Tackling the finer points of biographies

For the past week, we've been working on biographies. I'm posting Lillian's and Blair's, unedited, so you can see what a good job they did with only a few examples to work with. Here's Lillian's:

Stephen Hawking

Stephen Hawking was a scientist who made some major discoveries about the outer space that benefited science. He also spent most of his life in a wheelchair, and unable to talk.

Early life

Stephen Hawking was born on January.8, 1942. His father’s name was Frank Hawking, and his mother was Isobel Hawking. Hawking’s mother worked at a hospital making medicine, and his father worked as a biologist. He also had 3 siblings, Mary, Edward, and Philippa Hawking. 

Education 

Later, he attended University Collage, Oxford. He studied physics, and cosmology. He graduated University College in 1962. Then went to study at Trinity Hall, Cambridge.  

A sickness strikes

When he was almost 21, he was diagnosed with ALS, a very serious disease that causes people to lose control of their muscles in their body, therefore by the end of two years or so, they will not be able to move any muscle in their entire body. But, he continued to work as the disease spread, causing him to need a wheelchair to get around. After, he couldn’t even talk, but later technology helped him and as he got older and could use only one muscle in his cheek. So scientists took advantage of that, and constructed a machine to put on his wheelchair, so he could move his cheek muscle to select words so his mechanical voice can say the words he wants to say for him! He lived more then 50 years longer than he was supposed to live.

His achievements 

Soon, he became a professor for his knowledge on space and physics. His greatest discovery was about black holes, he learned that they can decay. After thousands of years, the black hole will get smaller, and smaller, and when the black hole disappears, it put all of the atoms and particles back together in the same form that they entered the black hole in! Even if it’s a star! He also discovered the link between quantum physics and Einstein’s theory of relativity, as well as how the Big Bang must have been infinitely small. Hawking also won many awards:

• Presidential Medal Of Freedom (2009)

• Copley Medal (2006)

• Gold Medal Of Royal Astronomical Society (1985)

• Wolf Prize Of Physics (1988)

• Albert Einstein Medal (1979)

• Albert Einstein Reward (1978)

• Hughes Medal (1976)

• Franklin Medal (1981)

• Princess Of Asturias Award For Concord (1989)

• Adams Prize ( 1966)

• Audie Award For Science Fiction ( 2019)

• Dannie Heineman Prize For Mathematical Physics (1976)

• Special Breakthrough Prize For Fundamental Physics (2013)

• Eddington Medal (1975)

• Fonseca Prize (2008)

• James Clerk Maxwell Medal And Prize ( No Date Recorded)

• Dirac Medal Of The Institute Of Physics (1987)

Famous Quotes

“ However difficult life may seem, there is always something you can do and succeed  at.”

“ Life would be tragic if it weren’t funny.”

“ Work gives you meaning and purpose, and life is empty without it.”

“ I believe that there are no questions that science can’t answer about the physical universe.”

“  Many people find the universe confusing - it’s not.”

 

Late Life

After many years of hard work and successful discoveries, Stephen Hawking’s time came. On March.14, 2018, he died peacefully in his sleep. But, lets end this biography on a happy note, and list some of the book he wrote. 

• A Brief history of time

• Brief answers to the big question

• Theory of everything

• The Grand Design 

• The Universe In A Nutshell

• A Briefer History Of Time

• George’s Secret Key To The Universe

• My Brief History 

• Black Holes And Baby Universes 

• On The Shoulders of Giants

• George And The Big Bang

•  George's Cosmic Treasure  Hunt

• The Nature Of Space And Time

• George And The Unbreakable Code

• George And The Blue Moon

• God Created The Integers 

• Unlocking The Universe

• The Large Scale Structure Of Space-Time

• The Dreams That Stuff Is Made Of 

• The Physics of Star Trek 

• Black Holes: The Reith Lectures

• The Future Of Space-Time

• Properties Of Expanding Universes

• General Relativity

• Hawking On The Big Bang And Black Holes

• Stephen Hawking Time And Universe

Wow! Thats A lot of books! Good By……….. Wait! One more thing, it’s not that important, but, while Stephen Hawking was all busy with nerdy stuff, he also had time for humor! So, he was super duper smart, and also pretty darn funny!

Blair's interview with COVID-19

Blair: When were you born?

COVID-19: I was born in 2019, that’s why I'm called COVID-19.

Blair: Where did you come from?

COVID-19: I came from bats in China. Such pretty bats...

Blair: How do you infect people?

COVID-19: That’s hard to explain to a human such as yourself.

Blair: What do you like doing?

COVID-19: Infecting. It’s my purpose in coronavirus life. 

Blair: Why couldn’t you just stay in China? 

COVID-19:Chinese people fly to Africa and America and Asia, etc. I send my little children to harm people on the planes. 

Blair: How do you feel about vaccines trying to stop you?

COVID-19: I feel like my reign might be over before it begins! My little children and grandchildren will die the second they try to infect animals and humans.

Blair: Will you ever go away?

COVID-19: Not if I can help it! My master plan is to send more of my children to infect more and more doctors so that they can’t finish the vaccine!!! 

COVID-19's interview with Lillian (unedited)

 COVID-19: Do you like me?           

Lillian: No. No way. You ruined so many experiences for me, ones that were planned for me, my family, and my friends. I had so many plans for this year, and now  I won’t get to do the things I had planned to do. We where planning a trip to the D.R., a vacation to Disney World with our close friend, me and my sister were going to stay at our grandparents house in Pennsylvania, as well as camp calumet. We were going to do so much stuff like that, but also small things, like going to a nice restaurant for New Year, or celebrating our 9th and 10th birthday with our friends. Other than our family plans you’ve ruined, you’ve killed and hurt so many people in the world, many families that didn’t deserve it, and lots of doctors who’ve risked their lives for other people in need. Thank you for keeping us safe doctors!

COVID-19: Have you met me?         

Lillian: No, not directly. I’ve worked the hardest I probably ever have or will on keeping myself, my family, ( Especially my Dad who is high risk) and other people that are near me safe. I have not participated in any parties, had a couple safe playdates with under 3 friends with masks on and social distancing, and have masked up in the 4 times I’ve gone to any stores. So no, except  for right now, with you interviewing me. 

COVID-19: How did I change your life?          

I feel like I got a lot closer to my family during quarantine. I got to watch Xander grow up much more, because I didn’t have to go off to school, or dance for a while. I really got to be closer to everyone too. But, this also gave Trump a chance to get a whole bunch of people killed by encouraging people to not follow the rules to keep us safe from Covid. 

And, I have been getting less and less close to the friends I use to be close too. I don’t get to talk to them that much, but it is exciting when every now and then I get to see one of them. This might seem a little sad, which it is. I really want to talk with everyone, but they are never online on Messenger kids. ( A safe text app for kids) Whenever I try to talk with them, they never answer. Sometimes I have news to share with them, sometimes they are online. So I text them, but they don’t answer, which sometimes makes someone turn them against me, or they don’t care that much. It’s sad because I spend time thinking about my friends.

COVID-19: What have you learned about viruses? Hehehehe…          

Lillian: I  have learned how they can affect different ages differently, and what happens when they start. And how they can affect you afterwards. I heard a news story about a woman who got COVID and had some lung problems. There were also a couple people that had a heart problem, loss of smell, nerve damage and “brain fog”.

COVID-19: How will I change your life after I’m gone?         

Lillian: I will be soooo happy to go out to IHOP! I am going to be less greedy about going on vacations, and just going places. A simple trip to SkyZone will be like going to Brazil. 

COVID-19: Have  I done anything good for you?            

Lillian: Well, I guess I’ll have to admit it. Yes. OK?! There, I said  it. Happy!? I’m guessing not. Humph. We probably wouldn’t have started homeschooling, or gotten an iPad. I LOVE HOMESCHOOLING. AND THE IPAD. So, there! OK???

Homeschooling at Laughing Idiots Academy :-)

 On a regular school day, we have an agenda. So we have school, then breakfast, and other stuff like that, kind of normal, right? But, at LI Academy we have it a bit different.

1.  8:15-8:30 We get up in the morning, put our clothes on, go to the bathroom, brush our hair, brush out teeth, and put on deodorant. 

2.  9:00 -9:30We come downstairs to the school room were we do home school. We get out our binders, and do our morning worksheets, which teach us math, spelling, some times Greek and Latin roots, language, history, geography, and sometimes economics. 

3. 10:00 -10:15 We are done in about an hour, and while Mommy gets ready to come downstairs, we occupy our selves with unloading the dishwasher, making tea and oatmeal, or going outside to play.

4. 10:30-12:00 Mommy is downstairs, and teaching us. Sometimes new math, like adding fractions, or finding the area of a circle, or algebra. Sometimes she gives us STEAM problems to solve, and we learn about the thing we need to build in the meantime, like bridges or arches.  

5. 1:00-2:00 We are in Dad's working office in the attic ( We decked it out into a nice living space, but only most of it is finished.) doing a writing lesson.

6. 2:00- 3:00 Our three year old brother Xander is up from his morning nap, and we have brunch. 

7. 3:00-5:00 We all go outside, or stay in and watch TV. 

8. 5:00-6:00 Dinner is being made.

9. 6:00-7:00 We all eat dinner and have dessert. We have a chat about our day, and every now and then it is no-meat night. We try to do that 2 times a week.

10. 7:00-8:00 It's time to settle down, get ready for bed. Fill up our water cups, put our jamies on, and brush our teeth.

11. It's story time! Lately, we've been reading this nerdy book story called " George's secret key to the universe" written by Steven Hawking and his daughter, Lucy Hawking.

12. Its snuggle time with Mommy! She sings a lullaby, and I turn on my plasma ball annn........ Oh! I'm so sorry, I must've fallen asleep! And go to sleep. 

Pics!!!!      

        Morning STEAM problem! Learning about bridges!                                                                          

 See that book with dolphins? That's my worksheet binder!

 The daily quote!

 PI day!!!

Isaiah 61, Twillins-style (and Noah's Ark, too)

 We spent today learning about technology. Paul taught the Twillins about Audacity, editing and saving audio files, ID3 tags, and MP3 format. He's hiring them to rip a ridonculous amount of records using his digital record player, so that we can have the recordings as digital formats.

Then we laid out, made props for, and filmed both the video and audio (the girls played Ode to Joy and Talis Cannon on recorder) for a contribution to our church's Easter Vigil service. We were assigned Isaiah 61:1-4, 9-11. The text is filled with imagery, so I had an idea to make short videos and pictures and make the movie a slideshow, with recorded music and the Biblical reading behind the visuals. 

The girls ran with it, helping me outline it...

... hunting all over the house for and making props, and filming it. Then we recorded the girls playing the music and then we recorded my reading it. We are really proud of how it turned out!

We hope you enjoy our video for Isaiah 61.

Last year, we created another kind of video to illustrate the Noah's Ark story. It was a LOT of painted rocks! 

Happy pi day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

today, when we were in homeschool, we were taught the worst math ever. this is what we learned:

awful, right? the worst thing is, we're fourth graders, and the sheets say that that was sixth grade, not fourth. we had like, two sheets of ONLY THIS. IT WAS HORRID. I don't know how, but somehow I lived through it.

--Blair

My Magic Ball

If you really thought I had a magic ball, then think again, because it isn't a magic ball, it's a plasma ball, and here is how it works: 

There is a bunch of gasses inside of the glass ball, like xenon, and neon makes a mixture of colors, xenon makes a blue/lavender color of light, and neon makes a red color. So, when you turn it on with a button on one side, it send a small electric wave, making the particles of the gasses collide, creating a light wave and making the inside of the ball light up! You can get some of these for a pretty good price on Amazon and you can get different colors, depending on what particles in each kind of gas are, to create cool light waves to create light! Very nerdy, huh? But soooooooo cool! 

But, there is another cool part about the ball! If you put your hand on the glass, then the line of light will follow your hand, because the electricity in your hand makes it a more attractive place for the light, again, nerdy, but cool. :-)

--Lillian