Assignment 6 (7th and 8th Grade), Assignment 8 (6th Grade): Planet Earth Exposed!, Part 1

1. Get ready to see some incredible videos of nature.  Choose 3:

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Birds
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Fox and Ducks
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Grass
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Rainforest
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Shallow Seas
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Sharks

2. Now answer the following questions in your blog:

a) Describe the environments shown in the videos you chose. What plants or animals lived there?
b) How are the places you saw different from the nature we have in New York City?  How, if at all, are they similar?
c) Of the environments you saw, which were the most interesting?  If you could travel to one, which would it be and why?

–> Click HERE to see an example


Ayiti: The Cost of Life

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In Haiti only about half of the children receive an education and only two percent finish high school.  Without a proper education, the poor stay poor in Haiti (and many countries like this.)  While education is the key to rising out of poverty, many parents are not able to send their kids to school.  Why not?  Play the game below to find out:

Play the game Ayiti  about life in Haiti by clicking HERE.  In your blog answer the following questions:

1)  How is Ayiti different from 3rd World Farmer?  How is it the same?

2) What strategies did you use? For example, did you combine work and school, or did you send everyone to work? Which worked? Which did  not?

3)  Why would parents choose to devote so much effort to sending their children to school?  What obstacles did you face in trying to keep them in school?

** BONUS **

4. Explore a Google map of Haiti by clicking HERE.  What are some things you observe about the country?  For example, which city in Haiti has the most houses?  What part of Haiti seems the emptiest?   What countries are near Haiti?

Top Blogs of the Month: March

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Top Top Blog

MJuan

Outstanding Poems

ATorres, SColon 1, SColon2, RContreras, LHernandez 1, DLopez, CMarquez, EMcneil, BUrena, ISimon 1, ISimon 2

Extraordinary Bling Final Projects

JSalas, APichardo, TCarter, SCorrea, BTan, MJuan, AEstevez, NPerez, ISimon

Slammin’ Sneaker Diagrams and Bubbls

EColon, CArce, SnMohamed

Brilliant Random Posts and Never Evers

AGivens, NRodriguez, KAlcantara, GMangin, DHenderson, JSalas, CSantos, RAlvarez, AFigueroa, MRahman

Unbeatable Basketball Poems

MDavila, JTlatenchi, EMcneil

More Fun with Flickr

BTan, DLopez, CSamms, SSabah, SnMohamed, ARobins, NWilliams

Splendid Super Size Me Comics and Videos

LHernandez, RContreras, RHernandez, DSim, JTlatenchi, GCalcano, SColon,

Irresistable Break-in Apologies and Break-up Letters

MDavila, JMerritt, CArce, SGreen, EMcNeil, PNegron, DBeauchamp, CSamms, NWilliams

Best Garbage Diagrams and Interviews

MJuan, PNegron, DHill, JLopez, THarris, AQuintero, RVentura

Deep Thoughts and High School Letters from the Future

JMerritt 1, JMerritt 2GCalcano, ASanchez, LHernandez, RAlvarez, JPayne, TGivens, SJones, CSwindell, AVelazquez

Top Blogs of the Month: February

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Top Top Blog

PNegron

Terrific Trash Talk Bubbls

MRahman, AVelazquez, PNegron, CSantos, EBourdier, DHill, JBrent, JLeeTineo, KAlcantara, KBarron, LAlmonte

Outstanding Poems

ATorres 1, ATorres 2, CMarquez 1, CMarquez 2, EHill, ISimon 1, ISimon 2

Bravely Breaking Down the Bling

PNegron, AVelazquez, MDavila, MTucker, DHenderson, EColon, FSimon, JLeeTineo, LAlmonte, MRahman

Brilliant Random Posts

BValles, DHenderson, HArriza, JTaveras, MJuan

Most Fun with Flickr

MDavila, SCorrea, AFigueroa, FSimon, JLeeTineo, MTucker, PNegron

Superb Super Size Me Posts

LHernandez 1, LHernandez 2, ASanchez, DSim, ERodriguez 1, ERodriguez 2, GCalcano, JPena, RContreras

Tantalizing Text Monster Posts

DHill, AVelazquez, ATorres, EBourdier, JSalas, TRawlinson

Best Beyonce Posts

SJones, ARobins, AThomas, EHill, NSingletary

Deep Thoughts

BValles, DHenderson, GMangin

8th Graders: Immigrant Detention

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Last week I watched a movie called The Visitor about a musician named Tarek who was mistakenly arrested for evading a subway fare.  Tarek wasn’t a legal U.S. citzen and was placed in a detention center and then deported.  He had built a whole life in New York City– girlfriend, apartment, a band– but had to lose it all.  The movie was fictional, but what happened to Tarek was not. Every year 300,000 immigrants are held in detention centers (jails) in the United States.  Their crimes, if any, are minor and the conditions they’re held in are awful.  Packed into small cells with other prisoners, many are subjected to beatings, sexual assaults, and lack of medical care.

To learn more about these U.S. immigrant detention centers, play this game.

In your blog, answer the following questions:

1) Describe with as much detail as possible, what the detention centers are like (i.e., the bathrooms, medical facilities, cells, solitary confinement, etc.)

2) How did playing this game make you feel?

3) What do you think the Unites States should do differently with their immigrants?

** EXTRA CREDIT**

4)  If you finished the game, what did you find out about Boubacar’s death?

Assignment 16 (6th Grade): The Meatrix-The Dark Side of Farming

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Click HERE to watch the The Meatrix and answer the following questions in your blog:

1. How do factory farms treat animals differently than family farms?

2. Why are animals fed antibiotics in factory farms and why is this dangerous?

3. What happens to animal excrement (poop) in factory farms?