A Creative Approach to the Common Core Standards by Harry Chaucer

Author:Harry Chaucer [Chaucer, Harry]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: R&L Education
Published: 2012-10-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter seven

Details of the Da Vinci Curriculum and Alignment with the Common Core State Standards

Better to have tried something bold and have failed than never to have ventured from the classroom.

—Gailer head upon utter failure of the Great Pyramid of Khufu Project

Chapter 7 presents an example of an engaging Da Vinci inquiry and then examines the Da Vinci Curriculum in depth along with its relationship to the Common Core.

How does a school engage students in passionate study while meeting educational standards like the Common Core? Let us begin with a story that addresses that question.

It was an autumn day. The class had worked for weeks trying to capture the sheer scale of the Great Pyramid of Khufu. This building, the only intact structure of the original Seven Wonders of the World, covered thirteen acres and was 450 feet tall! The structure is both immense and remarkably precise. It represents an engineering feat that is hard for us to imagine today. To complete the pyramid in twenty years, 800 tons of stone had to be placed every day, or twelve enormous blocks every hour, twenty-four hours per day. The class was dazzled by the size of this wondrous thing. So, they decided to replicate it.

But not in stone. They decided to survey the base (thirteen acre flat fields are not as easy to find as you might think), mark the four base edges with fluorescent surveyor’s tape, and then lift the four edges (also using surveyor’s tape) to their requisite height using a weather balloon. It seemed like a good plan. All they needed was the tape, an eight-foot weather balloon, a canister of helium, and the surveyor’s equipment.

With the help of a local surveyor and his equipment, they laid out the base and attached the surveyor’s tape. Everything was set—all they had to do was fill the balloon and guide it with tethers to its measured height and position. Students would guide each tape, and, they hoped, for a few minutes at least, they would have the great pyramid represented in full scale in Vermont. Local television was there to capture the event.

Just before launch, the balloon was almost fully inflated. Eight students surrounded the balloon, some carefully keeping the balloon off the ground, others with their palms gently holding it in place. What could go wrong? Their only concern was wind—would the light breeze keep them from guiding the balloon to its correct position and height?

Suddenly, there was a dull popping sound and where there had been a giant balloon with students on all sides, there were students facing each other, their palms held up as if in some ancient Egyptian prayer. Where there had been red rubber, there was now a person, a fellow student, looking across an eight-foot void. A small red object lay on the ground below, deflated and defeated.

That was the precise moment that the television reporter thrust his microphone in my face, his cameraman not far behind and asked, “What do you think, Dr.

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