This Week in Earth Science: April 27-May 1

• Hopefully on Monday we'll have time to review the Paleontology Test from last week. Warm-up questions on the board continue until Thursday when the record sheets will be collected. A recipe for a glacier will be given today and if time allows I'll make one out of ice cream for students to sample. Mmmmm....

• The portable computer lab will be in class on Tuesday. Students will be learning about weather and climate on the National Weather Service JetStream Online School website. An online quiz will be taken after students have had time to study.

• On Wednesday the class will watch a short video with a stop, drop & roll activity to introduce Otzi the Iceman. Then the class will be reading an article about him together.

• The warm-up questions will be completed Thursday and the record sheets will be collected and graded. A homework assignment entitled "Yosemite Glaciers" will be distributed which will be due on Friday. There will be slides and an outline for students to complete in class on the story of the Yosemite Valley glaciers as well.

• A new warm-up sheet will be assigned, the Weather Record Sheet, and will begin on Friday. The class will monitor the weather conditions each day using data from the National Weather Service. The Yosemite Glacier assignment will be collected and graded. Students will be given a study guide and oriented for next week's Sand Dune Poster Quiz. Then the class will work on the Glacial Features Lab to learn about the many features and signs of a valley glacier.

This Week in Earth Science: April 20-24

• Monday begins with a warm-up question. Continue to bring your warm-up sheet each day this week. The Paleontology Review questions will be checked and collected in class too. The rest of the hour will be spent reviewing for tomorrow's Paleontology Unit Test.

• The Paleontology Unit Test will be given Tuesday and Glaciology Vocab will be assigned (due on Thursday).

• Wednesday is Earth Day! Students from Mr. Block's Environmental Science class and 30 students from Earth Science will be going to the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore for a day of environmental service work.

• Glaciology Vocab is due Thursday. If time allows students will play a round or two of Vocab Bingo to become more acquainted with these terms and their definitions. A special sciTunes music video will be used to introduce the Glaciology Unit.

• There is no school for students on Friday due to a Professional Development Day for teachers.

This Week in Earth Science: April 13-17

• Monday will be a lab day. Students will be using a dichotomous key for common invertebrate fossils in the Michigan Paleozoic Seas lab. This lab was originally scheduled for last week but time did not allow for it.
• Tuesday is a delayed start day. The last NOVA Podcast Warm-up will be played today and the Warm-up Sheets will be collected and graded. A sciTunes music video will be featured ("Dark as a Dungeon") to introduce the topic: the coal formula and coal formation. Students will need to make a copy of the coal formula in their notes and study them. There will be an essay question on next week's Paleontology Test related to these notes.
• On Wednesday a new Warm-up Sheet will be assigned with the daily question on the chalkboard format. Michigan's missing Mesozoic will be discussed today. Computer animations will be used to demonstrate a theoretical Cretaceous extinction event. Students will participate in the "Tour the Triassic" activity as well. Homework will be assigned that will be due at the beginning of the class on Thursday ("Did T. Rex Taste Like Chicken?").
• A slide show "Secrets of the Cenozoic Bogs" will be shown on Thursday. Students will have an outline to complete during the slide show.

• Radioactive dating techniques will be demonstrated on Friday. This is the last day for the Geologic Time Quiz. Paleontology Review questions will be assigned for homework that will be due at the beginning of the hour on Monday.

Redoubt Erupts Again

Here is an interesting report this morning from Spaceweather.com -

Mt. Redoubt erupted again on April 4th (13:58 UTC), spewing a plume of ash, water vapor and sulfurous gases at least 50,000 feet high. While the gaseous emissions are entering the stratosphere and blowing away, much of the ash is falling back to Earth. "This photo," reports Thomas Kerns, "is from our home near Beluga Lake in Homer, Alaska," where falling ash has turned the ground moondust-gray:

"Later," he says, "the wind picked up and began blowing the dust around." His photo of the ash storm shows why dust masks are selling briskly in Alaska these days.

Meanwhile in Earth orbit, the GOME-2 (Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment) sensor onboard Europe's MetOp-A satellite is tracking a sulfur dioxide cloud emitted by the April 4th eruption: image. The cloud will probably move across North America in the days ahead. Sky watchers should keep an eye out for volcanic sunsets.

This Week in Earth Science: April 6-10

• Each class this week will begin with a podcast warm-up from the NOVA website. Students are to write down two concepts each day on their warm-up sheets.
• Students will prepare a "Geologic Eras" organizer on Monday to study from in preparation for a quiz on Thursday. Time will be given in class to prepare for and try the Geologic Time Quiz.
• The Fossil Assemblage Lab will take place on Tuesday to reinforce concepts about index fossils, relative dating and the Law of Superposition.
• Wednesday will be another lab day. Students will be using a dichotomous key for common invertebrate fossils in the Michigan Paleozoic Seas lab.
• The Geologic Eras Quiz will be given on Thursday. More time will be given for preparation and trying the "Geologic Time Quiz as well.
• Friday is Good Friday so school will not be in session for students nor teachers. Easter is on Sunday April 12th. Here's an astronomy fact for Easter - Did you know that Easter always falls on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the Vernal Equinox? That's why the date of Easter varies from year to year unlike Christmas which is always on the same date. If you can recite this fact from memory to Mr. Kinnan at school he will award you 5 bonus points!

Volcano Belches 'Tweets'

Mount Redoubt's ongoing eruption in Alaska can be followed on Twitter. Check out what's happening moment by moment at
alaska_avo on Twitter for the latest Tweets!