What's going on in Mr. Solarz' Class?

Daily Travel Log

6/3/2016

Tyler is feeling better and stayed behind to start a new life in Courthouse Rock. Last night there was a thunder storm and two of our oxen that were latched up got spooked and ran away. Those darn oxen! When we arrived at fort Laramie we learned that the cheap prices were a myth. When we were there we had to buy new oxen to replace the spooked ones. We got back on the trail and went to fort Casper a small fort. Cassidy is now sick but luckily we have some quinine and she is drinking it to try to get cured.

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Google Slideshow

6/2/2016

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Fictional Travel Log

6/2/2016

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Mr. McCoy was elected as the the wagon train Supreme King Ruler. Mr. McCoy forced the Murray's and the Hatfield's to await their death on the trail. Tyler is on his deathbed because he has come down with a horrific sickness that will surely kill him. A terrible, no good, filthy, rotten, scamming, crook tried to sell us this preposterous oil which is supposedly from a snake. This was said by the snake oil seller that it was a wondrous, amazing, beautiful oil that would make Tyler feel great again. We stopped at Courthouse rock and just did our usual catching up on chores and stuff like that it was terribly boring I seriously thought I would die of boredom. Now we are at the most amazing, cool, beauteous landmark I have ever seen it is called...... Chimney Rock! Chimney rock is a giant, enormous, huge mountain and it stretches out into the sky. We had to buy new flour because our was filled disgusting, appalling, terrible maggots!

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Thinglink By: Addie and Cassidy

5/26/2016

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Newscast By: Addie and Cassidy

5/25/2016

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Voki By: Addie and Cassidy

5/25/2016

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Act it outs By: Cassidy and Addie

5/18/2016

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Photo Stories By: Addie and Cassidy

5/13/2016

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We decided to take Oregon Trail as opposed to other trails i.e. The Santa Fe Trail. Credit for Image: http://www.historyglobe.com/ot/maps/otmapmodern.gif

We want to travel west because James McVee told us that Oregon is great for farming. Credit for Image: http://www.vaco.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Farmland2.jpg

There was all sorts of propaganda about how great Oregon was. They even said that pigs ran around already cooked with knives and forks sticking out of them ready to eat. Credit for Image: http://paulsolarz.weebly.com/uploads/8/3/0/8/8308546/merged_document.pdf

In our landing we accidentally killed someone and we took their gold. Credit for Image: http://d2a0do11gpvbrl.cloudfront.net/t.php?y=article_image&p=http://st.wthr.ws/sites/default/files/field/image/shutterstock_130181921.jpg

We crash landed in Independence Missouri in our Ufo. Credit for Image: http://i0.wp.com/cdn.bgr.com/2016/04/ufo.jpg?w=625

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Science Fair

5/5/2016

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Science Fair Presentation Pre Science Fair

I'm glad I recorded my presentation on video before the science fair because:

It helped me get ready for my actual science fair presentation.
My pre science fair video gave me something to build on and tweak.

Science Fair Presentation Post Science Fair

By the end of the Science Fair, my presentation was much better because:

I had tweaked it and changed it throughout the science fair.
I had made sure everything in my presentation was important and interesting.

Overall, I think that the Science Fair was a valuable experience because it helps us learn how to give and revise a presentation and we learn valuable people skills. Science fair is just so fun and the best part is giving your presentation. I definitely made some mistakes along the way, but I learned from them. Here are some examples: I organized my data poorly and if given another chance to do it I would have done it a different way. If I were given the chance to do anything differently, I would not only change the way I recorded data but also do the surveys around the same time because I collected my data kind kind of spread out so it might have effected the results.

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Mars Constitution

5/5/2016

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Constitution:
Preamble:
We the people of the Independent Republic of Innovatio create this constitution for ourselves and future generations to ensure freedom, equality, and fraternity. We believe strongly that our individual human rights should be protected and that justice should be served. For the Independent Republic of Innovatio to stay strong progress we are determined to self-reliantly develop agriculture, science, and technology over the course of time. The people of Innovatio vow to peacefully resolve disputes and never let feelings of hatred interfere with being united as a whole. Innovatians are driven to make our country successful and hold up to the test of time. We will always honor this constitution for the Independent Republic of Innovatio.

In order for the Independent Republic of Innovatio to remain united and safe, we have made laws that will protect us and our mission. To ensure the success of our purpose, each individual must do their job and follow the work schedule. There is an exception though, we have a work pass signed by the doctor that says how many days you can not do your job, and why you don’t have to do your job. Tools used for jobs, like knives used by the chefs or stethoscopes for the doctors, are strictly prohibited to everyone else. Tampering with any homes, automobiles, or any work spaces will be declared unconstitutional.
Although the laws above ensure the success of the mission, The Independent Republic of Innovatio has laws that ensure the safety and happiness of our citizens. In order to maintain security in our nation, searching through people’s belongings without government approval is illegal. Vandalizing and stealing property is also unconstitutional and illegal. Physical abuse is also illegal to ensure the wellbeing of the people. Finally, blackmailing is unconstitutional. If having done a crime then you go to the jury and will be convicted guilty or innocent One of the laws that we made is no slacking.(No slacking means you can’t just not go to work). You have to have special permission to Do It. We made this because some people were stealing and slacking, our consequence for this is to search the pods for fifteen minutes to see why they were not at work. Also if they are not at work for no reason they will have to work at night with no pay, this means that you don’t get paid money for that night. We also saw that people were vandalizing other people's property so we made sure you will fix the item and work an extra shift of work overnight with no pay. When people need privacy you have to give them privacy. Make sure when you want privacy you can lock the doors and tell people that they want privacy. We are not allowed to have weapons on mars. The trainer is allowed to use types of weapons to train people how to do things. Another one of our laws is not to kill or hurt people. If you do kill or harm someone in vain, you will get the same treatment that you did to that person. If you steal anything, then you will be forced to tell us where the object you stole is. If you won’t tell us, we will look around your space to make sure the object is not there. We will find more evidence and if you for sure stole it, and can’t find the object, you will be fined. We will try to be caring, considerate citizens so our country is a safe and nice place to live. But to have these laws, we have to know how to make laws.
To decide if a law should be made and considered constitutional, citizens will use four effective tactics to ease conflicts on whether a law should be made or not. The first tactic is the agreement vote. The agreement vote is where all of the citizens unite to vote to see if they want the law to be made or not. The second tactic is the fairness vote. The fairness vote is where all citizens vote to see if the law that is made is fair enough to enforce. The third tactic is the usefulness vote. This takes place when citizens come together to vote to see if the law is useful enough to enforce. The fourth tactic is the debate. The citizens must use the debate when an agreement is not settled after all of the other tactics are used, and have failed. The citizens get to share their opinions with arguments and defenses to prove themselves right. The majority vote is seventeen votes at the least.   At least twenty five citizens need to vote to make a law.
Although, If some people do not agree with the laws that we made then we can hold a meeting during lunch, breakfast, or dinner deciding if we want the law/rule gone. During the meeting we will discuss the differences of the law. For example, if one person wants the law gone and another doesn’t, we will discuss the differences and come to an agreement. When we are done discussing the differences of the law/rule we will vote so that it doesn’t get out of control, and so that everyone doesn’t start fighting. When we decide if we want the law and or rule gone we will take it away and we will not use it as a rule or a law anymore.
We will make and vote on laws during dinner twice a week. You are required to attend unless you are granted special permission by the doctors or other authority figure. The dates of the weekly meetings will be on Monday and Friday. Everyone is able to propose new ideas for laws, and/or suggestions that might not be made into laws but that we might want to keep in our head. To approve a law you must have at least twenty five people that are able to vote. At least seventeen people need to give their approval on the law. To promulgate the law we will keep a list of the laws in many places and each individual will have their own copy. If you come up if with a law we will write it down on your list and we will discuss everyone's list’s at dinner.
      There is no government to make the laws and no single person or group will decide laws that will affect the whole country. The Government is the people so we will decide as a group what laws we will put into effect over the people of The Independent Republic of Innovatio. Our government in the Independent Republic of Innovatio will not overpower any of the other people in Innovatio, our government can not take away anybody’s rights. Authority can’t threaten anybody to give government more power. Before a law is officially made, if it is unconstitutional, it won’t be a law. Everybody can have a say in government. The people are required to attend to an election unless they are given special permission.
So we try our best to respectfully follow this constitution. Everyone in the Independent Republic of Innovatio will be required to invest time to fully read this constitution so our community has ensured justice.
Bill of Rights:
   The citizens of the Independent Republic Of Innovatio have several set rights. The four most important of these rights are the rights to life, equal power, religion, and speech. You will not have your life taken away unless you have taken the life away from another human in vain. You may always have the right to a trial by the people if you are accused of a crime. If you are on a trial by the people then you will have to get a vote of three fourths to not be guilty. Every citizen will be given equal power to vote, discuss ideas freely in a meeting and suggest new laws in a meeting and also have an equal vote if they pass our voting test and are five years old or older. You will always have to go to meetings even if you don’t care about the topic because we want everybody's input on laws to make sure it is equal for everybody.
Religion, every citizen will be able to practice and celebrate their religion of choice, but this may only be allowed if this religion does not interfere with your responsibilities, affect some other person's rights, or infringe on “the mission's success.” If the religion you choose to practice does not allow you to correctly do your job then that religion will not be able to be practiced or will have to be modified.
Speech, every person shall be given freedom of speech. However if they abuse this power or use this right to encourage unwanted violence, then that right shall be taken away by vote of the people. Anyone can suggest laws as long as they are respectful of the of the verdict of the people’s vote. You also need to respect others opinions and ideas.
You have the right to be excused from your job and meetings if you are very ill or injured and a doctor has given you a signed work pass telling how long will be out. Everyone has the right to a work pass as long as they truly need it. If they purposely got hurt then they are not eligible for a work pass. You can also choose to get both afternoons on weekends off of work, or just one full day. So every citizen of the Independent Republic Of Innovatio is given these rights to be a good, respectful, kind citizen and to ensure the justice of this direct democracy and the next generations to come.

Reflection/Synthesis Questions:

Why do you think we spent so much time learning the "We the People" curriculum before colonizing Mars?
What were you & your peers able to use from our "We the People" lessons when creating our Mars Constitution?
Describe some examples of when you (or those around you) used the internet to research things that we used (or didn't end up using) for our Mars Constitution.
Why should more students be encouraged to research things while CREATING (like we did when we created our Constitution)?
What are some things you learned about government from this experience?

,Answers:
1. I think that we spent time doing We The People before we started colonizing mars is because We The People, or WTP, taught us all about government and just the history of American government.
2. Some of the useful things we learned during we the people were the things about making a constitution, the contents of the bill of rights, and amendments.
3. One of the biggest examples of us researching for things we did or didn't use was our committee work. We had to solve our problems in a timely manner using committees and almost the entire thing was just researching solutions to our problems and finding new ideas.
4. More kids should create while researching and one of the reasons is because it makes what were learning fun if the thing you are creating corresponds with what you are learning about it will make for a much more enjoyable experience. Another reason why students should create is I always wonder what the value of learning certain things is and if I can create something it is in a way proving to me it is useful and worth learning. The final reason I have for creating while you research is it really makes you want to get in to what you are doing and in a way kind of makes you really connect with your work.
5. I learned so much about government with this Mars simulation but one of the things I learned is how many different crazy, cool, and different kinds of government there are in the world. (and I guess technically out of this world too because there is now a government on Mars.)

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Daily Travel Log

Google Slideshow

Fictional Travel Log

Thinglink By: Addie and Cassidy

Newscast By: Addie and Cassidy

Voki By: Addie and Cassidy

Act it outs By: Cassidy and Addie

Photo Stories By: Addie and Cassidy

Science Fair

Science Fair Presentation Pre Science Fair

Science Fair Presentation Post Science Fair

Mars Constitution

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