LG Expeditionary Thursday Update

In social studies, our 6th graders were asked "What are human rights and why do they matter?" To answer those questions, they looked at human migration, identifying push and pull factors that cause people to move from place to place. Students learned about the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to understand the basic human rights it is believed each person is entitled to and why they matter.

Thursday's fieldwork focused in on a few of those human rights and students heard from experts who work on helping marginalized people fight for one or more of these rights. They heard from

• Alvi Rashid, who fights gender inequality through education,
  
• Ali Cain at the Cardoza Law Institute, whose work aims to prevent genocide and mass atrocities,
• Zac Martin from Trellis, a non-profit that helps neighborhoods address injustice together, and
• Josh Morrison about the Riker's Debate Project.

Ask your student about the human rights issue they learned about! What idea do they have about how they, as a young person, can help others who do not have one or more of these rights?

The hook: Many of us are eating dessert three times a day—and we don’t even know it. While there are the obvious types of added sugar, such as the teaspoon of sugar in your coffee or your bowl of cereal, there are many other ways added sweeteners sneak into the American diet. Good nutrition starts with smart choices in the grocery store. Cooking up nutritious meals is a challenge if you don't have the right ingredients in your kitchen. But who has time to read all the food labels and figure out which items are the most nutritious and the best buys?

On Thursday, students headed to different grocery stores to answer the question "What’s the healthiest choice?" They worked as “FDA Consumer Safety Officers.” In pairs they collected data (calories per serving, grams of sugar, price) on different items of food and then analyzed/compared this data to come up with a “best choice” recommendation for the average consumer. Using what they learned in ELA about persuasive techniques they created infographics to try and convince their target audience to buy their chosen product.

Be sure to ask your student how nutrition labels connect with proportional relationships and last ET's science of calories and exercise!

Students are learning about the development of organisms and genetics in 8th grade Science. They will be completing an investigation on genetics later on in the school year. Thursday's fieldwork was an opportunity for students to observe other living organisms and practice scientific process skills in preparation.

Students went to the Prospect Park Zoo to do behavior observations of animals. It was a review of the Scientific Method/Process and an opportunity for them to recognize how environments can affect animal behavior.

Ask your student to explain what their hypothesis was, and what evidence they collected that supported or rejected it.