Meeting 35 - Feb '16

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Science Department Meeting
Friday, February 19, 2016 7:20 am
H103 – BioHaz Meeting Room

  1. I. Important Dates
    1. a. Thursday, Feb 25 - AP Exam Registration and Payments due
Remind students to register and pay for AP Exams!
  1. b. Friday, Mar 4 – Career Day / ACT Prep Class
Email will be sent out regarding assignments for Career Day – Spring ACT prep course with Fawzia and Jason Schmidt – open to Juniors (sophomores only if space is left) – great for students taking the April ACT.
  1. c. Mon, Tue & Wed, Mar 7, 8 & 9 – Pre-Reg Meetings (Homeroom 12:50 – 2:20)
Right after lunch 90-minute homeroom period from 12:50-2:20pm – meetings and kids will immediately register at that time.
  1. d. Wednesday, Mar 16 – Science Department Meeting
We will also meet again with restricted course teachers to go over course lists.
  1. e. Thursday, Mar 17 – Midterm Grades Due
Stefan’s birthday March 17!
  1. f. Saturday, Mar 19 – Interchange
  2. g. Wednesday, Mar 23 – Retreat/Easter Break
  3. h. Thursday Mar 31 – NSTA Nashville
Fawzia, Andrew, Jim and Stefan going to NSTA Nashville
  1. i. April 6 – Parent Teacher Conferences
  2. j. Birthdays
Eddie’s daughter is coming soon!






  1. II. Registration Reminders (Refer to Handout for Timeline)
    1. a. Last week’s info meetings - feedback
    2. b. Pre-Registration Meetings Mar 7, 8 & 9 (Talking Points Handout)
    3. c. Top 100 – guaranteed in AP or Honors
    4. d. Bottom 100 – not admitted into AP or Honors
    5. e. Restricted Course lists due to Fawzia by 8:00am on Wednesday, April 13
    6. f. Restricted Course lists will be posted on Canvas on Friday, April 15
  • In terms of the meetings – turnout was good for the Honors Chem meeting, day two was the Junior level courses, good turnout. Day 3 – Physics, Day 4 – Oceanography, Robotics and Anatomy and Physiology – low to no turnout – perhaps combine with the Physics/Honors Astronomy day next year.
  • March 7-9 – Pre registration meetings – note your location and be there, if your name is not on there they are backup. Monday is sophomores, Tuesday is Sophomores, Wednesday is for Juniors.
  • Talking points – freshman should know – pre register for Honors Chem if interested – otherwise you will be placed in regular Chemistry – there is no essay section
  • Sophomores – AP Bio, AP Chem, APES – if they do not apply for any of the restricted courses they are placed in regular level Biology.
  • Juniors – have a bigger selection, refer to the handout for course options and talking points. – AP Chem – really encourage them to take it their Junior year. AP Chem left off of Naviance – if interested they can talk directly with Fawzia. Honors Chem is NOT officially a pre requisite for AP Chem – but generally highly recommended to enter from Honors Chemistry – regular level students would need a special summer assignment to prepare.
  • CalStates and CalPoly require life sciences, but we had two seniors admitted early to MIT and Princeton without a life science – but it does give them more options.
  • Top 100 are admitted to AP/Honors – bottom 100 not admitted. We do not have a lot of non-restricted science courses anymore – our “regular” science courses are jam-packed. 60-70 students who want to take anatomy – and he can only take 27 students. If we can open up the restricted courses a bit more that would be helpful. 3 sections of oceanography and 1 Anatomy/Physiology – we have seats left open in AP courses – if we could take more students in AP courses that would be ideal. AP Program at Loyola has grown dramatically – class sizes are rather low school wide. Generally average class size is high teens to low twenties class size.
  • Ideal class size is 24 – manageable class size – this would reduce strain on the regular senior science courses.
  • We will have a meeting for restricted course teachers prior to April 13 – submit your lists to Fawzia by April 13 – very hard deadline.
  • March 14 – is the preregistration deadline for the students – remind students of their options for next year in your classes.

  1. III. PLC’s for next year
    1. a. Subgroups
  • PLC’s for next year – very good groups! Organized in our subgroups – foundation for next year’s schedule is the PLC groups – much more intentional PLC groupings. Fawzia will email out that list.
  • We need to align our courses with the NGSS standards and have this as a written document – mid year WASC review – PLC project will be to work on the NGSS standards and our handbook – everything aligned with the NGSS standards.
  1. b. Alignment with NGSS
  2. c. Summer Sabbaticals

  1. IV. Other
    1. a. BioHaz Mornings
  • Try to keep BioHaz mornings going – if you need to change the date, totally fine, just email everyone to inform them of BioHaz