Today we started our study of history. To introduce the idea of authentic inquiry and not fill-in-the-blank content-driven study, we watched the first part of the documentary on Jared Diamond's "Guns, Germs and Steel." His research was spurred by an excellent open-ended inquiry question: "Why to white people have more cargo than New Guineans?" or, "why did some civilizations advance further in therms of modern technology than others did?" I explained the difference between an open-ended "non-Googleable" question and a more traditional school-type question. I also tried to relate what I think is the importance of promoting high-order student thinking that incorporates things like communication, collaboration, curation and creativity. Here is a link to the 110-minute documentary on Youtube: Guns, Germs and Steel
Here are the notes I took while watching:
- hunter-gatherers 13 000 years ago
- cultivation of crops led to domestication
- the type of farming is key to its value in human development
- rather than people, luck in geographic location seems key - i.e.. what crops grow where (some more valuable in nutrients/yield)
There is no homework.
THIS THURSDAY AND FRIDAY, THERE WILL BE MANDATORY LUNCHTIME TUTORIALS FOR ANY GRADE 8 STUDENT WISHING TO RE-WRITE THE GEOGRAPHY UNIT TEST.
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