Room 613 Student Blogs - 2005/2006

The new address for this years Room 613 Student Blogs 0607 is http://hetherington0607.learnerblogs.org

For the 7th graders who are reading this message, feel free to post here for as long as you wish. If you forget your password, just see me at school and I’ll give you a new one. You were truly pioneers of this communications medium at our school. Don’t forget to stop by this year’s site and leave a friendly comment for one of the new 6th grade writers. They would really appreciate it.

Mr. H.

Several 7th graders (Maya, EmelieV, Heather A., and Meghan) came in today with questions from Mr. Huntington’s class about the English and French thinkers from the Enlightenment. Here is a link to a set of notes titled Class 9: The French Enlightenment describing that period in history.

The notes on Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, Adam Smith, Jean-Jacques Rousseau are short but serve as a nice summary of their important accomplishments. Many of their ideas formed the foundation for the philosophies of the founding fathers of the United States.
Thank you Paul Halsall Ph.D. History from Fordham University and the Internet History Sourcebooks Project.

Illustration: Two Treatises of Government written by John Locke in 1690.

Blue = Chocolate Ice Cream

Red = Vanilla Ice Cream

Google has an interesting new site called Google Trends. It allows you to review search patterns from the Google search database. In the above example, I asked Google Trends to compare searches for Chocolate v. Vanilla Ice Cream (I like Vanilla.) The site also provides information on the countries where most of the searches come from and the language most often used. Try it out. You can compare anything; Yankee’s and Red Sox, Math and Science, Dogs and Cats etc. Share some of your findings in the comments section.

Nancy McKeand, who has commented on some of your posts, discovered this fun way to learn about active and passive sentences.

Here is a quick quiz. Which of the following sentences is active, and which is passive and WHYyyyyyy?
Derek Jeter drove the ball deep into the seats.

The ball was driven deep into the seats by Derrek Jeter.

Not sure, go to the above link and learn from the lego guy, Troy Sterling.

Recently our weblog was reviewed by 7th grade students from another school. As part of their assignment, the students of Room 140 were asked to read and blog about five student blogs from around the world. Room 613 Student Blogs was first on their review list and many students made very positive comments on your work. Here are just a few of the comments from the Room 140 students:
“I think that the blogs are very interesting. I think so because they are detailed and persuasive. The one that I liked the most was Room 613 Student Blogs because they had very interesting articles. One of them was The Poison Dart Frog. This article gives me immense information on the frog such as what it looks like, how it can harm us, and they also provide pictures of it.”

Way to go Kosta!

“I read multitudes of middle school blogs today were interesting and interactive, but some are not. There was one blog titled “Room 613″ and it was truly amazing. There blog had astonishing details and animation. There is an ocean of articles and information in this blog. In this blog I found a game called club penguin. The person who wrote this made that game sound exiting and not boring. The blog about Club Penguin told you how to play the game and was very detailed.”

Good Job SaraH.

“The kids in Room 613 have one of those blog sites. What makes this site so cool is that it talks about a lot of stuff, like as if they can right whatever they want, but isn’t that what a blog is for…YEA! They talk about the Three Gorge Dam, humorous photos, TV programs, science, space, etc. This blog also is like the normal life of a middle school kid, fun and interesting. It is very interesting and made me not want to stop reading it. Because of its perfect combination of pictures and text, it will always make a person wide awake and might teach them something in the process.”

And finally

WOW! You have a really creative and informative page. Love your pictures because it catches reader’s attention. The banana phone is really funny. Maybe that will be the next popular thing. The links where you got the information from is a very helpful tool. I like that you have multiple information. Such as science, some history, and important people. It’s like a one stop information page. Your writing is excellent as well, big words and great opinions.

Room 613 Students, I’m very proud of your accomplishments this year. Keep writing!

Mr. H.

Here is a link to flash cards and matching games so you can practice for Friday’s map quiz. Don’t forget to also study the locations of the South American countries. You can find a fun interactive map activity here.

Later this year, Will Wright, the creator of “The Sims,” will release Spore, a new game unlike any other. The game utilizes artificial intelligence allowing players to construct a universe one decision at a time. The games life forms, structures and atmosphere are designed by the player, and mathematical algorithms create the game actions based on the player’s designs. This system of game design is called procedural generation. In Spring of 2005, Mr. Wright presented a video of his game to the 2005 Game Developer’s Conference. Click on the link below to see the game video and hear Will Wright’s presentation.

Video - http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8372603330420559198&q=spore
What do you think? Do you like this game? How is this game different from your “average” computer game?

Choose one topic from your “History of India Chart” and do a weblog post.

Recommended steps:

1. Choose a topic…very important! Pick something that is of interest to you.

2. Google search your topic. Visit various sites and skim (read over quickly… not word for word) to get a general idea about your topic. If you still find your topic interesting, proceed to step three. If not, go back to step one and choose another topic.

3. Collect information about your topic from one or more web sites. Take notes or make mind maps to organize your information. Remember to record the name and address of the sites used so you can reference them later. DO NOT COPY WORD FOR WORD FROM YOUR SOURCE. THIS IS PLAGERISM AND WILL BE PENALIZED.

4. Using the information gathered in step three, tell the story of your topic . This will be the main part of your blog post. Type it in a word processor before copying it into the weblog so you can spell-check prior to posting. Your goal here is to teach your reader (the rest of the 6^th grade ) about your topic. You can write in essay form, letter form or any other form that I approve.

5. After your main summary, write a short reflection about how this project added to your previous knowledge.

6. Link to your source(s). You can do so by typing in the name of your site followed by it’s http address.

7. Five extra points for using internal links (words inside your paragraph(s) linked to webpages about that topic) or related pictures and graphics.

8. You will be graded on the amount of accurate information in your post, the readability of your post, (including spelling and punctuation) and how well you “teach” your audience about your topic. You will also be awarded extra credit if you use other media (photos, movies, voice, etc) to enhance your readers learning experience.

Have fun working on this. We all look forward to learning more about India.

Today we enjoyed listening to Indian music while working on our “History of India” tables. Here is a link to the site, which has an incredible selection of music from the worlds largest democracy. You can choose from many styles of Indian music, including instrumental, IndiPop, folk music, and vocal. The music is also sorted by it’s region of origin. My personal favorite, so far at least, is Hindi. Take a listen (it’s free) and let us know what you think.

http://www.musicindiaonline.com/

Sam M. posted an interesting statistic this morning about Rubik’s cube.

Did you know Rubik’s cube was invented by Erno Rubik in Hungary in 1974. One of his biggest challenges was to invent a mechanism to allow rotation of three rows in two directions. He finally solved the problem by using a central cylinder. Although invented in 1974, a failing communist economy in Hungary and western toymaker beliefs that the cube was difficult to manufacture and too complex to interest teens delayed the Rubik Cube’s debut outside of Hungary until 1980. Once introduced, the growth in popularity of the cube was explosive. By 1982, only two years after it’s introduction, it was estimated that one of every three households in the western world owned at least one of these now world famous puzzles.

To learn more about the history of the cube, go to http://www.rubiks.com/lvl3/index_lvl3.cfm?lan=eng&lvl1=inform&lvl2=medrel&lvl3=histry

For 5 bells…. Name the Hungarian city where Erno Rubrik lived when he invented the Rubik Cube.

Do you have a Rubik’s Cube in your house?

If so, have you solved it? How long does it usually take you?

The illusion above is called “Rotating Snakes.” Can you see them moving? The apparent motion of the illustration is due to a visual illusion known as peripheral drift. The motion appears in your peripheral (to the side) vison when black and dark grey lines or white and light gray lines are drawn side by side. If you like this type of illusion, there are many more for you to view at Akiyoshi’s illusion pages.

Warning: This post contains some works of “anomalous motion illusion”, which might make sensitive observers dizzy or sick. Should you feel dizzy, you should leave this post immediately.

Jake O. recently shared a beautiful picture of the Northern Lights as part of his Canada post. NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) has a real time graphic of northern hemisphere auroral activity here. If you see the yellow or red on the graphic drop as far south as Connecticut, take a look outside and turn to the North* to enjoy the show.

By the way, 5 bells to the first student who explains (in your own words) what causes the Northern Lights (Aurora effect) AND shares the resource where you found the information. You can do this in a comment to this post, or in a new post.

Mr. H.

*PS: It will help if you do this after dark.