Western Civilization

We will be taking our test on classical Ancient Greece on the day we come back from spring break which will be that Monday. The test will be covering everything from chapter one all the way to chapter four. The titles of the chapters are as follows, in order: cultures of the mountains and the sea, warring city-states, democracy an d Greece's golden age, and Alexander's empire. The first chapter, which is the cultures of the mountains and the sea, will be easy since we have already have taken a test on that and as Mr. Schick noted we can use that as our study guide. Today, however, we covered philosophy and art of Alexander's empire. Epicureanism and stoicism were a heading on the rest of the outline which we completed today. Zeno founded the social philosophy. The Colossus of Rhodes was a one hundred foot bronze statue whose feet spanned the harbor of Rhodes. Towards one hundred fifty B.C. Hellenistic culture was on it's decline. Mr. Schick also gave us a heads up at t

The spread of Hellenistic culture was the subject of today's lesson. Like the previous lesson on Alexander and Macedonia, this one was written out on the board. Hellenistic culture is th blend of Greek culture with Persian, Egyptian, and Indian cultures. Hellenistic culture was present in the Egyptian city of Alexandria. In the city of Alexandria, which is named after Alexander the Great, there was the body of Alexander himself but today we know that this is not his body after all. The Greeks were very fond of science and technology. Aristarchus was an astronomer who found out that the Sun is approximately three hundred times larger than the Earth. However, Ptolemy disagreed with Aristarchus and said that the Earth is the center of the universe. This would go on to be taught for the next fourteen-hundred years showing that science is not always correct. Eratosthenes estimated that the circumference of the Earth is approximately twenty eight to twenty nine-thousand miles. This esti

Today we talked about Alexander the Great. Mr. Schick lead a class discussion on Alexander the Great and we created an outline on the board. First, we started out with Alexander's father who was King Phillip. Philip had invaded Greece and won and wanted to conquer Persia. Unfortunately he was killed before he had been able to do so. This lead Alexander to the throne. Alexander became King of Macedonia at age twenty. There were generals in the army who doubted Alexander's leadership skills and he had them killed. Alexander set out to conquer Persia and defeated Darius I. Alexander the Great was crowned Pharaoh by the Egyptians in 332 B.C. since when he arrived there he told the Egyptians he was a god. Also, Alexander the Great named a city after himself-Alexandria. Alexander then continues East to Persepolis and burned it down and completely destroyed the place. Alexander was declared the unchallenged ruler of Southwest Asia. In 326 B.C., by the Hydaspes River, Alexander defeat

Today the final group presented their project on Ancient Greece. The group's project was on Ancient Greek pottery. They had created a vase in the fine arts wing of the school. The vase had a round bottom with a narrow spout and two handles placed at opposite sides of the vase. They had some patterns drawn onto the vase in blue paint. I learned that the Ancient Greeks did not have black paint from this group's presentation. Also, I learned that the potter, the person who makes the vase, would almost always sign his name at the bottom, or close to the bottom in some of the shapes and pattern inscribed. The potter would also often times write something negative, against the pottery shop down the road and try to slander their business and say that their pots are better. Mr. Schick noted that this was a very Greek thing to do. 

Today we begin our new unit on Alexander the Great. The Ancient Greece project was a wrap up for the Ancient Greece chapter, now it's onto Alexander the Great and Macedonia. We were assigned to read pages one-hundred forty two through one-hundred forty five. These pages are the beginning of chapter four in the textbook. They focused on King Phillip II first as chronologically his rule is before Alexander the Great's rule. In sixth grade I did a project on Alexander the Great in our social studies class. The project required you to choose a topic that occurred before the birth of Christa and I chose Alexander the Great. I learned a great deal about him that I still remember and I even had to make a trifold poster display for this project. In today's notes I found out that King Phillip II utilized the phalanx. He created a sixteen man by sixteen man phalanx and armed them with eighteen foot pikes. The soldiers were just regular, rugged peasants that Phillip had trained into

Today we presented all the projects except for one group who is missing a member and will present at another time. Then, since we had time left over, Mr. Schick told us some stories about his movie career. He pulled up his Imdb on his computer and we saw the Mr. Schick worked on. On most he was the assistant directer and even got to meet famous actors like Meryl Streep, Harrison Ford, and Bruce Willis. The discussion was started since we watched a clip from Ben-Hur, the 1959 version, of the chariot race since the group that presented last had the topic of the Olympics. 

Today in Western Civilization we started to present our projects. The group consisting of Chase, Faith, Ellie, and Maddy presented their food first. Next Ben and Owen presented their trireme. Our group was the final to present that day. Here is the final copy of our essay: Frank Cassidy, Vladimir Chervenkov, Dominic Comello and Aiden Stine 3/6/18 Poseidon’s Trident Ancient Greece is replete with many stories of gods and goddesses. Some of the most well known gods and goddesses include Zeus and Aphrodite. Many have also heard of Poseidon. Poseidon is god of the sea. The Ancient Greeks were heavily influenced by their gods. If something went wrong, such as no rain to saturate crops, the farmers would complain to the gods. If something like no rain for a season were to occur then the people would think that the gods had forsaken them and that they had done something wrong. The gods and goddesses could have human emotions like joy and anger. In many aspects, the gods of Ancient

Our group is constructing Poseidon's Trident. Here is a sample of our project on Ancient Greece: Ancient Greece is replete with many stories of gods and goddesses. Some of the most well known gods and goddesses include Zeus and Aphrodite. Many have also heard of Poseidon. Poseidon is god of the sea. The Ancient Greeks were heavily influenced by their gods. If something went wrong, such as no rain to saturate crops, the farmers would complain to the gods. If something like no rain for a season were to occur then the people would think that the gods had forsaken them and that they had done something wrong. The gods and goddesses could have human emotions like joy and anger. In many aspects, the gods of Ancient Greece were developed to resemble humans. Now, onto the history of Poseidon! The Roman name for Poseidon was Neptune. He plays a key role in the Odyssey. The Odyssey, as told by Homer, is a story where a war hero named Odysseus is attempting to return home from the Troj

Today we were given a day to work on our project by Mr. Schick. I am working with Aiden S. and Dominic C. Unfortunately for our group, Dominic was not here and therefore Aiden and I were left a man short. Anyways, I will be composing the essay like planned and Aiden will be constructing Poseidon's trident which will be our physical feature from Ancient Greece. We decided to assign Dominic the task of creating a small and short PowerPoint presentation for the class to look at while we present our trident. The presentation is supposed to take five to ten minutes however I believe that ours may be towards the lower end of that spectrum since we will just be showcasing our object and giving a small explanation whereas other groups who are doing food and other things might require more time. The project is still due on Monday, March 12th, the first day after a three-day weekend. 

Plato's Allegory of the Cave-What is it? To recap, Plato was a philosopher and student under Socrates. He witnessed the trial of Socrates and wrote down the events of it in a book called Apologie. This book describes how Socrates defended himself in the trial which he failed to successfully do. Socrates's arguments were that he did not do anything wrong and that he should be fed for life. Plato's other, and I believe only other, book is Republic. Now onto the allegory. The word allegory is a story or poem that contains a hidden message or meaning. In Plato's allegory he starts out with three men who have been chained up since birth to face this wall of a cave (Remember this is a made up story.) The cave also had a fire which cast shadows as objects and people went by. One day one of the men breaks free and goes out into the light which blinds him as Mr. Schick compared to that blindness you experience when you exist a movie theater. Then the man sees everything and the

Today we continued our discussion of philosophy but first the story from yesterday. The story starts out many years ago while Mr. Schick is living in Chicago. He is going to a bagel shop on Michigan Avenue and as he approaches the establishment there is a man begging for money outside near the door. Mr. Schick offers to buy the man something inside. When they enter the shop all the man orders is a coffee and Mr. Schick insists that he buy something to eat and that it's on him. They then go to eat and Mr. Schick goes on to ask him some questions about his life. One of them is where is he going to sleep tonight? The man said that he plans to sleep on this place near a building that blows out warm air sort of like an exhaust. Then Mr. Schick suggests that he go stay in a homeless shelter but he refuses since people steal your belongings there. Then, running out of options, Mr. Schick asks   if he has any family. The man says his sister lives in St. Louis but he is too embarrassed for