March Learning Coming in Like a Lion

Why Do Some Societies Collapse?
    Students in Global I are deepening their understanding of why some societies collapse and others endure.  Students close read writings by Jared Diamond, including parts of his book, Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed. Some students explained the dynamics of Diamond's reasons for collapse through a Rube Goldberg Machine. Students became the teachers and explained why civilizations, such as the Anasazi, Easter Island, and Tokugawa Shogunate, either collapsed or found a way to endure.

Students teach each other about how societies collapse or endure.

In the process, students took notes on background of civilization, reasons for success, reasons for collapse as well as any miscellaneous information that was intriguing.

Students thoughtfully planned and created infographics to deepen understanding and explain the reasons for the collapse or endurance according to Diamond's text.

Key ideas are included in an infographic. 

Global I students are also thinking about what they learned about the past civilizations' collapse or endurance and are relating it to modern day society: Are we doomed?  Some Global I students researched a modern day issue and wrote a magazine article about it through the lens of a collapse problem defined by Diamond and suggested possible solutions to adapt and endure.

Open House at New Canaan High School Library

    Visitors from other schools, including an administrator, came to visit the NCHS library and to engage in professional dialogue. Visitors toured the library and the makerspace.

MLA 8 Certified

   Freshman students continue to learn about citing sources using MLA 8 and earning digital badges after watching short videos and taking a quiz.

Makerspace Sightings

  Civic students created a visual representation of a part of the Constitution.

Earth Science students created aliens and explained how they adapted to another planet. Students kept in mind that everything that lives on Earth has adapted to certain features of the Earth: the atmosphere, climate, land, oceans, temperature, seasons and gravity. The alien must be able to adapt to the planet being studied.

Living Poets

    English students read works of a contemporary poet that they found intriguing. Then they made a pitch as to why the library should include the works of these writers. Students were given a budget to work with and had to justify which works would make a good addition to the library collection.