Students will present their Other Early Peoples PowerPoint presentations on Friday, June 18 2010. If a student is absent on the presentation day, they will automatically lose the ten points for presentation skills. To earn back those points, students can complete the following make up assignment. This assignment is due by Friday, June 18 and students are expected to contact Mr. Miller or Ms. Falls ahead of time if the absence is pre-arranged.
Civilizations
Choose three of the following civilizations to research (you cannot use the civilization you already researched for the group project). Use the links provided to read about the civilization.
- The Maya (Mr. Donn’s site, Wikipedia article)
- The Aztec (Mr. Donn’s site, Wikipedia article)
- The Incas (Mr. Donn’s site, Wikipedia article)
- The Vikings (Mr. Donn’s site, Wikipedia article)
- Feudal Japan (Wikipedia page)
- Khmer Empire of Cambodia (Wikipedia article)
- Easter Island (Wikipedia article)
- Ancient Pueblo Peoples (Wikipedia article)
Writing Task
Select one of the following characteristics of civilization:
- Stable food supply
- Government
- Social structure
- Religion
- The arts
- Technology
- Writing
Write a paragraph that compares and contrasts how three civilizations fulfilled that characteristic of civilization. For example, compare the governments of three different civilizations. The paragraph should be at least seven sentences long and have specific details for each of the three civilizations.
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:
Here are some interactive web sites where you can learn more about life in Mesopotamia:
Assyria: Nimrud
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.
