Current Events: the Nobel Prize (CRISPR) and the Supreme Court

On Fridays, we consider the events of consequence that have transpired during the course of the current week or two. My kids typically enjoy this activity because we often start off with a video news report by CNN10 (which is always a highlight - we don't rely upon a TON of technology, because... data limits :S). Though frequently the bias is obvious, we do enjoy gaining perspective into how many people are thinking about the hot topics of the day. Listening to opposing positions on the issues can make for interesting and lively discussion. In another place, I explain more of what Current Events looks like + What we do. 

Here are the basics:

1. A news source or two + 
2. This Week in History notebook entry +
3. Thoughtful discussion.

Here are a couple of the topics we addressed around the dinner table tonight:

The Nobel Prize (CRISPR) : October 2020

"Emmanuelle Charpentier of France and Jennifer A. Doudna of the United States won the Nobel Prize in chemistry on Wednesday for inventing CRISPR-Cas9." From Creators of gene-editing tool win Nobel Prize.

SUMMARY: Creators of gene-editing tool win Nobel Prize (a one minute read)

Sophia Lee’s interview with bioethicist William Hurlbut about unethical uses of CRISPR: A Question of Ethics - (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED read for high school students)

CONS. "One study, published in Nature Methods; but later retracted, showed that CRISPR can cause hundreds of unintended mutations in genes other than the targeted one." An article published by World Magazine, CRISPR Danger.

PROS. "This technology has had a revolutionary impact on the life sciences, is contributing to new cancer therapies and may make the dream of curing inherited diseases come true," the Nobel Committee said in announcing the prize. (Quote from 2020 Nobel Prize In Chemistry: 2 Scientists Win For Genome Editing Research, NPR)

POINTS OF INTEREST. "This is the first science Nobel to be awarded to an all-female team, according to Science Magazine. The development of CRISPR-Cas9 began serendipitously when Charpentier was studying the bacteria Streptococcus pyogenes, which causes a range of diseases from tonsillitis to sepsis, according to a statement from the Nobel Committee." (For more, read the full article: 2 women earn Chemistry Nobel Prize for gene-editing tool CRISPR | Live Science)

Our Book of Centuries - the details.

This summer I finally learned more about the Book of Centuries used in the CM schools (PNEU/PUS)! I've been longing to give it more study and thought for some time now. I'm so thankful for Laurie Bestvater's posts and talks on the subject. It has been so enlightening to see how Charlotte Mason unified and drew many aspects of education together using the Book of Centuries.

I wonder at how thought through the whole thing is too!  Imagine how helpful to a child's mind (to MY mind and feeble memory) a book of centuries can be... it is intended that it accompany him or her throughout all areas of study.  He is to draw illustrations of artifacts he sees (from museum visits, photographs, etc), fitting them into the time period in which they fit. He could plot the dates of paintings being studied in picture study. He could follow the progressive development of the bow and arrow over the ages, he can mark down the dates of monarchs, discoveries in the field of science, etc.

There are millions of ways to make a timeline and many ways to make a Book of Centuries. But the G.M. Bernau model is superior to other forms for a multitude of reasons. 

Here are several advantages:

• Child-drawn illustrations encourage careful observation (see images below for an example). 
• Seeing an entire century on a page helps the child envision larger chunks of history at a time.
• Value is placed on the child since it is he who decides what facts are important enough to include.
• Because the book is tailored-fit by the child himself, it is a personal, lifelong source of delight.

How to get one!:
I'd LOVE to buy a really nice book like this leather bound one: $40 @ bookofcenturies.com
However, because I didn't buy it when we were back in the US, and we really can't wait any longer (and shipping rates to Peru have always been ridiculous), I've decided to buy a nice quality notebook here and make our own. I think also that making our own will help the boys to personally invest in the project.

The Book of Centuries is different than a timeline in its various forms. We use a communal timeline in our family for the younger years. Our plan is for each child to start their own BoC in AO year 6 or 7. We've taken our pattern from the following description:
Childlightusa - The Book of Centuries Revisited, part one & part two by Laurie Bestvater.
The Book of Centuries by Bernau, a Parent's Review article


Here's how we arranged the pages:
Our notebook has 100 pages (as opposed to 96)
We left a cover page (1st sheet, front and back left blank)

[note: I've reserved multiple pages for each child's beautiful illustrations of the literal biblical 6 day account of Creation.  

1 page for each day of creation, should leave sufficient room for their own creativity 

(obviously this deters from the Bernau example as her first pages are reserved for the different evolutionary "ages" paleolithic, bronze age, iron age, etc.).]

2nd sheet - 1st day of Creation
backside of 2nd sheet - 2nd day of creation
3rd sheet - 3rd day
backside of 3rd sheet - 4th day
4th sheet - 5th day
backside of 4th sheet - 6th day
5th sheet - 7th day
backside of 5th sheet - blank page for illustrations, 50th century BC - 41st century BC

[Bernau's model left pages for each of the evolutionary ages - paleolithic and such, we'll exclude those]

6th sheet - lined sheet, 50th century BC - 41st century BC




Book of Centuries Notebook  (Book of Centuries - 1950? by Eve Anderson? [blue cover]).  search the database at the above link for this image: i3p01-p42pneu162.pdf (page 30-31)
Images of Book of Centuries on display @ Charlotte Mason Digital Collection  same document: i3p01-p42pneu162.pdf (page 32)
These two illustrations show how the blank/lined pages alternated.
You can see on how the drawing from the previous blank page is seen through the lined page.

[in the Bernau example and the BoC we see in the CM Digital Collection, the sheets seemed to alternate with lined and blank sheets so that the following would be slightly different, i.e., the back side of the lined sheets would also be lined.]

backside of 6th - blank page for illustrations, 40th century BC
7th sheet - lined sheet, 40th century BC
backside of 7th - blank page for illustrations, 41st century BC
8th sheet - lined sheet, 41st century BC
backside of 8th - blank page for illustrations, 42nd century BC
9th sheet - lined sheet, 42nd century BC
backside of 9th - blank page for illustrations, 43rd century BC
10th sheet - lined sheet, 43rd century BC
etc. :)

The 2 page spread for 1st century BC is followed immediately by a 2 page spread dedicated to the life of Christ (this is another deviation from the Bernau model).
The following 2 page spread would begin the 1st century AD, followed by the 2nd century AD, continuing on through the 21st century AD.

Following the 2 page spread for the 21st century, there is another blank 2 page spread (used as cover sheet to the appendix of sorts). The appendix will include, 6 - 1000 year @ a glace pages, and pages for maps. Following the cover page, the backside of which, the 2 page spread will be reserved for 1000 year @ a glace pages (6 of them representing 6000 years of world history). These pages will be divided into 10 rows of 10 columns. Each square representing a 10 year period. I don't know yet if I will follow through with this idea, but we will leave those pages blank for now with this in mind.

The rest of the blank pages from there to the back of the book are the pages reserved for maps of the child's own choosing, perhaps illustrating country boundaries or wars or marches, etc. The opposite pages would originally have been lined (same as the rest of the book) so as to include the child's short descriptions of her hand drawn maps.

I will update as our work progresses ;)


Notes if you plan to make your own:
Buying the book ready-made would be 100x easier... just sayin'.
Spiral binding is great for lying flat, but not as durable.
The notebook should have at least 96 sheets.
I prefer blank as opposed to lined because you can always draw lines in, but for the pages reserved for illustrations, lines are not lovely.
A medium/thick paper weight is nice so as to prevent ink leaking through from page to page.



"The Book of Centuries is to history what the nature notebook is to Nature Study." Laurie Bestvater

Charlotte Mason Blog Carnival: Study of History {vol1}

Welcome to the latest edition of the charlotte mason blog carnival !

The Study of History

Images of Book of Centuries by Florence Rankin (?) on display @ Charlotte Mason Digital Collection

Nancy presents Telling the Bees by a Fighting Quaker - Plus a Book Recommendation!
AnnieKate presents Some Favorite Living History Authors
Penney Douglas presents History for History-Makers
Barb presents Weekly Wrap-Up: Better to Think or to Know?
Jenny presents A Book that Fits 
Adding to The Beauty presents Artist Study ~ October 2011 ~ Sandro Botticelli
Nancy presents Singing is to the Song Thrush as Narration is to the Child
Ritsumei presents Aquarium Trip
Jay3fer presents Making a (Rosh Hashanah) Lapbook, the Charlotte Mason way!
amy in peru presents Atmosphere: Intentional Living.

Helpful Links:
The Book of Centuries Revisited by Laurie Bestvater (part one) & (part two)
History: Teaching Practically Considered
Intro to History and Citizenship

Theme for the next carnival:
the Pursuit of Knowledge

Suggested Reading:
CM Series: Vol.6 pg.300ff
PR Article: The Open Road

Submit your blog article to the next edition of the charlotte mason blog carnival HERE!.

Plutarch Study - Alexander

"Using history as a mirror I try by whatever means I can to improve my own life and to model it by the standard of all that is best in those whose lives I write. As a result I feel as though I were conversing and indeed living with them; by means of history I receive each one of them in turn, welcome and entertain them as guests and consider their stature and their qualities and select from their actions the most authoritative and the best with a view to getting to know them. What greater pleasure could one enjoy than this or what more efficacious in improving one’s own character?"

~ Plutarch

So, we carry on in our study Plutarch... last term was Caesar, which was fun as it coincided on the AO schedule with our reading of Shakespeare's Caesar AND the boys have just come to Y6 in which they began reading Augustus Caesar's World. YAY! ...for making LOTS of connections! :)

This term Plutarch's life of Alexander is scheduled. Which we are REALLY enjoying. As we're piling up several terms of Plutarch studied now, we've been excited to discover several connections between famous men of the ancient world. This time as we were reading along, the boys' ears both pricked up as they heard the name of one of the generals opposing Alexander... (you'll have to read it to find out who! ;) He was just mentioned at first in passing (later in more detail), but the mere mention of his name sparked an afternoon flurry of research! Yippee!

Now, in general with Plutarch, we've kind of just taken it as another reading. I like to encourage meaningful discussion if it comes up, but mostly I'm hoping that a lot of the lessons will sink in naturally. ;) I haven't been lucky enough to coincide our study of Plutarch with a term when one of Anne's study guides was available. I like how she puts in a few new vocabulary words to watch out for, a tiny bit of background info, etc. I really like her guides. I really would like to use them. :) So, obviously, I can't wait 'til we get to a life that we can use one her studies for!!!

In the meantime, we are studying Alexander, and alas there is no study for Alexander... so, in my zeal of trying to implement our studies of Plutarch for the purpose intended (*see quote above) - encouragement of citizenship and character training... and not having the time nor skill to do what Anne's done, I've made a character sketch printable for Alexander. Keep in mind, this is intended for Plutarch beginners! I made it to help to get my student's thinking about why we're studying these ancient guys. It isn't a worksheet to be graded. Matter of fact, I gave a copy to each of my boys at the start of the term, and they are free to fill out or not fill out whichever things strike their fancy, as they go. I'm hoping this will help them keep their head wrapped around the man as the 12 week term progresses... especially as we'll have kind of an interrupted term this time around.



Download the Alexander Printable HERE.


Helpful Links:
Ambleside Online Plutarch Rotation
Why Read Plutarch?, article by George Grant
"Plutarch's Lives" as Affording Some Education as a Citizen, A Parent's Review Article, by Miss M. Ambler.
How We Study Plutarch, by lindafay - She lists some great practical ideas...

Book of Centuries and Timelines Galore

Our 'Book of Centuries' (which is actually a Timeline Notebook):
*Update - Timelines are AWESOME fun for younger kids. This post outlines the timeline notebook we use communally when the kids are younger and includes creative ideas and links. Please see this post, and this post for details of the actual BoC that CM used! We will start using a Book of Centuries styled after these in AOy7 when each student will make their own. :) Click here and here to see what we've done.

1) I found a 3-ring binder, well yes, it has been love worn hasn't it...
(if I could get a new one here in Peru and if I hadn't glued the cover right onto the front, I'd say I should change binders already!)

2) I downloaded and printed the free Book of Centuries pages from SimplyCharlotteMason.com
3) I made a collage of clip arts and such for the cover and taped it right on (if I'd had the option at the time, I'd have gotten one of those binders that has the clear plastic cover).  I use picasa to make my collages [read more here]!
4) I put each page in a clear plastic page protector.
5) I made a beginnings page.




Here's the text from that page:

"In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth."  Genesis 1:1

Before there was dirt, grass or houses. When there was no sun, or clouds or oceans - way back then. There was Nothing.

God made Everything.

And time began...

6) I started collecting timeline figures from the internet and here and there and everywhere.  I bought the homeschool in the woods CDs.  The pile of figures below came from some pages I photocopied out of George Washington's world and cut up (AOy4).  The kids like to color these in...




7) In the past, we've been very hit and miss with our Timeline Notebook.  I started it in year one.  But I realized that it was my thing.  Little by little the kids have taken interest.  This year, we are really in earnest.  It actually has its own time slot on the schedule!  Thus the motivation for this post ;) We sometimes paste the figures in, and other times we just slip it into the page protector.  EASY!!  :)  Nothing too fancy or it simply wouldn't get done!!
Here are what some of our pages look like:

If I were a craftsy kinda girl, I'd do one of the cool timeline ideas I've read about, or make up my own.  But I'm not.  So I won't.  To be perfectly honest.  heheh. :)  Here are the ideas that I might do if I had more time, less children... (you may have to join the yahoo group to see the messages?)

Timeline on a string 
{use those little black binder clips (or even paper clips) to hold index cards on fishing line [click here and scroll down, or at the end of the post, click the next entry to read the whole thread]};

 

on a string wrapped around a door; 

or even a Family Tree version.

Below, I've listed some of my favorite links that I've collected over the past several years. Please do share any cool resources you've found or link to your own timeline or book of centuries posts!!

AmblesideOnline specific links:
Common Questions about AO History
The Teaching of Chronology, from the Parent's Review
AmblesideOnline : Files
AmbleRamble : Files

An Island Story:
AmblesideOnline : Message: Re: Island story need timeline figures ch. 22
AmblesideOnline : Message: Our Island Story - Timeline figures

50 Famous Stories:
AO 50 Famous Stories AmblesideOnline.org

Timelines Online
BBC - History - British History Timeline - LOVE this one.  Great for An Island Story, AOy1-5  (use the search option for year or name)
Gazetteer for Scotland Scottish History Timeline 17th Century 
World History HyperHistory - another one with lots of time periods.
Here's a page with a timeline for any time or occasion... http://www3.canisius.edu/~emeryg/time.html

Timeline Figures
TO BUY:  I totally recommend these timeline figures.  They are AWESOME.  They have TONS of figures and are very nicely done.  Easy to search for the person you want... you can also use them as coloring sheets... yes.  I love them.  :)  HTTA - Historical Timeline Figures 

FOR FREE:  There are people studied in the AO years that are not included in the above CDs...
Here are the sites I've used:
Images of Famous British People - British Kings, Christian Heroes, etc, etc. (has almost all the AIS kings, even from the first few chapters, if I remember correctly and lots of figures to use for Shakespeare paper dolls or Little Duke, etc.)
The Famous Kings & Queens of England  (I like the look of these figures best for AIS, but I had already printed the figures from the previous link... :) covers years 872 - 1952.


General Clipart:  (I don't know why anyone would choose to do this... too much time to search and format and print, etc... but here are the links I saved when I was deluded enough to think free made it worthwhile!  :)  Clipart ETC Homepage


Timeline Tutorials
Timelines, Paula's Archives  - This is the single most helpful source I've found online.
History Timelines

Timeline Examples
Book of Centuries - I LOVE this book.  If we advance to the point next year, that each boy makes their own (or if I make MY OWN!), I would like to encourage them to look at this one.  Charmaine did a very nice job.
Timeline Ideas



**Hey!  Don't forget...
please, please share any helpful links!!  that way everyone who stops by can benefit!!  :)  Thank you!