Traveling Classroom Foundation
Thursday June 8th 2023

Government

4. Government

(materials: links and books on government and society.

a. Compare and contrast Athens and Sparta.

b. Divide the class in groups to research and report on different types of government found in Ancient Greece:

1. Monarchy

2. Oligarchy

3. Tyranny

4. Democracy

Post and compare the government reports. Can you see these types of governments in any modern countries?

c. Compare the democracy of Ancient Athens with the government of your country. Use intersecting circles to show similarities and differences.

5. Where is Zoe Zoe?

Navigation is a way to plan the safest and most efficient course from one place to another. All travel requires navigation in some form or another. When you walk through your own neighborhood, you are navigating even if you are only planning the course in your head.

The basic requirement of navigation is that you know where you are now (or where you were when you started) before you can plan on how to get to someplace else. This is very important when sailing a boat. If you don’t navigate carefully, you might run into a sunken coral reef or miss your destination altogether.

Aboard our boat, which is named Zoe Zoe, we will be using the Global Positioning System (GPS) to find out where we are at any given time. The GPS gets signals from orbiting satellites and provides a very accurate absolute position and time virtually anywhere in the world. Using this data, we will be able to pinpoint our position on a nautical chart and then chart a course to our destination.

The class can participate in this activity if a good map or nautical chart of the Aegean Sea is available. In my own classroom, parents who are seasoned sailors will be teaching a minicourse on navigation while I am sailing among the Cyclades Islands. In the regular Trip Reports I will provide GPS coordinates (latitude and longitude), together with our speed and direction of travel and timing of planned turns. Students will then have the same information I have to arrive at a solution. Once Zoe Zoe is located on the chart or map, students will be asked to find our final destination. The answer will be posted in the next installment.

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