MFS Quest

Monday 3/11-

       Today, we did many things in both Quest Humanities and Science. In Science, we studied the periodic table and the Hindenburg, an airship in the 1930’s that exploded in Lakehurst, New Jersey. We watched live videos of the explosion and explored how and why the ship blew up. It was because they manufacturers of the ship used hydrogen, a highly flammable gas, it caused the explosion because of a reaction to oxygen. We also learned about the periodic table, we explored the different groups in the table such as metals,non metals, alkaloids, alkaline earth metals, transition metals, and more. In Humanities, we had a Socratic Seminar about a question our entire class agreed on. Our question was: “How is race portrayed in film and how does it affect society?” Before, we analyzed several sources that helped us find evidence to support our claims to answer the question. Our classmates proposed questions and supported their opinions with evidence from the text. Overall, today was a very eventful Quest day.

-Alicia

Proofread by Tori

Tuesday, 3/12- In both Quest Humanities and Science, we did engaging activities that allowed us to reinforce knowledge on what we were learning about. In Greenberg Humanities, we conducted a Socratic Seminar debrief in which we discussed topics such as how well we reached our class goal and how well we stayed true to our norms. Each student responded to these questions in their notebooks and then had the chance to share their thoughts through way of seminar. This was an effective activity because it allowed us to analyze what we are already doing well, while also thinking about what we can do better for future seminars. After our debrief, we then held a mini seminar allowing us to further respond to our question: How can music affect your views of different races and ethnicities? Can music portray cultures in a negative way? Even though many of us did not speak and there were not as many ideas to be shared, this was still helpful because we were able to dive deeper into our topic. In Gornto Humanities, we continued work in our literature circles. During this period, we were able to finish any reading, write and respond to discussion questions, come up with log entries, and get anything done we felt we needed to accomplish in our reading journals. Some of us were even beginning to brainstorm possible essay questions. In Quest Science, we continued our work on the Hindenburg and the Periodic Table. We watched videos on the Hindenburg exploding and talked about why it happened and how people learned from the disaster. Then we watched a video that briefly summarized who first came up with the Periodic Table. We learned that Russian Scientist Dmitri Mendeleev developed the first Periodic Table of Elements, though our version today differs from his original. We also saw how Daniel Radcliffe can rap all the elements, which was pretty interesting to see. At the end of the science period, we started an activity that involved coloring the Periodic Table to distinguish between the different types of elements. However, we were not able to finish the activity. Every Quest class we had today allowed us to learn more and go deeper into topics to strengthen our understanding.

By: Katie

Proofread by: Haila

Wednesday, 3/13-During Quest Science we continued studying and learning about the periodic table in a fun and creative way.  We filled out the table and colored it in according to its groups. We would divide the groups by types of metals, nobel glasses, and other groups.  When color these tables I think it is a good and fun way to study it instead of staring at a paper with all information. The colors will also help us remember the groups and elements. In Quest Humanities Gornto we added to our reading journal continued reading and analyzing our books.  Our books and the leading is project is a good experience because we get to take leadership. I feel it is good that we are in charge of our learning and we make our questions and logs. We learn how to manage ourselves and finish our work. This week we were working towards finishing our book and discussing the books for our reading journals.  In Quest with Greenberg all sections were picking topics for Socratic seminar based on the classes interests. Our questions were based on us so it was easier to be more engaged and have opinions. Our first topic was technology and how it affects. The next one was how technology changed warfare. Socratic seminar really helped us learn and grow with using evidence.

By: Asha

Proofread by: Ava

Thursday, 3/14- During both periods of Quest Humanities today, we were able to continue working on assignments due in the future while also preparing for Socratic Seminars coming up. In Greenberg Humanities, we received our articles that we will be reading to prepare for our seminar on Monday. The question we will be answering is “Why has the U.S. approached international issues with violence? (Vietnam War).” The articles we are reading will help us better understand what started the Vietnam War and how we could have approached the situation in a less violent way. We look forward to the seminar on Monday when we can share our thoughts and opinions on the topic. In Gornto Humanities, we have been working on the same material we have been formulating for the past two weeks or so. Every literature group has been working on their individual reading journals (due on the 18th) and some groups are beginning to think about writing their essays. There are many components that go into a strong reading journal, so it is important that we utilize those Quest periods well so we have no trouble with writing our essays and completing our journals thoroughly. During science, we finished coloring our periodic tables. Each color  represented something different in the table. For example, if we shaded in many boxes with a green marker, that green area could be labeled as non metals, metalloids, and metals. -Katie

Friday 3/15/19:

On Friday, in Quest Science, we finished coloring our periodic tables. Afterwards, we did a worksheet that help us figure out how to address elements on the periodic table by their atomic weight, their symbol,and atomic number. Meanwhile, in Quest Humanities, we continued work on our reading groups, finishing our reading journals to eventually write an essay based on theme, conflict, character, and other topics. We also prepared for our second Socratic Seminar by annotating and writing margin notes in articles that were used to prepare for our Seminar topic. -Alicia

Monday– No school (teachers in-service)

3/5/19 Tuesday– In Quest Science, we had time to finish our graphs. The graphs are about PCB Levels in whales. After we finished the graphs, we worked on a crossword puzzle about the periodic table. In Quest Humanities with Mr. Greenberg, we received our Europe maps. We must color them in, label them, and label the oceans and seas. This assignment is due this Friday. We also each made a log question for the class. We must answer one of them as homework. In Quest Humanities with Mr. Gornto, we have a book project as a group. We each take turns making discussion questions and a log question every 80 pages of the book. The book my group is reading is Divergent. We answered our discussion questions and answered the log question.

–Matthew

3/6/19 Wednesday– In Quest humanities with Mr. Gornto we still continued to keep reading our books until the strict deadline which is on the 15th of March. The book our group is reading is No Hero. We also have more grammar work to do for the night what we are learning in grammar right now are participles. We each write our log questions and discussion questions to help us prepare for a major upcoming project about the

book we are reading in class. In Quest humanities with Mr. Greenberg, we did another seminar with the whole class. We first reviewed our logs and sharing what we wrote down about why the question that we chose was very deep and thorough. For the seminar, we discussed which questions the class chose most and made more questions for the questions.

For quest science with Mrs. Bruvik, we started to begin learning about the periodic table of elements. We watched and learned about a catchy song about the elements then we did a fun activity which was trying to spell out as many words as we could with the element symbols.-Jonathan

3/7/19 Thursday

Today in quest science we did a word search to find as many elements from the periodic table of elements. The person who found the most words on the word search was Alicia Leung in section Y. (picture below)

In Quest humanities with Mr. Greenberg, we were annotating articles about how racism has been shown in movies and how have things changed. We had to annotate 3 articles to get enough information for our Socratic seminar. For Quest humanities with Mr.Gornto, we read our books and also reviewed our discussion questions and looked over our logs. We also went over our grammar books.

-Jonathan

3/8/19 Friday

      Today in Quest humanities with Mr.Gornto we are still our books in our literature groups and this is great to see what others think about your book. With our groups, we are all figuring out ways to best understand the book. Eventually, we will have an essay to show we understand the book. Today in Mr.Greenberg’s room we are continuing to read and annotate our articles given to us on Thursday. We are still using one of the four-note taking styles. We are to finish annotating the article by Monday so we can have our Socratic Seminar. Today my section in Quest Science we had to read and use one of the four note-taking styles learned in Mr.Greenberg’s room weeks prior. We are to take notes on the four different pages in our Science textbook for the open note Quiz on Monday. In Conclusion, we had a very eventful day in Quest.  -JJ

Proofreaders: Ryan, Nick

Today in Quest Science, 7x did a soluble experiment. The experiment was quite simple. Groups of two or three would simply draw a dot with a certain color on it and put the piece of paper on top of a pencil above a glass of water. We let the paper soak for about 5 minutes until we saw the color start to stretch out on the paper. The end result was seeing all the colors that made up that one color. For example, if you were to do blue in this experiment you would see different shades of green and yellow. 7x had a lot of fun doing this experiment and we hope to do more things like this in Quest Science again soon. We also worked in our book circle. In every class there is a new leader who gives us questions and leads the discussion for that class period. Students are able to spend time discussing as well as asking questions about the book during that time. After that, they move on to reading their self-assigned pages.

-Nicholas

Section Xs lab on chromatography

7x also got in their literature groups this week in quest humanities. We were assembled into small groups and each group will read a book of their choice. Then 7x will come up with a topic for an essay that they will write once the book is completed. The literature groups  will then make a whole presentation on the book as well after the essay is completed.

-Nicholas

On Thursday, February 28th, we missed Mr. Greenberg’s class because we had Meeting for Worship. In Mr. Gornto’s class, we worked with our book group to go over questions that we had regarding the books we are working on. We also were able to discuss the log book prompts or just start reading the next assigned pages. In each literature group there are 3-4 people. Our peers liked that we got to choose what book they got to read with their group. I personally love reading and it was great having the choice of which book I was going to read for the next two weeks. In science, we started doing a lab, where we were supposed to help solve crimes by using a technique called chromatography to find out what kind of ink was used in a crime.

On Friday, the 29th, in Mr. Gornto’s class, we worked on our book again. Mr. Gornto was there to assist everyone as needed and checked in with each group to see how they were doing. In Mr. Greenberg’s class, we did a Socratic Seminar, based on an article about if college athletes should be paid. A Socratic Seminar allows each person to speak up and voice their opinions while providing evidence to support their idea. The teacher does not get involved in the discussion, it is led by the students and they are able to build off each other’s ideas and ask questions. We were able to get feedback from our peers on how we did during the Seminar in order to improve for the next time. We also had a logbook to follow-up on the Socratic Seminar to put our thoughts down. In science, we were given an article on on Wednesday about killer whales and how they maybe going extinct because of pcb levels. We had to make a graph about it and answer questions. Since we were not able to finish everything on Wednesday, we were given time on Friday to complete the work. We were also told that we are going to start the new unit on the periodic table and were given word searches on elements.  

-Skyla

Section Ys book selection                  

Monday was a very packed day in Quest Humanities. In room 204 we were introduced to our two new topics for the first formal socratic seminar.  A socratic seminar is when the students have a lengthy, well prepared discussion on a topic that is well researched. The teacher may not get involved in this conversation, as it helps us a s students with independence. The two topics we had to choose from was the conflict in Venezuela and paying college athletes. From there we had to read the articles, annotate, take notes for the real discussion the next day. In room 215 we were introduced to our new literature circle groups, and chose what book we would read for the long project coming up. A literature circle is a our class divided into small groups. Our groups are based on genre, and our whole class filled out a sheet to pick what they wanted genre to read. In the groups we start with planning our schedule of how we will approach the next few  weeks. Everyone in the group that you are assigned to read the same book. Throughout the class we discussed on what book we would be reading and came to conclusions to be ready to start planning and putting it in action on Tuesday.

-Moses

On  Tuesday, we began our  student led socratic seminars. In my class the college sports article is what was discussed. As it was half and half, on who chose which article.  During the socratic seminar there is an outer and inner circle. In the inner circle, the students are talking about their topic. On the outer circle the students are observing, listening, and filling out rubrics on a student on the inner circle. The discussion is generally 20 minutes, and after its over, the outer circle talks with the inner circle on how they did. They are usually  assessed on how they get involved, if they use conflicting systems when they speak, body language, etc. In room 215 we started planning when our group discussions will occur, what the reading deadlines are, and who will lead the daily discussions. This helps us stay on top of eachother, and make sure work gets done. This helps us with accountability moving forward in our academic careers.

-Moses

Proofread by Maansi and Bella

(Feb 19-22)Thursday, February 21, 2018

Today (Thu 2/21) in Quest Science, section 7x has been looking at different types of technology and energy. We read an article titled Built for Thrills. We learned how engineers design roller coasters along with all of the things that they need to consider. They have to consider safety above all. The second article was titled 30 Years of Super Science. We read of different types of technology created for different reasons. We read about the Hubble Space Telescope, Virtual Reality games, and 3D printers. Next, we completed a worksheet where we had to pick one of the three types of technology and answer the questions. We needed to look up why it was created, who created it, how the original version worked, what improvements were made and why, and how has it helped people. Here are some quotes from the students of what they have learned:

“I did the 3D printer. I learned that it was originally made for companies to make prototypes,” says Maggie.

“I chose the Hubble Space Telescope because I never heard of it before. Besides finding out what it was, I also learned how it works,” says Katherine.

In Mr. Greenberg classes, section 7y were introduced Socratic method. The Socratic method is an argumentative discussion which individuals use critical thinking on certain topics based on evidence. We pitch different ideas and points of view on the subject and ask questions and queries. We set norms and guidelines for the Socratic method and came up with a class set of goals for each Socratic discussion class. Some examples of Socratic discussion norms are be engaged with the material, avoid repetition, let others have a chance to speak, and takes notes of some questions you have about the discussion or topic. We decided to have a different class goal and personal goal every time to focus on during the discussion so we can improve our efficiency and clarity in the discussion. We read an article that focused on slow reading and not skimming through reading. We annotated the article and took notes on key points. We had a Socratic discussion on the article. We use the fishbowl method. This is when a few people go in the middle of a larger circle and discuss a topic and majority of the people observe from the outside of the discussion circle and take notes on the discussion and give feedback on discussion after the discussion is over.    

Semicolons and Selecting Book Genres

In Quest Humanities with Mr. Gornto, we started a new unit in our grammar books. We are beginning to learn about semicolons, and when to use them. It will be a very difficult unit, but semicolons are very important when writing. Besides focusing on our grammar books, we also are starting to read books following the genre we chose next week. We have different genres of books and chose our top three favorite choices. Then, we will be divided into groups for each genre that we chose, and choose a book will like to read. We are going to create due dates individually for ourselves, and make sure everyone has a responsibility for the project so we won’t fall behind. After reading our books, we will have to write an essay explaining the main theme or themes of the story, and will have two other projects soon, covering different things about the story our group read. It was a very short week for us because of the snow days, but we got a lot done in both Quest Humanities and Quest Science. – Jayden

After we select our genre, we will be able to select a book from the library or from home, as long as it follows the genre and is appropriate.

Proofreaders: Maggie, Katherine

Remi, Makayla B, and Coyle

In Quest this week, we wrapped up our six week long integrated climate change unit with a group/individual project. We got to choose to be in a group or work individually. In this project, we got to show off our ideas and understanding of our climate change research.

The project is a week long project about ways to mitigate or adapt to the effects of climate change. Everyone chose a topic related to climate change. Then, if you decided to be in a group you were put in groups of about four or five people who shared the same choices for the project. The main point of the project was to come up with an idea of how to deal with the effects of the topic that you chose. Although the projects consisted of information on their topic and other aspects of research, students were able to use their creativity to make them as interesting as possible. Some of the topics included sea level rise, coral reef destruction, wildfires, health issues, etc. We worked on this project everyday during the week in all of our Quest periods. We met in the same classroom space everyday, based on the category of presentation you chose. Depending on what room each student was in, the requirements for the project varied slightly. For example, students in the Quest Science room were required to make a model for whatever their action plan was going to look like. These models varied from ideas/inventions that they had to 3D sculptures that represents something that each group had researched or something on what there topic was focused on.

At the end of the creation of this project on Monday, 2/11 we had a symposium in the blue gym that was open to the school community to present our findings and the finished products of the projects that we had been working on. We set up stations and displayed our projects. People could walk around independently and examine the projects and each group had to have a summary prepared to present to guests who came to their station. Sometimes our audience was classes who came as groups and sometimes it was one or two faculty members at a time. Students that came to this event ranged from lower schoolers to Seniors in the high school. Each group presented their work and were prepared to be asked a number of questions by fellow students or faculty members. We had a good turnout for our symposium which was about an hour and a half long, it was a success.

Here are some things that worked for the students during this week: “For our last week, we decided that Instagram was a great way to get the message about climate change out. We post weekly and many people seem to care a lot about it.” Next we things that didn’t work for students, “For our first week, when we made posters it was pretty hard to see the words and pictures that we had in it.” Lastly there was some challenging things that came with this project, “We were paired into different groups so it was challenging to get used to working with people.”

These are some images of some students at work:

Proofreaders: Sonia and Jewell

• Grace, Daniel, and Leah

This week we went deeper into our climate change unit. Throughout the week students watched movies that showed the negative effects of climate change. We have been examining climate change for a while now, and have been tracking our progress through doing different climate related research and activities each week. This week 3 groups of students were put together and each group watched a different movie Chasing Coral (2017), Before the Flood (2015), or Climate Refugees (2010).

In the movie chasing coral, a group of scientists travel around the world in search of different stages of coral. In their original design, they use cameras that are propped on a device that makes them twist 360 degrees. They placed these cameras in multiple locations to see how coral reacted to different water temperatures. Unfortunately, for the crew, the cameras did not take high quality photos. So, instead of just calling it quits and going home, they decided to take manual photos of the coral from different angles. It took them a long time and it was depressing to see the quantity of coral that was dying and how fast the coral was dying from higher water temperatures. At the end, of the movie, a video message was put in at the end to alert people of what was happening. The research crew asked if people from around the world to document what was happening to coral from their region. Many people helped out and now coral from all of the world is being documented.

Climate Refugees. (Room 204)

Before the Flood is about Leonardo DiCaprio, a famous actor,  visiting places to talk to different people, mainly people with power, about climate change. He has met with many inspiring people like Pope Francis and Barack Obama. Since DiCaprio is a movie star many people look up to him and listen to him. He is relatable and has a strong voice. Because of him Obama agreed to sign the Paris Climate Agreement. The Paris Agreement is an agreement between all the countries in the world about climate change and the problems and concerns that it brings. When Obama was president he agreed to it, but now that his term is over President Donald Trump has decided to take us out of the agreement.

Climate refugees is about how refugees are trying to find a new home because the one they once lived at was destroyed. Their homes are being taken away from them because of the disastrous effects of climate change. Places that have the money to help stop this won’t contribute, leading to countries to argue on who will be held responsible of the damage climate change has done to our world. People don’t know what to do with all of the refugees coming to our countries, and some people don’t want them here. Scientist are predicting that we will not have enough food or water for the refugees, and with our population growing every year, we are predicting food scarce will become a world-wide issue. Our world is struggling and the videos in class have taught us that we are responsible for this and it’s our job to try and stop it.

Quest Humanities:

In quest humanities this week, we learned and tested out different note taking skills. The teachers have noticed that most classmates struggle with taking consistent notes or with taking useful notes. Learning multiple note taking skills has helped most students find their own successful way, that works for them best, of taking accurate notes. The note taking styles we discussed and tried out were cornell, annotating, mind mapping, and creating an outline. Each style focuses on a different way to help the student learn their material (such as; studying, research, breaking down large topics, etc) for either an upcoming test, essay, or quiz. We were all assigned to read an article of our choice (out of the choices that were given to us), and to complete all note taking styles. Then, we were to write on the big white board (in one of the classrooms) which note taking style we found the most useful and why we found it practical. From my observations, people seemed to find the outline and the annotating note taking style the most helpful because it kept their work organized and helped them find the information they need on the article they read quick.

In science we watched a movie about alternative energy sources. We also talked about how New Jersey was going to go twenty percent wind power. They were going to put wind turbines on the water, on the coast, to produce electricity. This was going to produce wind energy and wind energy makes electricity. Although this was a great idea, aesthetically people didn’t like it. That’s why this idea was scrapped and New Jersey still uses fifty percent Nuclear power. We also talked about how we can make electrify from the sun. It is a type of nuclear power but with no nuclear waste. There is solar or the sun’s energy. The difference between these two are that solar makes electricity from sunlight and that the sun’s energy is harnessed like nuclear power.

Proofreaders : Tori, Avani, Audrey.

This week in Quest, we continued to work on our joint Humanities and Science project, climate change. In Humanities, we each had to pick one country out of California, China, Colombia, Freiburg (Germany), New Orleans, Haiti, Nigeria, and Bangladesh. We were then put into groups of people with the same country, and given a resource with case studies for each country. We aimed to find answers to, “How is climate change affecting this country?” and “How is this country responding to climate change?” We discovered that many countries are highly impacted by the effects of climate change, and that everyone is contributing in their own way. This initiated our own case studies project. As the week ended, the entire grade picked a different country or city to learn about, and made their own case study. We worked with people in the same continents or with continents near us, such as Asia and Oceania. This was an interesting way to learn more about how different countries are dealing with climate change. It also helps us learn how we can protect the environment, ourselves.

Proofread by Haila and Alicia.
Written by Maansi.

In addition, we read and analyzed two short stories: “The Open Boat” by Stephen Crane, and “To Build a Fire” by Jack London. These stories introduced us to the various elements that make up a story, such as richness of dimension, gravity, compression, etc. We were also introduced to the concept of theme, as well as the various types of conflicts, such as man vs man, man vs self, man vs technology, etc. We used these stories specifically as they featured the central theme of survival, and the man vs nature conflict. This allowed to compare, contrast, and analyze them. We filled out a Venn diagram, as seen here, to highlight the similarities and differences of the stories. We used this as preparation for an essay we are currently writing, which is due on Wednesday, January 30. This is our first literary analysis essay of this year, and our second essay overall. We will use this as a stepping stone for not only analysis of literature based on theme and conflict, but also as a start of the learning of essay writing skills. We also took the second part of our quiz on the countries of Africa. We had created a map two weeks prior that highlighted the physical and political features of Africa. We also took the test online, using a website called LizardPoint, for the first time. Alongside of this, we started a unit discussing the various different types of note taking styles. We each chose a New York Times article that relates to climate change, and learned different note-taking styles. We were placed into stations, and, depending on which station you were in, you would use a specific note-taking style accordingly. We used styles such as Cornell, Outline, Mind Mapping, annotations, etc. This exercise was used to help us discover which note taking style benefited us most, as well as how we, as individuals, can succeed in taking good quality notes.

Proofread by Tori.
Written by Himanshu.

Quest: Science We have also talked a lot about the future and flying cars in science. We had spent the whole class having a discussion on the pros and cons on this new vehicle. For example, how would this affect traffic on the highways, especially if it is rush hour and everyone is in a hurry. This then got us to think about how this vehicle will help climate change, because all of the flying cars will be electrically powered. At first, I thought the idea of multiple cars in the air was crazy and very dangerous, but these cars are good for the environment. Also, if the car runs out of fuel or if the vehicles lose battery, then the class came to a conclusion that cab services like Uber should be able to use this new vehicle. This could be great since there wouldn’t be as much commotion in the air. We still listed some cons too, for example it could help out traffic and get people more quickly to their destination. This week in science, we also had the opportunity to get our new science textbooks and Mrs. Bruvik had assigned us to find something interesting in the book. This was a great time for us to explore the book and what great things people have invented, for example the science behind a fighter plane. After that we had to pick three pictures we were interested in and draw them as a cover page for quest science. Our study of our carbon footprint also carried over too this week and we finished up a worksheet.               

Example of flying car from Quest : Science presentation

Written by Dhru.

Monday:

This previous week we were given two short story packets. These short stories were called, To Build a Fire and The Open Boat. Over the weekend, each section was assigned one of these short stories to read and annotate. Section Z was assigned To Build a Fire. On Monday in Mr. Gornto’s class, we discussed this story. It is about a man walking through the Yukon trails in Canada. The man later falls into a stream under the snow, but can not build a successful fire, so he freezes to death. We talked about how tragic the story is, and our class mostly agreed that To Build a Fire isn’t a sorrowful story. Some classmates thought it wasn’t unfortunate, and decided that is because the main character isn’t very likable. We also discussed other things such as theme, the turning point of the story, and the characters. The turning point of the story happened before it even started, which I found very interesting. It is when the man chooses to go on the hike in the Yukon trails, but the story begins when he is already on one of the Yukon trails. This discussion deepened our understanding of the story.

Tuesday:

On Tuesday we turned our focus over to climate change and global warming. We watched a short video describing the difference between climate and weather. This video cleared up any confusion about the difference between the two. We also received a Climate Change and Questions of Justice Packet. We started to read and annotate the first part of it. The first part of the packet gave us a sense of what climate change is. It also told us many things we can later build off of and expand our ideas about climate change on.

Wednesday:

Thursday:

On Thursday we transitioned back into learning about climate change. Everyone in the class got an article on salmon, mangroves, corn, cod, lobster, honey bees, or sugar maples. After reading these articles, we answered different questions about our topics. There are two main questions that everyone had to answer including: how might climate change affect this organism, and why does this matter to people? Following this assignment, I could see how if one thing is concerned, then many more jobs would be affected. These organisms have a significant impact on their ecosystem.

Friday:

In Mr. Gornto’s class on Friday, we had the whole period to work on our upcoming essay for comparing To Build a Fire and The Open Boat. At the start of class, Mr. Gornto explained our assignment and gave us a Venn diagram. The Venn diagram was a helpful tool to use as an organizer. It assisted us in getting our thoughts straight so we would have an easier time writing our essay.  

Edited by: Dinah,Haila and Alicia

Monday: This past week, we have learned about Africa and Climate Change. We talked about climate change and how it affects everyday people. We also spoke about Africa and the 2 different types of map projections that are most commonly used, the Mercator and the Peters projections.  Our class read through and annotated a packet about understanding climate change and the causes and effects of it. We also learned the difference between climate and weather. Weather ~ the day to day changes of the forecast; Climate ~ something that happens over a period of time (weather patterns).

Tuesday: On Tuesday, we started to go over what climate justice meant and how it affects people from all over the world and not just the countries that people live in. Climate Justice is the action of framing global warming as an ethical and political issue, rather than one that is purely environmental or physical in nature.

Wednesday: On Wednesday, we talked more about the two different types of maps the Mercator and the Peters projection. We discussed the strengths and weakness of each projection; specifically, which countries or continents seemed to change the most between the two versions. Also, we talked about when the Mercator map was made that Mr. Mercator made all of the more affluent countries bigger such as the United States, Britain, Russia. He made the continent of Europe the center of the map. Whereas, Mr. Peters made the poorer countries and continents more to scale even though it looks stretched out.

Thursday: On Thursday, we turned back to climate change, and we all had to pick an article about mangroves, salmon, honey bees, corn, cod, lobster, or sugar maple trees. After we read the article, our groups had to create a mini presentation on how climate change will affect the life form and why is this life form essential to humans. I learned that if one of these organisms had become extinct, that there would be an overpopulation of another animal. This would lead to the ecosystem being an unbalanced disarray.

Friday:  Lastly, on Friday, we continued our learning on climate change; however, today we changed our focus on climate justice, and we learned about the world and how climate change affects every country in the world. I found this very interesting because it made our class realize how people in poorer countries have very little control and how much people in the US and other affluent countries take for granted. We also took a test on the countries of north and west of Africa. Some of the countries that we were tested on were Sierra Leone, Sudan, Mali, Burkina Faso, etc.

This week, we learned about how climate change and climate justice affect the world around us. Also, we studied in depth, the geography of the African continent in conjunction with various map projections.

Edited by: Dinah, Alicia, Halia,

Throughout the past week in Quest Science we were in a Climate Change Unit learning about the effects of it and what is happening on the influence in the world. In Quest Science we have watched videos and done specific experiments and labs that reflect on what we have learned about Climate Change. One of the best experiments that we did in Quest Science was a lab where we split into groups of two people, and had two jars. One jar was the Control jar, while the other was an Experiment jar. Each jar consisted of red cabbage juice, that was freshly made by our teacher in the morning. Each group member was to blow into a straw into the Experiment jar, just touching the surface of the liquid inside for two minutes, or until we saw a difference in color. The change in color that we were looking for could be either pink or a deep turquoise. A more pinkish color represented the cabbage juice or pH level to become more acidic, while if it became more turquoise, it would be more basic. These result last were measured on a pH scale. The results that everyone should have had were a pinkish color of cabbage juice (pH). After the lab was completed, we were to answer smaller questions that gave a big answer to our main focus question which was, “How Does Increased Carbon Dioxide Emissions from Burning Fossil Fuels Change the pH of Oceans.” We left class that day with many lingering questions in our head about Climate Change.

In Quest Humanities, we were studying the continents, and had an interesting conversation about how many continents there really are. We came up with the answer of either 5, 6, or 7 continents was correct. We recently took a map quiz on about half of the map of Africa, as it was split into two parts, on Lizard Point. Another activity we did in quest Humanities was study the different, yet main two maps that we use, which were the Mercator, and Peters maps. We watched short videos on the maps, and took notes about the difference between them.

While we are still in the unit of Climate Change, in Quest we have talked about the importance of Climate change and the harms of it to animal life. We had a mini activity where we worked in groups, read an article about a specific animal, and the effect of Climate Change in the animal, answered a few questions, and finally gave a mini presentation to the class, summarizing your information. We were also learning about Climate Justice, and for this lesson, we had to read and annotate and long article on Climate Justice, and end with a log response about Climate Justice and its effects. After we learned about Climate Justice the final thing that we did was begin to draw, and possibly finish, a chart or diagram on our final research on Climate Change and what it affects, how, and the consequences of its effects, and how it is ruining our earth.
Another activity that we did in Quest Science was a Carbon Footprint Lab! We did this to see how much each of us is distributing CO2 everyday, or the total amount of greenhouse gases produced to directly and indirectly support human activities, usually expressed in equivalent tons of carbon dioxide. We also did a graphing activity where we made line graphs about how much Co2 was in the atmosphere and the temperature. We also read articles on Corals and Chemistry and Ocean Acidification, which was relevant and important because corals are actually animals/invertebrates that serve as homes and ecosystems for marine life. They are being destroyed by pollution, climate change, and infected with chemicals and climate change.

Elise-Mr. Gornto Mon-Fri

Avani-Mr. Greenberg Mon-Fri

Olivia-Mrs. Bruvik Mon-Fri

Monday, January 7, 2019:

Monday was our first day working on our week one climate change project. During this unit, we will be working for six weeks to learn about climate change. Monday was not a normal day in Quest, because we did not report to our normal classrooms. Instead, we were put into groups of four people from different sections, and reported to the classroom of a Quest advisor. Each group had chosen a question to investigate relating to climate change. The groups then were tasked with making a presentation for the entire grade that answers this question. The groups each began to create a presentation to answer the inquiry. They were required to find a way to answer the question that they were given, and support their answer with evidence from trustworthy sources, images, and graphs.

Tuesday, January 8, 2019:

On Tuesday we were split up by sections instead of our climate change project groups. In Mr. Greenberg’s room we talked about how people view Africa versus what Africa really is. We later were given our Africa maps, which we will have two quizzes on in the coming weeks. In Mrs. Bruvik’s room we had a substitute. We were asked to read a article about climate change and then afterwards we had to answer six questions about the article we had just read. In Mr. Gornto’s room we started off by talking about the use of commas, then continued on to do a worksheet about commas. We used the remainder of our time to work on a few pages in our grammar book. The grammar book pages had us work on using the correct ending punctuation and when or when not to have a comma in the sentences. Overall, Tuesday had been a day with a great amount of material to learn.

Wednesday, January 9, 2019:

On Wednesday, we were divided into our climate change groups again. We stayed in the rooms where we were on Monday. Today, we finished making our presentations, and some groups began to practice presenting. Groups went into vacant classrooms, and presented to each other, or to another group. Most groups made changes to their presentations based on peer feedback. Our classmates then shared their final presentations with Mrs. Bruvik, Mr. Greenberg, and Mr. Gornto.

Thursday, January 9, 2019:

On Thursday, each class was finishing up their climate change research and presentations. In these classes with slit up topics, were working hard to put finishing touches on their presentation, that will be presented on Friday in the morning. For the groups that were finished and confident with their work, got to practice presenting in front of peers to get feedback as help for improvement. The sections were split up by topics that were related to each other. This was a good way for organization.

Friday, January 11, 2019:

Friday was the day of our presentations. At 8:00 AM, we entered the D’Olier Room to begin. First, we were given papers to record our takeaways from each presentation. A takeaway is not a piece of feedback, rather something that you learned. Next, each group presented. Every piece was well thought out, and was grounded with evidence from reliable sources. After the presenters completed the presentation, one or more groups gave them constructive feedback on their work. Each person in the audience recorded two takeaways. At the end, we were given a worksheet that was used to see our reflections on our presentation, and other people’s. This assignment taught everyone in the 7th Grade a lot about Climate Change. It was also impressive to see how well each group delivered their presentations.

Proofread by:

Haila, Leah, and Avani

By Sonia, Aaron, and Laurence

Getting Back On Track         

Quest Humanities

Thursday-1/3/19

Today all of the seventh grade met in the auditorium to find out about our next unit. The project that was given out was about global warming and climate change. Following the description of the project we watched a video from Netflix (Bill Nye Saves the World) and the many effects it has on people and things around us. The global warming project/unit will take up to 6 weeks but the first part is due next week. So many people had questions about global warming and the effects. Later the 7th grade went into groups of 4 or 5 and wrote questions about global warming for the whole group to discuss. Later we all hand picked the most valuable question to them so you and a couple of other students will do more research on that question. What do you think about global warming? Is this a big issue to you?

-Aaron

Friday-1/4/19

In Quest: Humanities,  7th graders in all sections (in Mr. Greenberg’s Class) watched videos explaining climate change, and how it is affecting our world today.  Then we were asked to write down notes about some effects of climate change like, ice sheets melting, sea level rising, etc.   

In Mr. Gornto’s  class we read a short story by Liam O’Flaherty called “ The Wave”. We were asked to  read, take notes, and annotate. This short story was about how water is very powerful and how it erodes cliffs, beaches, and other rock formations. In some ways this is connected to our global warming unit we are doing in Quest. Erosion is the process when the surface of the Earth gets worn down by water. This can be caused by the rising of the oceans or severe rainfall. The idea is to examine how various protagonists and antagonists could be forces of nature rather than people.

-Laurence

Quest Science:

In Quest: Science, 7th graders from Section X worked on finishing their Marble Run. The students had to create a free-standing marble run using a paper bag, tape, popsicle sticks, flashcards, and a toilet paper roll (just the cardboard). They had to ask themselves, “What is the problem?” Then they had to imagine and plan out a solution. Finally, they had to create and improve their solution. This is the engineering design process. In past and future projects, students must look toward this process while coming up with a solution.

-Sonia

Section Y today redid their line graphs in preparation for our climate change unit. We are going to be keeping track of the local temperature at the MFS weather station (which is located between the regular building and Hartman Hall). The data will be stored in line graph form. Last but not least we are coloring kindness posters to put throughout the school

-Laurence Toncich-Mandel

Here are Some Quotes from Winter Break and From our Short School Week

12/19/18 – 1/2/19

From December 19, 2018, to January 2, 2019, students were on winter break. Here is what some students said about what they did during winter break:

“I went to my grandparents’ house and spent time with my family.”

“I went to visit my family in Boston.”

“I went to my grandparents’ house in Naples, Florida.”

“I slept and ate.”

Proofread by Isabella B., Leo, and Nick M.