I have to apologize to the students and families of fourth grade today. I realize that the pacing of the Science Fair Outline is moving too fast. In an attempt to coordinate with four other teachers, I tried to adhere to the school outline that was distributed on Wednesday. It is my intention to coordinate the resources of the science teacher, the computer science teacher and the LRC teacher along with my own in an effort to provide an immersive experience for the fourth graders as they complete their science fair project. It was my mistake to commit the class to such a fast-paced schedule. I did manually change a couple of dates on the schedule, but I should have changed more. From now on, we will tap the brakes and reset the timeline. We will still complete all of the activities on the outline. However, we will complete them in a manner more responsive to the fourth grade needs. I will send a revised schedule on Monday. I am sorry for any confusion. It is important to get started on the right track. This project should be an enjoyable educational journey and we will treat it as such.
After conferencing with the class, I have discovered that you have some terrific ideas. Some of us are very close to finalizing our ideas, while others are rethinking our proposals and still others have no idea about what they want to do. Don't worry, we have time. We'll have to revise the due dates on our project outline to adjust for our varying pace. Please come Monday with a general idea about your experiment or design project. We'll work together from there.
Take some time to think about your science fair topic. We'll spend the morning on Monday discussing your best ideas. Don't worry, it's not too late to change your mind. If you find something cooler over the weekend we can adjust. The point is to find something that you are really interested in, something that engages your brain and inspires you to work your best.
Mrs. Biggs will begin a lesson on evaluating resources and appropriately citing your research with APA format on Monday. If you don't have a project finalized, you can use this time to familiarize yourself with APA format, resource evaluation techniques and CPS's great selection of digital resources for science. Mrs. Bigg's will guide you through it.
Have a nice weekend.
