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Camp Duncan Trip Highlights

This past week, 7th grade class went on the annual 7th Grade Right of Passage field trip to YMCA Camp Duncan, up in Volo, IL. It was a 2 day + one overnight experience. Students got to partake in several team-building activities and challenge courses, learned archery, rock wall climbing, walked a lot through the forested paths, ate meals and lots of snacks together, played at the camp playgrounds, played competitive Gaga Ball, and their experience culminated by creating their own Camp Duncan 2024 Tie-Dyed T-Shirts. We are looking forward to next year's trip with our current 6th grade class! Thank you for checking in with us this week:)

Week 27 of JHS Science|2023-24. "Several Decatur JHS Students Advanced to IL State STEM Fair!"

This week's slideshow highlights: two 7th grade and four 8th grade students have advanced onto the IL State STEM Fair! They presented their STEM inquiry projects to judges at the CPS Citywide STEM Fair on March 15th and learned of their advancement at the awards ceremony on March 16th at Illinois Institute of Technology. Several of them also earned monetary awards as well from various CPS STEM Fair corporate and philanthropic sponsors. These students will present at the IL State STEM Fair on May 3-4 at Milliken University in Decatur, IL. Six of our 6th graders also earned golden status, the highest award given out to 6th grade students! The STEM Fair project allows students the opportunity to choose their own topic of inquiry of a real-world based problem and combine their Science, Engineering, Social Studies, Math, and Language Arts skills into one research-based scientific investigation and presentation. We are so proud of our Decatur scientists and engineers! Thank you for checking in with us this week:)

Week 26 of JHS Science| 2023-24

This week's slideshow highlights: 7th grade class' field trip to The Plant Chicago where they learned all about pollinators as our goal is to begin the foundation of establishing pollinator gardens on our school grounds this spring; 6th grade class spent time on engineering & design through exploring wind turbine designs that maximize electricity produced from transforming wind energy into electrical and mechanical energy. Thank you for checking in with us this week:)

Week 25 of JHS Science| 2023-24

This week's slideshow highlights: 8th graders exploring light waves as part of their "Waves" SEPUP Unit; 8th graders from my SEL class enjoying a game of football together during Tuesday's abnormally warm end to February; a few 6th graders creatively making a moving car for our class pet bearded dragon lizard, Snickers; and JHS students who are part of Decatur's "Green Team" after school club with Mrs. Koreman and me brainstorming which types of sensory plants and native pollinators would be best to plant in our school's raised garden beds this spring. Thank you for checking in with us this week:)

Week 24 of JHS Science|2023-24

This week's slideshow highlights: 8th graders learning about acids and bases and how that connects to the water quality of the Chicago River; 7th grade continued exploring physics by conducting a lab to learn about how imbalanced forces cause objects to change position; a pic of a nice 8th grade student who lives up to our Decatur Pillar of "Taking Care of Each Other" by holding the door as students return from recess and giving each student high fives!; and last but not least, there are some pics of students who presented or attended Saturday's Chicago River Student Congress convention at Northeastern IL University. Students were featured on WGN News and ABC 7 News (see the video links above). Thank you for checking in with us this week:)

Talk-a-Mile-a-Minute Game: Grade 6

This video shows a very interactive activity being practiced by our 6th grade class. Talk-a-Mile-a-Minute allows the class practice unit specific academic science vocabulary terms where students use the terms such as chloroplast, nuclear membrane, and organelles in context (ask your child to tell you more!) in a fun and engaging game-like manner.

Decatur's Lego League season ends with a return trip to the IL State Championship Tournament!

This slideshow contains some pics of our Decatur Lego Robotics Team members participating in the IL State First Lego League Championship Tournament this past weekend at Elgin Community College. Our team members from "The Brainstorms" competed along with 50 teams from across the state. Ms. Petropoulos and I are so proud of this accomplishment, along with other special awards Brainstorms and Pedal to the Plastic teams earned during this year's competitions! Thank you so much to all of the parents who supported us throughout this year as well! :)

Week 23 of JHS Science 2023-24

This week's slideshow highlights: all classes took time out of their units to learn how to make their own microscope slides to view plant cells and various cellular organelles under our microscopes. To do so, they used tissue samples that they tore off of an onion. There are also some pics of our fish from our Lake Michigan ecosystem feeding on smaller minnows, 8th graders learning about how watersheds form such as the Chicago-Calumet River watershed, and JHS students meeting for the first time with Ms. Koreman and me last Friday to kick off our after school program, Decatur's Green Team. Thank you for checking in with us this week:)

Weeks 21-22 of JHS Science 2023-24

This week's slideshow highlights: 6th grade students explored cellular respiration and the function of cell membranes with a couple of hands-on lab experiments from their SEPUP Unit, "From Cells to Organisms"; 7th grade dug deeper into energy transfer during vehicle collisions with interactive SEPUP lab investigations as part of their physics unit, "Forces and Motion"; 8th grade worked on their integrated Science + Music Chicago Symphony Orchestra project by making historic timelines of major geologic and societal events going back 20,000 years into the past of Chicago's geographic location and human-environment interaction with the Chicago River watershed and Lake Michigan; and their are a couple of pics of 8th grade Homeroom 1013 conducting SEL activities outside during the freakish warm weather last week, as well as a pic of Decatur Lego League gearing up for their IL State Championship Tournament next weekend at Elgin Community College! Thanks for checking in with us this week:)

Week 20 of JHS Science 2023-34

This week's slideshow highlights: both 7th and 8th grade classes exploring Physics, 8th investigated sound and light as part of their Waves SEPUP Unit, and 7th investigated how to measure energy transformations between gravitational potential energy and kinetic energy through their Forces & Motion SEPUP inquiry unit; 6th grade explored the "History of Cell Theory and Germ Theory of Disease", and while doing so, they noticed that our class textbook only highlighted important contributions to both theories from men, and no women. So, they decided to draft emails to our SEPUP textbook editors asking why? We look forward to hearing back from them (Mr. K personally knows some of the editors!). There are also some shots of 6th grade enjoying some earned class "Game Time", a Snickers class bearded dragon siting, and our Decatur Classical Lego Team members gearing up for the IL State Tournament Competition, which will be held at Elgin Community College on Saturday, February 17th! Thank you for checking in with us this week:)