Mr. C's Class Blog

Monday, August 30, 2021

Kennewick Man: Which Right Is Right?

Essential Question: Should scientists be allowed to study the remains of indigenous peoples?

Engage: What would you think if a scientist dug up the remains of an ancestor to study?

Vocabulary Activity: There are 7 vocabulary words the students will define using their

own words as well as draw a picture of what that word means to them.

On occasion, archaeologists have dug up the remains of ancient Native Americans.
Should scientists be allowed to study these remains?
Native Americans feel such remains should be immediately reburied according to Native

American customs.

Scientists worry that if reburied, the remains will deteriorate and lose their value

for present and future scientific study.

Explore:

Discover Magazine: The Earliest Immigrants video (25:02)

Elaborate:

The Kennewick Man Finally Freed to Share His Secrets Smithsonian.com Sept. 2014
Easy to read copy of above article.
Kennewick Man Wikipedia Article

Evaluate:

How did this story evolve over time?
What eventually happened to Kennewick Man?
What should have been done with the remains?
What would you want to have done with the remains if they were your ancestor?
According to the map below, what indigenous people group use to live here in southwest Missouri?
What should you do if you find the remains of an indigenous person?

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Early_Localization_Native_Americans_USA.jpg

Evaluate:

Extension:

Who Owns the Past? Documentary (56:14)

Sunday, August 29, 2021

Fifty States, Can You Name Them All?

It is rare that you get a real life example of why learning something in class is worthwhile. This isn't the only, or even best reason, to learn where countries are, but it might keep you from being embarrassed as an adult.

If you are unfamiliar, Geography Now is a great resource to learn facts about countries. Unfortunately there is no video on the United States yet, they are working alphabetically down the list, we are lucky a video was created on the 50 states. We will watch this about mid-way through today's lesson.

The first activity will be for you to label a paper map of the 50 states. Afterwards play the game below and see how well you do. Let me know what your first score is so I can record it.

https://www.sporcle.com/games/Matt/find_the_states

We will take an assessment of the 50 states next week. Make sure you spend some time reviewing, you don't want to end up looking dumb in a Jimmy Kimmel video, do you?

EQ: Can you identify the 50 states?

Engage:

Pre-Assessment: 50 States Quiz (print) .
Can You Name a Country? Jimmy Kimmel video (3:44)

Explore:

Label a map of the 50 states

Explain:

Where are the 50 states located?

Evaluate:

Post Assessment 50 States Quiz

Thursday, August 26, 2021

Creating a World Map

In this lesson you will take a quick pre-assessment to see how many continents and oceans you remember. Then you will hand draw the continents and label them and the oceans. You will finish up by coloring them.

Essential Question: Can you label the continents and oceans of the world?

Engage:

Continents and Oceans Quiz
Pre-Assessment- Continents and Oceans

Explore:

The Geography Song (2:51)
Identify the continents and oceans of the world

Evaluate:

Hand draw, label and color a map. Identify the continents and oceans.

Wednesday, August 25, 2021

The Foot Soldier of Birmingham: Can We Trust Ourselves?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revisionist_History_(podcast)

In this lesson we are using the podcast The Foot Soldier by Malcolm Gladwell to discuss inherent bias.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Birmingham_campaign_dogs.jpg

In this lesson we will look at the above picture and try to decode it. What are we seeing happen here? Then we will listen to the podcast by Malcolm Gladwell. Is what we believe to have happened what actually happened?

After the lesson you will need to answer these questions:

Can the art we create be used to influence belief systems?
As we examine the story as well as look at the statue and the picture from which the statue comes, what can we learn about ourselves and how we react based upon what we have learned?
How will this change your view of historical artifacts as we move forward?

Essential Question: Does the Foot Soldier of Birmingham statue have historical value?

Engage:

Birmingham Campaign Dogs Picture (10 minutes) Think-Pair-Share Activity
1. What is happening in this picture?
2. When do you think this picture was taken?

Explore:

Explain:

The statue is a misrepresentation of the facts. Does this matter as an art piece?

Evaluate:

Foot Soldier of Birmingham Worksheet
T-Chart Should Art Be Based on Truth? Yes/No Explain

The Mystery of Skippy’s Tombstone

Photo by Me

This is a tombstone that resides in my yard. It has been there as long as I can remember (45+ years). Today we will be looking at this artifact and try to learn as much as we can about it.

Your assignment is to come up with 20 questions that I will be able to answer with a yes or a no. I will then answer 20 of these questions for you. You will then write down everything you know about this artifact.

I will finish by telling you all I know about this artifact, and some of the conclusions I have drawn about it. Will what you write match my story?

TSW examine an artifact and create appropriate questions to ask to learn more information about that artifact

Essential Question:

Why are historical artifacts important to us? (5 minutes)

Engage:

Having a tombstone in class should be pretty engaging.

Explore:

The students will examine a tombstone that I brought in to class. (5 minutes)
They will create questions to ask me about the tombstone that can be answered as yes/no. (5 minutes)

Explain: