Discernment 1: Question selection

Today we started a new mini-unit, DISCERNMENT. So what is discernment? We began by brainstorming and working out what it meant.
Then we had a discussion about how to distinguish between different but related things. For example, when I went to Rarotonga on honeymoon, we had a lot of fun checking out ten or twelve different resorts, but we were soon mixed up about the different places and got confused about which place had a pool and which ones had restaurants.
The best thing for us to do was to draw up a table, and give the resorts marks for all the things we thought were important in a resort. (Friendly staff, closeness to beach, equipment hire; all the important things). The table was our way of analysing and comparing the different resorts.
Each class member has had a question assigned to them, but they have also been able to choose from a pile of Wild Cards. All the questions are designed to make students analyse and evaluate a selection of items, places or people, and by using their own self-designed criteria, to come up with a conclusive answer.
Here are the questions which students picked from:

1.       List your top ten engineering wonders of the modern world.

2.       What are the best animals to keep as pets?

3.       What are the top ten best websites to use when researching the topic of endangered animals for school?

4.       What are the ultimate “must have” toys?

5.       Which New Zealanders have contributed the most to our country’s history?

6.       Where are the top ten tourist sites around the world?

7.       What are the best things to do in either Christchurch or Dunedin during the holidays?

8.       List the books that all children should read before they leave school.

9.       Put together your rugby Dream Team: players from any era and any nation.

10.   What are the most dangerous sports you can choose to play?

11.   Grantlea Downs is looking at supporting a charity next year. List the top ten that you would recommend.

12.   Which disasters around the world have been the most influential?

13.   Which well-known figures do you believe are good role models?

14.   Which are the most influential inventions of the last one hundred years?

15.   What are the top sites around South Canterbury for a visitor to see?

16.   What are the top ten most likely “end of the world” scenarios?

17.   Compile a list of the most dangerous animals in the world.

18.   Compile a list of the best professions to be considered after graduation from High School.

Visit to the Wetlands

We had a fab visit to the Wetlands today. Debbie Eddington from ECAN, Conservationist Extaordinaire, met us down at the bridge and began by showing us pictures of some creatures who call the Wetlands home. Some are known to be pests and discouraged, and others are encouraged as valuable members of the Wetlands food web.
We saw lots of native plants, such as flax and toetoe. The flax had evidence of being eaten by native moths.
There were many areas we saw which have undergone huge improvement over the last year or so. Being so near to the rubbish tip, the plantings and windbreak along that side have made a big difference to the overall look of the Wetlands.
Since we have been studying inter-dependence, we were able to see much of it in action here.
We looked at Debbie's tracking boxes, which are clever little devices the students recognised and I didn't. The creatures walk through these little triangular prisms, walking through an ink pad at one end and then leaving their tracks for the DOC workers to find. We saw tracks made by lizards as well as other small creatures that could fit through the tubes.

Symbiosis (Interdependence 2)

Symbiosis is a way to describe a relationship between two organisms. It is classified differently according to whether the relationship benefits both or only one side.
Today we discussed the nature of symbiosis, its many types, and scrutinised one form of symbiosis which is lichen.
The existence of lichen is actually a result of a mutually beneficial relationship between an alga and fungus. We discussed this symbiosis and inspected some lichens under the microscope. Then the students went off to find more samples of lichen of their own.

The second picture shows lichen under a microscope much more powerful than ours.

Microscopes (Interdependence 1)

This afternoon we had heaps of fun with the school's three microscopes. They are relatively low power (10 and 20x) so it wasn't a case of seeing the bugs in water or the cells in onion layers... but very cool nonetheless.
We started by talking through the basic operation of the microscopes and how to handle them carefully. Then we looked at a few pre-assembled items such as some moss, Rosie's eyelash, a fingerprint and pencil shavings.
After we looked at the objects everyone had to go out and search for some more small things that we could inspect. This is where it got really interesting. Laurence and Aleks found a slug - you could even see his breathing hole opening and closing along his side. They also returned with a millipede which looked slimy to the naked eye, but under the microscope we could see that the shine comes from its hard exoskeleton. We found a dead fly on Mrs Lees' windowsill, and its eyes looked absolutely amazing under the lens. A green leaf that someone brought in was described by Ivan like emeralds. The surface wasn't smooth at all but sparkly and bumpy.
Here are some other ideas: https://www.microscopeworld.com/t-low_microscope_ideas.aspx

You can learn anything...

WALLS

I wanted to continue my work with the group about Walls today, but decided to ease off a bit on the philosophical viewpoint. For a summary of our previous session, which cause frustration on both sides, click here.

Today we started by reading together the Dr Seuss book The Butter Battle Book.

It's an entertaining book with wonderful illustrations and the usual Seuss patter. However, as with many Seuss classics, it also have a deeper message. This one is about the escalation of a disagreement between two groups of people, until the point where both are threatening to drop a bomb which will annihilate everyone and everything.

We discussed the deeper themes of the book, such as how the groups got into the dispute, and also whether it is an easy situation to resolve. We noticed that both groups feel very strongly about which side of the bread the butter should go on, and whether this is an important issue or not, their fervour in pursuing their point of view could not be denied.

It would be too simplistic to ask them to put aside their differences.

 

We didn't solve the bigger issues in the world today, but the discussion was interesting and varied. At the end of the session all the students wrote down a conversation between two people who held different views of a relatively unimportant issue. (Muffins or cupcakes? Apple or pc? Belt or no belt?



WALLS

An interesting topic for discussion this afternoon. We discussed the theme of WALLS - what they are for, why they are built, where they are built, and any famous walls we can think of. We watched a short video about Hadrian's Wall in the north of Great Britain, and discussed some other walls which we know of, such as the Berlin Wall and the Great Wall of China.

In the course of our discussion, we became quite bogged down. I think it was mainly disbelief that brought us to a rather frustrating halt. Having lived all their lives in a very peaceful country, many of the students struggled to understand how and why the Berlin Wall was so effective for so long, and the dreadful stories of cruelty, suffering and death that came from that time.

It caused me to wonder to myself about peace. Peace is a marvellous thing, but does it mean that our children will always struggle to relate in any way to countries that do not have it? I wondered if I was making too many assumptions about the kind of work which the group (advanced as they are) can cope with. I concluded that they are simply too young, and that empathy will come with maturity.

For more information about the Berlin Wall, click on these links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlin_Wall
http://history1900s.about.com/od/coldwa1/a/berlinwall.htm