techdevelopments.xls
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Exploravision - Toshiba's Contest for Inventive Minds

Download this file for note taking during viewing of Connections

Assignment - October 14, 2011

Download the file below for your computer and fill it out on the Worksheet tab.  Look at the Example tab to see what I'd like your finished version to look like...and no, you cannot write about automatic coffee makers.

You may have to use different font sizes to fit your information into the boxes.  There is a file for Excel and for LibreOffice Calc.  Choose the one your computer can handle.

Remember, choose a technology that you yourself use regularly.  Think about this thoroughly, and in the broad terms we've discussed, especially when you look up the earlier ideas that led to your technology.  Use your notes, too. Due date: Midnight, October 20 (Thursday night).

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techdevelopments.xls
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techdevelopmentslibreoffice.ods
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Innovation and Invention - Nov. 18

Questions that spur innovation and invention.

_Additional Activities for Flash Cards - Dec. 2

Go to the Lab Blog for further information.

April 27, 2012 Assignment -
Please go to Lab Blog and follow the instructions
for the activity given there.

First Activity of Fall, 2012:

LINK: Knowledge Web

James Burke looks at history in a way that is different from the way we usually learn about it.  In his view, things come about because somebody at a certain moment made a new connection between things that other people had made or were talking about - and ended up with something that became more important because of the connections that happened after it.

What was that again?

OK. Just click on the link above that says Knowledge Web.  It will take you to James Burke's website with a video that explains what he's trying to do.  After that you can check out his page of journeys through history based on these connections (by clicking the second Knowledge Web link in the first line of this paragraph).

You can read the connections between

• Frederick the Great and the Bottle Cap
• Canned Food and Sociology
• Mozart and Helicopters
• Notre Dame Cathedral (the Hunchback's home?) and Chewing Gum
• Corn Flakes and Communism
• Goethe and Margarine
• Wallpaper and Germ Theory

If you look at that list, it's pretty silly sounding, but the connections are there.  Take a look, if you don't believe me...I particularly like the ones that start with Mozart and Goethe (which is why they're linked).

Your Assignment:
Read through as many of the tours as you want, but read through the two I put links on for sure (Mozart and Goethe). You only have to do the following for ONE of the tours.

1. Try to figure out the overall span of time (from when to when) and how far apart all the different steps along the way are in time.  Now, to do this, you're going to have to be a detective.  For example, starting with Mozart, who died in 1791 and moving to Beaumarchais, who died in 1799 (I had to look that up) but we're told he was active during our War for Independence, which took place between 1775 and 1783, and who influenced Jefferson when he was governor of Virginia - was that before or after he was President of the U.S.? I would then keep doing this for all the people in the span.
2. Count up and list all the different categories each person was active in during their lives, such as political leader, scientist, musician, writer, poet, athlete, soldier, architect, philosopher, judge, socialite, industrialist, banker, etc.
3. Create a document that summarizes what you've done in 1 and 2 above. You may want to use Word or Excel or PowerPoint, depending on how you want to present the information.
4. Either print the document and bring it to class, or send it to me using the homework upload on the upper left side of this page.
   

Some Helps:

• James Burke is British so he sometimes says things in ways that we're not used to in America.  For example, the phrase "chattering classes" is meant to describe the artsy, educated crowd who have opinions on everything and don't mind telling you!
• Goethe has a name that is often used as a "test" by the chattering class types because it isn't pronounced the way it looks.  Because it's German, the closest way to pronounce it for English speakers sounds like "gerta" but you have to make the ' r ' as short as possible.
• Don't spend too much time looking through all the details about the people listed. You'll get buried in all their accomplishments. Stick with a single piece of information and try to track it down.  If you have to do more than one web search, that's okay, but aim at only trying to find the answer to one thing at any given moment. 
  
• Try using timelines (chronologies) to find important moments in time, if you can't find them another way.
  
• Be very specific with your search words. Use words that would be on a web page that answers what you're looking for. For example, reign King Louis XV would probably work to tell you when Louis the Fifteenth was on the throne. (Remember: monarchs are usually not on the throne when they're born, but their reigns usually end when they die. So, a king or queen's birth year is probably not the beginning of their reign.) 
• If you've read this far, I'll give you another video link here that has James Burke actually going over the Mozart journey.  Oh, and look down below all this for a way to help organize the information...
• Remember, all I'm asking for is the two things in #1 and #2.  You're going to show me the span of years and the marking points along the way for the first one, and a summary list of all the things the people in the list were known for for the second. Use the best way you can to display your information - either Excel, PowerPoint, or Word.
  

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organizer_for_knowledge_web12.xls
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May 25, 2012 Assignment -

All but two of you have sent me your Did You Know lists - so the next part of the assignment is to take ONE (1) Did You Know from each student's list and add it to a list you're making for yourself of 30 Did You Know facts. You can find the compilation of everyone's facts on the server in the 1Did You Know folder inside 1Collection2013 - use the \\DLINK-D1F1B9 route to Volume1 | Students| etc. on the server

• That's the assignment - create a list of 30 separate Did You Know facts gathered from your own 3 plus 27 others in the folder.

But here's what I'm also expecting:

• No duplicates.
• The most interesting (to you) first.
• More than just words on the page (make it look interesting - but in a way that fits what's on the page)
• Your NAME on the page!