REGENTS EARTH SCIENCE EDISON CAREER AND TECHNOLOGY HIGH SCHOOL

SCIENCE DEPARTMENT

E X P L O R E

2015 - 2016 SCHOOL YEAR DAVE BURGESS

EARTH SCIENCE TEACHER

AVAILABILITY / OFFICE HOURS

I believe that a good teacher is accessible to students that need help. I am available almost daily during our school lunch periods (these vary), as long you make arrangements with me ahead of time. You may need to be issued a pass to come to my classroom during this time. Use this time to make up a missed laboratory experiment or to pick up miss-ing work. I would not recommend that you make coming up during lunch a habit, this is your time to be with friends and unwind. I am also available after school by appointment. Keep in mind that bus schedules are not ideal at the campus (meaning you may need to wait for some time), and I am not always available. I cannot make arrangements at the end of the day to stay after if I have meetings or other commit-ments. Please make sure you make your request earlier in the day. I am generally available during my planning periods which vary daily based on our laboratory schedules. Feel free to ask me for help during these times, or make an appointment to meet with me.

MY CONTACT INFORMATION

School address:

Edison Career and Technology High School 655 Colfax St.

Rochester, NY 14606 (585) 324-9760

E-Mail Address: Dave Burgess: David.Burgess@rcsdk12.org Website: My website is a great way to explore course content and access additional resources not available in a regu-lar class session.. We will use the website multiple times this year, but I encourage you to access it on your own as well. Interactive programs, links to web-sites, presentations, videos, and class journals can all be found online at the address below:

www.rcsdk12.org/mrburgess

UNITS OF STUDY

The New York State curriculum for Earth Science is very chal-lenging and broad in scope. The following is a sequence of units we will cover this year:

Unit 1: Density and Connections

Unit 2: Astronomy

Unit 3: Earth’s Motions in Space

Unit 4: Mapping the Earth’s Surface

Unit 5: Earth’s Layers and Earthquakes

Unit 6: Minerals

Unit 7: Rocks

Unit 8: Plate Tectonics

Unit 9: Weathering

Unit 10: Erosion, Deposition, and Landscapes

Unit 11: Geologic History

Unit 12: The Hydrologic Cycle

Unit 13: Weather and Climate

NEW YORK STATE

LABORATORY QUALIFICATION REQUIREMENT

The New York State laboratory requirement is very demand-ing of students. Each student must have completed a mini-mum of 1200 laboratory minutes in class in order to be eligi-ble to sit for the June Regents examination. When this re-quirement is complete it will prove to have been a rewarding experience and one which you have seen your skills in scien-tific coursework improve significantly.

Conditions

1. If you miss a lab for any reason, it is your responsibility to make arrangements with your instructor to success-fully complete any missing portion of the lab.

2. You must be lab qualified by the end of the month of May in order to take the June Regents Examination. Labs will not be accepted after this date.

3. The lab manual you are given may not be taken out of the classroom other than to do additional fieldwork.

If you have read the above conditions, please sign below.

___________________________________________________Student Signature

___________________________________________________Student Name

Parents, if you have read the expectations of your child above, please sign below.

___________________________________________________ Parent Signature

___________________________________________________ Parent Name

GRADING POLICY

The grading policy for this course is designed to prepare you for the June Regents examination. Therefore, tests are heav-ily weighted. In order to be successful, you must commit some time outside of class to studying, even if is a brief re-view of your notes packet. If you have questions about con-tent it is your responsibility to ask for clarification before the exam on that topic. The following is a breakdown of your grade for this year:

Tests/Vocabulary and Reference Table Quizzes ...50% Classwork………………………………………….10% Homework………………………………………...10% ESRT Review Sheets………………………………10% Labs………………………………………………..10% Earth Science Journal Readings/Questions……….10% If you miss class, it is your responsibility to make up work. See me as soon as possible to do this. If there is an extenuat-ing circumstance, I need to know. Also see me if you have some sort of planned absence before you are absent. I believe that you should have any missing assignments for that unit handed in before your unit test. It does not help you to do them at the end of the marking period in an effort to boost your grade, and therefore they will not be accepted at that time. There will be a two day grace period following a unit exam where I will accept late assignments, but with a penalty. You must perform well on tests in order to pass this class. If you have read this and understand the grading policy, please sign below. ___________________________________________________ Student Signature ___________________________________________________ Student Name Parents, if you have read the policy above, please sign below. ___________________________________________________ Parent Signature