CORRECTION !!

Due to the PE field trip for Golf , the Worldview posters will be due at the end of class on monday.

Worldview Posters

 

Students in Social Studies are creating posters* that will display the worldview of a Lakeview Jr. High 8th grader. This is intended as an in-class project though a few groups with more elaborate designs or an unusually slow work tempo may end up taking them home to finish on Friday.

* Some students volunteered to make other kinds of presentations with different media (objects, power point) in lieu of a poster.

QUIZ

 

Students will be having their first quiz on Wednesday over some of the terms of our unit vocabulary. The terms are:

Perception   Cognition   Worldview   Paradigm   Paradigm-Shift   Cultural Evolution

Zero Sum    Nonzero Sum     Meme   Empiricism    Scientific Revolution    Middle-Ages

Scientific Method     Renaissance     Enlightenment

The format will be concept matching and they have had two (2) practice sessions already and should have these sheets as examples to study from in their Social Studies folders.

OPEN HOUSE -CURRICULUM NIGHT

It was nice to see such a large turn-out of parents last Monday for Open House and the presentations on curriculum. Even the final periods had relatively full classes, a heightened interest in Social Studies compared to some past years.

Time did not permit a full showing of all the powerpoint slides for the presentation on 8th grade Social Studies. If you would care to see the rest, or just could not make it on Monday night, click through the presentation below:

MAKERS of WORLDVIEWS II.

As part our study of worldviews, students are comparing the ideas of Socrates, Plato and Aristotle.

Newton Questions

Were given today in class and are due on Monday:

MAKERS OF WORLDVIEWS: Aristotle & Sir Isaac Newton

 

Students are continuing to learn about the paradigms and past worldviews that help make up their own Worldview.

Students had a short reading on a summary of Aristotle’s ideas and began watching a biography of Sir Isaac Newton using the graphic organizer below to take notes. 

ADMINISTRATIVE FYI

Updated grades for all students will be posted on Friday 9/14. 

Due to my teaching  and classroom management style, I tend to post a series of grades in blocs of multiple assignments for all of my classes at one time ( possible categories are homework, daily work, participation, quiz, test and project) rather than daily grade entry in just one or two classes.

Most Social Studies classes will not be meeting on Thursday due to the Irons Oaks Field Trip.

REVOLUTIONS in the Western WORLDVIEW

Lecture slides – an overview of the worldviews since the end of the Middle-Ages with a look at the Medieval Worldview vs. The Scientific Revolution.

PLATO and the Western WORLDVIEW

The students will be looking at Plato and Aristotle this week.

The Athenian philosopher Plato was a deep influence on the Worldview of Western civilization, both through his own writings, which featured his teacher Socrates, and those of his much later followers, the Neoplatonists. Plato’s greatest student, Aristotle, was also his strongest critic and rival.

Plato lived during and after the defeat of Athens in the terrible Peloponnesian War with Sparta and saw some of his relatives try to win power as part of a group known as ” The Thirty Tyrants” but they were executed by Athenian democrats.  Plato may have admired Sparta, the enemy of Athens, for it’s unity and regimented society.

As a result, Plato became very skeptical about the value of both political activity and democracy and devoted his time to education. In his book, The Republic, the perfect society is ruled by the only unselfish and trustworthy group,  highly educated, “philosopher-kings” while the people are organized into their proper place. Plato’s philosophy and arguments have been used throughout history to justify strong governments, intellectual elites, economic equality, tradition and the value of education.

Students are to compose a short list of what things Plato placed a High Value and a Low Value on.