What is "success"?

It was a purely philosophical session today. Our group explored the theme of "success" - what is it, how can it be measured, how do you know if you are successful, is success finite, is success age related, what does success look like at my age?
There were many quotes that came out today -
Hunter's Gem "It's not where you're at, it's about how far you've come."
Aleks' Gem "Quality not quantity"

Some further questions to consider:
Is success about comparisons? Someone mentioned today that one of the ways we know we're successful is when we receive a certificate in assembly. If everyone received a certificate, would this still be a valid measure?
Is success about money? Can you say a rich person is more successful in their life than a poor person? What if they inherited their riches? Does that still make them successful?
Is success about being idolised? There are many different kinds of people idolised today - some are people you would rather NOT be like. Here is a tongue-in-cheek look at some teenage idols of the past... it's scary how many idols have wound up addicted to drugs or alcohol. I would question these people's lives as being "successful".
Is success the same for everyone? We read a book called The Troll which was a bit of light relief from the philosophical ponderings. We found that success for the Troll was quite different from success for the Pirates. And although in the end the Pirates got what they needed to be happy, it wasn't at all what they had been aiming for.

Our new group

Today we added to our number, and we started delving into the wonders of ancient history... ancient Roman architecture. Here is a fab video we started with:


Ancient Rome: A project between Khan Academy and Rome Reborn - with Dr. Bernard Frischer

After viewing the video we talked about what we saw, and followed some of the discussion points on the sheet below.

The graphic on the bottom left was made using a programme such as Wordle. Have you ever used Wordle? Select some text (I used the Wikipedia information regarding the Roman Forum) and pasted it in. The rest is done for you!

 

Change

Last year one of our topics was CHANGE... many of us find change, as an emotional concept very hard, so discussing it was useful. Here's a photo Hunter found which reminds us that change is necessary for growth... it's a positive spin on the theme.
Thanks Hunter!

Cryptography 2

This week we looked further into our investigation of cryptography. We used a couple of exercises on the Khan Academy site to experiment with the Caesar Cypher and to see what kind of "fingerprint" we would leave if we were using it. Our fingerprint was much less noticeable when we used the Polyalphabetic Cipher.
Then we watched a video about the One Time Pad - which is effective for two reasons. 1. Its randomness 2. Its length / lack of repetition.
Finally, the last video answered the question "What is the difference between a coin flip and a blind guess?". Hunter predicted its answer very well!

Here are the questions we discussed today
1. What is the Caesar Cipher?
2. Why do you think it took a long time (800 years) before it was easily deciphered?
3. What do you notice on the frequency explorer?
4. Why is it called a "fingerprint"?
5. What makes the One Time Pad so effective?

Mrs Armstrong's frustrations this week: Why can't we say that the letter "e" is "winning"?!! Or that the letter "z" is "not very popular"?!!

AND... we have a new name! "Explore It".
Parent meeting scheduled for next Thursday March 20 at 5.30 in the Staffroom.

What is Cryptography?

... and it's got nothing to do with places you bury dead people!!!
We had many, many frustrations with technology this afternoon, but were able to get onto the Khan Academy site and watch a couple of fascinating videos about the Caesar Code and the Polyalphabetic Code. H'mmm... my brain was hurting after using just these two Ciphers... I wonder how the code breakers in World War II felt after a day at work?
The Caesar Cipher https://www.khanacademy.org/math/applied-math/cryptography/crypt/v/caesar-cipher
The Polyalphabetic Cipher
https://www.khanacademy.org/math/applied-math/cryptography/crypt/v/polyalphabetic-cipher

There are many more videos in these lessons on Cryptography, and also some practical activities for trying them out. Hopefully next session we will be able to access a few more of them.
By the time we had used both the ciphers to put a couple of simple words into code, the afternoon had DISAPPEARED!

Khan Academy... What a find

Don't miss the top things to learn on Khan Academy this week:

Can you make an unbreakable code using dice?   Learn now

What do prime numbers have to do with hurricanes?   Learn now

What was the secret of the Rosetta Stone?   Learn now

Just added from the J. Paul Getty Museum:

Are these glass vessels really thousands of years old?!   Learn now

Learn something new at Khan Academy