The juniors are deconstructing America! They are currently engaged in a series of “historical inquiries,” research assignments designed to explore the complex nature of American History while building the research and writing skills that will be essential to their success in the Humanities in college. These mini-projects are driving toward a two-part semester project in which they will have to design their own inquiry, write a piece of historical analysis, and then re-tell their history creatively in a literary genre of their choosing. Meanwhile, they are keeping blogs of the work that they do. Click here to check out student blogs!
Roxy McKnight ***Digital Arts***
DM2: “What is Considered Art?”
Students are researching and exploring Radical Art Movements in European and American History. Students will choose an individual Artist/Era to study and present their research in a PowerPoint, slideshow, or video. Students will design and cr
eate a piece of art with the characteristics of his/her chosen artist or Era to complement their presentations.
DM1: An Introduction to Photoshop
Students start by creating a large poster depicting the face of one of their favorite teachers transposed onto the body of another animal (non-human species). Students will experiment with all the
tools and features of the Photoshop platform resulting in a humorous and visually unique work of art. The project culminates with students demonstrating mastery in Photoshop while generating student IDs for our school community this year.
Becca Katz ***Spanish***
NOT Born in the USA!
Have you ever wondered what your life would be like if you were born or raised somewhere else? If you had different parents? If you lived in another state? In New York City? In another country? If you grew up speaking a different language? Practicing a different religion? Living in a different socio-economic class?
What would be different? The same? Why? How would you be different?
Merriam Webster defines culture as "The customary beliefs, social forms, and material traits of a racial, religious, or social group; also: the characteristic features of everyday existence (as diversions or a way of life} shared by people in a place or time
Imagining yourself born into OTHERNESS requires perspective. This perspective requires:
* A deep understanding of yourself and your own cultural identity.
* A detailed awareness about another culture.
Your task is to delve into the lifestyle, foods, social/family structures, school systems, hobbies, careers, traditions, and other details of daily life that shape your own cultural identity and those of a culture of the Latin American country of your choosing (see the list of countries from which you can choose below) to write two, side-by-side children's stories en español (¡Por supuesto!/Of course!):
Cuento 1: Un día en mi vida en Durango -- A day in my life in Durango
Cuento 2: Un día en mi vida en __pueblo/ciudad__, ___país____ (town/city, country)
Países de los cuales puedes escoger: Bolivia, Guatemala, Chile
John Fisher ***Humanities***
Sociology and Identity Project
Students are studying the basic principles of sociology, and applying those principles to their lives and to the history of Durango. Students will be creating and then exhibiting identity masks and essays exploring their social identity Thursday, October 6 at the Strater Hotel in conjunction with the
Durango Heritage Celebration. The public is encouraged to attend.
Steve Smith ***Chemistry***
Chemistry is Life
Why should we study chemistry? It’s just the study of what electrons do. How important can these electrons be? They only have a mass of 0.000000000000000000000000000000911 kg, they have an infinitesimally small volume and we’re never even sure where they are at any given time. If fact, they are so odd that we don’t really know whether they are a wave or a particle. Can they really influence our lives?
The answer is obvious, not only can they influence our lives they do influence every aspect of our lives. To consider for a minute all of the ways chemistry, the behavior of electrons, influences our lives consider the following. Aluminum used to be more expensive than gold until 1888 when Charles Hall developed a method to isolate aluminum using electrolysis and now we are given sheets of aluminum foil to wrap up a few left over French fries from
our dinner out. Or consider the evolution of portable vessels to contain water. Two hundred years ago people may have carried water in a leather flask. Five years ago they may have carried it in a Lexan bottle and now they may be carrying their water in an aluminum bottle that is lined with BPA and Phthalate free polymer. Our consumer products are constantly improving as our knowledge of the physical and chemical properties of materials progresses. These chemical and physical properties result from the microscopic behavior of atoms. How these atoms behave individually and collectively can be predicted from know just a few things about their electrons and their locations on the periodic table and sometimes their collective behavior is nothing like their individual behavior. As an example, table salt also known as sodium chloride, is the combination of two elements that independently are a poisonous gas and a metal that violently reacts with water. Not exactly what you would want to put on your potato chips!
You task is to improve a consumer product that plays an important role in your life by changing the elements, compounds or molecules that compose it. Then you will write and mail a letter to the engineering division of the company that makes the product explaining the benefits of your proposed changes. In this letter you should clearly articulate the current composition of the product, its physical and chemical properties and how these current properties can be understood based on the microscopic interactions and the periodic locations of the constituent elements. Then you should explain your proposed new composition for the product. You should follow with a discussion of the chemical and physical properties you expect from your altered composition and why you expect these properties again based on the microscopic interactions and periodic locations of the constituent elements. Lastly, you must make the case for why your proposed composition really is an improvement. Possible rationales include improved performance characteristics, cost savings, health and environmental benefits, public relations and manufacturing considerations.
Colleen Dunning ***Biology***
Species Management Plans
Biology students are currently conducting field research on the Durango Nature Studies property to determine amphibian populations and habitat quality. Students will use their research to write a Species Management Plan that will suggest ways that DNS can promote native leopard frog populations and eliminate the presence of the invasive bullfrog. Exemplary Species Management Plans will be submitted to Durango Nature Studies for review. Students will present their plan to a panel of Biologists and community stakeholders.
Dave Heerschap ***Physics***
Rocking Rockets
Animas High School students have been asked by the US government to design a replacement rocke
t for NASA’s recently retired space shuttle. Due to the increased demands for alternatively fueled vehicles, NASA expects the students to design water-based propulsion systems. A former NASA engineer will assess student designs and the top designs will be recommended for contract approval with the government!
Students will be exhibiting their water rockets after school (date TBA) according to a student-designed l
aunch schedule that our blast engineers must adhere to! The ultimate test of students’ rockets is their launch. The rockets MUST fly with a payload as high as possible and then deploy a "friction device" to slow their craft’s reentry. A complete understanding of Newton’s Laws, kinematics and materials science is necessary to complete this objective. Students will also be preparing a pamphlet and marketing information as part of their project presentation. The government’s contract will be awarded based upon initial designs, flight tests and a successful marketing campaign. Get ready to BLAST OFF!
Lori Fisher ***Humanities***
The Truth of War
Over 100 million people have been killed in wars in the 20th century. In this century, our world has been devastated by two World Wars, as well as innumerable smaller conflicts between and within nations. Despite the well-documented horrors of war, the phenomenon continues. As you read this, the United States is embroiled in ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and is engaged in a NATO coalition in Libya. However, in the nightly news we tend to see a high-level analysis from people who may or may not be on the ground fighting in these conflicts. This provides us with a one-dimensional understanding of war.
Soldiers in wars throughout history have struggled to make sense of their experiences in many ways, and to communicate those experiences to a public who may not be immediately able to connect with the intensity of war. In their literary works, these authors use all of the tools at their disposal to communicate the truth of their experience of war, in hopes that their audience will understand the effects of war in a more personal and visceral way. In a time when warfare continues unabated, it is critically important that we gain an understanding of the experiences of war from the perspective of the people who fight them.
As we read literature of war from two pivotal modern wars (WWI and WWII), students will consider the following question: What is the truth of war for a soldier? After examining this question from a number of different perspectives, students will craft a project that attempts to answer this question in a carefully constructed piece of writing that is inspired by one of the novels we read and another form of their choosing.
