End of Unit Reflection

Pre- historical Kenya

First stop in the time machine- I look outside, and there’s a clear blue sky. It’s a sunny day. It looks like I have landed in some sort of camp. There are two monkey- looking humans sitting on the ground, using a very sharp rock to make a spearpoint. They are tying it to a large branch. I guess this is a former version of a spear. The sound of rock against rock echoes in my ears. The early humans have hair covering their whole bodies. I can tell they are female. There is a small fire on the ground, in a hearth made from large rocks. The smoke is intoxicating. A smaller and probably younger early human was playing with a twig on the ground, making grunting noises. I look up, and I see a large, dry field. In the distance I can see many grasslands, with occasional trees and mountains further ahead. There are some animals, including rabbits, birds, and even a deer in the background. The deer is running towards the camp. It looks tired. Suddenly I realize that something is chasing it, running at a constant speed after it. It’s two ape- like humans, carrying spears. They don’t look tired or dehydrated, but the deer looks like it’s about to die. As they approach the small fire, the deer falls, exhausted, and one of the early humans sinks the spear into its flesh. Exuberantly, they pick it up together and walk towards the camp. The two other early humans, the females, come to help the males, and together they manage to roast the deer over the fire. There is happy grunting everywhere, and the young come to see the deer, as it is being cooked. As one of the males has a small wound of his left leg, he gets special attention and is cared for by the others. Then, they all sit down and eat happily.

Ancient Sumeria

I now come to the small village of Ain Mallaha, in Sumeria. I am now inside a sort of house; with stone covered dirt walls and a reed roof. There are some fifteen humans inside the house. There are a few minding the fire, in the circular fire pit, roasting meat and grain. There are others storing food in storage bins. The surplus is being stored in another part of the house, with other storage bins. It looks like there has been a great surplus this year. Other’s are using mortar and pestle for the grain, while talking to each other. Mortar and pestle are stone tools used to grind grain. There are children inside and outside the house, running around. As I walk outside I smell fresh grass, the fragrant of flowers, and animal manure. The sun is high up in the sky, casting its rays over Sumer. I can see a valley of lush vegetation, full of life. There are small birds, rodents, and insects scurrying around for food in the forest floor. The bushes are filled with ripe berries, and there are plentiful nuts. Tall trees tower over me, filled with the singing of birds. Everything around me is green. No wonder it is called the “fertile crescent”. I can also see fields of yellow. This is probably where all the grain comes from, and the great surplus. There are humans working in the fields, collecting the grain. Further away there are sheep and goats grazing in the rich grass. As I look more closely, I can also see a few dogs running around. These are the domesticated animals of the people of Ain Mallaha. Now, I see some humans walking through the forest. They are collecting fruits, nuts, berries, and eatable plants. However, now they are walking back the camp. I hear them chattering happily, and eating some of their finds in the forest.

Ancient Egypt

I am now standing in front of the Nile River, in ancient Egypt. It is early morning, and the small houses along the river are coming to life. The houses are small, made from straw or bricks. The brick are made from mud and straws, and then sundried. Men are plowing the fields by the river banks, and collecting the last crops. It is now the end of the harvest season, and all the surplus has been stored. Now the Egyptians are waiting for the inundation season, to make their fields fertile again to be able to grow more crops. Children are playing in the water, cleaning themselves and splashing around. The water isn’t very deep by the riverbanks, so they are safe from the dangers of the predators of the Nile River. Women are indoors, doing house chores. The river is full of life too, just like its banks. There are shadows of both large and small fish swimming in the shallow water, in schools. There are frogs and tadpoles, otters, birds out hunting, ducks, ad various insects near the shore. Mosquitoes have nested along the banks in the swamps, and I hear a slight buzzing noise. Farther out, however, are more dangerous predators, such as the crocodile, camouflaged as wooden logs in the brown water. I see a man with his young son get on a small boat, and onto the Nile. The son is no more than twelve. The man has a fishing line, and he casts it out, and then waits patiently. His son stares wide eyed. There are other boats out too, both fishing and hunting for ducks and birds. I hear a rumbling noise, and I see a boat advancing. It is a large sailboat, carrying boxes of food. It is probably trade from Nubia, going into the city.

Ancient India

I am now in the Aryan civilization, in ancient India. As I look around, I see small buildings looking like houses on one side. They are more advanced than in Sumer, with advanced houses. Most of them even have courtyards. There is chattering and laughter in the streets, as the children run around and play, with their toys and pets. It is now mid- day, and it is quite hot. There are artisans trying to sell their wares on the streets, and they are indeed receiving many customers. I watch a carpenter use an iron axe to chop up some wood, and sell a wooden carving to an elderly lady. The streets are very busy. People are wearing colored clothes, with a lot of bight cotton, and a lot of jewelry. As I walk along, I see a wedding going on. It is a young woman from the prior Indus valley getting married to an Aryan soldier. This is an intermixing of cultures. I have heard that the Aryans came here with their chariots and easily overpowered the soldiers, and now the Indus valley is under the rule of the Aryans. I hear the priest reading a passage out of the Vedas, a holy book of the Aryans. Vedas means “knowledge”. The priest is highly respected by everyone. Priests are definitely on the top of the social levels. I continued walking. I could see parents with their elder children working in stores and boutiques. Children have to take the social class and profession of their parents. It’s a very rigid caste system. Now, I reached the Indus river. It’s full of life, with animals and plants along the river banks. I smell the lush, green vegetation. The water is clear and clean.

Present day archaeological dig

Now, I am in a present day archeology camp. I can see archaeologists everywhere, with their small brush tools, screeners, and buckets. They are digging up the remains of an ancient city. To preserve the camp, a large tent has been built around it, casting a large shadow over it. On one end of the camp is where the screened soil is dumped, and the rest is digging area. A large grid has been laid out, with perfect squares to be able to tell exactly where objects of the past were found. Archaeologists are sketching, brushing, screening, emptying buckets, discussing artifacts, taking photographs, and recording accurate field notes. I can smell the moist soil that is being dug up. I can hear soft talking, the clicking of photographs, the sound of pencils against paper, and discussions being made. This might be the greatest archaeological find yet.

The Eightfold Path

If I were to insert one of the eightfold path in my life it would be number 8, right concentration. I could incorporate this in my life by being more concentrated with what I'm doing, mostly relating to homework. If I concentrate on tasks it would be a lot easier to get the job done faster. Sometimes I let my mind wonder or do a million things at once, and it turns out I get nothing accomplished. I think that if I could concentrate more on homework, it would take me a lot less time and give me more time to do other things and have more free time. Off course, to do this Buddhists meditate, and I might have trouble with that, but I think that it'd be very useful to me to have the right concentration.

Taj Mahal

In 1592 a prince called Khurram was born in the Indian Empire. He became a handsome, eager and quickminded young man, but still he did not feel love. When he went to the Meena Bazar however, things changed, and he fell in love with Arjumand, a girl selling confections and silk. After consulting his father, Arjumand and Prince Khurram decided to wed. They married, and were as happy as can be. At the wedding ceremony, prince Khurram decided to honor his wife with a new name - Mumtaz Mahal, the jewel of the palace. The couple lived happily, and Mumtaz was adored by the people. They had many children, which the devoted parents spent time instructing. When the prince travelled, Mumtaz would come too, since they couldn't stay away from each other. They conquered many kingdoms and expanded the borders of the empire. After the king's death, Khuram became king, and was a very wise leader. One day, Mumtaz announced that she was with child. At this time Khurram had to go on a long journey. However, since they could not stand to be parted from one another Mumtaz decided to come. However, the night she gave she gave birth, she was too weak, and she passed away. Her last words were "I have a wish that all the world will know of our love." Prince Khurram spent days and nights mourning, and didn't eat or sleep. However, one day he thought about that wish, and made it come true. He built a great tomb and garden for his beloved empress. He traded jewels from other countries, hired many architects. "They tomb must be perfect, as if heaven and earth were joined," he said. One day, the tomb was finished, and it was beautiful. Khurram's words were, "It is almost as perfect as our love." He named the tomb Taj Mahal.

Khurram was finally feeling like he had made his debt to Mumtaz. However, one day he grew sick, and his son, eager for power, locked him up. For eight years he was captured in side the red fort of Agra, and that is where he died. However, Taj Mahal still stands today to show their love.

Ganesha - Hindu God

Ganesha is a Hindu god with a human form, but with an elephant head. He represents the power of the Supreme Being that removes obstacles and creates success. Ganesha is the biggest god in India. His mix of animal and human parts symbolizes perfection, and has deep spiritual meaning. The elephant head symbolizes wisdom, understanding, and intellect. His wide mouth symbolizes desire to enjoy life, and his large ears symbolize that to achieve something in life you have to listen to others. Ganesha has two tusks, the left one broken. His right tusk symbolizes wisdom. His left is for emotion, and shows that one has to conquer emotions with wisdom to reach perfection. The human body with a big belly symbolizes a human heart, for compassion and kindness. The big belly portrays that an individual has to have a large capacity to perform all their duties in the world. The mouse sitting next to Ganesha shows that the ego can nibble everything that is good and noble in a person. A perfect person is one who has their ego under control.

Mapping Project Blog Post

Compare all three of your maps.
a) How do physical features, climate and elevation relate to each other?

Physical features such as deserts are located on lower ground, and therefore their climate is warmer. Mountains are higher elevated, and they have a cold, icy climate. Depending on how elevated the land is the climate is going to change. The lower the land, the warmer the climate. Physical features such as deserts and valleys have a much warmer climate than mountains and plateaus.




b) What conclusions can you draw?
(Think about natural resources, climate/weather, and human settlement.)

Early humans would live in places where they had fertile land, easy food supply, a warm climate, and resources they needed. Such a place in India were the rivers, and the Ganges and Indus rivers were great fertilizers. They come out of the Himalayas into the Northern highlands, making the northern highlands one of the most fertile places on earth. Humans settled in places in which a good civilization could then grow, developing into India's cities today.

Mohenjo Daro

In 1921, the Indus valley civilization was discovered in present day Pakistan, and the ancient city of Mohenjo Daro was found. This city was located in the fertile lands by the Indus River floodplain, 4,500 years ago. Mohenjo Daro was a pretty advanced civilization. They had a drainage system, canals and knew how to control water. They had pottery and tools of copper, and they used seals as weights hinting to a advanced and fair trade. They also had ivory, lapis, carnelian and gold beads. Wells were throughout the city, and there was a bathing area in every house. However, the city lacks palaces, temples, or monuments, and archaeologists aren’t sure whether there was a government or a king or queen. We suspect that it was governed as a city- state, with a ruler of each mound.

The city was at it’s highest point from 250 to 1900 BC, when it spread out to about 250 acres on a series of mounds, the great bath on the tallest mound.

A small statuete of a female now known as the dancing girl was found in 1926, in Monenjo Daro. There were a series of sculptures found, all of them broken. Also, the decline of the city id a mystery. We have some theories, although we don’t know for sure. The Indus River may have changed course, which would have altered the city’s trade system, or flooding mighy have destroyed the city. However, no evidence has been found.

Roach, John. ""Faceless" Indus Valley City Puzzles Archaeologists." National Geographic. Web. 23 May 2011. .

Reflection Ancient Egypt Unit

1. During this unit, which skills and attributes do you demonstrate?
- Reflect on the Learner Profile

· Inquirer: I was an inquirer during this unit for the last presentation when I taught the class about Egyptian make- up, jewelry, wigs, and hygiene. I started with only jewelry as my topic, but after some convincing from Mrs. Moore I ended up changing it to jewelry, make- up and wigs. Then while I was researching I found out a lot of facts about ancient Egyptian women’s hygiene, so I researched more on the topic. I ended up adding it to my presentation, and having four main ideas instead of three.

· Knowledgeable: At the end of the ancient Egypt unit I really did feel knowledgeable. The area that I learned the most about was ancient women’s adornment, since I did a presentation on it, and I also learned the important ideas and main points from everyone else’s presentations. From doing the Egyptian mapping project I learned about Egypt’s physical features and climate. From the art project I learned about some Egyptian rituals about the afterlife and about the god Anubis, and also about hieroglyphics. I also feel like I have learned a lot from just being in class, listening and taking notes, and even watching fun horrible history videos.

· Communicators: I think that I showed my communicating skills well during the presentation about women’s adornment, mostly through my powerpoint. I didn’t have a lot of text like I usually have, and most of my information was either verbal or off of cue cards. Another part of this unit where I showed communication was in my Egyptian art, where I drew a picture of Anubis weighing a man’s heart. If the man’s heart wasn’t lighter than a feather, he would die and a monster would kill him. Otherwise he would go to the afterlife. I showed communication using hieroglyphics, spelling out the word “Death.”

· Thinkers: I showed my thinking creativity when doing the ancient Egyptian mapping project. We had to somehow fit a partially too big and partially too small piece of paper with countries onto a poster, and make it into a map of ancient Egypt. Sophie and I did this by tracing the countries on and although they weren’t 100% right. Then we also had to decide on a legend to our map, and think of reasonable landmarks. We also had too add all the importantphysical features and cities of ancient and present day Egypt.

· Risk- takers: I think that I was a risk- taker because I’m sort of nervous when I do presentations, and this time I gave a full-time detailed presentation about women adornment, including make- up, jewelry, wigs and hygiene. I was also a risk- taker choosing four main ideas instead of three, since I included hygiene later.

- Reflect on the ATL's

· Organizational: One way I showed organization was while preparing my ancient Egyptain’s adornment presentation, when I was transferring my information from the note sheets to typing it up. It was random facts, nonsense and important information mixed together, so I think I did a good job separating it into different categories and making a power point presentation out of it.

· Collaborative: I think I was collaborative while working on the Egyptian map projects. It was kind of hard to work together on one map, but I think that Sophie and I managed quite well. When we didn’t finish in class we took it home, and we met up on the weekend to make the finishing touches and to put everything together.

· Information Literacy: I also think that I displayed this while researching. It was kind of challenging finding only good websites, and to do this I had to scan and skim through the text. When I found a good one with valid information, it was even harder to put it in my own words, and I think that I did a pretty good job at it.

2. In your own words using examples from any unit studied this year, how did
the physical environment affect the development of civilizations?

One example of how the physical environment changed the ancient Egyptian civilizations was the Nile river. Because it was so rich and fertile, many people settled around it, benefitting of the Nile. This brought people together, and created large civilizations along the Nile rather than many small ones scattered around. However, the mountainous areas of Egypt kept people apart. Civilizations that might have been joined on either side of a mountain wouldn’t be able to, because of the physical barrier, and where there could’ve been one big civilizations there would be two small ones instead. Also, civilizations with fertile land or near resources would grow larger than ones without, and they would develop faster.