Hey Blog! This week I’ve decided to tell you about some of my lessons.
I learn humanities with Humanatees. This is a tutoring business, and some of the subjects it teaches include geography, mythology, history and philosophy. The business is called Humanatees because “humanity” sounds a lot like “(Hu)manatee” (A manatee is a large marine mammal, sometimes called a Dugong or Sea Cow). Originally, it was an in-person business, but at the start of the pandemic the lessons went online. I have never met in person with Jake, the teacher, as I started in spring 2020.
The online lessons at the start of the pandemic were my first with Humanatees. There were four in a week: Modern history, Ancient history, Geography and Mythology. After these free lessons finished, I took the six-week courses. I took the KS2 courses first, and then the KS3 ones, which have an assessment. This is a set of questions about whatever we have been studying, mostly easy but with one ten-point question at the end which is always best to allow 30 minutes for… I have always chosen to do the assessment, and it seems I’m actually pretty good at is, as I usually get a very high score. After each class I try to complete a “response” to it as further study, such as pictures, a piece of writing, or even just a some research and a discussion. These responses have included working out the power generated by wind turbines, discussing the French revolution in French, and doing some beautiful drawings of fairies, which I have reproduced here:
The most recent courses I’ve completed are Revolutions, about six revolutions through history – the American, French, Russian, Cuban, Iranian, and Arab Spring – and Energy. This second was a study of renewable and non-renewable sources of energy, from the fossil fuels to wind and solar; but from the geography side rather than science. Alongside this course, I have been watching videos from an amazing YouTube channel called Theatre of Science. The link is here: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheatreofScience. The videos we have been watching are from the latest series, all about energy. These are more on the science side, talking about where energy comes from and how we access it. We have sent in the assessments for both Revolutions and Energy this week, and I am hoping to get another high mark.
It would be great if Humanatees could do a course on either ‘wildlife habitat’ or ‘historical transitions’, as I would really like to do both of these topics.