Practicing

A PECK OF PEPPERS:  Our gardening efforts continue. Our kitchen counter top is currently home to four different kinds of peppers. We're happy to report, our ghost chiles and Carolina Reapers have finally sprouted. They join some colorful bell peppers and the coveted Trinidad Moruga Scorpions in our little forest. 

PRACTICE:  This morning, we started off with some practice math tests for the standardized "Smarter Balanced" test the kids will have to take for FOUR days next week. 

CJ took the grade 6 "Math Practice Test," while Annabelle did the grade 4 version. Here are links to the questions and answers, if you're curious about the content:
Grade 4:  http://sbac.portal.airast.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/G4_Practice-Test-Scoring-Guide-5.14.14-Final.pdf
Grade 6: http://sbac.portal.airast.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/G6_Practice-Test-Scoring-Guide-5.14.14-Final.pdf

They also worked their way through the "Math Performance Task" test
Annabelle's was just one, multi-part problem (here, if you care to look: http://sbac.portal.airast.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/Grade4MathPT.pdf

And the sixth grade level one is here: http://sbac.portal.airast.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Grade6MathPT.pdf

It's a good thing we practiced. CJ has a habit of doing most of his math in his head, which is great as it's a time saver on straightforward problems. However, if you're working a multi-faceted problem with multiple problems to solve and you don't write down graphs and steps-along-the-way solutions, things can go really sideways.  So that was a good lesson, and I hope he'll put lessons learned into practice when he takes the actual test.

GOD LIKE:  We continue to work our way through "The Rise of Superheroes and their Impact on Pop Culture," and edX course from the Smithsonian.  

Today's lectures and reading involved the topic of comic book superheroes' links to long ago mythology. For instance, today's Flash was the Roman god Mercury of long ago, and Aquaman has roots in Poseidon.

For the class' final project, we will have to create our own super hero.  To that end, we were pointed to two resources for inspiration. One is a list of mythologies on Wikipedia.  (Boy is that long and extensive.)  We were also introduced to this really cool Web site, Godchecker.com.  The site's mythology encyclopedia features nearly four thousand "weird and wonderful Gods, Supreme Beings, Demons, Spirits and Fabulous Beasts from all over the world."

The kids are I decided we were interested in creating a superhero who is somewhat science based, so we searched Godchecker.com for anything having to do with science. That produced a list of five gods for us to consider. They were St. Albert the Great, a Christian saint who is the patron saint of scientists (including chemists and physicists); Jehovah, a Middle-Eastern deity; Oannes, Greek, a sea god of art and science; Thoth, an Egyptian god of art, science, astronomy and literature, and Bagadjimbiri, Aboriginal Australian deity.

Reading elsewhere that Bagadjimbir (twins, actually) are mad scientists and genetic engineers, we have tentatively decided to go with them as inspiration for our superhero. 

As part of this week's homework, we were supposed to find an image of our superhero's inspiration. Oddly, there aren't any ones that seem legit that we could find in a half hour or so of poking around. The best we could do was settle on a cool old painting of a pair of dingoes. (Bagadjimbir first came to Earth as a pair of dingoes, so the story goes.)

Dingo" - Louis Agassiz Fuertes

National Geographic, P.202, March 1919

http://www.savethedingo.com/life-early-1900-1949.html

Now, we have to devise an alter ego and backstory for our superhero. We need to choose what super powers the posses and consider how they reflect conflicts in today's world. Naturally, we need a foil or villain, as well.  Sounds like some super fun homework, no?

TUESDAY NIGHT LIGHTS:  Yesterday afternoon, for no compelling reason, I started semi-obsessing about going to the Mariners game.  The Ms didn't have their ace on the mound, there was no special bobblehead or other giveaway, the weather wasn't great, the opponent was not a real rival (the Padres, not even in the American League) ... but still, something was saying, "Go!"  

So, we took advantage of $1 tickets for the kids thanks to the Mariners' Kids Club, and Christian and I each scored cheap seats, allowing the four of us in for just under $25.

It was a sparse crowd (under 16,000), and that made it really easy to roam the concourse and check out places we don't usually get to during a 'normal' visit.

As it turned out, we were there on a history-making (well, at least tying), night.  The Mariners combined for six home runs and they pretty much decimated the Padres' pitching staff. Big fun! 

So much so, in fact, that we're going again tonight. ... For under $20 total ticket price.