Mr. Hanson's Classroom

Chapter 10

dhanson39 — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 15:22:41 +0000

Here is a copy of Chapter 10

Pharaoh Profile

dhanson39 — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 02:51:22 +0000

The pharaoh’s of Egypt were very important rulers who had all the luxuries of the time. The pharaohs were connected to the outside world by their messengers sent out to trade with other civilizations. So the question was asked. If the pharaohs were alive today would they have social media? Would they have a Facebook account? This is the homework project my students worked on. Their assignment was to create a Facebook for one of the pharaoh’s of Egypt. They were given a template to add the information they thought their pharaoh would have posted.

Flat Classroom Project

dhanson39 — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 04:17:02 +0000

The Digiteen™ Project is a global hands-on project for middle and early high school students, (typically Grade 6-9, 11-15 year old) which was founded by Julie Lindsay (now in Beijing, China) and Vicki Davis (Camilla, GA USA) in 2008. This project studies digital citizenship with students researching current topics, writing a collaborative report on a wiki, and performing and documenting offline action educational projects to promote effective digital citizenship at their local schools. The purpose of the project is to educate on and promote effective Digital Citizenship and responsible online choices as well as immersing students into an educational community for learning and collaborating.

The first Digiteen Project was run with three schools from Qatar, Austria and USA in 2008 and it’s impact changed the way teachers and students approached 21st Century learning and digital citizenship. Now, the Digiteen project occurs three times a year with many classrooms around the world and thousands of students.

There are 2 parts to this project: (see timeline)

Global collaboration on research and sharing resources via a wiki, including ongoing discussion and interaction between global classrooms via the wiki and Ning
A school-based local project that takes the new knowledge about Digital Citizenship and implements something within the school community that will raise awareness and make a difference

Digital behaviors are spread between teens, so it makes sense that an improvement in digital behaviors should also be spread between teens globally and within their own schools. This project harnesses the power of the social network to help students of all ages make wise choices in a way that also promotes twenty first century learning skills and higher order thinking.

We have jumped into this project this year. Mr. Hanson’s 4th period and Mrs. Bauer’s 5th period students are joining the Flat Classroom to work on this project. We will keep you posted on our progress and invite you to join us by following our blog.

Geography of Ancient Egypt

dhanson39 — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 04:21:42 +0000

Students used google maps to answer questions about the geography of Early Egypt, Kush, and Canaan. To view more projects click on the Geography Challenge page.

Here is Leah’s project

View Larger Map

Early Hominids

dhanson39 — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 14:12:31 +0000

It’s back to school, which brings fall sports like football and volleyball, but it is also when the pennant races in baseball start to get really interesting. I’m going to steal a line from baseball to describe how my Social Studies class got it’s start. We are going back, back, back, back, back, way back to about 200 million years ago. It all started, well my class, with the five important Early Hominids and how scientists learned from them. We discussed how they adapted over time and invented tools to make a better life for themselves. The last group we studied left behind their history in cave drawings discovered in Lascaux, France. This lead to us taking a field trip as well, but not to a real cave, we used well something a little different, but it gave us the same feel. We crawled into our cave (the Star Lab) and observed and discussed the paintings that were left 11,000 to 18,000 years ago by Early Hominids. The discussion the class had about what was painted and why it was painted helped us understand how scientist piece together history and also gave us a better understanding of their culture. This lead us to a fun discussion and activity. What images would we paint on “our caves” today for future generations to find. What are the things we find most important in our society. Students then wrote about what they felt was most important to our society and left it in a 21st century drawing. The drawing that we decided to use that would best describe our 21st century was a QR code. Here is an example of one that I did for this site and for the students. I will post some student QR codes on this site for you to check them out.

Click to view slideshow. View This Poll

This Is The Beginning

dhanson39 — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 05:02:21 +0000

Welcome to a new school year and welcome to Mr. Hanson’s Social Studies class. This really feels different welcoming you to my Social Studies class because for the last 8 years I have taught 7th Grade Science. So like you I too will be starting something new this fall.

I’m excited to teach Eastern Hemisphere, because that is really where all human civilizations began. We will study the beginning of human life to some of the greatest civilizations the world has ever known. Along the way we will discover mysteries and investigate why some of these civilization finally collapsed. We will create projects, take a few notes, have many discussions, and see if we can get the world to talk with us.

I hope you remember to come back to this website and follow our journey through the Eastern Hemisphere. We will post assignments, projects and links for you to follow our progress. Heres to a new school year, a new challenge, and to a fun journey.

Finding Bacteria

dhanson39 — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 16:46:44 +0000

Bacteria is everywhere! In this unit students are learning about these single celled organisms. This is the first kingdom that we are studying since learning about classification and Carolus Linnaeus. Students went around the school to collect and grow samples of bacteria. We will share a few of our findings with you.

Click to view slideshow.

Collaborating with Durham Lemur Center

dhanson39 — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 12:39:29 +0000

Lexington Middle School welcomes Charlie Welch from the Durham Lemur Center of Duke University, to discuss conservation and Madagascar with our students. Charlie lived and worked in Madagascar for over 15 years. He has been involved with lemur reintroduction, and other conservation efforts in Madagascar. We used skype to visit with Charlie. The students listened to Charlie discuss his experiences with conservation, and then were able to ask him questions. Each class was able to participate in this session about Madagascar. Students will take the information they learned about Madagascar and conservation from Charlie and class activities to create a grant proposals. Students have been challenged to present 10 key facts about why conservation in Madagascar is important. They will present these facts as a grant proposals.

Click to view slideshow.

LMS 7th Grade Take Reading by Storm

dhanson39 — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 05:38:38 +0000

Click to view slideshow. Lexington Middle School 7th grade students who met their 2 quarter reading goal celebrated their achievement by attending a Tri-City Storm hockey game. Each quarter students are given a reading goal to achieve. Students read AR books and take comprehension tests to earn points to reach their goal. Another goal that each student most complete is a comprehension goal. The comprehension goal for the students is to average better than 85% on their tests.
This year over 140 students achieved their goal and had an option to attend a hockey game between the Tri-City Storm and Cedar Rapids Rough Riders. It was an exciting night of hockey and the Storm won the game 6-4. We would like to thank the Tri-City Storm for providing us this opportunity, Tri-County Hospital in Lexington for sponsoring and providing the tickets for this event, our prinicipal Mr. Dean Tickle for allowing use to celebrate our students accomplishments, and finally to our students for all the hard work they put into reading this quarter.

Madagascar Project

dhanson39 — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 15:11:54 +0000

Who can forget the wonderful world of the lemurs in the movie Madagascar. King Julian and his fellow fun loving lemurs stole the stage and now steal some time in our classroom. Project Madagascar will take our students deep into the rainforest of Madagascar to investigate the plight of the lemurs. Lexington Middle School will collaborate with The University of Duke, and Henry Doorly Zoo to learn how conservation genetics has been used to help conserve the lemur population in Madagascar. Students will develop an understanding of DNA and genetics through this unit has they learn the techniques used by scientists involved in the Madagascar Project. To conclude our project students will investigate a species in Nebraska that are endangered or threatened and how conservation genetics could be used to develop a plan to protect and increase the population of that species.