Dress Down Day tomorrow and 6th grade test (Jeopardy and Study Guide Included!)

Tomorrow (2/27/15) there will be a dress down, so wear your favorite (school appropriate) clothes!

6th Grade will have a test mid next week, I was looking at Wednesday, but we may have it on Thursday depending on how our in class native North American research project is going.  Here is the study guide and below is the jeopardy!

Maybe it was Gerbils!

New climate data suggests rats probably didn't transmit the Black Death and murder millions - but gerbils are the perfect candidates.

Rats have a pretty bad rap among rodents, and it's largely thanks to the Black Death. Believed to have been carried by rats and transferred to humans by fleas, the Black Death killed up to 200 million Europeans, forever giving them a reputation as filthy disease carriers. Now a new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences has put forward the theory that gerbils - not rats - were responsible for the countless deaths that drastically changed the populations of Europe.

Follow me on this journey: The Black Death originated in Asia, reaching Europe in 1347 and killing millions across several epidemics. Scientists generally believed that rats were the responsible carriers - but new climate research suggests the conditions weren't ideal for large rat reservoirs. "For this, you would need warm summers, with not too much precipitation. Dry but not too dry," Professor Nils Christian Stenseth from the University of Olso explained. "And we have looked at the broad spectrum of climatic indices, and there is no relationship between the appearance of plague and the weather."

Professor Stenseth and his team made this conclusion by comparing European tree ring records with rings from 7711 historical plague outbreaks. The results prompted Stenseth to consider another option - that a wet spring followed by a dry summer caused gerbil and flea populations to increase in Asia before moving to Europe.

"Such conditions are good for gerbils. It means a high gerbil population across huge areas and that is good for the plague," he continued. "To me this was rather surprising ... Suddenly we could sort out a problem. Why did we have these waves of plagues in Europe? We originally thought it was due to rats and climatic changes in Europe, but now we know it goes back to Central Asia."

Of course, that doesn't mean rats can't carry diseases - just that they may not be responsible for one of the worst outbreaks in history. And yet gerbils are considered perfectly normal pets while rats - which tend to be quite friendly and intelligent when domesticated - horrify people on sight.

Although I suppose gerbils being pretty freaking adorable certainly helped that view.

Source: PNAS, via BBC

The article was originally found here.

Mummy Found Hiding Inside Ancient Buddha Statue

A Chinese statue of a sitting Buddha has revealed a hidden surprise: Inside, scientists found the mummified remains of a monk who lived nearly 1,000 years ago.

The mummy may have once been a respected Buddhist monk who, after death, was worshipped as an enlightened being, one who helped the living end their cycle of suffering and death, said Vincent van Vilsteren, an archaeology curator at the Drents Museum in the Netherlands, where the mummy (from inside the Buddha statue) was on exhibit last year.

The secret hidden in the gold-painted statue was first discovered when preservationists began restoring the statue many years ago. But the human remains weren't studied in detail until researchers took scans and samples of tissue from the mummy late last year.

The mysterious statue is now on display at the Hungarian Natural History Museum in Budapest. [Image Gallery: Inca Child Mummies]

Mysterious history

The papier-mâché statue, which has the dimensions, roughly, of a seated person and is covered in lacquer and gold paint, has a murky history. It was likely housed in a monastery in Southeastern China for centuries. It may have been smuggled from the country during the Cultural Revolution, a tumultuous period of social upheaval in Communist China starting in 1966 when Chairman Mao Zedong urged citizens to seize property, dismantle educational systems and attack "bourgeois" cultural institutions.

The statue was bought and sold again in the Netherlands, and in 1996, a private owner decided to have someone fix the chips and cracks that marred the gold-painted exterior. However, when the restorer removed the statue from its wooden platform, he noticed two pillows emblazoned with Chinese text placed beneath the statues' knees. When he removed the pillows, he discovered the human remains.

"He looked right into the bottom of this monk," van Vilsteren told Live Science. "You can see part of the bones and tissue of his skin."

The mummy was sitting on a rolled textile carpet covered in Chinese text.

Researchers then used radioactive isotopes of carbon to determine that the mummy likely lived during the 11th or 12th century, while the carpet was about 200 years older, van Vilsteren said. (Isotopes are variations of elements with different numbers of neutrons.)

In 2013, researchers conducted a CT scan of the mummy at Mannheim University Hospital in Germany, revealing the remains in unprecedented detail. In a follow-up scan at the Meander Medical Center in Amersfoort, Netherlands, the researchers discovered that what they thought was lung tissue actually consisted of tiny scraps of paper with Chinese text on them.

The text found with the mummy suggests he was once the high-status monk Liuquan, who may have been worshipped as a Buddha, or a teacher who helps to bring enlightenment after his death.

Last year, the mummy was on display at the "Mummies – Life Beyond Death" exhibit at the Drents Museum in Netherlands, before moving to the Hungarian Natural History Museum in Budapest.

Common practice

Mummies from this period are fairly common in Asia. For instance, researchers in Mongolia recently found a 200-year-old mummified monk still in the lotus position, the traditional cross-legged meditative pose.

It's not clear exactly how Liuquan became a mummy, but "in China, and also in Japan and Laos and Korea, there's a tradition of self-mummification," van Vilsteren said.

In some cases, aging Buddhist monks would slowly starve themselves to eliminate decay-promoting fat and liquid, while subsisting mainly on pine needles and resin to facilitate the mummification process, according to "Living Buddhas: The Self-Mummified Monks of Yamagata, Japan," (McFarland, 2010). Once these monks were near death, they would be buried alive with just a breathing tube to keep them holding on so they could meditate until death.

"There are historical records of some aging monks who have done this practice," van Vilsteren said. "But if this is also the case with this monk is not known."

This was found at

Thank you, quizzes, and a look ahead!

Hello,

       I don't know about you, but I am looking forward to spring; I just wanted to give you a couple updates.

Big thank you to those who brought in tissues and wipes.  Big help with so many kiddos under the weather.  Also, thank you to whoever nominated me to get interviewed.  It looks like that may happen; hope I don't let anyone down.  It turns out, I am not very interesting.  Lastly, thank you all to helped wish my a happy birthday.  FCCS' kindness always blows me away.

Both 5th and 6th grade will have short quizzes tomorrow.  5th grade will have it on Greek Mythology (Why did they have mythology, and a few of the main gods).  6th grade will have a quiz on the end of the Aztecs and the Inca Empire.

5th Grade moving a head will truck through Greece.  I horrible underestimated how long the mythology sub section would take... so it'll be a bit before we have Alexander conquer.  Then we will be off to India.  I really can't wait.  It will probably be another 2 weeks or so before we talk about that though.

6th Grade is moving near the end of their Americas unit.  We'll probably test either Tuesday or Wednesday next week.  For the remainder of the week I am hoping to do a little mini research project in class concerning Native North Americans.  My goal is for students to select a culture and to go more in depth. It should be a lot of fun.  After that, China, Korea, and the South Pacific!

Have a great evening everyone and stay warm!

Term 2 Projects!

I forgot to post these earlier, but man are they awesome!  Great job everyone!

Sock Hop Success!

I just want to thank all the parents, volunteers, and staff that helped make the Sock Hop such a success.  It seems like everyone truly had a wonderful time.  It is so nice to see the kiddos being kiddos and having a great time.  I truly value how FCCS allows our students to be this way.  At my previous school the kids seemed to grow up WAY too fast.  I would certainly love any pictures past my way.  I my homeroom looked great!

Sock Hop and Quizzes Tomorrow!

Tomorrow is the 50s sock hop so students can either wear their uniforms or if they'd like wear their 50s costumes.  Students seem very excited about the dance; it should be a lot of fun.  Hope to see the kiddos at 6:30!  Anyways, on to the important stuff.

5th Grade: students will have a short quiz about Greece tomorrow.  This will focus on Athens and Sparta and a smidgen about the Persian Wars.  You all know the drill, short, simple, and sweet.  The kids will be fine.  We are around half way through our jam packed Greece unit.  We're ending the Golden Age today with the Peloponesian War and will have Alexander conquering by next week.  We will discuss some mythology which will tie nicely into their art class.  We are still too far out to know when the test will be, but expect another quiz in a week and a half or so.

6th Grade: students will have a short quiz about the Olmec, Maya, and a bit of the Aztecs tomorrow.  We are still learning about the Aztecs, which we'll spend another two or so days on.  We will move on to the Inca next.  I am hoping to add more about North American Native Americans of the period; I just need to find more resources for the students.  I simply detest how the book glosses over whole areas... although when I've searched to expound I can often see why books make these choices.

Hope you all have a wonderful day.  As always, if you hear of any parents not receiving these, let me know so I can get their emails and add them to the list.