Chapter 2, The Mastodon's Molars, is about Cuvier’s discoveries that led to concept of extinction. The text makes the claim that catastrophes during earth’s history has wiped out lost species whose bones we now have as evidence of their previous existence. Because animals have adapted to function in their given environment, Cuvier argued that a catastrophe so cataclysmic would change an environment enough to where that species would no longer be capable to function and survive in its new habitat. Although Cuvier did not have as much evidence as we have today, he was correct in asserting that catastrophes caused the extinction of species.

In Chapter 7 of Elizabeth Kolbert's novel, "The Sixth Extinction”, she talks about the impact coral reefs have on the world. Within the chapter, Kolbert takes on an adventure to One Tree Island by accident. But, was able to explore the concept of being able to change the world. She compares corals' to humans’ impacts on the world by stating that corals help to support instead of extinct others. She explains that, unlike humans, coral reefs help to protect and to provide food. Kolbert also dives into to exploring the effects that CO2 has for humans (climate change) and corals (ocean acidification). Within the chapter, Kolbert examines things that are extinct and things that are in danger to be extinct.

Ashton Dwyer

Ed Curriculum Project

Introduction

For my praxis, I participate in a program that facilitates Philadelphia high school students in their post-secondary institution admissions process. I have been observing and mentoring high school seniors at their high school for four weeks.

It is crucial to point out that there are about 40-50 high school seniors and about 20 college mentors. The program allows mentors to interact with the high school seniors in small groups once a week for a 90-minute class period. Email addresses are also exchanged to touch base with both mentors and mentees.

            Creating a curriculum to enact in any environment is difficult, but in a space as restrictive and foreign as prison can sometimes be to students as privileged as we are, there are several extra factors to take into account. As the pilot group of students going to work on a literacy program at X Correctional Facility (XCF), we’ve already had the opportunity to direct and shape the “curriculum,” so to speak, of our class. But, in doing so, we face some interesting, and sometimes frustrating, dynamics. What are our goals for this class, and how do they map on to what the social worker has asked us to do?

This chapter mainly focused on the naturalist Curvier, telling the story of Curvier conceiving a whole new concept of extinction based on the finding of a few bones, the Mastodon’s Molar. At that time, most scientists agreed with the idea of evolution and they believed that the reason why animals today are different from the ancient times are that animals evolved by the time into how they look today. However, after the discovery of the mastodon’s teeth, Curvier insist on his idea that there once existed a whole extinct world and tried to prove his view by studying the bones of different extinct animals.

In chapter 5, E. K. explores the idea that there has been a paradigm shift in the geological era, meaning that we have gone from one way of thinking about the era that we are in and what influences it to a totally different idea. This era that we are in, the Anthropocene which is a word invented by Paul Crutzen, focuses on the detrimental effects that this human dominated era is having on the environment over time.

Chapter 3 summary: The Original Penguin

    This chapter illustrates that  the extinction of great auk in early 19^th cannot be explained by Darwin’s evolutionary theory of natural selection, because the great auk had no rival species that drove them to extinction at that time. Thus, there are only two possibilities: human extensive predation and Curvier’s theory of natural cataclysm.

Curriculum Project: Time in Prison

Identity, Access and Innovation in Education
Curriculum Project