Museum Curator

My Group's Exhibit

"More Cotton, More Slaves, Less Freedom"

            To create our own museum exhibit we had to follow the steps a museum curator would follow to create their exhibit. The process a curator goes through is a precise process. A curator must know about their topic and be able to display the information in a way that is easily understood to the people viewing their work. I realized how hard displaying the information was because what made sense to you might not have made sense to anyone else. This will cause you to have to start over with an all new layout idea until you get it just right. Also, I noticed the layout of the exhibits were similar. The starting point was in the top right hand corner and it ended in the bottom left hand corner. Walking around and seeing all the other exhibits I learned some new, interesting facts about the Industrial Revolution. First, to get the word out about the steam engine Robert Fulton had to write about the engine to the editor of the American Citizen to share his positive experiences on the steam  boat. Second, I found it shocking and disturbing to find out that the children had to wear leather belts around their waists with a chain attached so they could pull the mine carts like animals not like human beings.

Online Takeover

           The internet is a place filled with so much information. Sometimes it is difficult to tell if you can trust one source compared to another. To help with this task we did some activities to learn how to properly search for information on a certain topic.
            The first activity we did was A Google A Day. A Google A Day is a website you can go to that is run by Google. It gives you a set of three specific questions. You have to find the answers to their questions by only using the search tools they give you. (To try it out for yourself go to http://www.agoogleaday.com/#game=started) At first it was frustrating because so many different websites popped up showing different variations of the answer. As the activity went on it became easier to find the answer though. It became easier because you learn how to search for the key terms in the question. Knowing how to search for the key terms helps narrow down what comes up. What I learned from A Google A Day was how to read a question and pick out the vital information. At first when I read a question I search the whole question. Now I know what to search to get answers quicker.
            When looking up information there are three terms you should keep in mind. The terms are accuracy, authenticity, and reliability. First, accuracy, to me, means that the information being provided is correct and up to date. You can check if it is correct by going to different websites and seeing if the facts match up to one another. It is important if it is up to date because things change all of the time so the facts change. You don't want to write about something that isn't relevant to your topic anymore. Second, authenticity means that the facts are historically correct, nothing is made up. You can check it in the same way described in accuracy. Go to different sources and see if the information matches up. Finally, reliability is being able to trust the source and the author who wrote it. If you aren't sure if the source is right you can look up the author and see if he is a professional in the topic. Some people will take up a topic as a hobby and publish incorrect or out of date facts that are no good. If you can't trust the person who wrote it there is a good chance you can't trust the information as well.
            The website http://zapatopi.net/treeoctopus/ is about a rare, endangered species called the Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus. The website seems real because the creator included pictures and videos of the octopus. (The pictures and videos can be found here: http://zapatopi.net/treeoctopus/sightings.html)

http://zapatopi.net/treeoctopus/sightings.html

However the website is fraud and there is no such thing as the Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus. This isn't a website you would want to use for school. You can find out that the website isn't reliable is by searching the species of octopus and see what else comes up. You won't find anything but this website and others talking about how it is a hoax. Also, the author is Lyle Zapato. If You search Lyle Zapato you will find how he is a publisher not a animal researcher. It could be a hobby but it isn't what he is qualified in. If he is fake there is a great chance the website is fake as well.

A Revolutionary Revolution

      The Industrial Revolution brought many new aspects to everyday life. The revolution opened windows to trading, mass production, formal schooling, the improvement in weapons and medicine, etc.  In class we had a question to answer. The question was, "What was 'revolutionary' about industrialization?" To answer that question we learned about four different enhancements that were created during the revolution. They were people, technology, resources, and transportation.
      People played a big part in the Industrial Revolution. People improved farming during the revolution. The Dutch built earthen walls called dikes to reclaim land from the sea. This technique became important because it made more room in the fields for more crops to grow. The more room you have the more food you can produce at one time. Along with farming, people also developed ways that made farming less labor intense. The improvements made in farming helped decline the death rates. Agricultural advances reduced the risk of famine and better hygiene and better medical care came with. Since people were generaly more healthy due to these achievements women were able to produce healthier and stronger offspring to help in the future. People were one of the major aspects of the Industrial Revolution because they were able to produce techniques that kept them strong during this time period. 

                        

                      http://www.cmigroupe.com/en/p/history

      One of the other huge factors in the Industrial Revolution was the advances made in transportation. The new transportation system enabled better shipping, could send more goods to different places, allowed more people to have access to goods, and provided more jobs. All this was made possible by the invention of the Steam Locomotive. The Steam Locomotive powered the trains that pulled carriages filled with goods to their destinations. It also made it easier for factory owners to supply people from far away with their goods. Along with the Steam Locomotive was the Steam Boat. The Steam Boat enabled faster shipping and could carry a larger amount than the ship. Transportation was so revolutionary because it changed the way people thought about receiving and sending goods. The people in the communities didn't have to just rely on each other to get the wanted supplies. They could now branch off to other communities to get the desired goods. 

http://youtu.be/zhL5DCizj5c

       

Good Teacher to Great Teacher

      Hi! My name is Sabrina Caruso and this is my Honors History Blog. This blog will be used to showcase what I am doing in class throughout the year.
      There are many qualities that a good teacher and a great teacher share. For example, a good teacher can be interesting. While the great teacher takes it a step further and is interesting but is also engaging. Having the ability to create interesting lesson plans is good but being able to engage the students in the lesson is great. Being engaging will help the class not let their minds wonder off. An engaging teacher to me is a teacher that has the ability to hold a class's attention for a good portion of a lesson. I think being engaging is an important quality because in my past experience I will pay attention if I find something interesting but I will remember it long term if not only the topic was interesting but the teacher was also making it interesting by being engaging. The second important quality a great teacher can posses is fairness. If you are a generally fair teacher it just makes it easier to get along. Along with getting along, if you show fairness the class as whole will respect you. I know that if I like a teacher I am much more likely to try harder in the class. It sounds weird but if I think the teacher is unfair I'll just zone out. It may be different for other people but that is me personally. An example of not being fair is telling someone that they can't have their water bottle out but then letting another person keep theirs out. Engagement and fairness are two of the main qualities I think a great teacher has. On a more personal level, one thing you can do to support me this year is to be patient with me. It might take me awhile to get something and I don't want you to get frustrated. Some things I will get really quick but other things like getting used to doing everything electronically might take some time.

Electronic Classroom 

http://www.edudemic.com/comic-will-texting-replace-raising-your-hand-in-class/

      In a video John Green stated that he pays school taxes because he wants the kids to be educated when they grow up so they invent things to make his life easier. He believes that it is our duty to take our education and use it to give back to our community and I agree with him. We spend up to twelve years in school learning. Why would we not apply what we learned into something more useful? We have the chance to help others who possibly didn't have the chance to receive an education like we did. I think it is selfish to throw everything we did in school away when someone would do anything for the information we learned. This year I hope i can start to apply what I learn to the real world. Everyday we learn skills we need for the real world but it is up to us to apply them. I plan on doing this simply paying closer attention to my surroundings and thinking, "What did I learn today that can make that situation better?" 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x78PnPd-V-A&feature=youtu.be