Remapping the Present

Question 1

Telegraph Article

What is the telegraph?

Importance and creation

Answer 1

• The printing press was the big innovation in communication until the telegraph, which in turn faded with the expansion of the radio, after which came the telephone, then followed by the internet
• In France, a rough system sending electric signals across systems was used
• Samuel Morse started working on his version of the telegraph, he developed Morse Code and presented his concept to teh US Congress
• Morse built a telegraph system from Washington DC to Baltimore
• The first message was What hath God wrought?
• The system progressed slowly, and many attempts failed, but other companies started opening their own lines around the country, and then the Western Union built the first transcontinental telegraph line
• At first, messages were transmitted by trained code users, but then automatic transmissions were developed
• Western Union was the most important company, but later the Communications Act switched regulation of the industry to the new Federal Communications Commission
• It changed the way communication worked and made it far more widespread
• Morse said that it would be an instrument of immense power, Senator Smith had no confidence in, George McDuffie also had little confience, along with James D Reid
• Charles F Briggs and Augustus Maverick wrote that the telegraph was a very potent and changing power

Question 2

Inō Tadataka Article

Who was Inō Tadataka?

Notable work and background

Answer 2

• During the latter part of the Edo period, geographical surveyor Inō Tadataka set to work charting the coastline of Japan
• He is recognized as the first person to survey the entirety of Japan using modern scientific techniques
• Tadataka was born on the Jujūkuri coast in Kazusa Province
• He suffered a tumultuous childhood, but he was an able student, and rebuilt his family’s declining sake brewing operation
• He was village headman, and showed early promise as a cartographer when he drew a map of the nearby Tone River
• Inō retired from work in the village and studied astronomy, and became the pupil of Takahashi Yoshitoki
• Inō set out to determine the size of the earth using traversing, but it ended up being inadequate, so Inō set out to measure the distance between Edo and Ezo, which was an untamed wilderness inhabited by indigenous Ainu
• Inō led a small team and spent six months on the island, and the maps impressed the shogunal leaders, and the following year Ino was sent to survey the Pacific shoreline of Honshū
• His findings were close to those of Jerome Lalande’s work Astronomia of Sterrekunde
• Ino completed his survey of eastern Japan, and then was ordered to study the western side, but the intricate shorlines proved extremely difficult
• Ino spent 17 years surveing Japan, walking tens of thousands of kilometers
• The unclosed traverse was the method, starting from a known location and measuring the distance to a second reference point, determining latitude by observing the meridian altitude of fixed stars
• Ino fell ill with malaria for part of the expedition
• Benefited from help from his son Kageyasu
• Ino took up residence in a shogunal mapmaking office and began turning data into maps, but did not see the completion of his project since he died
• The project fell to his students and officials
• The government never published the charts, but Ino is admired for his achievement
• However, he is known to be stern and inflexible
• The 200th anniversary of Ino’s first exhibition was marked by a large variety of events

Question 3

Map Article

What is Strabo’s map?

Basics

Answer 3

• Country of Origin: Anatolia during the transitional period of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire
• Creator: Greek geographer, historian, and philosopher Strabo
• Materials Used: Ink and parchment
• Area Depicted: The known world at the time to the ancient Greeks and Romans
• The Greek geographer, philosopher, and historian Strabo is mostly known for his geographical encyclopedia titled Geographica (not to be confused with Eratosthenes’ work)
• Unlike other geographical works from the time period, nearly all of Strabo’s 17-volume work has survived
• Geographica provides a descriptive history of the people and places that were known during Strabo’s time
• Strabos traveled extensively and took notes and also gathered information from earlier works to compile his book

Question 4

Map Article

What is Eratosthenes’ Map?

Basics

Answer 4

• Ancient Greek map
• Eratosthenes was a greek mathematician, geographer, poet, astronomer and music theorist
• Made on ink and parchment to depict the known world of the time to the ancient Greeks
• Eratosthenes is known as the “father of geography”
• Chief librarian at the Library of Alexandria, Eratosthenes wrote a three-volume work titles Geography (Geographika) describing the entire known world and diving Earth into 5 climate zones
• Eratosthenes was also the first person to place grids over his map, and also the first to feature 400 cities and their accurate locations

Question 5

Map Article

What is Hecataeus’ Map?

Basics

Answer 5

• Done in Miletus by historian and geographer Hecataeus to depict the known world to ancient Greeks
• First Greek historian known
• Hecataeus was inspired by Anaximander who is credited with creating the first world map
• This version of the map is more accurate and is accompanied by a book called teh Periodos ges
• Included information about the people and places one would encounter if they followed his map from the Straight of Gibraltar clockwise to the Black Sea

Question 6

Map Article

What is Anaximander’s Map?

Basics

Answer 6

• Miletus
• Pre-Socratic philosopher Anaximander
• Possibly etched rounded metal surface, depicting the world known to the Greeks
• There were older maps, but Anaximander is often credited with being the first person to publish a map of the world
• No copy exists but there are written records that describe in detail what the map depicted
• Includes what was known of Europe, Asia and Libya, the Mediterranean Sea, the Black Sea, the Nile, Lake Maeotis and the Phasis River

Question 7

Map Article

What was the Babylonian Map of the world?

Basics

Answer 7

• Created in Babylon by an unknown artist engraved in a clay tablet and showing the known world at the time to Ancient Babylonians
• Considered the oldest world map
• Map is circular and features two outer defined circles, the centre showing the Euphrates river and showing some cities, a mountain, the Ocean (bitter river) and unknown outer reagions beyong the ocean

Question 8

Map Article

What is the Turin Papyrus map?

Basics

Answer 8

• Topographical map of Wadi Hammamat made in Egypt on payrus by scribe Amennakhte
• Widely considered the oldest existing topographical map, drawn by the well known scribe and prepared for Ramesses IV who wanted to quarry the area
• Depicted is a 15-km stretch of Wadi Hammamat and shows where it merged with wadis Atalla and el-Sid
• Also the earliest known geological map because it showed the local distribution of different rock types

Question 9

Map Article

What is the Abauntz Lamizulo rock map?

Basics

Answer 9

• Navarre, Spain, made on engraved rock possibly by Magdalenian hunter-gatherers depicting the area around Abauntz Lamizulo cave and animals such as red deer and ibex
• Engraved onto a hand-sized rock believed to be the oldest map ever found in Western Europe
• According to the team led by Pilar Utrilla from the University of Zaragoza, all of these engravings could be a sketch or a simple map of the area around the cave

Question 10

Map Article

What is the Lascaux Cave Star map?

Basics

Answer 10

• Near Montignac, France
• Some of the paintings may have been prehistoric star maps
• According to German researcher Dr. Michael Rappenglueck of the University of Munich, some dots correspond with some constellations
• Chantal Jegues Wolkiewiez believes that the Great Hall depicts an extensive star map with key points on major figures corresponding to stars in the main constellations from the Paleolithic

Question 11

Map Article

What is the Mammoth Tusk map?

Basics

Answer 11

• Engraved on a mammoth tusk in Pavlov, Czech Republic by an unknown artist depicting mountains, rivers, valleys and routes around ancient Pavlov
• Believed to be the oldest map in the world
• Curved markings are thought to represent the Dyje river
• Stored in the Archaeological Institue of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic in Brno

Question 12

Projection Article

What is stereographic projection?

Map use

Answer 12

• Planar projection that preserves angles and shapes locally, making it conformal
• Often used for mapping polar regions and creating star charts in celestial cartography
• This map projection is also the basis for the popular Polar Stereographic projection, which is used for representing high-latitude regions with minimal distortion
• Planar: use a flat plane that touches the Earth at a single point, projecting the Earth’s features onto the plane

Question 13

Projection Article

What is Lambert projection?

Map use

Answer 13

• A conic map projection that maintains accurate shapes and angles over small areas
• Suitable for mapping regions with predominantly east-west extents, such as the United States
• This projection is widely used for aeronautical charts due to its angle preservation, making it valuable for navigation

Question 14

Projection Article

What is Mercator projection?

Map use

Answer 14

• Introduced by Gerardus Mercator
• Cylindrical projection that preserves local angles and shapes, making it valuable for navigation purposes
• Significantly distorts the size of landmasses near the poles
• Leads to misconceptions about the relative sizes of continents and countries

Question 15

Projection Article

What is Robinson projection?

Map use

Answer 15

• Compromise projection that balances the distortions of area, shape, distance, and direction
• The Robinson map projection is a pseudocylindrical projection
• Creates visually appealing world maps that provide a general overview of the Earth’s surface
• The National Geographic Society widely used the Robinson projection for its world maps

Question 16

Projection Article

What is Goode’s Homolosine projection?

Map use

Answer 16

• Developed by John Paul Goode
• Pseudocylindrical equal-area projection that resembles an interrupted globe
• Designed to minimize distortion in both area and shape, making it suitable for world maps that require a balanced representation of the Earth’s landmasses

Question 17

Projection Article

What is Winkel Tripel projection?

Map use

Answer 17

• Developed by Oswald Winkel
• Compromise projection that balances distortions in area, shape, distance, and direction
• Considered one of the best projections for general-purpose world maps, and the National Geographic Society adopted it as their standard world map projection

Question 18

Authagraph

What is authagraph projection?

Map use

Answer 18

• Invented by Japanese architect Hajime Narukawa
• The map substantially preserves sizes and shapes of all continents and oceans while it reduces distortions of their shapes, as inspired by the Dymaxion map.
• The name is derived from “authalic” and “graph”

Question 19

Projection Article

What is Miller projection?

Map use

Answer 19

• Osborn Maitland Miller developed the Miller Cylindrical projection as a modified version of the Mercator projection
• Minimizes distortion in high latitudes by slightly compressing the spacing of parallels
• Although it still overstates the size of polar areas, the distortion is less pronounced than in the standard Mercator projection

Question 20

Projection Article

What is azimuthal projection?

Map use

Answer 20

• Azimuthal projections involve projecting the Earth’s surface onto a flat plane, typically tangent or secant to the Earth at a specific point
• Angular- given three points on a map (A, B, and C) the azimuth from Point B to Point C dictates the angle someone would have to look or travel in order to get to A
• Angular relationships are more commonly known as great circle arcs or geodesic arcs
• Main features are straight meridian lines, radiating out from a central point, parallels that are circular around the central point, and equidistant parallel spacing
• Azimuthal maps are beneficial for finding direction from any point on the Earth using the central point as a reference

Question 21

Projection Article

What is conformal projection?

Map use

Answer 21

• These projections maintain local angles and shapes
• Seen in the Mercator and Lambert Conformal Conic projections

Question 22

Projection Article

What is conical projection?

Map use

Answer 22

• Conic projections involve placing a cone over the Earth, touching it along a standard parallel or two standard parallels
• These maps are defined by the cone constant, which dictates the angular distance between meridians
• Like the cylindrical projection, conic map projections have parallels that cross the meridians at right angles with a constant measure of map distortion throughout
• Conic map projections are designed to be able to be wrapped around a cone on top of a sphere (globe), but aren’t supposed to be geometrically accurate
• Conic map projections are best suited for use as regional or hemispheric maps, but rarely for a complete world map
• The distortion in a conic map makes it inappropriate for use as a visual of the entire Earth but does make it great for use visualizing temperate regions, weather maps, climate projections, and more

Question 23

Projection Article

What is cylindrical projection?

Map use

Answer 23

• Cylindrical projections involve wrapping a cylinder around the Earth, touching it at the equator or another standard line, and projecting the Earth’s surface onto the cylinder
• This kind of map projection has straight coordinate lines with horizontal parallels crossing meridians at right angles
• Cylindrical map projections are rectangles, but are called cylindrical because they can be rolled up and their edges mapped in a tube, or cylinder, shape
• The only factor that distinguishes different cylindrical map projections from one another is the scale used when spacing the parallel lines on the map
• The downsides of cylindrical map projections are that they are severely distorted at the poles.

Question 24

Google Map Article

How is social media eating into Google products?

Ways, reasons and impact

Answer 24

• Search, Maps and YouTube are being impacted by social media platforms
• Senior Vice President Prabhakar Raghavan who runs Google’s Knowledge and Information organization referenced the popular social apps in a broader conversation at Fortune’s Brainstorm Tech converence
• New internet users don’t have the expectations and mindset that we are used to
• Young people want to look in a more immersive way instead of typing in keywords
• This trend could cut into Google’s core business of search and discovery
• Younger people are generally more interested in visually rich forms, and many maps apps look like a paper map stuck on a phone
• Google Maps is now incorporating augmented reality to help users position themselves in their environment
• Yonger people’s demand for visual content will change Google Search, but Search is evolving anyway

Question 25

Blue Marble Article

What was the famous Blue Marble photograph?

Who took it, importance, background

Answer 25

• NASA’s Apollo 17 spacecraft
• Taken with a Hasselblad film camera
• First photograph taken of the whole round Earth
• Previous Apollo missions had taken photographs of the Earth in part shadow, like Earthrise
• In Blue Marble, the African continent and Antarctica are clearly seen
• Astronaut Scott Kelly observes that this can be difficult to capture the lighting
• Denis Cosgrove says that the Blue Marble disprupted Western conventions for mapping and cartography, removing the graticule
• Gave Africa central position, and the image became a symbol of unity and harmony
• Also became a symbol of the early enviornmental movement, adopted by groups such as Friends of the Earth and Earth Day
• Photograph appeared on the cover of James Lovelock’s book Gaia
• NASA created digitally-manipulated whole-Earth images titled Blue Marble: Next Generation
• Art historians like Elizabeth A Kessler linked these new generations of space images with the philosophical concept of teh sublime
• Create a sense of vastness, like Thomas Moran’s The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone
• The Hubble Space Telescope revealed mountains of gas and dust in the Eagle Nebula known as the Pillars of Creation
• Earlier this year, NASA released the first images taken by the James Webb Space Telescope

Question 26

Pale Blue Dot Article

What is the Pale Blue Dot photograph?

What it is, “creator”

Answer 26

• Taken by NASA spacecraft Voyager 1
• Idea and name by late Cornell astronomy professor Carl Sagan
• Lisa Kaltenegger said that it showed our world as beautiful and fragile
• Photos were also taken of sibling planets
• Downloading took several weeks,
• Sagan was one of the creators of the Golden Record, a gold-covered disk carrying an interstellar message
• Ann Druyan, Sagan’s wife served as creative director of Voyager’s Interstellar Message
• In their book “Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space”, Druyan and Sagan took a poetic and holistic view of Earth

Question 27

Sagan Book Excerpt Article

What is the excerpt from Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space?

Idea

Answer 27

• First says that every person that ever lived, every religion, ideology and doctrine lived here
• The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena, imagine all the horrible things that occured on a tiny corner of this pixelated dot, while we think that we are so important, though we are a tiny dot in this world
• Earth is the only world known to harbor life
• Astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience

Question 28

Night Photo Article

What is the NASA night photograph?

What does it show, technology used

Answer 28

• NASA created a global composite image on cloud-free nights from a new NASA and NOAA satellite, showing the glow of natural and human-built phenomena across teh planet
• NASA used a Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) sensitive enough to detect the nocturnal glow produced by Earth’s atmosphere and the light from a single ship in the sea to make its observations
• Released at a news conference at the American Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco
• NASA said that its VIIRDS produces an image by repeatedly scanning a scene and resolving it as millions of individual pixels
• The image shows Europe, America, Middle East, Asia and Australia as the most illuminated parts
• South America and Africa are the least illuminated

Question 29

Franklin Article

What was Benjamin Franklin’s proposal for daylight saving?

Discovery, idea, reasons behind it, proposed solution

Answer 29

• Franklin was at a gathering for the new lamp, but there was a concern regarding oil usage
• The next day, Franklin woke up early around 6 to see the sun rising, then checked the almanac and saw that for the next few months it would continue to rise this early
• He calculated that he would be up later, and burn more candles at night
• He calculated that a large amount of money could be saved in Paris on candles if people used daylight instead of candles
• To address resistance to rising late in the day, he proposed regulations
• Included taxing windows with shutters blocking sunlight, limiting candle purchases per family weekly, restricting nighttime activities after sunset except for emergencies, ringing church bells at sunrise and firing cannons in streets if needed to wake up late risers
• He believed that people would be able toadjust their routines, and embrace early rising
• Savings would be significant for that half of the year, but also during shorter days since there would be more left over

Question 30

Daylight Saving Time Article

What is the Daylight Saving Time debate?

Problems, arguments and potential solutions

Answer 30

• Three high-quality polls taken on the topic of whether we should continue to have Daylight Saving Time
• Taken by Associated Press, Langer Research Associates and CBS News
• Americans split right down the middle
• Most of Arizona and all of Hawaii does not follow this
• The Uniform Time Act only allows states to observe standard time all year round
• Sen. Marco Rubio tried to allow states to opt into having Daylight Saving Time all year round, and in the past, some states had it and some states did not (having to adjust the clocks is what made it difficult)
• Permanent Daylight Savings Time was around for most of WWII, the energy crisis, both times to conserve fuel, but there were problems especially in western states with children waiting for buses in the dark
• There are mixed arguments:
• More car accidents occur when people lose sleep, but robberies decrease with more sunlight, people suffer more heart attacks at the start of DST, but people are happier with more sunlight
• Lobby groups for recreational sports wanted more customers to come after work, but the movie industry did not like it since you’re less likely to go to a film in bright daylight

Question 31

Time Zone Health Article

What affect do time zones have on our health?

Basic facts and arguments

Answer 31

• Osea Giuntella and Fabrizio Mazzonna conducted a study
• Traveling east to wwest, sunrise and sunset times get later
• Sunset is a powerful biological trigger, the fading of natural light causes the body to release melatonin
• As a result, people on the eastern side of a time zone go to bed earlier with the earlier sunset
• People who go to bed later generally can not make up for lost sleep, and individuals who are on the late sunset side of a time zone boundary are more likely to be sleep deprived
• 19 minutes of lost sleep a day is 115 hours of lost sleep per year
• People on the late side of sunset across U.S. time zones were 11 percent more likely on average to be overweight and 21 percent more likely to be obese
• Sleeping less also adversely affects productivity, which can lead to lower wages
• However, later sunset times are more enjoyable for people who like late nights

Question 32

China Time Zone Article

Why does China have only one time zone?

Purpose, practical concerns, exceptions and history

Answer 32

• The Communist party established the country’s current time system shortly after it founded the People’s Republic of China
• Important for establishing authority over the whole country
• There are some concerns, like that official time is already like 10 am when the sun rises in Xinjiang and Tibet
• Many of the people there are ethnic minorities who feel that the use of BST is oppressive and unnecessary
• Additionally, many farming communities just use their own time
• Hong Kong and Macau both use their own time, HKT and MST, both of which are UTC+8
• Many areas also have their own unofficial time zone
• Previosly, China had 5 time zones
• Changpai Time Zone, Chungyuan Standard Time Zone, Kansu-Szechuan Time Zone, Sinkiang-Tibet Time Zone, and Kunlun Time Zone
• The country used daylight savings time for a while for 5 years but then dropped it

Question 33

Fort Totten Article

What was the Fort Totten solution?

Basics

Answer 33

• Washington, DC
• Serves both the Red and Green lines
• Testing two new prototype fare gates to thwart fare evasion
• One design resembles a swinging pair of saloon doors, and the other has plastic half-discs on top to prevent gate hoppers from getting a handhold to launch a leap
• The half-disc design has already been installed, while the saloon doors were not yet operational

Question 34

Gate Article

What are the new subway gates in New York?

What they are, idea and problems

Answer 34

• New fare gates were meant to give subway riders easy access, but now people can avoid paying by piggybacking using the new high-tech sensor gates
• But they are working with the gates to fix it
• Many riders were brining large suitcases, the new fare gates are wider to get around this
• Riders are increasing
• However, in 2021, $500M was lost to this, but $690M in 2022
• Quemuel Arroyo said that they need fare gates not yet on the market
• They have committed 25 million to re-make the way riding public gets access

Question 35

Speed Limiter Article

What are the new mandatory speed limiters?

Use, how it works, effects

Answer 35

• All European cars and cars in the UK will have to have a speed limiter by 2022, and an Intelligent Speed Assist by 2024
• It’s a safety device that can be fitted in cars so that your vehicle does not cross a certain set speed
• Uses GPS data and/or traffic-sign-recognition cameras to determine the max allowed speed
• Citroen, Ford, Honda, Jaguar, Peugeot, Renault and Volvo include ISA
• Warning systems can be annoying, so the following methods are used
• The driver’s foot will be pushed back
• Speed control system will reduce propulsion power, but you can override this
• The driver will be sent a flashing visual signal, after which audio will also be activated
• First, a visual signal will be sent, then the pedal will vibrate
• Regulation will asses the effectiveness of these signals
• There are glitches in the system
• However, it is clearly stated that the driver is always responsible
• The regulations permit you to switch it off but not permanently disable it, though you can get it removed
• It is hoped that it will reduce road accidents
• New EU regulations include compulsory safety equipment such as emergency braking, data loggers, emergency stop signal, driver fatigue detection system, lane keep assist and built-in breathalysers

Question 36

Melbourne Article

What is the public transport cituation in Melbourne?

Different elements

Answer 36

• Metro trains have five stations, and run from 5 am to midnight Monday to Thursday, and the night network runs all night Fridays and weekends
• Trams: Melbourne is the only Australian city with trams, and you can board them at signposted stops, travel in the city centre is free
• The gold City Circle trams offer free travel to city cites and attractions with audio commentary
• Buses run to major hubs and intersect with train and tram lines
• Myki is Melbourne’s ticket to travel on the trains, trams and buses, and is a plastic smartcard that you can top up
• Early morning train travel is free

Question 37

Luxembourg Article

What is the public transport situation in Luxembourg?

Cost and convenience, style

Answer 37

• Luxembourg has the highest vehicle density on the continent, with high income and cheap diesel
• It became the first nation to make public transit entirely free besides first-class tickets
• Rome, Austin, Texas, Kansas City, Massachusetts, Tallinn, Dunkirk, France and the Czech Republic are examples of places that introduced aspects of free public transport
• This slashes carbon emissions and aids residents hit with high gas prices, and European regions have reliable train and bus services
• The system is more frictionless, there is a greater sense of freedom, and for some riders the cost savings are meaningful, like Max, a special needs teacher who works in Luxembourg City but lives in France
• There is little evidence that it reduced the amount of cards, because it doesn’t tempt people away from cars
• Luxembourg is wary of making driving more costly and difficult, and rising fuel taxes were put on hold as part of a government solidarity package to help citizens weather the energy crisis brought on by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine
• The first step for now, is to just make other modes more attractive than cars, like improving rails and redesigning urban street plans
• A huge proportion of workers live outside the country’s borderes, coming from France, Germany and Belgium due to high living costs, so free travel is a bit of a compensation, but now they can’t complain about the system
• Addressing the housing issue would be a greater social equity objective according to Constance Carr
• Merely eliminating tickets won’t work as a stand-alone policy for greater sustainability and social equity
• Should join with more stringent car restrictions or more generous housing benefits

Question 38

Tallinn Article

What is the public transportation situation in Tallinn?

Cost and convenience

Answer 38

• The capital of Estonia introduced free public transport after their populist mayor Edgar Savisaar called a referendum on the decision
• You must be registered as a resident to ride buses, trams, trolley buses and trains for free
• Residents only pay two euro for a card and then all trips are free
• Allan Alakula, official project spokesperson says that boosting the popularity of the mayor’s office was a key motivation
• Chengdu and Bucharest wanted to achieve the goal as well
• Tallinn is not big or crowded, and most journeys are swift, but car amounts are actually going up according to Dr Cats
• The city hasn’t done enough to promote cycling
• Cats found mixed evidence whether the scheme improved mobility and accessbility of low-income and unemployed residents
• The idea faces political opposition, and visitors still have to pay, and it could lead to less investment in the service
• Tallinn also can’t rely on increasing tax revenues by attracting new residents forever
• Alakula is positive about its longevity

Question 39

Window Article

What is the history of glass windows?

Basic history

Answer 39

• Glass was discovered in nature, but not transparent, and was black and volcanic, used by prehistoric people for weapons, money and jewelry
• The first man-made glass comes from Eastern Mesopotamia and Egypt, and production became much more efficient when Syrian craftsmen introduced the blowpipe, this early glass was for vessels and jewelry
• This made its way to Rome, when manufacturing was refined, and in Rome the first glass windows were made
• Christians started to build early 4th century Churches, and stained glass was used for windows and beautiful biblical images
• During the 17th century, the first window glass was manufactured in Britain, but it was still crude, when a lengthy balloon of glass was blown and then a cylinder would be formed then spilt and flattened
• Then, the first glass factory in America was opened in Jamestown, Virigina, with the process being relatively the same but cheaper
• Crown glass was blown into a bubble, piecrced then spun
• Drawn glass was introduced by Emile Fourcault, involved placing a slot in a tank of molten glass and drawing sheets
• Irving Colburn introduced the Colburn machine which made glass with paper-making as inspiration
• Edouard Benedictus accidentally discovered laminated glass when his glass flask coated with plastic cellulose nitrate dropped to the floor but did not break
• Alastair Pilkington introduced making float glass, where molten glass is poured onto a bed of molten tin
• There are many glass options now for homeowners

Question 40

Open Classrooms Article

What are open-plan classrooms?

Promblems, benefits, trends

Answer 40

• In a school in Melbourne, a large room contained two classes separated by a pillar
• One room featured children at their desks looking at the teacher but drowned out by the other “room”
• The idea is for classrooms to be flexble, allowing students to break into groups and direct their own learning
• However, the University of Melbourne published a review that only found 21 relevant studies that evaluated the impact of educational spaces on student learning outcomes
• Studies showed open-plan environments had mixed results
• They can be noisy and difficult to use explicit teaching in, as 2,500 UK high school students said traditional classrooms were better for learning
• High noise levels are bad for all students, especially those with additional learning needs like ADHD
• New classrooms should be built using research, governments should provide schools with funding to fix classrooms that are too noisy
• NSW government is spending A$8.6 billion on school infrastructure the next four years

Question 41

Open School Article

What are open schools?

Idea, popularity, problems

Answer 41

• Between the 60s and 70s, open schools became popular in response to the fear that the US was falling behind and restricting creativity
• No whole-class lessons, no standardized tests and no detailed curriculum
• A backlash set in to get back into traditional schools
• Carolyn Jackson-King is the principal of Benjamin Orr Elementary School, who said it allowed for more collaboration
• Marlon Ray is the director of strategy for the school, where the classrooms were large and you could hear noise from other rooms
• They created walls with other objects, and Tomiko Ball said that it is a bit difficult, but the teachers are great, but it is too noisy
• It is too loud and too distracting
• Larry Cuban said that it was also low funded, and the schools were too free and open
• The movement crashed

Question 42

Harkness Article

What is a Harkness table?

Problems, main idea

Answer 42

• Oval tables where every person is supposed to collaborate and where every voice carries equal weight
• However, the table can be dominated by a few people, while the others feel inadequate
• English teacher Stephen Potchatek, the method is used in many English classrooms in the school
• It can be stressful to come up with the pace and deliver quick ideas, as anxiety can slow thinking and then people with anxiety may have limited contributions
• Formality and competitiveness can overtake, according to EPIC, students who flourish in structured learning environments may find it difficult to participate and benefit from this method
• It does a disservice to visual learners
• A Harkness structure should be restructured, like a smaller topic frame to dig deeper, and including visual components, like encouraging sketches, and also to adjust grading