10/15/18- On Monday, it was very fun during the Quest classes. During Quest Science, we did a Current Events that concerned whether or not if it would be okay to clone your dog. We learned the process of making a clone, the price, and the pros and cons of it. Meanwhile, in Quest Humanities, we went through another round of Current Events and started preparing for the Christopher Columbus Trial. Many of the current events articles had very controversial ideas. Some of the most talked about in the classroom were Hurricane Michael, the missing writer in Saudi Arabia, and the shooting at a one-year-old’s birthday. The Christopher Columbus trial was made up of 5 groups. King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, the Taino Indians, Columbus, Columbus’ men, and the System of Empire. A jury was developed by the teachers, who would be the deciding factor of who was guilty and who was innocent. The guilt could be shared by a few groups. We had also started reading “Brown Girl Dreaming” which had lots of poems and history woven into the book. -Alicia
10/16/18- Tuesday was a jam-packed day. In Science, we took more time to finish our Current Events. On the other hand, we started the trial of Christopher Columbus. The five groups wrote and said their pleas against the indictment, which was: “You are responsible for the murder and mistreatment of thousands, or maybe millions of Taino Indians.” Some groups called on witnesses to help speak about their reasons, while others admitted to their actions. During the English portion of Quest Humanities, we continued our talk and reading on “Brown Girl Dreaming” and were assigned to write a poem. The poem would be about all the familial, national, and personal events that happened during the time you were born. -Alicia
10/17/18- On Wednesday during Quest Humanities, we read three chapters of “Brown Girl Dreaming,” which were called “A Girl Named Jack,” “The Woodsons of Ohio,” and “The Ghosts of the Nelsonville House.” These chapters, in summary, were about a young girl named Jacqueline Woodson and how she and her family grew up. During this period also, we received our study guides for the maps quiz on 10/23. For our next period of Quest, we conducted a trial debrief of the people against Columbus. We were asked discussion questions such as: Who’s more guilty; the person who gives the orders, or the people who carry out the orders? Does the system of empire (property over people) make violence inevitable? What should be the system’s sentence? And what is your biggest takeaway from this trial? These questions really struck thoughts in our minds and helped us to engage even more. In Quest Science, we did our Determining Density Lab. This lab that we did with our table partners allowed us to better understand density and what qualities of an object affect it. -Katie
10/18/18- During Quest Humanities on Thursday, we read the next five chapters of “Brown Girl Dreaming” (“It’ll be Scary Sometimes” through “How to Listen #1”). The rest of this period, and the other periods throughout the day were free to do self-directed work. We were able to work on map revisions if we had any, our “Brown Girl Dreaming” poems, grammar pages, maps quiz studying, log #8, or self-evaluation ( eval. for section Z.) ~Katie
10/19/18- During Quest Humanities, we had a discussion on the Columbus Trial. We reflected on how this type of activity helped us learn easier or explain more. I thought that the trial helped us understand their thoughts and why everything happened. Also thought that it gave us some idea of what court is like and how it works. I thought this project was overall really fun. We also had a time where we could work on anything that we needed to. I feel this time is super important and helps us got a lot of work done so we don’t have hours of homework.
In Quest Science we worked on our labs. I think doing labs our really fun because it is very hands on. It helps you really see everything going on. It is very fun to get to experiment and work with your partner. Overall it was very fun and hands on. -Asha
Determining Density Lab: students measure blocks (right) and talk to each other about the qualities of a certain object (left)