Mesopotamia Research

This research process takes many steps. At the beginning of the unit, we started by looking through all the resources we had in class to begin to get an idea of something that interested us. Next, we created a research-able question to investigate. After that, Mr. Callaway showed us a tool called Citelighter.  Citelighter helped us to take notes on the topic we were researching. Later, we exported the notes we took in to Google Doc. Using our notes, we typed up a research report on our topic. We did some editing, and eventually, we finished our research report.

Citelighter is not a website but an extension on the computer that helped us take our notes. It helped us because it was quicker to take notes, all we had to do was hit the blue capture button and it would put a research sentence into a note. It also sorted out all of our notes so that we could see them clearly. If our notes were on paper, it would be harder to organize it. With Citelighter, it made note taking easier. Citelighter let us export our notes to Google docs and that let us type our research paper.

 If I could change one thing with my research report, I would change how I took the notes to put in. Next time I want to have not as many things that were not in my own words and more things that were in my own words. Another thing I would change is the order of the paragraphs. Next time I want to have a timeline explaining in what part of time these events on my research report happened. Those were two things I would change if I had the chance.

To read my research report, click here.

GarageBand

GarageBand is a cool app available on the iPad to make audio (mp3) files, and we used it to create our radio show about the Homo Erectus Hominids.

Garageband is simple to use. To begin, you open the app by tapping the icon on your homescreen. Once it opens you will be able to create a new “song,” which is what the projects are called on GarageBand. You can hit the picture of a microphone and a screen will pop up. There are a variety of instruments you can use, but we did not use them for our project. You can hit the sideways triangle and it will start recording what ever you are saying. If you hit the wrench, which is the setting bar, you can go to metronome and change the amount of time you get to do the recording. When you do the recording, hit loop and it will give you a choice of different pieces of music. You can add some cool music to the recording. After you do that, you have made your recording. We did Garage Band to help us record a radio show about one of the early Hominids. My group did the Homo Erectus Hominids for this project and it was really fun!

Early Humans

You will be creating 2 blog posts about our Early Humans unit. This Google Doc will help you organize your thoughts. Once you are finished, you can copy and paste what you’ve written here on to your actual blog! Use your notes from last class period to help you demonstrate your learning.

Post 1 - Early Humans

In this post, you will write about the technological advancements of each hominid group. Use the sentence starters below, if you like, to help you create your post.

Out of all of our early human ancestors, during this unit we learned about Australopithecus Afarensis, Homo Habilis, Homo Erectus, Homo Sapiens Neanderthalensis, and Homo Sapiens Sapiens. Each hominid was more advanced than the ones which came before it. To begin with, Australopithecus Afarensis was the first hominid to be able to walk on two feet.( biped ). With their hands free, this could open up a lot of opportunities to get food and supplies. A technological advancement is that they learned how to walk on two feet, this allowed them to use their hands.  They picked up scraps and dead animals with their hands for food.

After that, Homo Habilis came along. Homo Habilis was more advanced than Australopithecus Afarensis, in Africa where they lived, they picked up rocks and sticks and eventually made tools out of those. This possibly allowed them to get food faster, dig holes and climb up trees.

Next came Homo Erectus. In addition to what Homo Habilis could do, Homo Erectus was able to use fire. Homo Erectus were the first hominids to use fire which allowed them to keep their food warm, instead of raw, it could keep them warm at night, it also granted the Hominids light. This was a huge step towards what humans are today.

After Homo Erectus came Homo Sapiens Neanderthalensis. They were the first Hominids to have a community. They were also the first Hominids to hunt. They made better and more useful tools which got them their name, Sapiens. Sapiens means Wise Men. The advanced tools helped them in hunting other animals for food.

Finally, along came Homo Sapiens Sapiens, or “Early Modern Man.” These advanced hominids were the first people to paint. They made cave paintings on the walls of different caves. This helped them to remember their elders and people that had died in the past.

Post 2 - GarageBand

In this post, you will write about how to use the iPad app GarageBand. Pretend you are explaining the program to someone who was interested but had never used it before. You will have to be detailed! Use the sentence starters below, if you like, to help you create your post.

GarageBand is a cool app available on the iPad to make audio (mp3) files, and we used it to create our radio show about the Homo Erectus Hominids.

Garageband is simple to use. To begin, you open the app by tapping the icon on your homescreen. Once it opens you will be able to create a new “song,” which is what the projects are called on GarageBand. You can hit the picture of a microphone and a screen will pop up. There are a variety of instruments you can use, but we did not use them for our project. You can hit the sideways triangle and it will start recording what ever you are saying. If you hit the wrench, which is the setting bar, you can go to metronome and change the amount of time you get to do the recording. When you do the recording, hit loop and it will give you a choice of different pieces of music. You can add some cool music to the recording. After you do that, you have made your recording. We did Garage Band to help us record a radio show about one of the early Hominids. My group did the Homo Erectus Hominids for this project and it was really fun!