit the sharing of concerns to the first 5 minutes Listen Respectfully Do your work End the meeting identifying the decisions that were made * (Green denotes norms added for the 2013-2014 school year)

__**Our 2013-2014 SMART Goal and Action Plan**__ = 100% of students will achieve a 2 or higher for all grade level benchmarks and 80% of students will = = achieve a 3 or higher on all grade level benchmarks. =

Very well written and quite rigorous. I particularly like how you expanded your goal. I have been thinking as I examined other goals how do what you folks have done. A 2 might not be rigorous enough for all and a 3 might not be attainable for some. You have come up with a great solution. Thanks, Andy

Your Action Plan is very well written - it is specific and you can tell what you will be focusing on. I like your SMART Goal focus as well - you will be able to monitor on a formative level student progress! Thanks for your work on this! (Dr. C) __**Data Wall Analysis**__

__**Agendas**__ 8/28/13 - complete individual technology SMART goals and action plans - review Unit One pretest data (7th grade) and discuss Lesson One assessment questions

9/25/13 - 6th grade wants to discuss their PBL activity with the group. - HS Science PLC would like to meet with MS Science PLC to discuss collaborating on the science fair - Peer Observations?

10/16/13 Peer Observations? MAP Test analysis. What do the MAP tests tell us? How useful is the data? Do we want Mary to come help us interpret data? Midterm progress - how are we doing in progressing toward GLB's? Are we inputting GLB scores in the gradebook? How are we assigning the GLB scores? Work on GLB rubrics.

10/23/13 Finish work on 8th Grade Earth's Plates GLB Begin work on a 7th grade GLB

10/30/13 Share out progress on 7th Grade PBL Share progress data for GLB's Begin work on a 7th Grade GLB

11/6/13 Work on 6th Grade GLB rubric Share out GLB progress

11/13/13 Work on a 6th Grade GLB rubric Do the Tools for Improvement with Science Scenario

11/20/13 Report out 1st Tri. GLB data Do the Tools for Improvement with Science Scenario Work on 6th, 7th, or 8th grade GLB rubric Gradebook set up

12/4/13 - Science Fair 2013. Discuss dates, collaboration with HS, evaluating projects as evidence to a GLB - ATLAS - work on "I can" statements - Work on GLB rubrics

1/8/14 - HS proposed changes to Grading Rubric - 7th grade will look at Heredity assessments

__**Minutes**__ 5/14/14 Discussed end-of-the-year stuff. PO's, documents to be turned in. We used Google docs to work on them together.

5/7/14 Began by discussing possible change in 6th grade curriculum. There is a big concern about students coming to 6th grade with limited scientific knowledge and then focusing solely on physical science. It may make more sense to do general science in 6th grade and then do life science in 7th and earth science in 8th. We discussed whether we can change the materials that we receive for our 6th grade students. We discussed content we could turn over to 6th grade. Perhaps 6th grade can teach about living vs. non-living and classifying organisms. 8th grade could hand over the solar system. More discussion needs to occur with Mary as well. Andy is on-board with changes.

Chad shared end of the year docs that need to be completed. We spent the rest of the time turning them into Google Docs and beginning the process of documenting the data.

4/23/14 Jake and Chad were the only two in attendance. Jake shared his TicTacToe Assessment activity that he is using for his atmosphere unit. He said that students have been doing a great job. Very engaged. Some of the projects exceeded his expectations. We talked about using something like this as a culminating activity for our 7th grade Human Body Systems unit. Chad printed off some of the alternative assessment activities linked to the human body unit and they worked on one for 7th grade. Mark came in and we discussed Iowa Assessment results. They looked good so far but all the data has not been studied. MAP testing is almost done and it is a mixed bag. Because the science test is "general science" it is difficult to flesh out what students learned in 7th grade life science or 8th grade earth science. Andy came in to share thoughts about enrichment changes. Discussed the idea of a 6 week mini-course that each enrichment teacher would teach and then students.

4/09/14 Jake and Chad were the only two at the meeting to start. We discussed planning for the remainder of the year. We only have 6 weeks left. We are going to finish up the circulatory system by Easter. Then a week on the digestive system. Off to the Nervous system and then wrap things up with a Body System project and frog dissection. We discussed a possible student teacher placement for next January. Chad is going to accept the student teacher. 6th grade is finishing up their roller coaster unit and then go on to talk about elements. We discussed the ISEBA audit. No results yet, but wondering if it will provide us with meaningful input about how we can improve instruction so that we are helping all students succeed. We discussed modification vs. accommodation in terms of assisting students that are struggling with grade level standards.

4/02/14 Only Susan and Chad were at PLC. They worked on 8th Grade GLB rubrics for their standard related to the Solar System.

3/26/14 Liz shared a "teen-age brain" webquest that she will be using when she talks about the nervous system. We discussed how the SS dept. uses portfolios as part of their overall assessment - calling the portfolios a summative assessment and incorporating it in the 75% or more that is a summative assessment. There was a general sense that what we are doing is working fine. It is a better indicator of how well students are mastering content. There is some general frustration with some students and some parents. Parents call when students do poorly on quizzes, but if we up the percentages for daily work then it will hurt students that do not do that daily work. However, the portfolio creates a paper trail, a documentation of a student's progress. We may ask the soc.studies dept. to come and talk to us about them.

Discussed enrichment ideas that are working and not working. Lab type ideas were more successful but people still struggled with good ideas. However there are students that do not want to do anything other then mess around. Maybe next year we will be more focused on RtI activities. Discussed HS biology position. No one appears to be interested in the position.

3/12/14 Discussed the Tools for Improvement. Mary pointed out that we had a copy of an older version of the Tool. We pulled up the new Tool from the website. We discussed how the tool could be used in planning or having a conversation with an administrator. We then discussed the pilot project which some high school are doing in order to explore moving GLB's more front and center. Discussed Iowa Assessments. Generally felt that Iowa Assessments went well. Most students report that they thought it went well and that science test was easy. Next year we will be doing Iowa Assessments as well. MAP testing coming up in April. Chad shared the rubric he is using for the Genetic Engineering/Cloning project. Jake and Chad are going to try to complete the project before "spring break". Susan and Jake discussed their first assessment of 3rd Trimester. The test was over the solar system and most students did very well. Liz is working on Heredity and Punnett Squares now.

2/26/14 Discussed a student with a 504 plan and how we could accommodate them and their inability to write. Liz wants to upload docs to Google Docs so she can share them out with the student. Marian offered advice about what to do. Jake and Chad talked about Pedigrees and how they want to assess Punnett Squares. Jake shared a DiHybrid punnett square that he is going to use. Chad found a Pedigree activity that he is going to use. Tom Hogenson asked for names of students that might be accelerated in science. We gave him the name of some 7th graders that might qualify. Discussed enrichment ideas with each other. Marian said that RtI is looking at how we are using the enrichment period. They have no set ideas but are exploring options.

GLB Data: Chad shared out that his group met their goal for the Heredity Benchmark for 2nd trimester. 88% scored a 3 or higher. Only 12% scored a 2. 0% scored a 1. There are a few lessons left and then we will turn our attention to the Human Body.

2/19/14 Began session by discussing which we were going to include on our report card this trimester. Chad discussed his most recent assessments. Students did pretty well. He was pleased.

Vicki LaMay came to meet with our PLC. She shared a doc which outlined situations where curriculum can be adjusted to meet student needs. We had a long discussion about specific students that have a difficult functioning on any level in the classroom, let alone handling 6th 7th or 8th grade curriculum. Vicki took notes about some of the students and offered to touch base later on about them. We discussed the lack of team-taught classes and how that makes differentiated instruction more difficult. Some students have emotional needs that are interfering with their learning as well. Liz and Kirsten discussed the struggles they were having with their non-readers in 6th grade. The students are struggling with content reading, reading and understanding lab instructions, etc. They have had to make a lot of adjustments. Jake and Susan discussed the students that were switching teachers for 3rd trimester. Some have specific issues which need to be dealt with.

Jake and Liz made suggestions for websites related to genetics that Chad could use during his computer lab time on Thursday. Next Friday is reward day for PBIS. It will have a half-day schedule.

02/12/14 7th grade discussed timing of the upcoming quiz and what GLB's they are going to score for 2nd trimester. Chad shared out the quiz that he would like to give on Tuesday. Jake and Liz are going to look it over and make changes. Chad also shared out a genetics activity that involved flipping coins and identifying dominant and recessive traits. We discussed Friday's work day and what the plan for the day involves. Chad had nothing to report out for DLT. Kirsten raised concerns about problem-solving skills that our students lack. Her 6th graders are struggling with basic problem solving skills. We need to think about a progression of activities that can build them to the point where they are more self-directed abilities. We discussed group projects and how the dynamics effect the final product. There is concern that students seem to require specific instructions. They can't use their skills to do new things. We need to be intentional about providing opportunities to for open-ended activities, problem-solving, etc.

Kirsten wondered if there was an opportunity to have an RTI like class for low- science students. Liz shared that when she started, they had 3 levels of physical science. She doesn't advocate anything like that however. She said that the low groups often just felt they were "dumb" and screwed around.

We discussed how we can restructure the 4th period time so that there is meaningful instruction during that period. The challenge is staff. We lack the staff to do anything like that.

01/22/14 7th grade talked about mitosis/meiosis, what we want to be sure to cover and that we were not going to use an assessment for those topics. Liz discussed her activity that modeled Photosynthesis/Respiration. She felt that the activity helped it "click"with some of the students. Liz and Kirsten sat down and worked on their Force and Motion unit, developing stations that they want to use.

GLB Data 7th Grade: Cells 91% Green 9% yellow 0% red Great data - My reflection.... I wonder if there can be a correlation between the success of students on GLB's and proficiency on the Iowa Assessments? If students do not perform well on I.A. are we providing higher level thinking tasks to help them be proficient. Time will tell (Dr. C)

01/08/14 Chad finally got around to sharing the high school's proposal for changes to the GLB rubric system. There was general agreement that a system similar to the presentation would be very useful and much easier to manage then our current system of double-entry and conversion. Kirsten and Liz shared an example of their "Exit Card" related to work and energy. We discussed how their exit card really hit on higher levels of Bloom. Also discussed when they are doing the exit cards and how they develop them. They move things around from the textbook's version of the order of concepts. They talked about how their exit cards are less memorization and more application of the concepts. Jake shared that he bought a connector for his iPad so that he can use it in his science class. Talked about applications that could be used in the class. ie Apple TV, iPad constellation apps, Chad is getting science fair applications.

12/18/13 Chad started the meeting by showing a PLC video: Four Questions that Guide PLC. It sparked a long, long discussion about where our PLC is at and where we need to be. Liz pointed out that Chad was very controlling with 7th grade curriculum and assessments. Chad admitted that he was possessive of the curriculum. Jake interjected many times. In the end, Chad, Liz, and Jake came to agreement about where they wanted to go and how they wanted to progress. It was agreed that we need to be more data driven as a PLC. That the 7th grade teachers need to be more collaborative, with Chad being more flexible. In the end, it was a good "blood-letting". 6th grade sat together and discussed where they were going with the current unit. Shared websites, and concerns about how their students were struggling with presentations. Jake and Susan had to leave at 3:45 for an 8th grade team meeting to discuss student behaviors. I am sure that was not an easy conversation, but a good one I bet. There appears to be trust in your group for you to have that conversation (Dr C)

12/11/13 No notes. Chad was gone and no one took minutes

12/4/13 Science Fair - Feb. 18 @ 4:00 - 5:30 in the HS cafeteria. Science dept. discussed activities that we could do to promote the science fair and develop understanding of the scientific method. Chad has a unit where students are required to develop a question, research it, imagine an experiment that they could perform to answer the question, and submit it for credit. 7th grade teachers discussed plans thru Christmas break. They are going to try to complete structure and function of cells before Christmas and do the cell analogy project. Chad showed the website "Education City" that is linked to our school webpage. It has education activities related to earth science, life science, and physical science.

8th grade teachers worked together on their volcano unit and 6th grade teachers worked on their PBL.

11/20/13 We started by working together to get our grade books set up. Next we shared out GLB data. 6th Grade Data GLB #4 4 - 1% 3 - 77% 2 - 18% 1 - 4% GLB #5 4 - 1% 3 - 77% 2 - 18% 1 - 4% The students that scored a 1 were basically non-readers and 6th grade teachers are struggling with how to adapt their teaching methods and instructions to meet those non-reader's learning level. They were very close to our stated goal of 80% at a 3 or higher and 0% at a 1.

7th Grade Data GLB #1 4 - 0% 3 - 99% 2 - 0% 1 - 1% GLB #2 4 - 4% 3 - 83% 2 - 12% 1 - 1% GLB #6 4 - 6% 3 - 71% 2 - 20% 1 - 3% GLB #7 4 - 2% 3 - 88% 2 - 6% 1- 4% GLB #8 4 - 5% 3 - 57% 2- 24% 1 -14% The activities we have done for GLB#1 have been relatively easy which explains the 99% earning a 3. The 1% that earned a one reflects students that have not completed the activities related to the GLB. The same is true of GLB #7 and #8. This goes to a larger problem and question. When projects or PBL activities are used as evidence of mastery, what do you do when students don't complete the project or activity. When it is a test, it is something that can be quickly and easily made up because of absence. However, projects require a prolonged engagement to take it from beginning to end. Most students can and will do that. There will be the small percentage that don't. The PBL activities are trickling in but we will most likely still have students earn a 1 simply because we lack the evidence to indicate anything higher. You are right - if students do not complete the project it is difficult for you to assess learning or even to re-assess. Ideas: Do you have multiple checks (critiques) to have students check in on progress so you don't get to the end and then it is too late? Do you have alternative ways students can demonstrate learning or do they have to complete your project? Having been a teacher who did lots of projects, this is a drawback for students who do not complete them. Having said that, those same students did not pass the writing assessment either because they didn't do the practice work either. If they don't meet your expectations, then they are choosing to fail - make sure you are involving parents from the beginning of the process so they can partner with you. In the end, if you don't have evidence.... (Dr. C)

8th Grade Data GLB #1 4 - 0% 3 - 84% 2 - 15% 1 - 1% GLB #2 4 - 0% 3 - 84% 2 - 15% 1 - 1%

Chad asked for help figuring out how to share out a Google Doc. Andrew and Kirsten had several suggestions. Chad is going to share a shortened URL to the students and they will access the Doc in that way. Chad is going to use a Google Doc to have students prep for the science fair.

We then used the Tool for Improvement to discuss the walkthrough. There was a lot of discussion about how the tool is used by administrators. A lot of concerns about the 5 min. walkthrough. Many thought there should be a N/A to indicate that there were parts of the lesson that could not be observed because they were only in the room for 5 minutes. It feels very formal. You get a message, your name is attached, you are asked to reflect, Better to not share any data at all. In fact, that is our recommendation. There is no reason to share the walkthrough with teachers because it just makes us frustrated or mad. Chad said he will bring it up at DLT.

Mark came in and we vented on that poor guy.

11/13/13 We spent the 45 minutes we had today discussing how we were going to code the GLB's. We wanted to be consistent in all areas - attendance, work completion, and our Benchmark GLB's. We also discussed how the 7th grade PBL went. We are seeing kids really struggle with the "large" task. Even when it is broken down into smaller components, we see students struggling to see the big picture and think more globally. Even with planning sheets, rubrics, and examples, many students had difficulty producing products that answered the essential question: " How are humans impacting an organism in your biome?" If it is viewed as part of the process then we are moving students in the right direction. However, we certainly are not there.

11/6/13 We discussed the Tools for Improvement. While we planned to look at a scenario and discuss how we would rate the lesson, the discussion began with questions and concerns about how the tools are being used. Several have had experiences where administrators have come in for only 5 minutes, made observations, and then sent out rather formal looking evaluations based on the 5 minute observation. While we are told the tool is not an evaluation tool, it certainly feels like a formal evaluation because it comes in an email, has comments, dates, and names. Chad shared parts of the discussion from DLT where he heard administrators say that they liked the back and forth discussions that these tools brought. Teachers are encouraged to read and respond to the evaluations to fill in blanks.

Jake shared some examples from their Biome PBL. Showed a tri-fold that a student created. Jake talked about how he might develop a rubric to evaluate the project. One component that Jake included was a "How to Help" component. Chad is going to include that with his group. Jake was really impressed with some of the work that kids did. We discussed ways that we could make the project better. We discussed using PBL scores as a formative or summative assessment. Because of concerns with missing work, it will likely remain in the formative column. What do you do when you have a student that doesn't complete the project and it is a summative activity? Kirsten's PBL is also going well. They are on the last part of the project. The use of Google Docs, Google Draw, Padlet were all great motivators. One aspect was finding Earth-friendly carriers for cans that would replace the plastic ring carriers. Neat idea. Google Draw was great for that. They created timelines for how specific technology have changed over time and why it changed over time. Marian loved the fact that Kirsten used students as experts in using Google Draw and other web-based tools.

Andy stopped in and talked about ALICE training on Thursday. We also talked to him about our questions about the Tools for Improvement Worked on 7th Grade GLB related to cells. It is attached below.

We did not have time use the Tools for Improvement to score the Science Scenario. We will do that next week.

10/30/13 8th Grade GLB Data - Analyze Earth's History 67% at 3 or higher & 100% at 2 or better. Was your team pleased with the results? Do you feel this is predictive of MAP and/or Iowa Assessment results? (Dr. C) 7th Grade GLB Data - Classifying Organisms 91% 3 or higher and 9% at 2 Scientific Method 96% 3 or higher and 4% at 2 Worked on the 7th Grade GLB - Classifying Organisms. Our work is below.

Jake discussed his PBL and how well it is going. He is really pleased. Kids are getting into the open-ended aspect of the project. The majority are making great connections with only a few struggling. Jake is going to have them present to their classes and maybe have them present to other classes as well. Tom suggested taking some of the work to the elementary school. We discussed timing of the project because Chad is doing his starting next week. Susan shared their 8th Grade PBL work. Some really neat stuff that they created about the Geologic Time Scale.

10/23/13 6th Grade GLB Scientific Method 90% at a 2 or higher and 71% are 3 or higher. The kids that are at a 1 are really low and they struggle to find accommodations to help them be successful. Kirsten is thinking about creating a separate group in IC to keep track of the students she is accommodating. Jake shared concerns about his low students. A couple are extremely low and lack the skills to be successful. We brainstormed ideas that we have tried in the past.

Worked on the 8th Grade GLB related to structure of earth and earth processes. We were able to complete it. 8th Grade Earth Processes GLB Rubric 10/16/13 Liz shared a Tech Talks about listening to an ecosystem instead of just looking at it. "The Voice of the Natural World". []

Pulled MAP Reports. We looked over the data from our class. Generally we found the MAP reports unsatisfying. Apart from breaking down the RIT scores according to Life Science, Earth Science, and Physical Science, there is worthwhile data to mine. It only confirms what we know about the students. It doesn't break down Life Science into specific topics in life science. So, there is little additional information that we can mine from MAP tests. We did discuss some specific students that seemed to under or over perform based on our experiences with them. There is some frustration that the MAP tests do not necessarily match up with what we teach or have taught. 6th graders get at least 2/3 of questions about life and earth science.

Discussed conferences and how they went. Generally well-attended. 60% or more parents were in attendance. Few challenging conferences.

Discussed technology challenges that continue. It is not even worth learning about Google Docs when we can't get mobile labs to work and even the hardwired labs are working slowly. MS internet issues are an incredible hurdle for teachers and students. Asked about SS experience with the LearnPads. They are having connection problems too. Discussed alternative technology- like SmartPhones. Mark asked if any teachers have students use SmartPhones- general consensus is no.

Discussed using Summative and formative or only summative assessments for final GLB decisions. We decided that in most cases only Summative should be used, however, we can use formative assessments if we lack a sufficient number of summative assessments.

Jake and Liz are starting their PBL and discussed how to share the books that Liz brought in from the AEA and public library.

We picked an Earth Science GLB - Students will demonstrate knowledge of the structure of earth and its processes that change the earth's surface. Began work on filling in the GLB. Will complete work on 10/23/13.

9/25/13 6th grade shared info. about their PBL. Kirsten and Liz discussed their PBL project. "The Next Best Engineer" - Challenge to build a Rube Goldberg machine which completes a specific task. On final day the machine, and portfolio due for presentation. Used Padlet with 8 task cards linked to it for students to complete. They are going to use GoogleDoc as a back-up if Padlet freezes up. Task #1 - Explore Models Task #2 - Technology & Society Etc.

Task #6 - Simple Machines (Bringing in PEERS engineer to teach a lesson). Looks Great! Still working on rubrics for each of the tasks. Planning to begin the PBL after conferences.

Chad talked to the group about the 7th grade PBL - How are human activities affecting the ability of other organisms on our planet to survive and thrive? He shared the 4 steps that students need to complete. There are rubrics completed for the first 2 steps. The final step will be the presentation and a rubric has yet to be created.

Jake and Susan shared their rubric for the Geologic Time Scale Flipbook or Traditional Book. The intent is to use this as their GLB rubric.

Love your PBL ideas - will really have students have hands-on experience and dig deep into science. You are using your time very effectively. The problem with think central - I have successfully downloaded the exam view and have e-mailed Susan to see what her computer is doing to isolate her problem. Let me know how I can support you (Dr.C)

I like how you are utilizing the PEERS program and incorporating it into your simple machines unit. Where is the engineer coming in from to work with your students? Anytime you can bring in an outside resource to validate what you are teaching, students have even more buy in! I like the connection the 7th Grade team is trying to establish with students in how their actions, as well as others, have a direct impact on the status and well-being of other organisms on this planet and how their relationship really is symbiotic in many ways. I am excited to see how the Geologic Time Scale Flipbooks turn out with the 8th Graders. Are the flipbooks broken down according to length of various time periods that exist?-M. Scholes 9/11/13 Susan shared problems she had with Mobile Lab 2. When students tried to use ThinkCentral today they lacked plug-ins and usernames. Discussed two students that were struggling with 1st GLB. Asked Kirsten advice about what she did with the students. She suggested having the test read to them. Talked about the 7th grade PBL activity. Looking at a Biome project that may extend into how humans are impacting specific ecosystems or organisms either through climate change or lack of habitat. Liz shared some resources she ordered with fund-raising monies. Some of the resources could be used with low students to complete the biome project. Kirsten shared a project-idea called the Bug Detectivie Guide. It could be adapted for any concept and could be created for an audience of elementary, middle school or older crowds.

9/04/13 Jake shared how to use the scan feature on the copier to create PDF's and send to email address. Discussed technology problem. ExamView Pro does not work with updated software system. We can no longer open up tests and edit them. Susan is communicating with sales rep to try to solve the problem. Lisa has not added 6th graders to Science Fusion online version yet so they cannot access the online version. Discussed Liz's Exit Cards. Chad used them last week as thought it was a great tool to see which students were struggling and which concepts students struggled with during the past week. 6th grade talked over their exit cards for the next few weeks. Chad worked on next assessment over Protists & Fungi. Kirsten & Liz also worked on lab for next week.

8/28/13 Liz shared her "Exit Cards" that students are going to complete each week. This will work as a formative assessment as well as something to put in the gradebook. 6th grade is already using exit cards as summative assessments. 7th grade may do the same thing in the future. 6th grade does the exit on Thursday so that they can meet with students on Friday to reteach as others are working on projects for "Discovery Days". Discovery Days will be evaluated through a series of questions related to the activity.

Some are using "Clock Partners" You set up 12 sets of partners and then all you need to say is "Use your 6:00 partner."

Talked about possible PBL projects- 7th grade is thinking about the question "What challenges does the organism of your choice face in order to survive?" 6th Grade is looking at a PBL project related to chemistry and CSI. Driving question to come later. Kirsten and Liz worked on setting up their Google Doc that will help them keep track of their Exit Cards. 8th grade is looking at turning their Solar System unit into a PBL project.

__**//Archived Information from 2012-2013//**__

=__2012-2013 PLC Information __=

__**Our 2012-2013 Norms**__
Start and End on Time Focus on the tasks as planned Limit the sharing of concerns to the first 5 minutes Listen Respectfully Do your work

__**Our SMART Goal for 2012-2013**__ = 100% of students will achieve a 2 or higher for all grade level benchmarks and 85% of students will = = achieve a 3 or higher on all grade level benchmarks. =

__**Our Action Plan for 2012-2013**__
Your action plan seems very well thought out. I can see you have put much thought into you plan and how it affects learning. -Andy
 * Rationale for choosing this Goal: The science dept. believes that this goal will help raise student achievement ||
 * **Building Goals Supported****:** ||
 * Activity related to reaching your SMART Goal || Action Steps and/or Strategies || Persons Responsible || Formative Measures/Goals || Timeline ||
 * 1) Use differentiated instruction techniques to teach all key concepts || A variety of instructional techniques will be used so that students of all learning styles will be able to process key concepts related to mastering GLB's. || Classroom teacher || Teachers can share their differentiated techniques with each other during PLC time || On going ||
 * 2) Provide accommodations to all students with IEP's or show the need || Teachers will provide accommodations as indicatated in the IEP. Students that show need of accommodations will be given accomodations as necessary. || Science teachers and special ed teachers || Pretest scores will be posted on their GLB data sheet and data wall. || on going ||
 * 3) Provide reteaching opportunities for students who struggle with key concepts || Students with a 1 on a GLB will receive an additional activity, project, or assignment that teaches the GLB in an alternative way. || Teachers in the Middle School Science Department. || This will be measured by how many students improve after reteaching ||  ||
 * 4)Allow retakes for summative assessments. || .Reteach information that the students aren't grasping with an alternate teaching method. Allow allow students to retake every test. Provide different times throughout the day for retesting. || Science Teachers || Check student understanding throughout the unit and/or each lesson. ||  ||
 * 5) Have students track progress on GLB's & create data walls that track the entire class's progress on GLB's. || Students will keep their own GLB record in their science notebook. GLB records will be updated with pre-test and post-test scores. GLB records will be colored coded based on the 1-4 key. Red will represent a one, yellow a two, and green will represent a 3 or 4. The data wall will incorporate stop lights for each GLB with percentages in each lens. || Science Teachers and students || Student GLB record || Ongoing ||

Love your Action Plan - it is very thought out - I like the pre-test and post-test idea - what a great way of determining student needs. Your SMART goal is good again this year... and very rigorous with your expectations which I like a lot! I like that students will be keeping track of their own GLB progress in their notebooks. You will find that it is a motivating factor in their learning. Love the color coding as well!!! You all have started the year off strong! (Mary)

__**Agendas - Please label you agendas by date so they are easy to locate**__ Wednesday, April 10 7th grade teachers are to bring the activities, assessments, and ideas for improving the first unit for the 13/14 school year. The goal is to tighten up assessments and create a more consistent presentation of material between the 3 teachers.

Wednesday, January 30

Review Science Common/Iowa Core Standards linked to Mary's email Share out data from GLB's Discuss how to make the observations meaningful

Wednesday, January 23 Review Science Common/Iowa Core Standards linked to Mary's email Share out Chap. 4 of RTI book Group Share the one new thing you did this past week

Wednesday, Dec. 12 Topic for discussion: Students should be allowed to redo every assignment or assessment up to the last week of the marking period. How did that discussion end? (Dr. C)

Wednesday, Nov. 7 ​Prepare for school board presentations on Nov. 13 Discuss how we weight our grades. With new information do we want to create a new catagory for alternative assessment activities? Maybe 25% daily work 50% summative assessment 25% alternative assessments HS Science dept now uses 15% Practice 40% Higher Order Activities 45% Assessments They are considering either combining the (40% & 45% into one category) or (75% Activities & Assessments 25% Practice activities)

Wednesday, Oct. 31 Meet with Science Fusion rep to learn more about how to use online versions of Science Fusion\

Wednesday, Oct. 17 Share out sets of data for GLB's

Wednesday, Sept. 26 Mid-Term Update: How are our students doing? Susan is going to share how she is using the Student Portal for ThinkCentral. 7th grade teachers need to confirm contents of Unit One test. 7th grade teachers need to share data from the lesson one quiz.

Wednesday, Sept 19 Share information from BLT Discuss enrichment and share ideas that are working in our enrichment classes Discuss whether we want to develop some sort of student-centered self assessment tool other than the pretest/post-test system we have already developed. If yes, what would it look like? 7th grade teachers need to confirm contents of Unit One test. 7th grade teachers need to share data from the lesson one quiz. 7th grade teachers need to look at pruning down the content covered in our new series so it fits in our 36 week time frame.

Wednesday, August 30 Work on creating SMART GOAL posters and Data Walls Discuss issues that we want training on during the Friday inservice Identity questions for pretest and posttest for first unit Identify differentiated activities you may include in unit. Discuss new expectation for Peer Observations: - minimum 1 per person - share observations during PLC time - minutes should reflect that each member has done their observation

__**Minutes - Please label your minutes by date so they are easy to locate**__
Wednesday, May 15 Worked together to complete the SMART Analysis. Form is attached below.



We discussed students that were struggling with the various GLB's. We decided not to post the names on the PLC Wiki because of concerns about student privacy. The 7th grade group moving to 8th grade has many students that struggle. There are a large number of students with IEP's and a number of students with behavioral issues. The 6th grade group moving up to 7th grade has a relatively small number of students that struggled. 8th graders list will be shared with 9th grade teachers

We completed the PLC Survey

Looked at Data on the Wiki together. We were disappointed that all the Apples to Apples analysis of all gradelevels at the MS showed a drop. Not sure why. Perhaps it was the time of year that we took it, the climate that it was given in, or simply a lack of knowledge.

Wednesday, May 8 Met with the S.S. department and learned about the learning tablet that we may be using on a trial basis. Had a staff meeting at 3:45.

Wednesday, May 1 Andy shared some things that he learned at the 1:1 conference. LearnPad is the hardware. Andy is thinking about 2 classroom sets. Social Studies and Science could share the sets. We shared concerns about the current network and its fragility. Andy thinks we are going get a new wireless network this summer, either the HS's old network or a new network of our own. Science dept. thinks it is a good idea. Waukee has a bring-your-own-device policy that Kirsten is interested in exploring. LearnPad guy is coming in a couple of weeks to present to the SS dept. Science would like to join them and learn more about the device. Looked at the LearnPad website to see some of the apps. Discussed Kindle Fire vs iPad. 6th grade spent the time till 4 working on their first unit for next year. They are developing assessment questions, how they line up, what rubric to use. Also differentiating lesson. Susan and Chad discussed their plan for Project Based Learning plans for summer. Jake left for track. Broke at 4:00 to take survey.

Wednesday, April 24 We had planned to look at Iowa Assessment results however no science results were available. Apparently only math and language arts results were printed off to be viewed. Then we talked about MAP testing. Teachers that used the media center computer room were frustrated. It is not a good place to test. Students are crammed into rows. Teachers are constantly walking in to use the printer. There is noise from the study hall next door. All in all it is frustrating. Room 211 is a much better site for tests. We found the normative data from 2011. Is it the same for 2013? Chad shared the assessment he wants to use for the skeletal/muscular. Tom brought in Iowa Assessment material so we spent time assessing. 8th grade avg. grade equivalency is 9.4. 7th grade avg. grade equivalency was 7.7. 6th grade avg. grade equivalency was 7.5. Looked at some individual student scores and talked about the results. Kirsten was absent because of conference, Jake had practice at 3:30, no staff meeting to attend, so we adjourned to individual rooms till 4:30.

Wednesday, April 17 Science dept. discussed purchases for the coming year. 7th grade teachers ordered dissection specimens, goggles, etc. 6th grade teachers looked at physics kits. 8th grade teachers discussed items but came to no conclusion. 8th grade teachers worked on finalizing lesson plans for the remainder of the year. 7th grade teachers are moving on to the skeletal/muscular system. Microscopes and balances need to be refurbished so a request has been made to have Midwest Microscope Services come do the work.

Wednesday, April 10 Liz spent 30 minutes presenting her idea for modifying our initial unit. She proposed that 7th grade use the Unit 2 material to cover the inital GLB's instead of Unit 1. She identified which lessons we should cover, which GLB's they cover, and even did an item analysis identifying which question was tied to which GLB. Great presentation and 7th grade teachers are all in. Next year we will skip Unit 1 and go straight to Unit 2 which covers the kingdoms in great detail. It was also agreed that we would add 5 add'l questions to each quiz so that we have more comprehensive coverage of GLB's.

Chad and Susan are attending the Project Based Learning conference in June and are hoping to bring back ideas that can be implemented next year.

Susan asked about the 75% assessment 25% daily work breakdown. Discussed whether we wanted to change it. Looking at the high school there seems to be no continuity. 8th grade SS calls all graded activities as assessments and has no daily work scores. Not sure what LA is doing. After some discussion we decided at this point that we would continue using the 75%/25% split.

Wednesday, April 3 Discussed the big issue brought up in DLT and PLC. That is, making sure that we are using common assessments and common rubrics. We have not always held our feet to the fire to the extent that we are not using common rubrics and not always common assessments. We had a long discussion about the need for this to occur. Our PLC has a lot of strengths however we have a ways to go to be at our desired state. Andy was part of this early PLC discussion and reflected that he felt the PLC did a good job working together and that we were further along then we suggested. However when Kirsten and I reflected on our current state and our desired state we felt we have a distance to travel

We talked about one of Susan's assessments over the water cycle. We discussed how a student could show that they "exceeded expectations". Many assessments and assignments do not allow a student to exceed expectations. Chad described the process that was demonstrated at PLC facilitator training session for discussing and giving input about units or assessments. It was agreed that this might be a way for the science depart. to look at its current units and assessments and improve upon them.

Liz, Chad, and Jake are going to spend the next couple of PLC's to collaborating on the first units of the school year. We are going to work to add PBL activities as well as common rubrics and sort through the assessments we used this year to identify which assessments we want to keep. Susan supplied 13/14 calendars for us all and we mapped out what we did this year so we can see the big picture for next year. 8th grade seems to be doing a great job of collaborating, using common assessments, some common rubrics, and shared activities. Because 7th grade is stretched between 3 people, two of which teach only 2 sections and Chad teaching 5 sections, there has been less collaboration. We hope to remedy that situation in the coming weeks. 6th grade has a good start and hopes to continue with that collaboration.

Finally we discussed how our teaching assignments might change as the bubble 7th grade class moves to 8th grade. It is likely that Jake will go to teaching 4 sections of 8th grade science and only one section of 7th grade science. We currently have 9 sections of 7th grade science now.

Wednesday, March 27 Chad discussed science fair results and passed along a video congratulating results to students. There were 11 projects with 15 students. Down quite a few from previous years but there were many complications including weather. 7th grade discussed changing a quiz question so it reflected instruction about circulation. Quiz was changed to reflect instruction. Shared BLT notes - discussed RTI progress in building - next year there will be a screener and monitoring of progress throughout the year. Discussed technology usage policy in the classroom - many issues related to use of Kindle, iPads, etc. in the classroom. Brain research shows that people struggle when confronted with too many inputs - ie. music and text. Listening to music and working on projects may work for some students but not for all.

Wednesday, March 20 Liz, Chad, and Jake discussed the current lesson on circulatory, lymphatic, and respiratory systems. Liz shared some youtube videos that show how to diagram the heart and some graphic organizers she is using for the text. They discussed the merits of allowing the new materials to drive instruction. Chad argued that we weren't letting materials drive instruction, only allowing new material to dictate the assessment since we are using their 5 pt. quizzes. Jake shared the computer activity that he is using for the circulatory system. It is the ThinkCentral virtual lab. Cow Hearts are coming tomorrow and Chad and Jake will use them, Liz is using them on That data is encouraging... let's see if there is a correlation on the Iowa Assessments.... and then analyze and compare..... Good work!! Interesting discussion around your resources and instruction. (Dr C)

Kirsten observed Chad before Spring Break. She shared some of the things that she saw. Jake observed Molly Roach for SPED and Abby Peterson. Chad and Susan have yet to make their peer observations.

Jake and Chad shared out Heredity data - Chad had 3% achieve a 1, 85% achieve a 3 or a 4, 12% achieved a 2. Jake had only 1 out of 45 students achieve a 1, and 10% achieved a 2. The remainder received a 3 or 4. 7th grade teachers looked at the rest of the school year and sketched out remaining lessons. 6th grade teachers looked at the rest of the school year and sketched out remaining lessons.

Kirsten discussed an activity that she did in class that involved stations and ability grouping. She thought it went really well.

Wednesday, February 5 Discussed Science Fair and handed out science fair ads for the next couple of days. Science Fair turn in date is Friday, Feb. 8. RTI Update - Discussed what building is doing for RTI and where we want to go. DLT update - Discussed the universal screener that was purchased and the plans for that screener. 6th grade discussed what they were going to cover related to Atoms. Enrichment- concerns about having students with passes opt out of enrichment during the enrichment days. Liz Shared some activities that she found related to DNA structure - a beaded bracelet activity that uses colored beads to represent the A,C,T,G and it is double stranded so your can match them and twist them like a double helix. There was also an origami activity related to DNA structure. There is also a DNA sequence activity which ties the sequences to the proteins they produce. 7th grade teachers discussed the timing of Unit Test and move to Human Body. Plan to complete Unit Test before spring break and then move to human body after spring break. Susan shared some websites she had discovered related to Earth Science and Planetary Science. 6th Grade SMART Goal Data GLB #4: Interactions of science, technology, and society. (I CAN demonstrate how science, technology, and society are related.) 100% of students students scored a 2 or higher on the GLB. 84.5% of students scored a 3 or higher on the GLB. GLB #5: Apply scientific method and processes of scientific inquiry. (I CAN use the scientific method to create an independent investigation.) 100% of students students scored a 2 or higher on the GLB. 84.5% of students scored a 3 or higher on the GLB.

Wednesday, January 23 Discussed the "Something New" activity we did in class. Susan offered choices about using the digital lesson vs. book lesson. Jake used a digital lab from the new series and he used a technique to get more kids involved in the question answering process after note-taking. 10 different kids had to answer the 10 questions. This got a lot more kids involved and students were more keyed in to the process. Chad asked students to turn to a partner and discuss the material covered the previous day about meiosis and then as a review before the quiz he used a thumbs up or down method of answering questions so that all students needed to respond to each question. Kirsten had students work in pods, come up with team names and norms in order to develop group skills. Then they moved from station to station.

The group looked over the Stages of Team Development pages and discussed which traits fit our team. We identified traits in each of the 6 Stages of Team Development which made us feel like we are heading the right direction.

Chad showed a graphic representation of the information from Chapter 4 of the RIT book. It dealt with ways to have Tier I instruction in the class. Learning Centers and Differentiated Groups after doing an initial introductory activity. Discussed how we are using these techniques now.

We were supposed to review Science Common Core materials but we ran out of time. We will do that next week.

Wednesday, January 16 Chad shared information about the upcoming Science Fair on Tuesday, Feb. 26. Science dept. will begin promoting the fair in class 7th grade teachers discussed the upcoming program provided by SIEDA. They present sessions on the effects of illegal drugs, alcohol, tobacco, and prescription drug to the body. 6th grade DARE begins sometime in February.

Discussed the RTI book. Chad is going to identify pages in Chapter 4 worthy of sharing with all. Discussed progress that BLT was making on implementing RTI. Discussed survey results and talked about things that we are happy with and things that we could do better. We feel like we are sharing ideas which is good. We probably need to be more intentional about our sharing. One example of how we have helped is when we had a prolonged discussion about grading practices.

Wondered if we had money left in our science dept. fundraising account. Emailed Patty to find out.

Kirsten talked about implementing the choral response practices that Calander suggested in his seminar. She feels like it has been successful. Liz shares a technique that she uses to get students interacting and involved. Chad wondered how successful it might be with his 7th graders but Liz has had some success with her 7th graders using the techniques.

Group decided to do something different in the next week that enhances student learning. We will share out next Wednesday.

Another item I would like to see from your PLC is looking at student data - when and how do you discuss this? Do you have a set week you look at data? (Dr. C) Wednesday, January 10 Liz shared her observations that occurred on Thursday, Jan. 4th 2nd period. She was in Kirsten's room. The purpose of the observation was to watch her lesson on phases of matter and how she differentiated her instruction for her spec. ed. students. She noted several techniques which Kirsten used including differentiating the process so that it was suitable for students of all level.

Began discussing RTI ideas. Kirsten and Chad both were at the Calander seminar. They talked about the systemic changes that they thought would impact instruction. Kelly Luck is developing a model schedule. Andy stopped in and we discussed the ideas as well.

7th grade teachers reviewed the Heredity Unit pretest. Plan to give the heredity pretest yet this week.

Wednesday, Dec. 12 Jake and Liz shared information about the AEA websites and resources shared on Tuesday at the Science mtg.

Wednesday, Dec. 5 DLT update: Talked about Rick Wormeli. Kirsten shared what she learned. Was very excited about the ideas. We discussed philosophy about Redos. Talked about Rubrics. Talked about getting students to think about how they are doing by having students analyze tests and assignments like a teacher. Finally, Kirsten said that he talked about getting out of the way of students, not limiting them with our sorry imaginations. She shared an open-ended writing assignment that she gave titled : Technology, Why? Got some really interesting and varied responses. Opened up a big discussion about how we boxed in students with our assignments. How we structure our assignments and activities. We discussed the "No Zero" policy that Wormeli discussed. Some of us have adopted the No Zero policy, some of us have not. Discussed how some of us are implementing the Redo's or how we might implement redos in our class. Jake is going to give it a shot tomorrow with a request form to retake the quiz.

Discussed plans to do video project over cells. Chad is going to do Mission Cell on Friday or Monday.

Wednesday, Nov. 18 Began with a sharing of BLT minutes. Discussed how to approach consuming the book: RTI in Middle and High School. Currently BLT members are reading Chap. 2. Kirsten and Chad have the book. We will selectively read and discuss some of the chapters. The goal for reading the book is to support DLT's goal of implementing RTI in all classrooms. We feel that MS Science teachers are already supporting and implementing RTI in their classrooms. Turned our attention to the GLB alignment work that we need to complete by the end of the year. Spent time completeing forms for a few of the GLB's. The goal, we think, is to have all of the GLB's aligned by the end of the school year. Mary has said that our next Curr. meeting will be a work time to complete the GLB's and ATLAS. We will hope that this is true. Jake shared several interesting articles related to Salmon that he found online. Explored Education features on Google Chrome. Also discussed IA. Dept. of Ed. proposals for new system of classifying teachers.

Wednesday, Nov. 14 Coordinated plans through Christmas Break. Jake and Chad shared resources that they are using for Cell Theory Discussed GLB results and how to create a report for GLB's for each section

Wednesday, Nov. 7 Discussed and worked on presentation for the Board Meeting. Kirsten and Jake will be our lead presenters. Turned the discussion to what we will consider as Assessments for grading the 2nd & 3rd trimester. There is a realization that we are approaching the 75% - 25% mandate differently from other groups. We are going to broaden our definition of assessments to include the alternative assessment activities that we use. Previously they were counted along with labs and other "homework" as daily work. Now they will be part of the 75%. Talked about the beginning of 2nd Trimester. Chad is going to try assigning the Cells Pretest on the computer and have students access it and take the test online. 8th Grade discussed what they will be doing the final 2 days of the trimester. Discussed the Walk-Through Templates. We didn't have them in front of us but we discussed how it is a tool that we can use to improve our instructions. Turned our discussion to retesting and our philosophy. Teachers are feeling pressure to let anyone and everyone retest yet we are having students go into a test feeling like they don't need to worry because they can always retest a second time. It may make more sense to just have students that are at a 1 or 2 on a test to retake to show that they are 3.

Wednesday, Oct. 31 Science Fusion Rep. Roxanne Kline spent the entire PLC time showing how to create groups, link assignments, use online assessments, and create reports based on those assessments. Very helpful!

Wednesday, Oct. 24 Jake shared their Earth Science project which involved learning about layers and then using tacos to demonstrate the layers. Sent out the list of students that need to do work during Enrichment Discussed what effect the new grading and GLB marks are doing - more realistic picture of their skills - a shock for those used to getting a lot of A's Discussed retesting thougthts - all offering retest opportunities - some are offering full credit. some offering partial credit - some doing oral retest and some doing paper & pencil retests - some only allowing retest for those that did not pass Discussed plans for the remainder of the trimester. Shared that we may have the textbook rep here on Nov. 7 or Nov. 14 Discussed plans for next Tuesday during our Science Mtg. We think we will be working on "I Can" statements and ATLAS. Discussed how technology is changing our students. What are the 21st century skills that kids will need. Do they need to write in cursive. Do they need to understand grammar to the extent that it is taught? WIll emails, texting, online surveying and documents make some of those skills obsolete. Also does technology make students incapable of being the kind of students that we taught 20 years ago?

Sounds like you had a very rich discussion!!! I applaud your work this year - Your discussion around the 21st century skills looks interesting too. (Dr. C)

Wednesday, Oct. 17 formative assessments in the coding. We decided to only use the summative assessments in making the final coding of GLB's. Chad has his first GLB's posted on his data wall but has not discussed them yet. • Liz shared a webquest she is using to cover classification of living things • 6th grade teachers discussed a intro to science and technology lesson about simulated earthquakes and structural integrety • Liz shared a video promoting a STEM project that she is interested in implementing. It is called eCybermission. A STEM project being promoted by the Army. Students identify a local problem related to STEM and then follow the process to solve the problem using a problem kit supplied by • Discussed the changes to enrichment. Compiled the list of students that need to be sent to our class during the Enrichment period on Thursday and Friday. • Topic for Advisory this Friday is "Amnesty" • Andy stopped in and we showed him our stoplight system for sharing GLB info with students. • Aaron and Chad worked on developing a rubric for a their organism project. Students will be assigned either bacteria, archaea, animals, plants, fungi, or protists. They will create a poster, prezi, or powerpoint identifying the characteristics, major types, examples, and pictures.
 * Discussed coding benchmarks. Chad projected a class spreadsheet with coded assignments and discussed how he coded them. Discussed whether to use any

Wednesday, Oct. 3 • Susan spent 30 minutes showing us how to create accounts for our students, what the student screens will look like, and what we can do with students. • Jake and Aaron shared the note taking aspect of the ScienceFusion materials. Called "Digital Lesson" • Chad created a document to share with parents and students which describes how they can access this. • Chad shared Unit One Test with items from the 4th lesson removed. Discussed timing of the Unit Test. • Discussed Midterms Grades: Most are having students doing well. 6th grade has mostly A's, B's, and C's. 7th grade and 8th grade the same. • Discussed accommodations for those students who have severe learning disabilities. There are a couple of 6th graders that have physical and mental barriers to learning. There are a couple of 7th graders with the same concerns. Some students are borderline - Life Skills - there is a sense that they are "auditing" class which seems fine. There are many experiences that they will benefit from by participating in class. Are they getting the standards at the same level of understanding? Probably not. • No one is ready to post the first Stop Lights showing student achievement on GLB's. After we complete our first unit tests we will have the data. However, we all are having students track their data as they move through their lesson quizzes. I am wondering if anyone has noticed how student motivation has changed as result? (Dr, C) • Susan shared changes to enrichment. Monday - Wednesday will be enrichment as done in the past. Thursday will be set aside for pulling students to get extra help and homework. Friday will allow 25 min. pulling students then last 20 min. advisory period to work on social, organizational skill. Implementation will begin on the Monday after conferences. • DLT Update - Shared the focus of DLT - Characteristics of Effective Instruction. Discussed what the walk-throughs will entail. Be sure to post learning objective and share with students • Reminded members that they are being asked to make one peer observation to be shared with the PLC at some point in the year.

Wednesday, Sept. 26 • Discussed the revised Unit One Test. Items related to the 4th Lesson were removed and we made sure that there were at least 5 questions for each lesson. • 6th Grade teachers discussed their GLB's and turning them into "I Can" statements so that they can be posted in the room. • 7th Grade teachers discussed their latest lesson quizzes. We discussed ways that we have worked to help those who are struggling to do better with the quiz • Liz shared her EdModo - She has a calendar on the site, she can download worksheets, students can communicate with each other and it is all out there so the teacher can monitor the dialogue. A safe alternative to facebook and students are using it to talk to each other. • Chad shared some dichotomous activities that he plans to use during Lesson 5 to reinforce the use of a dichotomous key to identify organisms. When I popped in you looked like you were very much engaged - looks like from the minutes you were - can't wait to see the graphs your students are creating for their "data monitoring". (Dr. M)

Wednesday, Sept. 19 • Frustrations about being able to get students access to the student version of the textbook online. We need training. Suggested to Andy that rep. be invited to our PLC • Cleared up confusion about which assignments will go to into the summative folder and which will go into the formative assessment. We all came to agreement that lesson quizzes will be a summative assignment and alternative assessments are formative. • Reviewed how to link assignments to benchmarks • Discussed first lesson quizzes. Discussed language in quizzes. Talked about how to prepare students for quizzes and what to do if students do poorly. Will allow retesting for students who struggled on the lesson reviews. 7th grade shared data from first quiz. Students were confused about the example for homeostasis and the difference between budding and binary fission. • Andy stopped in. Shared tech news. Wireless upgrade for the building is off the table. Bandwidth has been upgraded however. Up in the air about going one-to-one. • 7th grade teachers spent time looking over outline for new science series. We discussed pruning some lessons. There are 36 lessons, and only 36 weeks, and there is even more to cover. We are eliminating the following lessons - history of life on Earth, Plant processes, Animal Behavior, Levels of Cell Organization, Homeostasis & Cell Processes. Goal is to reach cells by the end of the 1st trimester. • 6th grade teachers spent time looking over their outline as well.

Wednesday, August 30

Discussed Friday, Sept. 7 inservice and what the expectations for staff include. Discussed new expectations for Peer Observations. 1 observation. Share observations with PLC members.

We dug into the issue of common formative and summative assessments. All grade levels agreed on a number of important elements.
 * 1) Pretests will be given, data shared with students, data used to guide instruction, but they will not be part of grade. Kirsten has given her first pretest and had students record their data along with color coding the results with a 4 or 3 coded green, 2 coded yellow, and a 1 coded red. She said that students seemed impacted by the data. I wonder if you might share what that looks like - with me, but with others in your building as well so they can see how that works. Awesome, by the way!!!! (Mary)
 * 2) Lesson quizzes, unit post-tests, and project-type alternative assessments will be used as Summative assessments.
 * 3) Lesson alternative assessments, labs, and lesson summary activities will be used as Formative assessments.
 * 4) Students will use pre-test and post-test data to track their GLB progress. Data sheets will be kept in their workbooks.

Grade level groups got together to look over the first unit and identify lab opportunities and discuss supporting materials that will be used to provide more differentiated instruction. Susan guided us through the process of using ExamView Pro to create and edit unit tests.

__**Monthly Data Wall Analysis**__

__**Supporting Documents**__
//__**ARCHIVED**__// Smart Goal 2011-12 100% of students will achieve a 2 or higher for all grade level benchmarks and 85% of students will achieve a 3 or higher on all grade level benchmarks. = = =** Assessment Plan **= = 75% of final grades will be based on summative assessments. = = 25% of final grades will be based on formative assessments. = = = = = = **__MS Science__** =

__**Norm/Collaborative Commitment Recording Sheet**__

__**SMART Goal/Action Plan forms**__ (You may choose which one to use)]



__**SMART Goal Analysis Sheet**__ (To be used in the Spring)

100% of students will achieve a 2 or higher for all grade level benchmarks and 85% of students will achieve a 3 or higher on all grade level benchmarks.


 * // Results of our SMART Goal – percentage who: //**
 * // Teacher Names // || **// MET Goal //** || **// ALMOST Got It //** || **// Far to Go //** || **// Missed the Boat //** ||
 * Chad Farner || 96% || 3% || 1% || 0% ||
 * Liz Foster || 98% || 1% || 1% || 0% ||
 * Jake Jenkins || 97% || 2% || 1% || 0% ||

Your students did very well on SMART Goal attainment - what will that 1% get for a boost heading into 7th Grade?? (mary)


 * We __DID NOT__ meet our goal. What do you account for either meeting or not meeting your goal as a team? Use next page or back side if you need to.**

Out of the roughly 110 kids that each of us have, there are a few individuals that we were not able to reach. The reason for this varies depending on the student. Some students have outstanding issues that have nothing to do with school, what we teach, or how we teach. There are things that stand in the way of them being ready to learn that we can’t control. Other students have learning disabilities that make it difficult to instruct and assess even with differentiation. It only takes one or two students for each teacher to make that 100% goal difficult to attain.

__**Data Analysis Tools**__ (you may choose whichever format works best for your team to display the information - one suggstion is attached)

__**Minutes/Review of Data Analysis Form**__ (you must address the following questions in your minutes)

PLC Facilitator: Chad Farner
=__**Agendas for PLC Collaboration 2011/2012**__=

Agenda Items for Mar. 28 - Finalize purchase orders for science materials - Discuss assessments that can be used for students to test out of 6th grade, 7th grade, or 8th grade science and move to next grade-level - Look at 2nd Trimester GLB's - Talk about how PLC can move forward during 12/13 school year

Agenda Items for Jan. 18 - Review progress toward 2nd trimester GLB's - Continue working on common assessments and keeping classes aligned with curriculum and each other

Agenda Items for Nov. 2

- Discuss 2nd trimester use of technology now that the science dept. will have its own mobile lab - Grade-level discussions about coding benchmarks before the end of the trimester - Continued work on common assessments

Agenda for Wednesday, Oct 5 - Good topics for discussion - I would like to challenge you to go beyond just the pacing, but talk about how well students are doing - how can you help one-another with either students who are struggling, or helping to make rubrics, assignments more effective? Think about using the Tuning Protocol during your PLC meetings...... Mary 1) Teachers teaching common courses discuss where they are at and where they are going 2) Discuss results of most recent assessments 3) Work on common assessments

Agenda for Wednesday, Sept. 21 1) Teachers teaching common courses discuss where they are at and where they are going 2) Discuss results of most recent assessments 3) Work on common assessments

Additionally- If you have completed work for a standard, bring grades so we can discuss how we have or will code the standard as a 4, 3, 2, or 1. How did you code work habits? Attendance? for your Enrichment / Guided Study How will we code work habits and Attendance for the end of the trimester?

For More information click on the link below
=__**OMS Science Wiki**__=

=__**Minutes from PLC Collaboration**__= 5/02/12 Began our session by having members present completing the survey sent to us from Mary. Spent time compiling what data we could to complete the SMART Goal analysis since we were missing two of our 5 team members. Discussed the ecology unit that finishes the year for 7th grade life science. Liz shared an Ecology unit that she found. Discussed which elements fit with our GLB's. Jake and Chad talked about assessing the final GLB with a poster or letter to the editor. Going to move forward with that idea.

Discussed next year and students that may struggle because of academic or behavioral concerns. Decided that we would share class lists when they become available so that previous science teachers can identify those students that may need additional support early on. It may also allow us to make sure that specific students do not end up in classes with students that may disrupt their learning.

It was difficult to discuss much else because 40% of the team was gone.

4/18/12 Chad shared information from PLC facilitator meeting on Tuesday. 1st and 3rd weeks will be extended PLC time. 2nd week will be PLC and Team meetings. 4th week will be PLC and Staff meeting. Discussed weekly format as suggested by Mary. It looks like a format that would work well for elementary PLC's because they all teach the same classes. Not so well for MS science because there are 3 different classes for the 5 teachers.

Collected GLB data for 8th grade Physical Evidence of Earth's History: 2 or better 97% 3 or better 87% Wow - that's good data! How do you all feel about the student success? Patterns of the Solar System: 2 or better 97% 3 or better 97%

Collected GLB data for 6th grade. Motion and Forces: 3 or better 75% 2 or better 92%

Discussed ecology unit for 7th grade. Liz shared her ecology project. Discussed the different elements. Jake and Chad shared webquests that they have done related to Biomes. With only 5 weeks left, it is important to thoroughly cover the final 2 benchmarks in 7th grade. Jake showed us the Fusion links to info. about ecology. Found some good resources we can use in the coming weeks.

Worked on assessments for Interactions of Living Things for 7th grade. 8th grade teachers collaborated about balloon project and weather unit that will complete the year.

3/28/12 Spent time discussing the Fusion materials. Discussed what materials we would need and don't need. There was some confusion about what was available online. An email was sent to Billy to clear up confusion. General excitement about getting and using the new materials. Jake and Liz are already using the resources for units they are developing. The rest have logged on and looked at some of the online materials that will be available.

Discussed progress with GLB's. 7th grade has completed 5 of their 8 GLB's. The most recent GLB to be completed: The Human Body had the following results. 1% earned a 4 83% earned a 3 16% earned a 2. Our goal was to have 85% earn a 3 or higher. We were very close with 84% earning the 3 or higher. 8th grade and 6th grade were still compiling data and will share out at the next meeting but they are making progress on all GLB's.

Discussed the Iowa Assessments. Tests seemed to cover Physical, Life, and Earth Sciences. Concerns about students being tested over materials that they have not covered or covered the previous year were expressed. If we have adopted the Iowa Core then why don't the assessments for each grade level focus on those concepts?

Sue Heslinga wants MAP data so she can look for possible students to accelerate

Andy stopped in to discuss the "Put the Test to Rest" celebration. Shared details about the early out schedule and plans for the afternoon

2/15/12 Andy shared a learning opportunity from UNI related to alternative energy - a 3 week course in June. Discussed the SIEDA programming and how it relates to our curriculum. 6th grade teachers discussed DARE. Chad reviewed creating assignments, linking them to GLB's and using the rubric. Also showed how reports can be created with all assignments linked to GLB's. Makes evaluating GLB's easier.

Discussed Science Material purchase options. Discussed iPad vs Textbook. Kiersten talked about wanting at least one class set of textbooks to utilize. Jake also discussed the desire for a set of new textbooks. iPad labs run $7300. Grant monies might be available but where, how much? What are the iPad capabilities? A lot of questions. Is the middle school transitioning to one to one? When? Does it make sense to invest in iPads if we might get new computers in a few years. Talked about iTouch labs as well. Discussed technology in general - cell phones, Kindles, etc. The network is a huge issue however. The current network cannot support the technology we use. Compared Kindles to iPads.

Worked on common assessments and discussed timing of upcoming units. 3rd trimester is coming in two weeks.

2/01/12 Began PLC by listening to the DuFour Webinar. Sparked good conversations. - discussed where we thought our PLC was in terms of how PLC's are defined. We felt that we were still in the early stages. We have common agreement on what students should learn. We have are working on developing methods to identify who has learned (common assessments). We periodically have conversations about how to help those students that haven't learned. - Talked at length about the challenge of what to do with students that do not succeed - Discussed how assessments need to be adapted for the different levels of students. Especially with the 6th grade group. There need to be at least 3 levels of assessment. Discussed how the adapted tests can still cover GLB's. - Sparked great conversation about GLB's and students that struggle with how GLB's are written. Discussed a specific 8th grade GLB that requires students to be able to take information about the solar system and use it to draw a model. Some current 6th graders will struggle with finding the information and then applying it. Chad shared frustration over using textbooks as a learning strategy. Students were not reading the text, just cherry-picking information. Jake and Kiersten shared strategies that they have used. Kiersten copied some material and had students read and highlight important parts of text. Jake has used a couple of strategies. Round robin reading and then group discussions to highlight important points. He also has had the class begin reading together outloud and then having them break off and read independently to finish. He builds in incentives for reading quietly. Chad is going to try some of the different techniques. He has been in a rut. Technology: Discussed asking for iPad labs as opposed to new textbooks. All were in favor of getting more technology. It would be great to have an iPad lab per teacher. However, even have a couple of labs for the dept. would be good. Also talked about having laptops at each lab table so that students can access information whenever.

1/18/12 Discussed how/when we want to listen to DuFour webinar. We decided we were going to listen to it at a future date. Susan shared that a student is wishing to skip over Earth Science. Discussed past procedures and philosophy of skipping entire science topics. Liz was going to look for the procedures she has written for past situations.

Discussed concerns about students in Life Science that failed the recent assessment over skeletal system. Discussed ways to offer reteaching and retesting for those students. Current project to build "cadavers" and add body systems as they are studied will help to build knowledge of the skeletal and muscular system. Students will be given the opportunity to retake the assessment in order to show understanding.

Spent time analyzing GLB's from first trimester. 6th Grade data Properties of Matter 99% 2 or higher 88% 3 or higher Physical/Chemical Changes 100% 2 or higher 93% 3 or higher Scientific Method 100% 2 or higher 88% 3 or higher

7th Grade data as follows: Scientific Method 99% 2 or higher 78% 3 or higher Classification of Living Things 96% 2 or higher 82% 3 or higher Cells 98% 2 or higher 85% 3 or higher Reproduction/Heredity 98% 3 or higher 90% 2 or higher

8th Grade data as follows: Structure of Earth 99% 2 or higher 92% 3 or higher

In analyzing the data, it appears that we have been doing a pretty good job of helping students meet their goals and show mastery of the GLB's. We felt that the strategies that we have implemented have been successful to date. That data is very impressive... your efforts certainly appear to be paying off! Challenge: when you are writing your assessments, are you making sure you are assessing them at the level of rigor you have written your GLB's? Continue to analyze your questions so that we have good alignment between your curriculum and assessments (Mary)

1/02/12

With two teachers just having had their Epson projectors installed, Stek and Farner shared some of the ways that they were using their whiteboards. We showed a number of Activinspire presentations we had developed over the past year and discussed how we used them to help students get more involved in lessons. We plan to share Activinspire flipcharts in the shared folder so all can access them.

12/07/11

Began the process of reviewing science materials for purchase in the 12/13 school year. Looked at materials and used the resource evaluation forms to evaluate Interactive Science, Fusion, and Glencoe-Life Science. Learned about e-book resources available through SNAP and our district. I am anxious to hear about the new science materials and the ancillary resources available with the series. - Andy Did you have any time to discuss student progress on GLB's and what you are doing if they are not progressing? (M) We did not, however that is on our agenda for the Jan. 18th meeting. - Chad

11/02/11

Discussed placement of students and the problem with certain groups that travel together for all classes. Liz has a particularly tough group of 7th graders. Suggested that the students be spread out to other 7th grade science teachers.

Discussed the need for afterschool transportation of students to allow for afterschool interventions.

Discussed what interventions we could provide to students that need interventions for GLB’s.

Andy stopped in to discuss identifying students for guided study / working on GLB’s. We are to discuss and then get back to him. Most of us feel that working on GLB’s could be done without the extra time in guided study and most of our students would be in math or LA guided study for work on those GLB’s. Andy reminded us that the grading window opens on Wed., Nov. 9th. and MAP interpretation training will take place on Monday, Nov 7th. Looked at data related to GLB's. Identified students that may benefit from the guided study interventions being discussed for 2nd trimester. Continued work collaborating on curriculum and common assessments. Sounds like you had very good conversations around student learning needs! How do you think the data wall could be used by Science at the MS? Do you have your own way to display the data? (Mary)

10/19/11

Reviewed BLT discussions. Topic: Criteria for being assigned to Guided Study. Chad talked about the ideal situation - each guided study group is the same grade level and the struggling in the same subject. That way you can focus on specific skills that are pertinent to them and what is going on in class. Jake talked about having one science teacher do guided study each 6 weeks. Kiersten has 7th period free because she teaches 6 classes already so she would out of that configuration. Kiersten suggests that if a student is not meeting a benchmark (1) then the guided study should be directed to that GLB and reteaching that GLB. Others supported the idea. The current system can only be run as a guided study hall.

Discussed the GLB rating system. Based on what we are seeing with the assessments, what does a 4 look like, what does a 3 look like, etc. Did a round-robin of how we each are doing or envision doing the rating. The next step would be to discuss what to do with classroom interventions and/or strategies for those students who are on their way to a "1" or even those that are at a "2". How will you analyze student work or data to assist each other with struggling students? (Mary)

Tom came in and ran a discussion about how we can better transition 5th grade to 6th grade and 8th grade to 9th grade.

Chad & Jake worked on Chap. 4 assessments. Kiersten worked on Wednesday quizzes and final assessments over matter.

Agenda Items for Nov. 2 - Discuss 2nd trimester use of technology now that the science dept. will have its own mobile lab - Grade-level discussions about coding benchmarks before the end of the trimester - Continued work on common assessments

10/05/11

Discussed current assessments, how students were doing the assessments or how prepared they were for the upcoming assessment.

Spent a long time discussing coding benchmarks. Looked at current assessments and discussed how we might code them. Looked at district definitions for each code. Settled upon these descriptors: 4 - Exceeds Expectations Student demonstrates a thorough understanding ........ 3 - Meet Expectations Student demonstrates an understanding ........ 2 - Progressing Toward Ex. Student demonstrates an understanding but inconsistently applies ......... 1 - Does Not Meet Ex. Student demonstrates a limited understanding .......... Using those criteria Chad's life science group would have about 4.5% of students earn a 4, 74.5% would earn a 3, 19% would earn a 2, and 2% would earn a 1 on the first of our benchmarks.

Spent time working in small grade-level groups sharing formative activities related to upcoming units. Also looked at Jake's rubric for our Cell Drawing activity. Adjusted and adopted the rubric and will use it in the coming weeks.

Talked about strategies to help those students that are struggling with the assessments. Discussed re-testing options and steps that can be taken before the re-test to help them to be more successful. Awesome - glad to see you are talking about student learning!!! I like the discussion surrounding the use of formative assessments - I am curious how the re-teaching is going..... (Mary) For Oct. 12 Discuss ideas for guided study that will provide learning supports for science students that are struggling.

9/21/11 IEP Students & Science Began by discussing concerns related to 6th grade students with IEP's. There is a sense that their needs are not being met as things are structured. There are large groups of very low children, some of whom came from situations in the elementary school where they had one-one associates that now do not have them and they are struggling. Simply having an associate for part of a class is not meeting their needs.

Technology Science dept. will be receiving a mobile lab as of 2nd trimester. Dept. is excited about this change. There will be a Google doc. so dept. can sign up. Media center & Rm 211 will be available for math & encores. May be available to others if not being used.

Guided Study The dept. feels that firm guidelines need to be set for guided study. There are students being assigned to guided study that have only a single D. This seems excessive. 1st trimester, 2nd half groups are too large. 40 eighth graders and 40 7th graders. That means 20 kids in each guided study. Also discussed having a math guided study, lang. arts guided study, etc.

SMART Goals Discussed methods to report out SMART goals. Data is starting to come in and by mid-terms we should be at a point where we can report some data. Concerns have arisen about grades and meeting standards with the new 75% summative / 25% formative mix for grades. Adjustments are being made.

Common Assessments Worked on summative assessments for the Cell unit. 6th grade teachers worked on modifying upcoming unit so that it is compatible with their current students. 8th grade teachers worked on common assessments for a variety of units.

9/07/11 Reviewed creating assignments and using gradebook. Walked through the process together. Confirmed that Andy has approved our SMART Goals. No word about the Action Plan. Created an Assessment Plan. 75% of final grade will be based on summative assessments. 25% of final grade will formative assessements. Reviewed DLT minutes. Began discussing common assessments for the first units.

8/19/11 Facilitator chosen: Chad volunteered to be facilitator Adopted norms for the group. See below: Group Norms 1) Start on time/ end on time 2) Complete group assignments on time 3) Stay Positive 4) Everyone needs to contribute to group discussion Reviewed data to develop SMART Goals Developed SMART Goal

100% of students will achieve a 2 or higher for all grade level benchmarks and 85% of students will achieve a 3 or higher on all grade level benchmarks.