Students opened class this week by listing the many and varied practical applications of the Pythagorean Theorem - architecture, carpentry, navigation, surveying, geometry, trigonometry, digital graphics, etc.  Great job everyone on researching this topic and completing the homework!

We then broke into small groups and students worked together to answer questions related to their assigned reading of Chapter 10.  We reviewed the work of Greek philosopher Democritus and his remarkably advanced atomic theory and speculated on the significant obstacle ancient scientists had in proving a theory of atoms - namely that they lacked the technology for observation and experimentation.

Democritus' hypothesis of the indivisible atom as the smallest universal building block of life would not be further developed for another twenty-two centuries until the work of British chemist and physicist John Dalton in 1803.  This ancient hypothesis that small, indestructible particles (atoms) make up everything in the universe may seem simple to us today, but it was a remarkably profound achievement and cutting-edge thinking in 300 B.C.E.!

We spent some time discussing our current understanding of the atom and briefly reviewed the definitions for element, atom, molecule, and compound (students should see if they can explain the "ice cream shop" analogy to a parent or sibling!).

Students then broke into pairs and conducted a simple experiment to consider how we can explain the way molecules act if we cannot see them.  Each team put several drops of food coloring into a cup of cold water and a cup of hot water and observed/sketched what happened.  We discussed how the rate of the spread of the food coloring could be explained by the motion of atoms (heat provides energy to the molecules, causing them to vibrate, bounce around and move more quickly).  We also learned about the Second Law of Thermodynamics and the physical principle of entropy (which causes the molecules to become less organized). Students recorded their findings in their Student Quest Guide worksheet (page 34).

For next week....

• Read Chapter 12
• Complete Student Quest Guide worksheet pages 32-33 (Hypothesis, Theory, or Fact?)
• Complete Student Quest Guide worksheet page 36 (Plate and Aristotle: Two Great Minds)
  
• Write several sentences on how Plato and Aristotle would answer the question:
              ~What is Truth?~

This week we began a new readers theater script which picked up our story of The Odyssey at the point where Odysseus' son, Telemachus, begins his search for his long-lost father.

The students are doing a much better job of delivering their lines with an understanding of how the text should be read by following the directions indicated in the script (angrily, sarcastically, etc.), so kudos!

We paused at various moments to discuss some interesting themes that seem to re-occur within the story. Susan and I always enjoy these discussions, as they typically reveal our student's deeper understanding of many of these concepts. As a whole, the group still thinks in very concrete terms, which as I told them yesterday is not necessarily a bad thing. Thinking a bit more abstractly is something we would eventually like to see them explore a little more. 

To that end, we are taking some time to look at poetry, since The Odyssey is, in fact, a poem. Yesterday we read two poems about Helen of Troy -- one by Edgar Allan Poe, the other by H.D. (Hilda Doolittle). Written about 100 years apart, the poems showcase two different styles with two completely different meanings, which were not immediately obvious to the class. This type of poetry "investigation" will prepare them for tackling Shakespearian language. Next week we will continue the poetry theme by looking at additional "Odyssey" related poems, penned by writers such as Dorothy Parker, Constantine Cavafy, and Alfred, Lord Tennyson.

For homework students will write some poetry of their own! Instructions were given to write a Bio-Poem using several prompts. They will likely need to conduct some additional at-home research on their character of choice in order to complete it.

Next week, we'll discuss and analyze more deeply the themes within the latter part of The Odyssey, share our bio-poems, and perform "Searching for Odysseus" for the final time. On April 1, we move on to Shakespeare and Hamlet -- no fooling! :)

Until then.

Our new unit started off with some mystery! Students were very excited to view the crime scene and get started piecing together details of what could have happened to our victim. So much so, that they began creating a story of what happened before we even walked into the room! We discussed how important it is to differentiate between evidence and inference...something that had to be repeated several times throughout the class as stories kept developing. Students spent several minutes surveying from outside the crime scene tape. We wrote down several of our observations, being careful not to infer our own ideas of what something might be. After we wrote a long list we realized we needed to go back and change that we observed “several drops of blood” to “several drops of red liquid”. Until we test them we don’t know for sure what they are! It’s amazing how we all quickly jump to our own conclusions.

This week in class we reviewed what we have discovered so far on our journey through history about how ancient civilizations used and developed math.  We discussed the Babylonians practical use of accounting tokens for trading goods, keeping records and dividing up land; and the Egyptians use of geometry and measurement for building amazing works of architecture such as pyramids and temples.  We acknowledged the intellectual leap from simple counting with tally marks to the use of a mathematical symbols (arabic numbers) as a further level of abstraction and a universal way to assess quantity and perform calculations.  The fact that the symbol '5' could stand for number of sheep as well as number of people or sacks of grain provided a language for mathematical dialogue.

It was the Greeks however who really pushed math to a whole new level by marrying it with science.  In fact, they saw math as the language of science, not just a practical endeavor, but a way to reason and understand the world.

We reviewed the parts of a circle using the Student Quest worksheet which was due as homework and then students spent some time measuring a variety of circular objects of different sizes using string and recording the circumferences (C) and diameters (D).  We then computed the value of C/D for all objects to see that the value of this ratio, regardless of circle size, is nearly the same (allowing for measurement differences).  The ancient Greeks, along with many other ancient cultures, had observed the same thing.  The ancients were fascinated with the perfect form and function of the circle and many ancient mathematicians tried to determine the exact mathematical expression for this ratio.  Why?  Because if determined it would allow them to accurately compute the circumference of a circle (and it's area), and make it easy to measure circles of all sizes!  Of course we now know this number as pi (the 16th Greek letter).  We discussed why there was such difficulty in determining the value of pi.  Turns out, it's a complicated number!  And that is something that did not sit well with the Greeks who valued form and order and exactness in their math.  Pi in fact is an irrational number - meaning the digits beyond the decimal point do not repeat in a regular pattern.  Mathematicians now believe we will never find its exact value, as no current computing technology has determined an end point to the number pi.

We briefly looked at how Aristotle attempted to determine the value for pi by "squaring the circle".  I would encourage students to carefully read about this method in their Student Quest Guides (pages 25-26) to understand how he was able to arrive at his "magic number".

At the conclusion of our class we touched on some of the ideas and work of Pythagoras, possibly the most famous Greek mathematician.  He believed that the universe could be best understood through mathematics and in fact that all parts of the universe interact like instruments in an orchestra.  We will continue our discussion of Pythagoras, his society, and the development of the Pythagorean Theorem next week.  We will also look at the work of Democritus and his thoughts on the basic building blocks of life - the atom.

Students should read Chapters 10 & 11 in preparation for our class next week.  I have also asked students to write a one-paragraph response to the following question (which will require both research and thought):

• Why is the Pythagorean Theorem considered one of the most important mathematical formulas?

Yesterday's class was a stand-alone unit on literary analysis using Scholastic Scopes Magazine curriculum and a short readers theater script entitled, The Monster in the Cave. Scopes has some great Language Arts lessons, covering many different topics -- you may enjoy browsing the digital lessons list to get some ideas for your own home school.

The Monster in the Cave is a re-telling of the famous chapter (Book 9) from Homer's epic poem, The Odyssey, involving our latest hero, Odysseus, and a villainous cyclops named Polyphemus. But was Odysseus clever or cunning, and can a cyclops really be blamed for doing what cyclops do? These questions and many more were answered through several in-class worksheets which we discussed either as a group or in groups of two.

The class also viewed a "charming" video told from the view of Polyphemus (watch here: Cyclops: My Side of The Story), and answered questions based on their impressions.

For homework, students should complete the "Conclusion" paragraph on page 2 of the worksheet "Epic Traits" and also fill out the four page worksheet "Back to Basics: Literary Elements and Devices." They will probably need to access Scope's Glossary of Literary Terms for definitions of the words that appear in bold.

The next two weeks, we will wrap up our study of Greek Mythology utilizing the readers theater script, "Searching for Odysseus" which is roughly Book 15 - Book 24 of The Odyssey. Clicking any of the "Book" links will send you to mythweb.com which gives a good synopsis of the chapters in a short, easy-to-read format. Students may enjoy reading these "books" on mythweb before we meet again next Monday.

We are very pleased with the students work in class thus far. As always, please let us know if you have any questions.

Until next week!

This week we wrapped up our study of Africa by learning about the geography and stories of Ancient Egypt. Reading the Egyptian myths we learned of the power of names: 

“For the Ancient Egyptians a thing that had no name could not exist.” 

Ra, the all-powerful one, created himself by speaking his own name. His daughter, Isis, was eventually able to steal his throne by the force of the knowledge of Ra’s secret name.

The emphasis on the importance of names was a perfect context for working on our own writing. In class, the students used a writing web to create their own secret names. Using hieroglyphics, they cut and pasted to write out this secret name. If you are lucky, perhaps they will share with you these carefully guarded secrets. You can use the secret name to compel them… to help you around the house.

The students did a very good job on the paragraph writing assignment. We reviewed them aloud together, and used the hamburger image to think about a paragraph. The bun on the top and bottom is the sturdy thesis sentence and conclusion that hold the burger and toppings together.

This week for homework, they have a political map of Africa to complete. They also have a writing worksheet, answering the Five W’s about one of the stories we read in class. Students who would like to write their own folktales for their final presentation can also use this to start planning their story.

Next week, it is on to Ancient Greece. I can’t wait! This website from the British Museum is a favorite at my house, an excellent resource.

See you next week!

On Monday we wrapped up our unit on Oobleck by testing our spaceship creations to see if they could land on Oobleck, stay for 5 seconds, and take off again. Following our tests we discussed how we behaved as scientists over the last several weeks. We finished up by looking at how scientists used many of these same strategies when designing rovers to explore Mars. The students were surprised to see how many similar processes they shared with the Mars Rover team. If you’re interested in seeing more about the Mars Rovers view the video called “Six Minutes of Terror” .

Next week we start our unit on forensics. Students will be introduced to a crime scene that will need to be analyzed. Over the next several weeks we will use tests, observations, and analysis to sift through what is fact and what is inference. Thank you SO much to those of you who donated items that were needed from the list. I will send out an e-mail at the end of the week if there is anything I am having a hard time finding.

I look forward to a unit that taps into the kid’s love of mystery!

This week we began with a review of the scientists/philosophers of Ionia that students have been reading about in their text.  We discussed the observations, insights, and theories of Thales, Anaximander, Anaximenes, and Anaxagoras. These four early Greek thinkers used reason rather than superstition to explain events in nature and thus launched the beginnings of the western scientific tradition.

Students then broke into small groups and collaborated to answer questions about several other important Greek figures - Empedocles and Herodotus.  We discussed the importance of Empedocles theory of four elements (earth, air, fire, and water) as one of the most enduring and influential ideas in the history of science.  His theory dominated scientific thinking for 2,300 years!  We also agreed that Herodotus, the world's first historian, was critical to the development of science since his collected and organized information provided knowledge for future scientists and philosophers to build upon.

We discussed the contributions of the Phoenicians in navigation (by the stars), exploration (in cleverly crafted ships), and the spread of scientific knowledge to many countries.  Their development of the alphabet further allowed scientific learning to be written down and shared.

We looked at the specific scientific tools that these ancient scientists/philosophers had available to them (using the Student Quest Guide) and noted that during this time in history, they had little beyond their own observations of the world around them and their logic and reason to interpret how the world works.  From these beginnings and the minds of these amazing early scientists came the development of astronomy, mathematics, and geometry.

Yesterday, we wrapped up our discussion and performance of The Golden Fleece: The Voyage of Jason and the Argonauts.

Both Susan and I were very pleased (and impressed) with many of the diary entry homework shares. Some students used a considerable amount of detail from the reading (Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea) and also incorporated information from both Part I and Part II scripts. Nicely done -- keep it up!

Before performing Part II for the final time, we paused to analyze many themes from the the story, including -- teamwork, personal responsibility, the purpose of a life "quest," leadership, what makes a good role model, victimization vs. villainy, and female assertiveness.  All in a day's work!

The students also completed a 5-minute in class writing challenge -- to come up with an alternate ending to The Golden Fleece. We got some terrific writing in that short amount of time! Final performance of Part II was nothing short of inspired. :>)

Next week we will embark on our own little journey through The Odyssey, beginning with a short play called The Monster in the Cave. Class time will also be spent understanding character traits, perspective, and working through basic literary analysis (Characters, Setting, Theme, Tone-Mood, and Plot).

At the end of class, students were given a handout entitled "The War at Troy (in 13 steps)" -- they should study the outline and be prepared to discuss next week. I would like them to treat this as a research opportunity, using either the library or the internet to gather information on the Trojan War. An understanding of the cause of this legendary war will be necessary to fully understand our "Odyssey" selections. Students should make an outline of their own or write a summary of any length describing their findings. We will kick off class next week by sharing some of our research.

Enjoy your week!

Seeing how we weren’t at NASA, the students then designed ships using items brought in from home. The rule is that they have to land on our bowl of Oobleck for 5 seconds without getting stuck. Some students worked in teams, while others preferred to work on their own. They were so involved in this task that they will need to finish their ships at the beginning of class next week, when they will finally be able to see if their creation will pass the test.