Hendricks High School Happenings
January 2-January 13, 2017
English
Grades 11/12 are reading Transcendental tracks from writers such as Thoreau and Emerson.
Grade 9/10 have just started a novel study of Night by Elie Wiesel. This is an autobiographical account of the holocaust written by a survivor.
Grades 7/8 are working on a biography research project. Soon they will be interviewing a Hendricks community member to write a biography about them.
Mythology is studying creation myths from around the world.
Video product, as always, is having a blast making interesting project of their own choosing.
Science
The sixth graders are delving into the metric system by completing a metric scavenger hunt. Stay tuned for the results of our very first Metric Mini-Olympics!
In earth science, we created and played board games that displayed our knowledge of the geologic time scale. We have "TimeScale-Opoly," "Time Scale Candyland," and even a "Time Scale Bingo" game now!
In physical science, we are investigating speed and acceleration with both toy cars and online simulations. Students are graphing their data and will be starting a project in which they create a story about something moving, and they then graph the position, speed, and acceleration of their object.
Our chemistry students are deep into the practice of writing the formulas and names for ionic compounds. When we are "pros" at the language of chemistry, then we can bring on the chemical reactions!
Social Studies
Here is what’s new in social studies. In Minnesota Studies, the 6th graders will be learning about MN’s involvement in the American Civil War, and trace the footsteps of the 1st MN regiment. In Economics, students finished learning about key economic concepts, like opportunity cost and analyzed a production possibilities curve. In Global Studies, students are learning about the climate regions of Europe and over the next two weeks cover a very, very, brief history of Europe. In Human Geography, students completed their European map test, and are studying the impact of rising sea levels on the Italian city of Venice, and in the future explore the benefits and problems of the European Union. In American Studies, the 5th graders studied the expansion of European colonization of North America, and we will now cover the Thirteen Colonies of colonial British America.
-Scott Thoresen