Picture of John Locke from the Internet encyclopedic of philosophy
John Locke is a big part of the constitution. John Locke was a British philosopher, Oxford academic and medical researcher. Anthony Ashley Cooper led him to become a government official charged with collecting information about trade and colonies, economic writer, opposition political activist, and finally a revolutionary whose cause ultimately triumphed in the Glorious Revolution of 1688.
Picture of Thomas Hobbes from Famous people.com
Thomas Hobbes was also an English philosopher that did not believe what Lock said, Actually he thought that the people shouldn't have a say in what goes on in the government. He thought that there should be one ruler and that person should be King. As Hobbes says “we are needy and vulnerable”.
John Locke and Thomas Hobbes are the exact opposite Hobbes thought that there should be a king that ruled all. Locke thought that the people should have a say in who is in charge of them. As Locke says “lest men fall into the dangerous belief that all government in the world is merely the product of force and violence.“ Locke's account involves several devices which were common in seventeenth and eighteenth century political philosophy. Now while Locke says government is merely the product of violence Hobbes says “when we act, we may do so selfishly or impulsively or in ignorance, on the basis of faulty reasoning or bad theology or others’ emotive speech.”
Here is a video that talks about a simple version of there differences...enjoy
Information from internet encyclopedia of philosophy and the Stanford encyclopedia of philosophy
The revolutions project revolves (no pun intended) around the industrial revolution and the hight of inventing on a large scale. Some people take the industrial revolution for being all about the invention of mass production, but some extremely important things were invented in this period of time that have nothing to do with large quantities at. Now of course if something is invented, the point is to replicate it and to sell it all over the world, but that is besides the point. One of the most prestigious inventors of this incredible age was Thomas Alva Edison. He is most widely know for inventing the lightbulb, but he had countless other breakthroughs in his lifetime (a total of 1093 patents.)
Thomas Alva Edison was born on February 11, 1847. He grew up infatuated with science and electricity, so much in fact that his mother forced him to move downstairs because he kept exploding things all around the house. At a very young age, Thomas read the full book, A School Compendium of Natural and Experimental Philosophy. This book was what fueled most of his experiments in his later life and was such an intense book that he was tossed out of his school for asking to complicated questions that the teacher couldn't answer. (Thomas as a boy below)
Edison had an amazing number of jobs in his youth, the most prevalent problem being that he was always inventing easier ways to do things that corrupted the system of work. He mainly worked for telegraphing companies because he was a whiz at morse code tapping in messages. Most of his patents had to do with things that improved the slow process of telegraphing.
Thomas Edison started his inventing in Newark, New Jersey which would soon become the site for his famous Menlo Park Lab. Edison's first recognizable invention was the telegraph, which was the first device that could successfully record a sound and play it back. This invention started the idea of a telephone which Edison contributed to, though he is usually not recognized for his work in that area. This is the first ever recorded sound.>
Thomas began his work on the lightbulb in his Menlo Park lab and invented the term filament. This is the inside of the lightbulb that actually emits light. Thomas Edison experimented with over 1000 different materials for the filament before finding bamboo which was the first one that actually burned for about 20 minutes. He spent many careful years crafting and perfecting his precious lightbulb and the finished product could burn for as many as 400 hours. When he finished his lightbulb work, he began to produce them and sold them to the Newark city. The people were amazed when the first lights began to color the streets and keep the city from plummeting into darkness at night.
Thomas Alva Edison died on October 18, 1931 and when his funeral was held, the whole world was dark, remembering the man who brought just a little bit more lightness to this world.
What do you do when you want to learn something? Do you research it in a dictionary? Do you skim for it in a book? Do you look it up online?
Studies by William Glasser show that people only remember 10% of what you read. That's it! A large majority of this project is reading, whether it's in a history textbook or an excerpt of a story. It's not your fault if you aren't remembering everything!
However, it's a possibility that reading is the right way for you. Here are some ways to remember your reading:
margin notes: write the key facts and main ideas of the text you're learning on the side.
highlighting: (also a visual strategy.) Try not to use a lot of highlighters, because you're brain will be drawn to the colors instead of the text. *
Don't read all at once: smaller passages are easier to remember.
Try to find connectionsto what you're reading. Make mental connections between the book and another part in the book, the book and another book, the book and yourself, and the book to what's happening in the world today.
Here are some other techniques for remembering reading.
Remembering is one of the toughest things about learning.
You may think that reading up on a topic is the best way to learn about it. It very well may be, but it's not the best way to remember what you've learned. Every person has a learning strategy that works best for them.
Here, I'm going to share some learning and remembering strategies that have worked for me. Here's a quiz that determines your learning style based on habits.
Which way do you learn how to do something? Those who are visual, then learn faster if they see it done. If someone could tell you how to do something, then you're auditory. If you are kinesthetic, you can learn by doing something. Here are helpful resources for each type of learner. When I took a quiz on how I learn, I actually got even amount of points in each of the three categories. You most likely don't use just one strategy all the time.
Sound: A Step Up
You remember more of what you hear than what you read.
Though it's still a low percentage, you remember more of what you hear. Though none of these percentages apply to everyone, the average person remembers 20% of what they listen to. If you don't think that's true for you, maybe you're auditory!
Here are strategies I've used to learn by listening:
educational songs: Put what you want to learn into song. In 5th grade, my class listened to a song for learning the states and capitals. When you were in preschool or kindergarten, you probably listened to the ABC song. It's a very helpful method.
audio books: If reading just isn't your thing, then maybe it would be better to hear the information spoken to you. There are lots of free and low-priced audio books about many topics.
conversation: In class, a group conversation or a debate can help the facts stick in your head. At home, you can either talk about the subject or have a friend or family member quiz you orally. In fact, it is believed that you'll remember 70% of what you discuss!
Sight: Visualize Your Learning
Another strategy to learn is to see things.
The quote from Glasser says that people remember about 30% of what they see. Luckily, there are tons of great ways to learn visually! Here are my top picks:
movies: Watch a movie or video about the subject you're learning about! There are plenty on YouTube, guaranteed.
slideshows: These are easy to put along with a lecture. A popularly used program for making slideshows is PowerPoint. Also, Google docs has a presentation mode, if you have a Google account.
flashcards: a rapid way for learning. For something like an language test, write a word on one side of a card, and the definition on the other. There's a really helpful site called Quizlet, where you can use flashcards, take tests, and learn.
graphs: more for facts having to do with numbers. Bar graphs and circle charts (pie graphs) are good for visual learners.
maps: If you're taking a course in history or geology, then you should look at a map of an area you're studying: you'll remember it better than reading about it.
Teach and Learn: The Best Strategy
Helping another helps you learn.
Believe it or not, Glasser believes that you remember a shocking 95% of what you teach to others. So next time you're prepping for an exam, try helping someone else. While teaching another person, you're forced to think about and recall what you're telling them. A real live person will ask follow-up questions, which could lead to a conversation, or even a debate if you don't agree.
A brief video about how to improve your memory.
Note: I didn't mention all the percentages of what you remember determined by William Glasser. For more information about him: click here for a slideshow and biography. However, if you still remember this post, you know that you'll probably learn more from the slideshow.
As many
people in the world know, the United States was not always its own country. The
Battle of Yorktown was the last major battle of the United States Revolutionary
War.
The United
States Revolutionary War started when the British military received word that
the colonists were collecting weapons in Concord to use against Britain. They
were gathering weapons because the crown was taxing them, going against the
British law of “no taxation without representation.” The colonists had no
representation in the British government, therefore, by British law; it was
illegal for the colonists to be taxed. The Parliament insisted that they had
the right to tax colonists because their land was not part of the British
mainland.
General
Thomas Gage sent troops to the colonies to confiscate the weapons. The colonist
fired at the troops, starting the Revolutionary War. The first battle was
called the battle of Lexington and Concord.
The battle
that I am focusing on is the last major battle of the war, the battle of
Yorktown. Prior to the battle of Yorktown, 5,550 French soldiers landed in
Rhode Island to assist the Patriots in recapturing New York City, which was
under British occupation. The fate of the United States depended on the
soldiers arriving. If the French soldiers had been unable to arrive, for
reasons such as weather, then the Patriots may have lost the Revolutionary War,
and there would be no US.
"Siege of Yorktown." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 06 Feb. 2012. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Yorktown>.
The French
commander, Comte de Rochambeau, convinced George Washington that an attack on
New York City would be a bad idea, and recommended that they attack the 9,000
men army of Lord Cornwallis. This army was stationed in Yorktown, Virginia.
Rochambeau recommended that attack because he had Comte de Grasse’s navy fleet
in Yorktown, which could assist in the attack.
De Grasse
defeated a British fleet in Yorktown, which blocked all sea escape for
Cornwallis. Washington dispatched French General Lafayette to hold Cornwallis
in Yorktown. Here again we can see that the fate of the United States really
rested on a few very important things that happened in the battle. If Lafayette
had been unable to hold Cornwallis in Yorktown, Cornwallis would have met up
with more soldiers and attacked the American forces again. The American forces
had been prepared for government, and were now ready to make the final attack.
On October 14, 1781, Washington sent two columns to attack the remaining outer
British forces. On October 17, Cornwallis asked for capitulation terms. The
surrender ceremony was held on the 19th. Cornwallis claimed to be
ill and was not present. The United States began bargaining with Britain,
resulting in the Treaty of Paris. The Treaty was signed in 1783.
Image Sources
"American Revolution : The
Battle of Yorktown." British Battles - Analysing and Documenting
British Battles from the Previous Centuries. Web. 06 Feb. 2012.
<http://www.britishbattles.com/battle-yorktown.htm>.
"Battle Pics." Mercer
Island School District. Web. 06 Feb. 2012.
<http://blogs.misd.k12.wa.us/rcimprich/2011/04/26/the-battle-of-yorktown-diary-entry-5-due-427/>.
"Siege of Yorktown." Wikipedia,
the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 06 Feb. 2012. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Yorktown>.
