Thursday, June 25, 2009

Around the World in Eighty Days - Unit Study Day 3



We continued to follow Phileas Fogg through chapters 9-11 of Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne, marking his progress through India on our map, and making note of the date he passed through Bombay, on our log sheet. The rest of our study included;


Vocabulary: caprice, boisterous, propitiate, indefatigably, amiable, minaret, fakir, pagoda, cistern, despotic, dominion, rajah, insurrection, cumbrous, deign, grottoes, promenade, crestfallen, viaduct, verdant, rite, reverie, vagabond, maledictions, obstinately, conveyance, zebu, avarice, howdah.


Project: To demonstrate the concentration of population within certain areas (some of which Mr. Fogg experiences as he makes his journey), we printed off a list of some of the largest cities in the world, listed in order of population from www.worldatlas.com/citypops.htm . Then we printed an outline map of the continents, and glued it to a piece of cereal box to make it sturdy. Using our city list, an atlas, and a thumbtack, we made holes in the map for each of the 25 most populated cities on our list.

When you hold the map up to a window, the population centers shine like cities at night. Obviously, the more large cities you include the better the effect will be.

We compared our map to the picture of the world at night, that was so popular in the email for a while. Just google "the world at night", and several aerial images will pop up. This led us to an interesting discussion of whether you could see the whole world at one time from space? And, if you could, would it all be dark at the same time? And, if it was all dark at the same time, what would be the chances of finding a completely cloudless night over the entire surface of the globe?

Just for Fun; We watched the latest movie version of Around the World in Eighty Days, with Jackie Chan. It has almost nothing to do with the original novel, but it does seem to aim at capturing the adventurous spirit of invention found in the other works of Jules Verne.

It's great to be a homeschooler.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Another GREAT book by Jules Verne is "The Mysterious Island". I read it about 3 years ago. I absolutely loved it!!! Lots and lots of adventure, plus some really neat science projects could come out of it. In fact, I think I might read it to the boys.