Project Classroom Makeover And The Myth Of The Ant Queen

Within any community, it is safe to say that the goal of maintaining a society that prospers on for many years is common. Establishing order is key to developing a prosperous society. Order, whether it be defined as assigning roles in society, or establishing a set of rules to maintain control, can be done through various approaches. The pondering question however lies in what is the best approach to establish order. This common question has been prominent throughout time, and has been debated in government and society. The debate in how society should establish order regularly results in contrasting opinions. In the essay "The Myth of the Ant Queen," by Steven Johnson, and in the excerpt “The Code of Hammurabi” from Society and Law in Ancient Babylonia, two distinct approaches to establishing order in society are discussed. I believe that through strict reinforcements, order in society can be established. In the essay “Man’s Nature is Evil” by Hsun Tzu, the human nature in society helps explain why strict reinforcements is the most efficient way to establish order. In Steven Johnson’s essay “The Myth of the Ant Queen,” he describes an interesting way in how the establishment of order arises. He argues that society can build itself up and maintain order without the need of a ruler or a set of laws. Through the observation of ants and how they behave in their environment, he explains how ants are able to establish an intricate yet simple

In the Prologue of Black Ants and Buddhist, the teacher is always engaging her students with real-world situations and meaningful conversations where the students all seem to be comfortable voicing their own opinion. With the discussion led in her classroom children could hear from other perspectives, which I believe will make the students more empathic and understanding to others beliefs and opinions. With the ant situation the children were able to come to an agreement and also a way to prevent ants from invading the classroom again. I loved how this situation was handled and how the children led most of the conversation with such maturity! I hope one day I will be able to manage my classroom with such

Technology has always been a controversial subject between conservative people and innovators. Some people believe that it is a great tool to connect cultures and improve education and innovation in our society today, but others view it as a menace in our lives. “Growing Up Tethered” by Sherry Turkle and “George Orwell...Meet Mark Zuckerberg” by Lori Andrews both view technology as a dangerous tool. They believe in the many drawbacks of technology and the harm it can do to our lives with no explanation of the positive effects it has had on our society. “Our Future Selves” by Eric Schmidt and Jared Cohen plays the role of a positive look at technology and its role in our lives today. It gives examples of how advancing technology helps us and improves so many peoples’s lives. We can use Schmidt and Cohen’s essay as a lens to view the other two texts and gain a different understanding of what they are writing about.

In chapter 9 of the book Black Ants and Buddhists it talks about the different situations that families and teachers may encounter inside and outside a classroom setting. One of the situations that it talks about in this chapter is about different types of families and their origins. Talking to students about their families it might be challenging because as a future teacher we might not know what is their situation or who is taking care of them. For instance, last year when I worked in a school I told a student that his mom and dad would be so proud to see that he had made a 100 in the test. I noticed that he was upset when I told him that, he later on told me that he lives with his grandma, I felt bad for the entire day because I didn’t

Clive Thompson’s “Smarter Than You Think” reflects upon the idea that technology is her to help us more than we think, rather than the popular belief that technology is ruining the way we think. Thompson believes that the pair between human and technology is making us smarter. Along with that, our minds are slowly adapting to the use of technology, advancing our thinking. Lastly, the relationship between technology and human, has brought humanity closer than ever with the ability to communicate with anyone, anywhere, at any time. Clive Thomason believes the stronger the bond between humans and technology, the smarter we can become; I also alongside with Thompson believe this is true, and if so us as humans need to embrace the use of

“The Electric Ant” is a short story written by Phillip K. Dick. Penned in October of 1969, the short story deals with the thought processes of a human-like robot. The protagonist is Garson Poole, a robot who previously thought he was a human. There are many points to ponder in the story, one of them being the similarities and differences between human and robots. Are robots as fundamentally different as we make them out to be or is it that we just haven’t created the proper technology yet? Conversely, maybe humans are essentially highly functioning robots? Although we may not be machines, our functioning can be highly mechanical. Additionally, Mr. Poole struggles with the concept of reality and he experiments to discover if reality can be altered. Can this apply to humans also? What defines our reality and is it possible to change the way reality is perceived?

“The Electric Ant” is a science fiction short story written by Philip K. Dick and published in 1969. In this setting, the story takes place in a distant alternative universe. Mankind’s identity and freedom are being questioned in this futuristic society. Indeed, the plot explores the identity of a protagonist who has been disconnected from reality after an accident, by being transformed into an organic robot. A being that is no longer human despite having the skin, the flesh and the physical body of a man. The story focuses on the shift of reality perceived by an organic robot. Nevertheless, it brings us a closer look at how the perspective of reality is approached from the point of view of a sub-social class. As the story goes on, the protagonist becomes more and more obsessed with his individuality and true freedom. The plot emphasis on the development of the main character’s identity throughout the story.

Computers in general give people the ability to complete tasks that would have taken days or weeks to complete with the clicks of a few buttons. As technologies continue to grow the amount of adjustments that will be needed to make will be astronomical. However, society is aiming to help people gain the skills needed to push mankind further. In Davidson’s essay, she discusses how computers and technology can be put to many applicable situations. While working with her students, the “Duke students came up with dozens of stunning new ways to learn [and] almost instantly students figured out that they could record lectures on their iPods and listen to them for leisure” (Davidson 52). This advancement took a few weeks at one college campus in the United States when the technology was still being developed. Now, students have adapted to begin working across the globe to further society with new ideas for applying these technologies. These students now work diligently to make technology as effortless as possible so that their programs will be what will be used in the future. Gilbert discusses how when people are judged by a panel of others they tend to feel worse about themselves but, when dealing with computers people are only judged by one computer which tells them

Everyday technology has become a strain on the real world. People would rather have a conversation online than face to face. In today’s society, everything is seemed to be done online, whether it is having a conversation or even trying to make new friends. In The Flight from Conversation, Sherry Turkle asserts that technology has had a negative impact on how we socialize with one another, lessening the conversation. Turkle, who has spent years researching the relationship with technology and humans, uses real world situations where technology has not only changed the way someone socializes but has changed their persona and character making the audience feel pitiful and reflective of their own actions. The author also uses logical reasoning

Teaching in the modern age has not adopted any of these techniques which leads to ill-suited high school graduates without the proper preparation for the in-demand jobs. For the educational system to change, it must teach the necessary skills needed for students to succeed in the real world. However, since the modern-day learning system still just stresses skills required for “middle management and factory jobs,” there is not much new in the modern age of schooling because it just borrows on old techniques and reuses them at a time in which they have become obsolete (60). Thus, although technology seems to rebrand the learning protocols of America, it serves as an element that both facilitates learning and a façade that takes away from the true reform needed to overhaul the anachronistic system.

Fear, the emotion that shows whether you're a ‘fighter’ or a ‘flyer’. The books “Most dangerous game” written by Richard Connell and “Leiningen Versus the Ants” by Carl Stephenson both use the theme ‘fear’ in their short stories. In ‘MDG’ the book puts man against man, but the book ‘LVA’ pits Man versus Beasts. The three questions I'll be answering today will be, How fear’s enlivening and weakening elements are evident in ‘MDG’, How fear’s enlivening and weakening elements are evident in ‘LVA’ and I'll also be dealing with the fact of how LVA and MDG both deal with the idea of fear and how it's enlivening and weakening.

Ants and Artists Culture has helped shape human development and form some of the most prominent societies and groups in today’s world. A definition of culture would be the way ones goes about their life that is impacted by the surroundings they live in. One of these societies that culture has helped formed in the fine art world that is discussed in the book The Painted Word by Tom Wolfe. The culture these artists have are specific to them and have many social norms and rules. While it would seem like humans are the only things capable of something as complicated as culture, ants seem to have culture as well.

There has been little change between the systems of today and the systems created hundreds of years ago. Many of the modern public educational systems found in the United States have failed to account for the rapid development of technology, namely the internet and computer. We are still using

In his essay,“The Myth of the Ant Queen”, Johnson states “although the queen is a term that reminds us of a human political system the queen is not an authority figure in an ant colony”. In a harvester ant colony even though there is a queen present there is no jurisdiction or leadership. The reason the ants carry the queen to abscond at a time of catastrophe is not that they are ordered to. In fact, they carry the queen because the queen gives birth to numerous ants so it is the colony's best interest to save the queen. Similarly, as Johnson begins describing the city of Manchester he makes an analogy between the behavior of harvester ants.

People are more or less the same apart from our social, political, and cultural environments. Culture is part of what we fundamentally are; therefore if that differs between humans then aren’t we all different because of our cultures and backgrounds? Culture is the core element that branches off to create all the little differences that make each of us a unique individual. We are very different from each other to the point where even the language used to communicate to one another varies from one group of people to another based on cultures and ethnicity. This can be seen very clearly through our actions, and more specifically, through the stories told to children growing up; fables. The fables “La Cigale et la Fourmi,” a French take on “The