Note home on October 1st ...

 Hi Scientists;

Attached are today's (and yesterday's) notes. We're watching a bit of "Twisting the Dragon's Tail." It's a background on radioactive material - especially Uranium.
We're focusing on chapter three and cells but we do a bit on radiation - early in the trimester - because it comes up repeatedly throughout the school year. The book doesn't cover radioactive decay until chapter twelve but it is important for Earth's internal heat (plate tectonics,) medicine (PET scans, x-rays, and cancer treatments,) engineering (fossil fuel alternatives and batteries that can last decades for space exploration,) environmental pollutants (radon, and radioactive particles in the environment,) etc.
We're also learning a bit of the background of why there was a leap forward in our understanding of the atom, spurred by world events, in the 1930's - when Einstein, Szilard, Bohr, Curie, and other scientists were developing our modern ideas about the atom.
Notes are posted at www.pacificascience.org and in the student's Google Classroom.

Have a good Tuesday everyone ...

S. Forbes - www.pacificascience.org