Today we began work on the Heroes of Modern Africa Project. Students are researching how individuals and organizations are working together to solve problems faced by the people of Africa, such as poverty, famine, threats to the environment, human rights issues, and more. Students are first taking notes on their topic using an individual wiki page. Next week, they will collaboratively write a report about their topics with students from other classes using the wiki.  You can visit the project page at http://eck208.pbwiki.com/Heroes-of-Modern-Africa.

Meanwhile, students should have begun work on their African artifacts at home.  We will not provide any more class time to research the artifact, though we will continue to work with individual students to get their artifact captions typed.

Photo of the Kaaba in Mecca

On Tuesday/Wednesday, we are watching the National Geographic video Inside Mecca. This video follows three Muslims from around the world who travel to Mecca to participate in the Hajj. By watching this video, students will learn about some of the important spiritual beliefs and traditions of Islam. Related photos are available on the National Geographic web site, and you may click here for more information about Mecca and the Hajj.

If students are absent, they can watch the movie online (Google video link). After the watching the video, students completed a short response paper, but that doesn’t need to be made up if students were absent.

Here are some great web sites featuring artifacts from Mesopotamia:

• The British Museum: Mesopotamia 6000 – 1500 B.C.E.
• The British Museum: Mesopotamia 1500-539 B.C.E.
• Life in Mesopotamia Artifacts

Here are some interactive web sites where you can learn more about life in Mesopotamia:

• Ancient Mesopotamia: Dig into History
• Farming and Irrigation Challenge: how well can you manage your water supply to help crops grow?

It is rare I make television recommendations, but there are two programs on tonight that could prove to be very educational.

First, at 6pm (PST) will be the first debate for the 2008 presidential election.  There was talk that John McCain would not participate in the debate in order to focus on the proposed financial bailout plan, but he recently announced that he will participate.  Most television stations will be broadcasting the debate.

Second, at 8pm (PST), a pilot for a new show will air on the History Channel that I’m very excited about.  It is titled History Hacker and it is hosted by former Eckstein teacher Bre Pettis.  On this show, Bre recreates inventions and historical discoveries.  The pilot focuses on electricity and appears to have both history and science connections.  You can view a trailer for History Hacker at Bre’s web site.