Challand Middle School
Sixth Grade Science
Introduction
In sixth grade science, we have an exciting series of topics. Throughout the year, we'll get to opportunity to learn about space, tornados, and even volcanoes. We use these big ideas to get into some pretty complicated ideas about such topics as energy transfer, density, and physics.
Of course the content is important, but we are also using science to focus on a specific skill. Specifically, students in science are focusing on summarizing and note taking. We use a note taking strategy called Cornell Notes. Each student begins with a blank note template.
Questions, heading, sub headings, vocabulary words, and main ideas should be written on the left hand side of the page. The right hand side of the page is where students should write definitions, answers, or list other important information.
An important part of Cornell note taking is the summary statement. In the summary statement, students reflect on their reading and write one sentence that represents the information covered.
After previewing a section by taking Cornell notes, we review the information as a class. This allows students to clarify information and share the important parts that they chose from the text. We supplement the reading with short videos, activities, and powerpoints. The following links are to the classroom powerpoints.
It is important to understand that some information is left out of the slides intentionally. As we discuss information, students contribute to the discussion with information from their own reading and notes.
Weather and Climate
Inside Earth
If you want to practice for the chapter 2 test, you can see a sample test here. The final test will look just like this, but he order and directions of the arrows may change. Make sure that you study, this will not be an open note test.