A Week of Projects

This week through the use of technology we have been brought a little closer to Africa. In your groups you have had the opportunity to discover a new land with challenges, opportunities and some success stories. You have a rubric and a task sheet that you can use to put together a successful project. Read the assignment carefully. Have you included all of the components? Do you have note cards? Have you practiced doing the presentation? This small project with a group is good practice for doing your Capstone. On Tuesday you will have a final day in the library to wrap up any loose ends and to email me the presentation. If you are done with your project, we will be reading in our text about some of the health challenges of this large and diverse continent.

This is a group project so make sure you are ready to participate!

This week you also completed your maps of Africa and used them to help you respond to some questions. Maps that were clear and easy to read allowed you to complete those questions with ease.

One of our in class activities focused on famine…its causes, the size of the problem and a look at some of the organizations trying to help eliminate famine. You are responsible for looking up basic information about one of the aid groups that is assisting in this effort. You also have an economic worksheet to help you with your text reading.

Finally, we met William Kamkwamba, a young man from Malawi, who built a windmill so his family could have electricity. So often we are confronted with challenges and we give up because we don’t have the money or the knowhow. William told you, in his own words, how he solved the problem by teaching himself how to generate electricity and then by building a windmill from rubbish. It is truly an inspirational story. If you want to know more about William, you can read “The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind.”

World History

This week we have been studying Louis XIV…a complex absolute monarch who loved fine clothes, food, art, and war. Your spoke diagram assignment gave you the opportunity to think about his polices and character traits that made him an absolute monarch. We read two primary source readings to gain further insight into how this man thought and acted among his subjects. All of these tasks led us to our first essay assignment. You have a graphic organizer and the prompt. We went over how to put a thesis testament together and how to organize your essay. Your essay is due on Monday and it must be word processed.