Curling and Influenza... Graphs Galore

Last week one of my former students was saying how difficult the science portion of the ACT was because it is all data tables and graphs.  When I was getting ready to write this week's blog post, I wanted to include articles that contained graphs.  I think I found two that are not only interesting, but also totally relevant to this week. 

Option 1:  Curling

I am not sure if you watched the curling this past weekend, but the USA men's curling team was fantastic.  With a huge upset over the favorites from Canada, these guys might be my favorite United States Olympians. 

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/america-loves-curling-until-it-forgets-about-it-for-four-years/


You can read this article about interest in Olympic sports and write a scholarly paragraph about what you learned.  What do you think?  Did you like the graphs?  Do you think the fact that interest peeks every four years makes curling even more fun to watch during the Olympic game?  Is it like a favorite pair of jeans that get pushed to the back of the closet and when you find them again, you realize how much you loved them?  Please make sure that you have at least 5 sentences with proper punctuation and spelling.


Option 2:  Beauty and the Beast with Influenza

Last night I took my youngest son to his school's production of Beauty and the Beast Jr.  It was spectacular and super impressive considering several of the key roles had just gotten over the flu.  So the second article that you can read is about the flu season.  I love these graphs.

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/america-should-have-stayed-home-this-flu-season/

After reading the article, write a scholarly paragraph about flu season.  Did you get the flu shot?  Why isn't the flu shot working?  Why is this year's flu virus especially deadly?


Please post your responses below and comment on at least one of your peers.

Winter Olympics 2018

Snow day and opening ceremonies on the same day...best day ever.  I love the Olympics.  I love the winter games.  I love the summer games.  I love the back stories about kids putting in 10,000 hours of practice in order to be the best.  I love the competition.  I love the pageantry.  I love 1200 drones making the Olympic rings.

Seriously, I am sure you get the picture, but the next 17 days will be amazing.  There are millions of things we could read about that relate to both science and the Olympics.  This week I will give you some options.

Option 1:  American Olympians home to beat the cold with new clothing designs
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/olympic-clothing-designers-try-to-beat-the-cold-with-technology/

Option 2:  Dopamine and Gold medals
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/olympic-gold-may-depend-on-the-brain-s-reward-chemical/

Option 3:  3 local Norge Ski Jumpers advance to the Olympics (I watched them this morning.)
http://www.nwherald.com/2018/02/08/norge-trio-advance-to-olympic-ski-jump-finals/alhc5u/

Your assignment is to pick an article.  Read it.  Then write a scholarly paragraph summarizing what you read.  Finally, finish your paragraph with your favorite part of the winter Olympics.  Also please comment on at least one of your peers.

Wonder Twin Powers Activate!

My son, Joey says that the Wonder Twins are "always on Cartoon Network."  Why not?  How cool would it be if twins really did have superpowers?

As we start the DNA unit, I think that identical twins are totally interesting.  What would it be like if someone had the exact same DNA as you?  I have read a few books about identical twins and I am still curious about it. This week you will read the following article about identical twins.

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2012/01/identical-twins-science-dna-portraits/

This article is pretty long (I put a version of it on Google Classroom), so you can totally read the intro and then focus on one of the sections:
    Nature Vs. Nurture
    The Jim Twins
    Separated at Birth
    The Third Component
    Writing in Pencil and Pen

If you can't get the article to work....you can watch the following video instead:

or this one....

Your assignment is to write a scholarly response with at least 5 sentences.  The post will be put into the blog so that your classmates and the rest of the world can read what you had to say.  I am not an English teacher, but I do expect you to start your sentences with a capital letter and end them with punctuation.  Additionally, you might want to write your post in a Google Document first so you can spell check.  Then just copy and paste it into the comment section.  You can summarize the article, or just the part you thought was most interesting.  What did you think?  What did you learn?  The post is due by Friday.  In addition to your paragraph, you also need to respond to at least one of your peers.