Summer SAVY 2017, Session 1/Day 2- Mirror of Mythology (Rising 2nd/3rd, Dr. Mall)

Posted by delislss on Tuesday, June 13, 2017 in SAVY.

Greetings!

Today was a great day! We started by learning about myths and why they were created. We looked at myths in different cultures that were similar and how they changed according to the beliefs and culture of the group that created them. The Chinese and Hopi Indians were some of the groups that we compared.

We then looked at Greece, its location, and how ancient Greece is different than Greece today. Students were able to determine that by the location of Greece on the Mediterranean, they were able to influence large groups of people around them. We even noticed that the architecture that they use is used all around us today! We then explored the Parthenon in Greece and the Parthenon in Nashville, and learned that the Parthenon in Nashville is a full scale replica with doors that weigh 7 1/2 tons and it has a statue of Athena inside that is more than 40 feet tall and covered by gold leaf. We even watched a quick video of a person adding gold leaf to a ceramic piece because they were curious about how that worked. They were also amazed that the statue of Athena is holding Nike, the winged goddess of victory, and that the swoosh on Nike wear is the shape of her wing. We are making connections!

Afterward, they heard the story of Pandora and her box, studied Hades and the story of the seasons (Demeter and Persephone), Apollo, and Artemis. They love that these myths have such a fun way of explaining things! For fun, they tried to explain a sudden appearance of colored clouds in the sky, and then I told them about NASA’s plan to launch a rocket that will release colored clouds and how that would have really puzzled the older cultures if they had seen that! You can google that to learn more about the rocket launch. We then ended with them beginning to research the characters that they are interested in so that they could learn more. I know it has been a great day when they are shocked that it is over and are wanting to continue the class after lunch!
Here is a link about the rocket launch. It was a great example of how we could create stories to explain things.
http://www.cnn.com/2017/06/01/us/nasa-colorful-clouds/index.html

Dr. Mall