Earth History

We finished up our unit on astronomy the week before last and watched the movie "October Sky" last week. This week we are starting on our Earth History unit. We are going to be learning about how the Earth has changed and is continuing to change. I will be making some suggestions for individual projects in the next week or so. I am especially looking for students to work on a geodesy project. See me if you think you might be interested.

Messages to the Stars

Last week we discovered how difficult it is to figure out what to say to beings outside our solar system and even more so how difficult it is to find a way to get our ideas across without any language or symbols from Earth.
Next week we will be reviewing our astronomy unit and getting ready for the final exam. Then it's on to Earth History.
For extra credit, look up "geodesy" and come tell me what it means.

Messages From Distant Stars

Last week we learned a little about constellations and built star-finders to help us find the constellations we learned about. We ended the week by watching the movie "Contact." This week we will finish watching the movie and look at the message sent from Arecibo observatory in 1974. We will attempt to create our own messages that can be understood by any being sufficiently advanced to receive them and will convey the meaning we want conveyed.