Middle and High School … from a Montessori Point of View
Wilderdom has a wonderful set of cooperative games and icebreaking games that they share for free. They also have a book of optical illusions that would work well for a challenge during morning community meetings.
Their material is copyleft so as along as you attribute them and use the same licensing terms (and cite their Creative Commons License) . You are free to use their stuff as you like.
Matt Might, a computer science professor, has a wonderful article posted called The illustrated guide to a Ph.D.. I like how it illustrates the broad base of knowledge you should acquire through high school.
A change of perspective can give the most amazing insights. I find macro photographs, particularly of insects, to offer a stunningly refreshing view of these nuisances. Luc Viatour, whose image is posted above, has some wonderful, copyright permissive, pictures.
Alternatively, Miroslaw Swietek has some amazing images of insects covered in droplets of dew (taken at around 3:00 am).
John Kimbler also has some spectacular photos as well as a nice article on how to do macro photography. The Wikipedia page on macro photography is also quite useful in that it goes into how to adapt your camera to take these photographs.
Photography, with it extensive use of refraction and reflection is a great avenue to talk about waves and their properties. Macro photography can be quite effective at striking the imagination and getting into taxonomy and entomology.
Despite the elegance of the plain white marble statues from ancient Greece, they were originally painted. The Boston Globe and the Smithsonian Magazine have great articles on how the reconstruction of the coloring is done and on Vinzenz Brinkmann, the archeologist who did much of this work.
Molten glass, upwards of 2000 degrees, cools slowly, quickly, slow enough to pull, twist, fast enough to feel the brittleness between metal tweezers in seconds. Runny to viscous as it cools. Change of state — freezing — feel it in the glass.
Tweezers and jacks keep hot glass at a distance. Third class levers require balance and firmness to control their mechanical advantage.
Glass, silica, SiO2. Quartz crystals, ordered array of molecules. Glass, no organization, amorphous.
Furnaces blast hot, you can see the yellow-orange color, you can feel the hard infra-red light, thermal energy. IR – long wave – less energetic. When extra heat is needed, the blue/ultra-violet flame of propane (mixed with oxygen). UV – short wave – high energy – hard on the eyes though you can’t see it.
Combustion needs three things, heat, fuel and oxygen. Propane, C3H8, not methane, CH4 – the greater energy density. Propane, C3H8, not butane, C4H10 – is a gas not a liquid. To burn real hot needs extra oxygen.
Conservation is a challenge. Furnaces –> heat –> lots of energy –> bad. Natural light, big doors, lots of windows. Recycle glass (at least the clear glass). No need for heat in the winter. Drink lots of water in the summer.
3rd Degree Glass Factory, make your own paperweights. About 12 minutes per person. Excellent way to spend a morning. Really cool faucets and water basins in the bathroom.
Lambert’s Cafe is an interesting cultural icon. Seriously small-town and farm-country, the staff all wear red suspenders and bow ties. Seating in long wooden benches, and the drinks in enormous, reusable plastic cups. The cups really captures the ethos. Red, black and blue, they are cheap, thick walled and have see a lot of use, so much so that the logos and markings on many of them are coming off.
They also throw rolls to you from across the room. It’s their thing. It’s a lot of fun, although under and over throws can come as a bit of a surprise to the unsuspecting. Someone is always walking around with tins of sorghum mollasses and apple butter which are quite good.
At any rate, Lambert’s is located at a convenient half-way point between Memphis and St. Louis, so it makes for a reasonable break on the long drive.
[googleMap name=”Lambert’s Cafe” description=”Food stop” width=”400″ height=”350″ mapzoom=”6″ mousewheel=”false”]2305 E Malone Ave Sikeston, Missouri 63801[/googleMap]