Marcos reactivated an older project gyroscope and chose to add a new "twist". He fabricated a device whereby he could attach a string to accelerate the rpm speed and a wooden base for the gyroscope to spin into. Marcos was pleased that it functioned very well.
We examined Ayn Rand's writing style and methods of persuasion noting that her philosophy elevates man's reason as the sole means of knowledge while her novel relies on emotional sloganism to advance her argument. Marcos discussed the definition and use of slogans and on the whiteboard placed a number of original dystopian slogans he composed based on the novel's theme and light imagery. I also composed a number of slogans which I placed on the board. Through this exercise, we reviewed the novel's use of light imagery and symbolism as a metaphor for self-acquired individual knowledge. Marcos also persuasively expounded on Rand's belief that collectivism causes societies to technologically regress by citing his experiences in and knowledge of Cuba.Last, I placed on the whiteboard a quote by the Jewish scholar ,Hillel, that ,,in part states "but if I am only for myself who(or what) am I?" We examined this insight as a counterpoint to Rand. For homework, I assigned answering study guide questions on Ch 11 and 12, which will conclude our study of the novel.
As Marcos has astutely noticed that "Anthem" is more like a philosophy essay than a literary work, we noted how Rand elevates her philosophical thoughts to both biblical and mythological proportions,first by having the protagonist rename himself "Prometheus" and later by outright stating that god is the word "I"! Addressing the writing technique ,I pointed out that the first half of the novel is rife with dystopian slogans.Yet, Rand adopts the same slogan -like style in the book's conclusion where she expounds on her philosophy of objectivism. We began a discussion of slogans and propaganda. As such, for homework, Marcos is to compose some dystopian slogans incorporating the "light" imagery and symbolism that runs through the novel.
Marcos spent the first part of our session discussing and debating with Vlad about global warming. That discussion led into a debate about politics which led into a debate about the effects of cigarettes vs pods which led back to discussing global warming. Marcos ended the session answering review questions.
Marcos was introduced to the Normal Distribution today. It is represented as a bell curve. The Emperical Rule says that 68% of the data lies within +/- 1 standard deviation from the mean. 95% lies within 2 standard deviations, and 99.7% lies within 3 standard deviations. Marcos worked on exercises to find how much data lies within certain z-scores. He did an excellent job of listening to the video explanation, and independently answering the questions.
There is a relationship between angles in a right triangle and the ratios of the sides. We call the relationships sine, cosine, and tangent. I taught Marcos the saying "Some Old Horse, Came a Hopping Through Our Alley". It is to help him remember sin = opposite/hypotenuse, cos = adjacent/hypotenuse, tan = opposite/adjacent. Marcos's assignment is p.648 (2-32 even).
Auto-Biography project - Correction/review test part 2
Lesson Outline
Today, Marcos and I reviewed and corrected his Spanish test, part 2. We spoke about his autobiography final project. I explained, an autobiography is a report or recount detailing the main events in a person's life. So, we started to write his autobiography (getting some data/info about Marco's life).
