Dear Students and Parents,
We have begun our second IQWST unit of the year. As you may recall, at each grade level, we are covering 4 areas of science (Earth, Life, Chemical and Physical) with our new middle school science curriculum. The name of our 8th grade life science unit is called “Why do Organisms Look the Way they Do?”. It focuses on heredity, variation within and between species and natural selection. We will look at these three topics at the individual, species and population levels.
Although some of the subjects were covered last year in seventh grade science, there are new approaches to several of these topics. Since Ms. Ruzicka taught seventh graders last year and is one of the eighth grade teachers this year, she has detailed knowledge of what was covered and will help me pace the curriculum so as not to spend too much time on reviewed topics. As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please contact me. The topic of genetics and talking about parents and inherited traits can raise some issues for students who do not know one or both of their biological parents. I have talked to the class about the fact that many people have parents to whom they are not genetically related, however when the book uses the word parent, it means biological parent. I will attempt to address this issue in a sensitive way, but if anything comes up at home, please let me know. Thank You, Julie Hohenemser