Thanks to all the families for a fabulous breakfast.
What a feast.
We truly enjoyed our time with you all.
And very nice to have the boxes of cookies all our own.
We had a fine trip, traveling like pros on the MTA
buses to and from the Mapparium.
Special thanks to Vonnie Williams and Carol Densmore, our chaperones.
Enjoy the snow!
- Norah and Dan
Thursday, December 13, 2007
Monday, December 10, 2007
HIstory of the Mapparium
http://www.marybakereddylibrary.org/exhibits/mapparium.jhtml
Construction on the Mapparium began in April 1934. By January 1935, the glass panels were being produced at a rate of about 50 per week. Churchill rushed to complete the entire project for June 1, 1935.
Once the panels were completed, they were fitted into the spherical bronze frame that holds the entire structure together. Finally, 300 light bulbs were installed to illuminate the globe from the outside. Total cost for the project was about $35,000. The result: An extraordinary piece of art and architecture that was then, and still is today, the only one of its kind.
An Old World. A New View.
Churchill called his new room the "Mapparium," using the Latin terms mappa, "map" and "arium, "a place for." It was an immediate and overwhelming success. Within the first four months, more than 50,000 people came to view this amazing structure.
While flat maps and globes offered the same information, people were astonished by such a new and engrossing view of the world. Nowhere else could people see the entire world in such a unique perspective, and visitors marveled at the fascinating relationships between bodies of water and land. Upon its opening, people immediately noted facts like:
* A vast portion of the world is covered by water
* New York City, Madrid, Naples, and Beijing all share the same latitude
* Most of the world's land masses are north of the equator
* There are two different islands named 'Cocos' at exactly opposite positions on the globe
* The Magnetic North Pole is quite far from the actual North Pole
* Hawaii (not yet a state in 1935) looks somewhat lonely in the Pacific
Another intriguing characteristic visitors noticed immediately was actually unintentional. Inside the Mapparium, you'll notice a very strange sound quality. The spherical shape and glass construction create an odd acoustical property that allows you to hear your own voice as if you were speaking into your own ears! Also, if two people stand at each end of the 30-foot bridge, they can whisper to each other and be heard as if they were standing side by side.
Today, the Mapparium is a snapshot of the world in another time. Nowhere else can you view the world in such a unique perspective, and see just how much the world has changed.
Construction on the Mapparium began in April 1934. By January 1935, the glass panels were being produced at a rate of about 50 per week. Churchill rushed to complete the entire project for June 1, 1935.
Once the panels were completed, they were fitted into the spherical bronze frame that holds the entire structure together. Finally, 300 light bulbs were installed to illuminate the globe from the outside. Total cost for the project was about $35,000. The result: An extraordinary piece of art and architecture that was then, and still is today, the only one of its kind.
An Old World. A New View.
Churchill called his new room the "Mapparium," using the Latin terms mappa, "map" and "arium, "a place for." It was an immediate and overwhelming success. Within the first four months, more than 50,000 people came to view this amazing structure.
While flat maps and globes offered the same information, people were astonished by such a new and engrossing view of the world. Nowhere else could people see the entire world in such a unique perspective, and visitors marveled at the fascinating relationships between bodies of water and land. Upon its opening, people immediately noted facts like:
* A vast portion of the world is covered by water
* New York City, Madrid, Naples, and Beijing all share the same latitude
* Most of the world's land masses are north of the equator
* There are two different islands named 'Cocos' at exactly opposite positions on the globe
* The Magnetic North Pole is quite far from the actual North Pole
* Hawaii (not yet a state in 1935) looks somewhat lonely in the Pacific
Another intriguing characteristic visitors noticed immediately was actually unintentional. Inside the Mapparium, you'll notice a very strange sound quality. The spherical shape and glass construction create an odd acoustical property that allows you to hear your own voice as if you were speaking into your own ears! Also, if two people stand at each end of the 30-foot bridge, they can whisper to each other and be heard as if they were standing side by side.
Today, the Mapparium is a snapshot of the world in another time. Nowhere else can you view the world in such a unique perspective, and see just how much the world has changed.
Thursday, December 6, 2007
News and announcements
Our Class breakfast is next week on Thursday
December 13th. We are looking forward to your visit.
Contact class parents, Nina Berger,
Regina Daley and Simone Leibman for more details.
Our Field Trip to the Mapparium on the same day
Chaperones are welcome. We will travel by MBTA.
And be back in time for...
H20 Childrens Theater production the same afternoon
at 2PM. Many of our 4th grade students are in this production so we
wish them well --ooops, we say "break a leg". *
* Traditional definition
"break a leg" = in Shakespeare's time,
during the final bows or
curtain call, audiences would throw money,
usually coins, onto the stage.Actors would then
'take a knee', effectively breaking their leg line,
on stage and pick up the money.
As a result, when you wish someone to 'break a leg'
it refers to wishing them success in their performance so in the end
they need to "break a leg".
December 13th. We are looking forward to your visit.
Contact class parents, Nina Berger,
Regina Daley and Simone Leibman for more details.
Our Field Trip to the Mapparium on the same day
Chaperones are welcome. We will travel by MBTA.
And be back in time for...
H20 Childrens Theater production the same afternoon
at 2PM. Many of our 4th grade students are in this production so we
wish them well --ooops, we say "break a leg". *
* Traditional definition
"break a leg" = in Shakespeare's time,
during the final bows or
curtain call, audiences would throw money,
usually coins, onto the stage.Actors would then
'take a knee', effectively breaking their leg line,
on stage and pick up the money.
As a result, when you wish someone to 'break a leg'
it refers to wishing them success in their performance so in the end
they need to "break a leg".
Study Update
Our choreographers for Green Streets:
Courteney, Asha and Shayna.
MATH:
We are studying multiplication of larger
numbers and working on computing area. All of
which is leading us towards algebraic equations.
SCIENCE: We are studying simple machines and the
physics of how they work
THEME:
We are working on backdrops for our video projects for the
rock opera and studying lines for our skits.
READING:
We started a unit on Fairy Tales and are
working on readinf many fairy tales and
indentifying and understanding elements of
story structure,themes and plot.
SPELLING:
This week, some students wrote our
optional spelling extension and 3 examples follow.
"Use your spelling words to create a
poem using Shel Silverstein’s poem,
Where the Sidewalk Ends"
Where the Crimson Ends
By Christian James K. Corrigan
There is a place where the crimson ends before the flight begins and
There life starts its path and there the moon glows bright
and the clouds are white, not stained red
That is where the sun rests for embarking on its daily journey
That is where life takes it flight away, to night.
The place is the place where the knife and gun both end forever.
No more bloodlust, peace forever, no more war.
Where the crimson ends.
Where the Homework Ends
By Sophie Needles
There is a time when homework ends
And before Homework Starts
And there your dreams come true.
And there are crimson flowers in your head
and a flight of dragons.
You can roller blade on the asphalt with
roller blades measured to fit you.
You only know you don’t have homework
Its an enormous bunch of fun.
Where the Asphalt Ends
by Ilana Huggins
There is a place where the asphalt ends
and the North begins
Where the proud polar bear hunts near
Enormous stretches of white.
Where the asphalt ends.
A Friendship Poem
by Harriet Thomson
A friend,
One to
Trust one,
To love.
Monday, December 3, 2007
GM annouces Volt, a new electric car ... and a Video that illustrates carbon pollution
January 7, 2007 -
Last month, Bob Lutz, General
Motors' renowned car czar, stood before a room
full of reporters and offered a stunning mea
culpa. "A few years ago," he said,"we made a bad
decision." That decision: GM failed to green
light a hybrid car, even though it had the
know-how and the technology left over from its
failed EV1 electric car.
Toyota, of course, made
the opposite decision and today its Prius hybrid
is the envy of the automotive world. "The value
Toyota got out of the Prius, in terms of
positioning themselves as the world technology
leader, was incredible," bemoans Lutz. "Now we're
in a position to play catch-up."
This week at the Detroit Auto Show, GM hopes to
shock the car-buying public by unveiling its
catch-up vehicle: The Chevy Volt, a plug-in
hybrid that GM says can go 150mpg or more.
When will the Volt arrive? GM won't say.
If the Volt does hits the streets, here's how it
will work: You'd plug your car into a regular
110-volt outlet in your garage every night. When
you head off for work in the morning, you could
go for 40 miles on pure electricity, without that
little engine kicking in to recharge the
batteries. So if your daily commute is under 40
miles, as is the case for most Americans, you'd never burn a drop of gas.
If you have a longer commute, the Volt then
becomes the ultimate gas miser. Let's say you
live 30 miles from your job, so your daily
round-trip is 60 miles. That means the Volt will
run 40 miles on pure electricity and 20 miles on
kilowatts generated by its little gasoline
engine. The net mileage: 150mpg. That is, unless
you have some place to plug in while you're at
work. That lithium-ion battery gets fully powered
up in about six hours. So if you recharge while
you work, you'll never burn any gas.
GM was stung—and spurred on—by the drubbing it
took in last summer's documentary "Who Killed the
Electric Car?" The film laid the blame at GM's
doorstep, saying it never supported its fledgling
EV1 that became a darling of Left Coast enviros
in the '90s. But the tiny two-seater never caught
on with the general public because after driving
it for 60 to 90 miles, you had to stop and
recharge it for eight hours. By contrast, even if
you forgot to plug-in the Volt, you could go 640
miles between fill-ups and get 50mpg with the
engine charging the batteries, GM says. This
technology sounds so tantalizing, GM's biggest
risk is not delivering on it. Says Becker, "Then
the sequel to the movie is 'Who Didn't Build the Volt?'"
The U.K independent
US car giants launch green drive
By Stephen Foley in Detroit
Published: 08 January 2007
http://news.independent.co.uk/business/news/article2134926.ece
http://current.com/items/87610321_ecospot_grand_prize_winner_sky_is_fallingJan.
Last month, Bob Lutz, General
Motors' renowned car czar, stood before a room
full of reporters and offered a stunning mea
culpa. "A few years ago," he said,"we made a bad
decision." That decision: GM failed to green
light a hybrid car, even though it had the
know-how and the technology left over from its
failed EV1 electric car.
Toyota, of course, made
the opposite decision and today its Prius hybrid
is the envy of the automotive world. "The value
Toyota got out of the Prius, in terms of
positioning themselves as the world technology
leader, was incredible," bemoans Lutz. "Now we're
in a position to play catch-up."
This week at the Detroit Auto Show, GM hopes to
shock the car-buying public by unveiling its
catch-up vehicle: The Chevy Volt, a plug-in
hybrid that GM says can go 150mpg or more.
When will the Volt arrive? GM won't say.
If the Volt does hits the streets, here's how it
will work: You'd plug your car into a regular
110-volt outlet in your garage every night. When
you head off for work in the morning, you could
go for 40 miles on pure electricity, without that
little engine kicking in to recharge the
batteries. So if your daily commute is under 40
miles, as is the case for most Americans, you'd never burn a drop of gas.
If you have a longer commute, the Volt then
becomes the ultimate gas miser. Let's say you
live 30 miles from your job, so your daily
round-trip is 60 miles. That means the Volt will
run 40 miles on pure electricity and 20 miles on
kilowatts generated by its little gasoline
engine. The net mileage: 150mpg. That is, unless
you have some place to plug in while you're at
work. That lithium-ion battery gets fully powered
up in about six hours. So if you recharge while
you work, you'll never burn any gas.
GM was stung—and spurred on—by the drubbing it
took in last summer's documentary "Who Killed the
Electric Car?" The film laid the blame at GM's
doorstep, saying it never supported its fledgling
EV1 that became a darling of Left Coast enviros
in the '90s. But the tiny two-seater never caught
on with the general public because after driving
it for 60 to 90 miles, you had to stop and
recharge it for eight hours. By contrast, even if
you forgot to plug-in the Volt, you could go 640
miles between fill-ups and get 50mpg with the
engine charging the batteries, GM says. This
technology sounds so tantalizing, GM's biggest
risk is not delivering on it. Says Becker, "Then
the sequel to the movie is 'Who Didn't Build the Volt?'"
The U.K independent
US car giants launch green drive
By Stephen Foley in Detroit
Published: 08 January 2007
http://news.independent.co.uk/business/news/article2134926.ece
http://current.com/items/87610321_ecospot_grand_prize_winner_sky_is_fallingJan.
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Plastic Bags, Green Streets, electric cars and such...
This week is Green Streets and we are asking people to think bout reducing their use of fossil fuel all week and stand and be counted on FRIDAY. Today we learned that burning one gallon of gas adds 19 pounds of CO2 into the atmosphere (yes, 19 pounds !) - we hope to do a short skit and rap at the assembly.
(from the movie, >Who Killed the Electric Car? )
TRUE or FALSE:
1. 100 years ago there were more electric cars than gasoline cars.
2. In 1997 Tom Hanks, actor and activist said GM Electric Vehicle was fully electric but unsafe and expensive to run.
3. In 1996, the GM CEO Roger Smith was totally against building an electric vehicle.
4. In 1990 the State of California issued a 25% emission reduction mandate.
5. In the late 90s, imitating the GM Impact, 5 large car companies brought out models of fully electric cars.
Plastic bag links...
(from the movie, >Who Killed the Electric Car? )
TRUE or FALSE:
1. 100 years ago there were more electric cars than gasoline cars.
2. In 1997 Tom Hanks, actor and activist said GM Electric Vehicle was fully electric but unsafe and expensive to run.
3. In 1996, the GM CEO Roger Smith was totally against building an electric vehicle.
4. In 1990 the State of California issued a 25% emission reduction mandate.
5. In the late 90s, imitating the GM Impact, 5 large car companies brought out models of fully electric cars.
Plastic bag links...
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Welcome to the Inventor's blog
Here is a place to connect online with students, staff,
friends and family of the 4th grade of the Atrium school.
To be able to comment on the blog you
will need to get a free gmail account at Google.
Any one may subscribe to our blog feed and you
will be alerted whenever we post something new.
For this week [and the last] the blog will replace our newsletter.
We will decide whether to keep the newsletter.
Below, in this blog you will see posts related our field trip
to Genzyme last week and a video card for Dan has
been removed until we can work out a youtube glitch.
We have been working on our Rock Opera words and images.
We are learning more about inventions and simple machines.
In math students are working on probability and really
knowing their times tables.
Suggestions and contributions are requested.
We are new to this and we value your ideas,
as well as your writing and interesting links.
Have a great weekend and see you on Monday.
Thanks.
All the best,
Norah
friends and family of the 4th grade of the Atrium school.
To be able to comment on the blog you
will need to get a free gmail account at Google.
Any one may subscribe to our blog feed and you
will be alerted whenever we post something new.
For this week [and the last] the blog will replace our newsletter.
We will decide whether to keep the newsletter.
Below, in this blog you will see posts related our field trip
to Genzyme last week and a video card for Dan has
been removed until we can work out a youtube glitch.
We have been working on our Rock Opera words and images.
We are learning more about inventions and simple machines.
In math students are working on probability and really
knowing their times tables.
Suggestions and contributions are requested.
We are new to this and we value your ideas,
as well as your writing and interesting links.
Have a great weekend and see you on Monday.
Thanks.
All the best,
Norah
get well card
Get well soon Dan!
We miss you,
Courteney, Cole, Asha, Isabel,
Christian, Alie, Ilana, Sophie, Eli,
Mark, Harriet, Eric, Shayna, Norah and Linda
Monday, November 12, 2007
Field trip to Genzyme and more
Thanks to Matt Berlin we were able to get a
tour of the Genzyme building
in Cambridge.
http://www.genzyme.com/genzctr/genzctr_home.asp
Students learned a lot about practical solutions at
work in fight against global warming.
At the Fogg Art Musem and Carpenter Center children examined
works of art for the "main idea".
Thanks to all the chaperones, and staff who helped with this trip.
Links to some fun videos will follow. Alas youtube is not reliable as to
"next links" so we will work on video component to the blog.
tour of the Genzyme building
in Cambridge.
http://www.genzyme.com/genzctr/genzctr_home.asp
Students learned a lot about practical solutions at
work in fight against global warming.
At the Fogg Art Musem and Carpenter Center children examined
works of art for the "main idea".
Thanks to all the chaperones, and staff who helped with this trip.
Links to some fun videos will follow. Alas youtube is not reliable as to
"next links" so we will work on video component to the blog.
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