The Implications of Labeling and Stereotypes on Individual and Collective Identity: Curriculum for High School, Two weeks and Six, One hour Classes

This curriculum aims to help students think critically about the implications of labeling and stereotypes. Goals include creating a heightened sense of awareness of labels and stereotypes. Labeling in this curriculum refers to the ways in which we distinguish differences by putting a name on that “thing” or person. These labels carry deep meaning and are embedded in social context, as well as racial, gender and class hierarchies. For example, white are rich and powerful, people of color are not.

http://jezebel.com/4chan-is-why-feminist-is-winning-the-time-poll-of-words-1657927072

UGH IS THE ONLY COMMENTARY NEEDED.

The Luck of the Ammonities focused on Cretaceous period beginning with research done on the meteor found in Gola del Bottaccione. What was interesting about this chapter for me was the focus on how this mass extinction did not derive from human action and instead how human involvement such as further studying of foraminifera, served as index fossils and the locating of irdium led us to the meteor actually assisted us more in understanding the adaptations of plants and animals over long periods of times. 

Before you read this summary know:

The Great Auk: a penguin-like bird last seen in Iceland, but known to have lived in Norway, Newfoundland, and “from Italy to Florida” (page 57-58).  It is now considered extinct.

Natural Selection: the process by “a species of plant or animal might, over time, give way to a new one,” (page 53)

Okay, now that that’s out of the way:

The quote by Alroy which says that " [humans] are capable of driving virtually any large mammal species extinct, even though they are also capable of going to great lengths to guarantee that they do not" perfectly summarizes this chapter. Kolbert discusses in a true journalistic manner, the two possible explanations for the extinction of large mammals or megafauna. One possibility is climate change and the other is the human effect. While various scientists seem to have varying views on the matter, it is quite clear that humans directly or indirectly did play a large role in the extinction of these species.

Taking us to Northern Rome and into the beautifully intricate mountains of the Apennine, Kolbert takes us into a world not normally seen. In the hill town of Gubbio, she finds such thing amazing things as remnants of past asteroids impacts a puzzle much more intricate than the naked eye could see. With iridium testing, a possible death by asteroid for Cretaceous creatures was made a hypothesis and yet another extinction would be uncovered. With a deeper look into the fossil record, it would be realized that large gaps of evolution were lost and fragmentation existed. Exploring more archeological areas in Texas and in the Gulf of Mexico, another piece to the puzzle would be discovered. Later the use of Ammonite fossils would complete the investigation.