Western Civ 2018

Today in western civ we took a test on Ancient Greece. The test was on pink paper, I have no idea why, but it was very cool. There was 33 questions on the test and overall it was very easy. I was then able to do my blog once everyone was finished  and Scott decided to play a game on his laptop which was not allowed. Mr. Schick went outside to grade our tests and thought that when he left Scott would play games which I don't think he did. Scott also thought that he got a question correct on the one involving the Lyceum. Scott also told us that he didn't do so well on the ones involving Archimedes and he got the one easy question on Socrates wrong. So far I was the only person who got an A on the test (yeah me). Well hopefully everyone else can improve their grades.

Today we reviewed for Hellenistic culture in preparation for the test tomorrow. We learned about what makes up Hellenistic culture and talked about science, mathematics, and sculptures. The cultures that make up Hellenistic culture are Greek, Egyptian, Indian, and Persian. Alexandria was the foremost center for commerce and culture/civilization. Some of the attractions included Alexander's coffin, Pharos (a lighthouse),  and a library filled with 500,000 papyrus scrolls. In the astronomy side of things Aristarchus said that planets and stars revolve around the sun but Ptolemy said that everything revolved around the Earth (he was wrong) but his idea was what was taught for 14 centuries. Then Eratosthenes said that the Earth is round. Now onto math and physics. Euclid wrote a book called Elements which is a book all on geometry. Archimedes estimated the value of pi, explained the law of the lever and used the Archimedes screw to raise water from the ground. Stoicism was invented by

Today in western civ we started to prepare for our test that we are having on Wednesday. Mert was absent today, he was in Turkey, hopefully he is having a good time. We talked about Alexander the Great today and tomorrow we are talking about Hellenistic culture. Some of the things we talked about included the regions he conquered, his early life, how he died and many more things. The death of Alexander the Great is unknown all we know is that he died at the age of 32. He may have died from a war wound, a fever, an STD, or something else. He had a horse named  Bucephalus. When his father died, generals thought they should be king of Macedonia, but Alexander defended himself by saying that he was the son and he ended up being king and executed the people who stood against him. It was a very interesting class today I wish Mert was there to see it, he would've liked it.

Today Ryan redid his presentation because he didn't do so well on the previous one. He actually did really well today with his presentation on Homer. After that we started to talk abut the snow and how we were getting out early. Then Mr. Schick showed us some pictures and Amon was getting scared of the dogs. We also talked about the new cell phone and computer policies in which you get an assigned place to put your phone and you can only go on your laptop if the teacher says you can. At first a lot of people didn't see the list showing them which slot their phone went in but now they've learned, hopefully. We may or may not have school tomorrow so stay tuned.

Today Mr. Schick wasn't here today but we have to  answer questions in our blog so here we go. 1. Hellenistic- blending of Egyptian, Persian, and Indian culture.      Alexandria- foremost center of Hellenistic civilization.       Euclid- highly regarded mathematician.        Archimedes- important Hellenistic scientist.         Colossus of Rhodes- bronze statue that is one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. 3. When trading occurred in Alexandria different people from all over the world came, spreading their culture therefore adding to the cultural diversity. 4. Some of Euclid's geometrical work may have later been turned into star charts showing different constellations. 5. Both of them state that a god or gods rule the universe. There are the answers to the questions we needed to answer and hopefully they are correct.

Today Dylan went and did his project on Democracy and in it he also showed us a chart of the countries of the world and showed us how close they were to becoming a full democracy. The U.S. wasn't even close to becoming a full democracy, in fact we are a democratic republic meaning we vote on people to make our decisions. To be a full democracy it has to be completely run by the people. Then Richie, Marcus, Nick, and Jimmy went and told us awesome facts about the trireme and had a model of one. They told us things like it's history and how many people it can hold and other little facts on it. Then we read some things about the Hellenistic era in Greece but didn't take notes on it, surprisingly. That was basically what happened so see you next time.

Today my group went first in presenting the projects. Our project was called Greek Civilization and we talked about things that included the Peloponnesian War, The Trojan Horse, Odysseus' travels, and the Parthenon. We had some really good facts on each of our topics that we discussed. Hopefully we get a good grade. The next group that went did their project on Greek pottery and on it told the one of the stories of the famed Greek god, Hercules. They had a lot of information on Hercules and his many stories and battles. One of the stories he is fighting a hydra, another he lifts the Earth for the titan Atlas, and another one when he was a baby, defeated snakes that the goddess, Hera, sent to destroy Hercules. They deserve a good grade. That was all we had time for today so next class we have two more projects to see.

Today we saw a few groups got to present today. We started with the food group (a lot of people and I thought that they were very good.) This group didn't just talk about food, they made some and gave it to the class and was very tasty. After that we went to the Greek Warfare group and they also didn't do to bad if I do say so myself. They actually pretended to have armor and weapons which I thought was really cool. The last group that went was the one that talked about the Olympics. They talked about the very first Olympics and how it got started and about what events took place. They were also very good. I'm uncertain of who is going next time we have class but I'm sure my group will be one of them. Hopefully these groups get the grades they deserve.

So as the title of my blog says, we are almost done our projects. We will be presenting them next week. My group is basically done not sure about other groups but the first group that is presenting is the one doing Ancient Greek food, after that we will have to see who goes next. We are also grading ourselves by writing down what each member of the group should get. Also as a reminder to the other groups, if you went to other websites you need to cite them on your presentations you can do that through EasyBib, other than that you are probably good. Just to recap: presenting next week, food group goes first, grading ourselves, and cite sources if needed.  That's all so hopefully everyone does good on their project.

Today we talked about people getting power outages and also learned that Dave doesn't know where he lives. Dave narrowed down where he lives to Bel Air. Also, Scott said that he lived close to Dave. After the whole power outage thing we went to working on our projects. I started adding stuff about the Trojan Horse while Mert added things about the Parthenon. Rafay and Ryan added some things about Spartan soldiers. That was basically the jist of what we did today. Mr. Schick also showed us some pictures of what the storm did to his house's trees. Those things were just total ripped out of the ground. It shocked me at first but you need to see it to believe it.

Today we learned about the many adventures of Alexander the Great. He was the son of King Phillip II. He was also a student of Aristotle. Once Phillip was murdered at his daughter's wedding in 336 B.C. Alexander then became king of Macedonia. To help motivate him throughout his battles, Alexander kept a copy of the Iliad with him under his pillow. He also became a pharaoh of Egypt and founded Alexandria. He eventually died at age 32 because of an illness in 323 B.C. During his time, Darius III was king of Persia and they constantly battled. Then some of Alexander's followers took his job as leaders of certain areas. Antigonus became king of Macedonia, Ptolemy became a pharaoh, and Seleucus took most of the old Persian empire.

Today we went back to our project as so says my title. In my group Rafay and Mert are working on the map part of the project while Ryan and I work on the presentation. In our presentation we talked about the different aspects of the Spartan and Athenian army. Some facts about the Spartan army were that they wore red to show that they weren't bleeding, boys were trained at the age of seven, and to them long hair equated to freedom. The Athenians had a great army and navy. Their soldiers on land mainly consisted of hoplites. They mainly used javelins but they also used spears, slings and bows. These two armies eventually fight each other in the Peloponnesian War and Sparta emerges victorious.