This website was created in order to help Journey Team students and their parents. Included in the site you will find information about what is expected in 8th grade science and what you can expect from me, the teacher.

This homepage includes my mission statement and basic information about the science course such as: Topics covered, Textbook, Materials, Homework Notebooks, Grading and Lab Equipment & Safety. You will also find links to our school's AUP policy, a meet the teacher page, my classroom expectations, some helpful hints to "keeping the A", and additional links to some cool sites with helpful science information.  I hope you enjoy my webpage!

Journey Team Science General Information:

Topics: The 8th grade Physical Science course at Hixson is a wide-ranging course which covers many topics in the physical sciences. Some of these topics are Density, Buoyancy, Chemistry, Energy, Electricity, Magnetism, Light & Sound.

Textbook: This course is extensively lab-oriented. More than 50 labs will be performed by students throughout the year. Notes & worksheets are used to support the labs.  Our textbook will serve as a resource to help us understand the labs & course work.  I will provide textbooks in class when needed for resource purposes.  Students may check out textbooks to complete work at home.

Materials: Students should keep a team notebook, which should be large enough to accommodate all four core subjects. All lab sheets and worksheets should be filed in this notebook until after each unit test. Calculators are necessary for lab data calculations, and I encourage students to bring one each day (unless they choose to leave a dedicated calculator in class). Highlighters are needed occasionally. In addition, colored pencils are handy for graphing lab data. Pencils are needed for daily work along with a plentiful supply (50-100 sheets) of paper in the notebook.

Homework: This course has extensive homework, though generally, it is not assigned as homework because it often consists of what the student did not finish during class. I do not assign homework unless necessary, however, some of the material can be difficult to process and may require the student to study the material on his/her own.

I grade homework based on completeness.  Students will be given the opportunity to correct labs before being assessed through lab reviews.  These are open-lab reviews that count toward test and quiz scores.  Correct answers to the lab questions can be found by students in lab summaries. These lab summaries can be accessed through this website.

Students who have been absent will find the lab summaries highly useful in completing missing assignments. Students who have missed class will be given data sheets in order to complete labs.

Binder: Students are expected to keep all labs, notes, and worksheets organized in their team binder. Parents should check through this binder when receiving grade reports to be sure that it is in order. Students who keep an orderly binder often score higher on tests because they can easily access materials needed for studying.

Grades: Grades are primarily determined by lab reviews, tests & quizzes (80%).  Completed class work make up the remainder of the grade (20%).  There will be several assignments and lab reviews before each test. There will also be a review sheet given to students to complete before tests. 

Parents may keep track of their child's grades through the parent portal.  Access to the parent portal is gained through the office. 

Lab Equipment & Safety: Lab groups are expected to be responsible for the care & cleaning of the equipment they use, as well as the lab stations. Lab safety is such a crucial issue that a Lab Safety Contract must be discussed and signed by both students and parents before I will allow students to participate in lab activities. This is something that you should see come home during the first week of school.