To All My Students from IS 93

For those of you who have not heard, I will not be returning to the school this year as your Science teacher. Although it was a tough decision and many of you will be missed, I was offered a really great opportunity at Pan American International High School in Elmhurst, Queens. I will be teaching Biology as well as getting a brand new laboratory. As a Science teacher these chances do not come up often and one I could not pass up.

Don't worry as I'm sure my replacement will be fine and I will always be here if you need me. After this year you will be going into high school and hopefully you come and visit my website from time to time to get some material to help you. Please keep in touch, I would like to know how all of you are doing. If you have any questions don't hesitate to ask. And feel free to still use my blog for extra credit, maybe I can convince Ms. S. to give you guys credit for it.

Best of luck,
Mr. R.
mrriccardo@optonline.net

Enjoy Your Summer Vacation!

Hello all! I hope everyone is enjoying the summer so far. This is a great time to see some of the amazing things happening all around the New York area. From the beaches, to the parks, and even your own backyard there are multiple opportunities to see much of the natural world. Get out there and enjoy it. If you see anything really cool, post it on the blog. Let others share in your discovery. Enjoy, get outside, and have a great summer!

Happy Earth Day!

Yesterday was Earth Day! Everyone seems to be aware of it, unfortunately its only one day... I spent the day checking out the birds in my yard. I set up a bird feeder using an old pan and a log. I nailed the pan into the log and tossed some birdseed in it. Although the squirrels can get in it, the birds do not seem to mind. I saw several birds and the squirrel in the pan at the same time! There is also this old concrete birdbath that I fill up every morning. By the end of the day its pretty dirty and almost empty. One time I saw 8 morning doves in the bath at the same time. It was crazy! Well, thats all from me, what did you do for Earth Day? Or more importantly, what did you do for the earth today?

Science Exit Projects

It's that time of year when we will be working on our Science Exit Projects. This post will be used for anything related to your groups science exit project. If you have any questions for me or any of your classmates, post them as a comment and they will be reviewed. Good Luck!

Extra Credit for My Students

Since many of you cannot get enough science and it seems that are always students asking me for ways to get extra credit, I will accept any review of a science current event. I believe that it is very important that we constantly read and evaluate new findings by scientists and I strongly encourage all of my students to do the same.

On this page there are several news feeds from different science news sources. Click on an article of interest, read it, and provide me a brief summary as well as your opinion on it. For each article you review, I will give you an extra credit point. You may use any other source for your article, but include it along with your summary.

Post work as a comment to this thread. Students may respond to other students work as long as it is constructive criticism or with additional information.