Traveling in a Time Machine

Traveling the world in a Time Machine

                For the science fair this year I wanted to create something I know the judges would remember. I wanted something more than a laser beam that could destroy the world, or a mutated ant farm. That was so two years ago. I wanted to experience the would’s history, the start of man. My solution was a time machine.

 I set to work for months and finally after many failures, my time machine was ready. I collected my gear: my notebook, a small hand bag for collecting small keepsakes. I maneuvered my way into the time machine and dialed myself to November 30^th, 1979 in Hadar, Ethipopia.

My mom asked me after the trip why I chose 1979 for my first time travel. I said, “The 70’s was not only a time for peace and love, but a time where Don Johanson and Tom Gray would discover one of the most important findings in history. The discovery of Lucy was the earliest findings of an Australopithecus afarensis.” My Mom was very impressed.

After arriving the heated savanna of Eithopia I quickly found the team of archaeoelogists that where digging up a storm. I studied the team of historians and archaeologists that were working in the heated sun. I noticed that the archaeologist learn by studying the artifacts that the past has left behind. I also inferred that the further back in time we study, the more incomplete the evidence is.  After a few minutes I heard exuberant shouts! I concluded that they had found Lucy. I made my way down the hill to rejoice with them. I asked Don Johnanson many questions about the bones that they found. These are the notes that I took:

·         Walked on two feet (bipedal)

·         Small Brain, only about 3 ft, tall.

·         Female

·         She was about 25 years old when she died, and her brain was about 1/3 of the size of modern brains.

I also learned about early humans and our ancestors. I learned about the Stone Age and how the Ice Age impacted the development of early humans. Also how we gradually learned to make fire, clothes and tools. Mr. Johnanson specifically told me that when we found out about hearths this told archaeologists that in a prehistoric campsite the fire was intentionally contained in one spot. This also showed us that prehistoric humans could observe a natural phenomenon (fire) and try to put it to good use. I also learned about the development of language and how we turned from hunters to gathers to farmers.

My hour was running out so I asked the team on more question: Why do we walk up right? They said that there are many different theories of why we started walking up one of them being: because of the environmental changes that occurred in Africa that could have be the reason why we started to walk up right.

I thanked the team and started my uphill walk towards my time machine. When I was walking I vividly remember trying picture prehistoric human walking up the same hill, being heated in the same sun and sleeping under the same stars. I collected myself while getting into my time machine. Just before leaving I remembered my keepsake. I cautiously picked up a small rock, maybe my ancient ancestor picked up the same one. I pulled out my notebook tracing back to the small list that I had created before leaving. I checked off Lucy and boldly circled The Fertile Crescent.

I took off, feeling the rush of time through my hair it was as if  it was just a windy day. In humanities I remembered my teacher Mrs. Morris talking about a word called civilization? What is a civilization, and why did people organize themselves into larger communities? Before I knew it I was there, a forest green color was painted over the vast fields. I got right to work. What do I know right now? I wrote this all down in my notebook:

·         This is presently (in my time) the Middle East.

·         I also know that this is where the hunter-gathers first settled down.

·         Then slowly people learned how to control the growth and behavior of plants and animals. They started to learn how to domesticate plants and animals, to make life more eaiser for them.  

·         As the years continued farming was fully established. This lead to support more people in communities, and more than enough food. I think the vocab word that Mrs. Morris made us study was called Surplus

In the distance I could see something that looked different than the green vegetation. I bet it is a Neolithic Town. When walking towards the town I remember Mrs. Morris talking about a large Neolithic town in Turkey. I think the named sounded like Chattle, Cattle, something along the lines of that. I remember reading about the burial practices and thinking how happy I that we still didn’t continue those today. Farming was a big part in this community. The fertile land produced the food, but so much that it turned into surplus. Eventually people started to work in other jobs, crafts started to pop up. Art and trade started to take form in the community. Trade started happening in the outside world, with other communities. I had finally reached the town. Since I was from the future I could decide if I wanted to be visible or not visible. This was a cool addition that I added to my time machine just before leaving. This time I decided to be invisible.

Looking to my left and right I saw the Tigris and the Euphrates both major rivers in the Fertile Crescent, bent down touching the parched soil. Irrigation systems were a great discovery for the people of the Fertile Crescent. This allowed them to irrigate soil, it helped that surplus of food and the prevent famine. I looked down at my watch, 35 minutes left. Should I speed this up? I clicked the left dial on the watch, time freeze and then fast forward. I got the idea from a movie called Click.

After a few minutes (really a few years) pass right by me I pressed play. Now I was watching farmers with new and improved methods of irrigating the land. I pressed fast forward again, this time when I pressed play I saw a dramatic change occur within the city. This is what I wrote in my note book:

Features of a City-

1.   Specialization of Labor

2.   Social Classes

3.   Trade Near and Far

4.   Leadership and Planning

Features of a Civilization-

1.   Highly developed culture

2.   Writing system

3.   Stable Food Supply

4.   Specialization of Labor

5.   Social Classes

6.   Trade Near and Far

7.   Leadership and Planning

I have figured it out! Civilization is a society that has a high level of culture and social organization! Ah ha! I didn’t even have to ask anyone! When back at the time machine I quickly filled up a bottle with sand from the Fertial Crestent. I dialed to my next destination- Egypt.

Upon arriving I felt the waves of heat beaming down at me. Grapped my note pad and was ready to go. So what do I know about Egypt?

1.   The Nile River is their main source of water, everything revolves around The Nile.

2.   Ther were many pharahohs in Egypt

3.   The Nile Floods every year bringing rich silt on the banks, making conditions great for farming

4.   Nile was used to transport good down the Nile, both up and down. #

When walking around present day Cairo, I saw and observed many things:

1.   The Nile affected all of the Egyptians activities, it was part of their religious beliefs, way of governing.

2.   They were excellent shop builders

3.   They invented the calendar because of the annual flood.

4.   There are many temples, that represented that they were polytheistic

5.   After life is very big, seeing a dried up dead person isn’t the nicest thing.

6.   The economic status was very clear, the royality had nothing to do with anything below them- including the nobles, artisans, peasants, and especially the slaves.

7.   One of the most important things that Egyptians accomplished is the control over the environment.

My hour is up, wow time went fast. I should’ve packed that 50 SPF sunscreen I can feel the sunburn dangerously warm my neck. The memento that I have kept is a stone, but not any ordinary stone, a stone from the Pyramids of Giza. At the moment they are halfway built.

My last destination for today, India, I should have packed more fuel. Next time I can go to China. I don’t know a lot about India, so I will be keeping very detailed notes on this trip. Before landing I circled a few times over head, getting my first glance at the subcontinent. From what I can see there is a huge mountain range in the north, this I think is called the Himalayas. Looking at my map the other 3 mountain ranges are: The East and West Ghats, and the Hindu Kush mountains.

I can clearly see the Ganges and the Indus River, also the Godavari. The mid summer’s heat has sweat dripping down my face. I try to find a major city, but I am having no such luck because there is a big storm cloud is covering some parts of India.

Monsoon season! Oh no! I thought that was later in the year. I guess not. I hover up in the sky for a few minutes before my descent I recorded all of what I have learned this year. When landing I am in a city called Mohenjo Daro, a very important and advanced city in ancient India.

·         Drainage system

·         Pipes ran under ground

·         Language: Unknown

·         Religion: Unkown

·         Government: Uknown

·         From what I read it had a mysterious decline.

·         New Culture Arises: Aryans, develops and spreads.

·         Strict social class order.

·         Culture, language and religion are all passed down to create Hinduism.

Wow, just by observing for only a few minutes I have come up with this list!

I want to focus more on religion:

Hinduism:

·         Passed down from Arayans

·         Have to try and achieve Moksa

·         Written in Sandscript

·         Wheel of Re-birth

·         Very detailed burial session

·         Very strict caste system

·         Yoga

Buddhism:

·         Founded by Sadartha Gumtama

·         Try and achieve Nirvana

·         Way of Life/religion

·         Afterlife

·         3 types of Buddhism

·         Written in assessable language

·         Mediation

Mrs. Morris also talked about a leader of India who changed his ruling because he converted to Buddism. I think his name was Asoko, he was a man who changed his who way of thinking because he wanted to make India right. This is an example of how much religion has on their world for the good or the bad.

My time is almost up, so I say good bye to the lush landscape and the rich soil. I slowly clamber into my time machine and I dialed to 2011.  I pressed the red start button, feeling the rush of time wip past my hair. I sit up suddenly; I forgot my keepsake from India! I panic, rummaging through my bag, no keepsake from India… I land directly on the launch pad, just like I started. Mom, still doing laundry. I trudge inside, slowly, this was a once and a life opportunity and I forgot my keepsake! Now know one will believe that I have been to ancient India. I sit down waiting for the next moment to happen, but nothing happens. I place my right hand into my pocket; pointy object is nestled in between the cloth. I pull it out, a little figurine, a Buddha. I smile and say, “I can’t wait to show this to the class.”

 

The Taj Mahal

The Taj Mahal represents the vow of true love. It all started with Prince Kurrham seeing the beautiful Arjumand at the bazaar.  It was love at first sight, and with the Kings blessing the Prince Kurrham and Arjumand wed. The years together were fantastic. The two were inseparable and the empire was the best ever. The Princess bore many children and the Prince won many battles during their marriage.

Unfortunately one very unlucky day the Prince was messaged that the Emperor was ill and had died.  He was the new ruler of India. Shah Jahan went to work right away, building up the empire making it even better. He consulted with his beautiful wife very often, asking her opinion regularly. After few years after the emperor had died; Shah Jahan’s wife announced that she was expecting another child. Shah Jahan was thrilled, but he soon found out that he was going to war. After weeks of pleading Shah Jahan regretfully took his wife with him. However weeks turned into months, the battle raged on. His wife was expecting in a few days everyone started to get anxious.

 In the early morning he left to go to battle, during the day he got a message that his wife had a beautiful baby boy! Later that day he got an urgent message from his wife’s servant. He rushed to her side; she told him that she was going to die. With regret in his heart, his wife took her last breath that night.

 When returned home, heartbroken, he was depressed couldn’t do anything but morn. After weeks of fasting and morning a dream told him to create a place that connected both earth and heaven together. A beautiful palace he decided. Upon dreaming this he summoned the greatest architects and calligraphers in the whole world to build a monument of his wife Arjumand. This monument stands her as a shrine of love between a young shopkeeper and a prince.

Choose one practice from the Buddhist Eightfold Path and describe how you could incorporate it in your life OR provide an example from your life of a time when you have demonstrated one of the practices.

The practice from the Buddhist Eightfold Path that I chose to purse is:
#8 Deep Concentration. 


     In life we encounter a lot of problems and issues. To continue and move forward in life we have to solve the problems. A lot times we create problems by not thinking before we act. One way to prevent this is deeply thinking about what you do so you don't create the problems. If that doesn't work you have to concentrate on figuring out what the problem is and how you are going to solve it. I feel that in life when we are in deep concentration everything that we do then will be very thoughtful.


     I can relate this to math problems. This unit that we just had was word problems, 11th grade word problems. When I first saw the packet that we had I was stunned on how hard the problems were. As I continued to work on the problems I gradually got the hang of each type of problem. There was one day that I worked on the problems for 4 hours and 35 minutes. I didn't realize how long I had worked on it because I was in such deep conversation. I ended getting all of the problems right because I had worked on them for so long in such deep conversation. I think if I continue this additude towards problems I will work them out in no time. 

Mapping Project Blog Post

Mapping Project Blog Post

a) How do physical features, climate and elevation relate to each other?
Physical features such as mountains usually have a higher elevation, and have a stronger and colder climate. Depending on the physical feature the climate and elevation are varied. For example deserts are usually lower in elevation and also warmer compared to mountains physical feathure.
    
b) What conclusions can you draw?
    (Think about natural resources, climate/weather, and human settlement.)
Ancient people settled in areas that they could easily accustom to. Many civilizations have settled by rivers because it is such an important part of our life. Living in a and extreme climate is a very hard task. Living in an area where the elevation is extremely high is also a hard task. The ancient people of present day India have settled in places where they can easily get used to the climate. To build a civilization is a difficult task, and one of the things that might make it easier for you is to settle in a place where it is good for living.

Kali: The dark mother

Kali: The Dark Mother

Kali is the ferocious mother goddess, she is a very powerful goddess in the Hindu religion. She was brought to this world by Devi Mahatmya by a composition that was made in the 5^th-6^th century AD. She was supposedly born from the brow of the Durga Goddess, this was at the time when there were many battles against the evil forces. As the legend goes after Kali was born she got so into the battle that she started to destroy everything in sight. Her features resemble a fierce createure with four arms. In  many pictures she is holding a sword in one hand and a head of a demon in the other. Her earings resemble two cut off heads, her necklace also resembles skulls of animals. Her attire is made out of human hands. Her facial features are very unique, her eyes are blood red with her tongue stuck out. Kali’s eyes are very important because they represent the models of time, past, present and future. She is known for devouring time. The reason why people worship her is because she is the goddess of time and death, both aspects very important to the Hindu religion.

The Lost City of Mohenjo Daro

Mohenjo Doro

     Mohenjo Doro is a excavated city that was very well planned. Mohenjo Doro is very unique compared to many other ancient and successful civilizations. Mohenjo Doro was organized, it had public sytems, residential homes, and held a population of about 35,000 for a number of years.

     The reason why archaeologists know that this ancient city was successful was because of the brilliant engineers. The people of Mohenjo Doro built their city above ground to prevent from floods. One of the most remarkable things about this city was the sewer system. Almost every house had an indoor bathroom. This was accompanied with a full set of sewer pipes that run along throughout the city. 

     They had two sides of the city, one for public buildings such as the citidal. The other side was the residental side with many small work shops. They also built canals that drained any extra water that came from the near by Indus River.


       The life in Mohenjo-Daro was simple jet organized, they had a strick trading system, and a blooming cotton industry. They also had a great army, which had chariots that gave them a leg-up during battles. By far they were the most powerful civilization that present day India has, they were organized, sophisticated and advanced in their ways of surviving for thousands of years.

Sites Used:
Roach, John. "Lost City of Mohenjo Daro -- National Geographic." Science and Space Facts, Science and Space, Human Body, Health, Earth, Human Disease - National Geographic. 2011. Web. 24 May 2011. .
Rajamanohar. "YouTube - ‪Indus Valley Civilization(mohenjo-daro)‬‏." YouTube - Broadcast Yourself. 1 Apr. 2008. Web. 24 May 2011. .

End of Unit Reflection- Egypt

Humanities IB learner Profile Reflection

What did we do this unit??

Mapping project –Nile-Geography

Art-Culture-daily life-what believed

Rulers of Egypt

Egypt Project

Notes/blogs

Jeopardy-horrible histories-video

During this unit on Ancient Egypt we learned and developed our knowledge of daily lives of people existing thousands of years ago. At the beginning of the unit we learned about the Nile, we learned that Egypt was the ‘bread basket’ of Africa. The Egyptian civilization was created because of Nile. This river made survival possible in a desert. When learning about the geography of the Nile we inquired the knowledge of what gifts the Nile presented ancient Egyptians. Then we moved on in the unit to the culture of the Egyptians, we learned about the daily life, culture and, religion. We studied about the rulers of ancient Egypt and what the impacts they had on the civilization. When learning we researched on the internet and took notes from a text book. This was then followed up by the final project- we taught the class about a certain subject in the class each one of us creating a presentation. We concluded the unit with a wrap up of Horrible History Videos and a fun Jeopardy game.  Throughout this unit I have used many of the IB learner profiles here are 5 that I really think that I developed during this unit.

Inquirers-

When living in Egypt I was fascinated in the history, we went to several different places around Egypt. I think in this unit I already had a lot of knowledge about ancient Egypt, but I also learned a lot more about it. During this unit I developed a curiosity for the Nile both now and in ancient times. I started to understand how significant the Nile back then, and without it a civilization could have been lost. I also realized that the Nile has a huge impact on Egypt. After many years the Nile has become polluted and durty, the country has suffered from this. In my spare time I have learned about the effects of the polluted Nile. I found that a dirty water and polluted country decreases tourism (which is the main economic source of Egypt), and I have found that diseases have been spread because of the mucky water. Learning about the Nile has helped me acquire knowledge and interest in the modern health of Egypt today.

Thinkers-

I think that I best represented being a thinker when I came up with a thesis statement. I had the help of Mrs. Moore to conduct this thinking process. I think that I had a solid thesis statement, and the most important thing is that I have more of an idea how a thesis statement is written. In the past these 2-3 sentences have been the hardest part of writing an essay or presenting an essay. Learning this I have applied thinking skills critically in a situation with a complex problem.

Communicators-

During a presentation it is almost like you are up in front of an audience in a production. The key thing to do is to learn your lines, speak clearly, and fill yourself with excitement. That is what I always try to pursue when in a presentation, it is hard, but when you accomplish that you really feel good. When I was thinking about how I wanted to present I automatically knew that I should not only talk but a combination of things to keep the audience awake. I decided on something to do with the internet, a PowerPoint, and board work. I started off with a Voki character; I wanted to make a bold statement when starting to teach. Then I presented my main idea and then to conclude I wrote on the board-which I found to be very hard.

Risk-taker

I think that I demonstrated this when I picked the subject of sail boats, this was a subject that I knew that many people would not think about presenting so I wanted to learn about it. This was not my first choice I actually wanted to present about the daily life about Egyptians and the influence of the Nile. However, when skimming though a book I found out sailing and how it had such an impact on the Egyptian civilization that I decided to present it. A bonus was I am really interested in the Nile and sailing had a lot to do with the Nile. So it was a win win situation. I think in this situation I was exploring new roles, ideas and strategies when presenting knowledge.

Reflective

After doing the teaching project I did a lot of reflecting, or looking back at my work. I figured out that I would like to write on the board before class starts instead of writing while I am in class. That way I will be able to make eye-contact with the students when concluding, so I know that I get all the information across. I also liked the Voki at the beginning of the presentation, I liked how it was different from the other presentations and it made the audience become more alive. During this unit I think that I was able to give thoughtful consideration to my own learning experience when teaching a class.

 

 

How Physical environment affect the development of civilizations?

During this unit we learned that the development of a civilization relies of the physical features of the surrounding area. In history when we look at civilizations that have thrived for thousands of years we notice that one common thing feature that they all have in common is a large water supply. The Incas had many tributaries of the Amazon River to live off of; many archaeologists say that this is why the Incas survived so long. The people who lived in what is now India, had the Ganges to supply their source of water, this helped them to live long also. The Egyptians had the Nile, it provided the three essential gifts; water, protection, and farming. Without the Nile in Egypt here would only have been a hot dry desert and masses of history would have been lost. The physical environment is like the foundation of a civilization, if there is a bad foundation the civilization will not be not as strong, if there is a good foundation the house will last a long time.