Happy Thanksgiving!

Snake and Squid Digestion

     The digestive system of a snake is somewhat like ours. It has salivary glands and sometimes venom glands near its mouth. Its esophagus covers half the length of its body and has internal folds, which can come in handy when the snake is swallowing large prey. Its stomach is, like ours, J-shaped and has gastric juices for breaking up enzymes and proteins. The food goes into the small intestine where the nutrients are absorbed by the snake's body. Next the food goes into the large intestine, the least muscular part of a snake's digestive system. Finally, the waste leaves the body through an opening called the cloaca.

     The squid, however, has a digestive system quite different from ours. The food, usually fish, is first torn apart by the squid's beak, called the radula. Next the food is absorbed by the squid's body and sometimes digested more in the stomach. Then waste is compacted and goes through the anus and out the siphon which is near the mouth.

    

Summer's Gift

Chapter 3: Stairway to Heaven: The Old Kingdom

Since there were so many kings of Egypt, scholars organized them into dynasties according to periods. If Egypt was in a stable period, with one king following the next, the times were called kingdoms. The three kingdoms were called the Old Kingdom, the Middle Kingdom, and the New Kingdom. These long stretches were times of peace and harmony (called ma'at) that came from a stable government. The times in between peaceful periods were called "intermediate periods". This is when the king's authority was challenged.

During the Old Kingdom, around 2700 BCE, the Nile River receded and there was not enough water for the people. In order to help this situation, the Egyptian people devised irrigation systems to move water through parts of the country that were farther away from the Nile River. A less important challenge was a lack of wood, which was easily solved by trading with the nearby country of Lebanon, which had a lot of wood. Also during this time, King Djoser ruled and wanted everyone to see how powerful he was, so he hired an architect named Imhotep to design and build a great stone monument: the world's first step pyramid.

The construction of the step pyramid was dangerous because the higher up the stones were placed, the less stable they became, and loose stones could fall. Imhotep set up a small hospital for those who were injured by the loose stones. He wrote directions on how to recognise an injury and how to treat it. this is the oldest known medical document, bought by Edwin Smith in 1862. It is known as the Edwin Smith papyrus.

(This summary is taken from chapter 3 of The Ancient Egyptian World by Eric H. Cline and Jill Rubalcaba.)

Happy Independence Day!

The Palette of Narmer

The Palette of Narmer is like a two-page comic book in the shape of a shield and carved on both sides. It tells the story of the unification of Egypt under King Narmer. On one side of the palette, Narmer wears the white crown of upper Egypt. On the other side of the palette, he wears the red crown of lower Egypt. He is the first king to rule both. Narmer's name is written on top of both sides and means "angry catfish." He has the head of a cow and that may represent the goddess Hathor. Ancient Egyptians thought that the goddess Hathor was Narmer's mother.

There are two scenes on the first side of the Palette of Narmer. The first scene shows King Narmer about to smash the head of a man kneeling in front of him. The victim is either a man or group that Narmer has beaten in battle. The falcon perched on the reeds is Horus of Nekhen, a symbol of Egyptian royalty and protection of the king. Each papyrus blossom represents the number 1000, and the six papyrus reeds represent the 6000 people of lower Egypt that King Narmer conquered and captured. King Narmer is wearing a bowling pin-shaped hat that represents the white crown of upper Egypt. The person carrying Narmer's sandals is smaller than Narmer to show that he is less important than Narmer. In the second scene, the men who look like they are swimming are really sprawled inside their town because they were conquered.

The back of the Palette of Narmer is divided into three scenes. In the top scene, Narmer is wearing the red crown of lower Egypt. The sandal bearer is still following Narmer, and Narmer is carrying a staff which is a symbol of royalty. Narmer is parading with a group of less important people toward ten bodies with their heads cut off and placed between their legs. These are cowering, conquered enemies - just as cowardly dogs run with their tails between their legs.

In the middle scene, there are two panthers with long necks that intertwine, symbolizing the two parts of Egypt now joined together. The bottom scene shows a bull trampling its enemies as Narmer did - the enemies lie naked and helpless beneath his feet.

Overall, the palette shows Narmer victorious over the forces of evil.

(This summary is taken from chapter 2 of The Ancient Egyptian World by Eric H. Cline and Jill Rubalcaba)

Summer Solstice!

MCA is on break until July.

Oases

Oases (plural form of oasis) are created when the water table rises up from the ground. The water might collect in mountain hollows or springs. People who use the oases are mostly nomadic tribes.

Meadowlands Birding Trip

We had a field trip to the Meadowlands Environmental Center for a Bird Walk with members of the Audubon Society. This year's event was a few weeks later than last year's and resulted in the opportunity to see a lot of butterflies, including the Painted Lady and Question Mark:

Painted Lady

Question Mark

Some of the birds we saw were:

Great Egret

Red-Winged Blackbird

Sandpiper

Black Cormorant

Tree Swallow

Barn Swallow

And we even saw a Bald Eagle flying high above us!

The Ancient Near Eastern World - Unit 7

Unit 7 discusses the great empires that arose to unify the Near East from the 10th century BCE until the arrival of Alexander in the 4th century BCE. The unit begins with the rise of the Assyrian empire and the organization of its government, and then describes how Babylonia reasserted its power and the role of religion during its short revival. Finally, the unit describes the rise and fall of the Persian empire and the legacy of the Mesopotamians.

The Ancient Near Eastern World - Unit 6

Unit 6 covers a study of The Israelites, with movement, religion, and law as the big ideas. Information is presented about the Israelites' arrival and subsequent kingdoms in Canaan, in the Near East close to the Mediterranean Sea. It then discusses the religious beliefs of the Israelites and their laws. Stories from the Old Testament such as the Exodus from Egypt and the Ten Commandments continue the exploration of how, through the ages, the Israelites maintained a strong identity as a separate and united people because of their shared beliefs.

Microscopic Organisims

We got some pond scum from our local river. We put a drop of the water onto a slide and viewed it through a microscope. We also made a movie by putting a smartphone lens onto the eyepiece. We saw paramecia, Euglena, and at least one multi-celled organism. These organisms use flagellum (a little tail that whips around), cillia (little hairs), and amoeboid motion (moving like an amoeba. In other words, moving very slowly) to move around. We named one multi-celled microbe Mitch the Microbe.

Mmmmm. Pi.

As the baker looked up to the sky,

He sighed as he said “How and why?”

“The area I need

Of my pie, yes indeed

Is the radius squared times pi!”

A poet praising Pi

Roses are red, violets are blue,

How many numbers does Pi have,

I do not have a clue.

Pi in the sky
Circle in the sky,

I wonder if it’s pie.

Don’t know if it’s 3.14159,

But it is still divine.

Pi-ku

Circle in the wind

Mathematicians’ wanderings

Calculating Pi.

The Ancient Near Eastern World - Unit 5

Conflict, cultural diffusion, and cooperation are the big ideas presented in Unit 5 of The Ancient Near Eastern World. The unit details the conflicts between peoples in the Near East as the great empires of the time fought for control of the land. These empires ended up sharing the region and trading with each other, rather than conquering each other. But the longest-lasting development from this time was the spread of Indo-European Languages from near the Caspian Sea throughout the Near East, westward through Europe, and eastward to India.

The Ancient Near Eastern World - Unit 4

"Daily Life in ancient Mesopotamia" is explored in Unit 4. Daily life, family, and education are the big ideas, including investigation into the daily activities of the Mesopotamian people as discovered on thousands of tablets that were excavated from archaeological sites and ancient buildings. The tablets told stories of work, school, running a household, and communication.

Metropolitan Museum of Art - NYC

Today we had a field trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City to tour the Ancient Near East exhibit, among others. The Ancient Near East exhibit included:

The Assyrian Empire

The Assyrian Royal Court


The Rise of Civilization: The Ancient Near East c. 8000-3000 B.C.
(this one had a lot of cylinder and stamp seals for cuneiform writing)

Cities, States, and Early Empires: The Ancient Near East c. 3000-1200 B.C.
(more cylinder seals)

Kingdoms and Empires: The Ancient Near East c. 2000 B.C. - A.D. 200

From the Achaemenid to the Sasanian Empire: The Ancient Near East and Silk Road Contacts c. 559 B.C.-A.D. 651

The Interconnected World of the Ancient Near East

The Ancient Near Eastern World - Unit 3

Unit 3 of The Ancient Near Eastern World is about kings and lawgivers, presenting big ideas of empires, laws, and religion. The focus of this unit is on the developing civic institutions in Mesopotamia- Sargon's empire, the laws of Shulgi and Hammurabi, the workings of the legal system, and the role of priestesses and priests.

The Ancient Near Eastern World - Unit 2

In Unit 2, "Religion and Myth," gods, government, and legends are the big ideas. Religion in Ancient Mesopotamia is explored through discussion of the genealogy of the Mesopotamian gods and the origins of humans. This is followed by exploration of the emergence of royalty in Mesopotamian city-states, and a study of the great "Epic of Gilgamesh."

Convection currents

Convection currents are made by heated gasses and liquids. We demonstrated this with an experiment (see video below). The right half of this dish is over a lit burner; the left half contains ice and food coloring. The ice cools the blue water, increasing the water's density. The cool water then flows under the warmer, less dense water, which flows up and back along the surface, until it reaches the cold side and the cycle starts again.

Convection currents also drive home heating, weather patterns, and plate tectonics.

Heat, Volume, and Density

In 1717, a man named Gabriel Daniel Fahrenheit invented the thermometer. He discovered that he could use mercury, a fluid that would expand and contract based on temperature, inside a very thin glass tube to measure temperature. When the liquid in the tube is heated, the molecules get excited and the liquid goes up. When the liquid is cooled, the molecules aren't as active and the liquid goes down.

We made a home-made thermometer out of clear tubing, a glass bottle, blue water, some wire, and hot glue. Here is the video we made:



After we used the thermometer, we put it in a paper bag and froze it to see what would happen. The next day, when we opened the freezer, the bottle was cracked, and the ice was jutting out of the bottle!

Here's what it looked like:





So water expands when it's heated and when it's cold. How can this be? When the water in our bottle thermometer was heated, the water molecules became more energetic spread out, moving the water up the tube. When water cools, the molecules lose energy and move closer together. The water in the tube goes back down. When we put the bottle in the freezer, the water kept contracting until it reached 4 degrees celsius. Between 4 and zero degrees celsius, the water becomes solid, and the molecules expand into a more solid pattern. The ice expanded enough to break the glass bottle!

Hydrometer

A hydrometer is a tool for measuring the density of liquids. We made one by filling a water bottle with marbles and water, we made a hole in the cap and inserted a straw, securing it with hot glue. We had to adjust the water carefully, using an eye dropper, until the bottle floated beneath the surface, with the water level right at a mark on the straw. The total density of the bottle, straw, marbles, plus water and air in the bottle equaled 1 gram per cubic centimeter, the same as the water.

Then we added salt to the water in the cylinder, increasing the water's density, and the hydrometer floated higher. This why boats that travel from a fresh water river into a salty ocean float higher.

The Dead Sea is SO salty, and so dense, that you can even float in it sitting up!
















Watch carefully as we add salt to the fresh water:

The Ancient Near Eastern World - Unit 1

Unit 1 explores Mesopotamia more than 10,000 years ago - from the beginning of writing through early settlements in the Fertile Crescent. Examples of technology and innovation developed by ancient Near Eastern peoples, such as irrigation, wheeled carts and wagons, and Cuneiform writing are discussed.