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Doctor Who themed school week


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So, I was thinking of doing a week or two of school this November with a Doctor Who theme and was wondering if anyone else would like to help me plan it out.  I've got the Doctor Who and Philosophy book that I figured we could go through and was planning to pick a few episodes to watch and then learn about whatever historical character the doctor would have crossed paths in that episode, maybe a few art projects like painting their own Starry Night (with or without exploding Tardis), some sort of science ,but I don't know what yet ,and then ending the week with a Doctor Who dinner.  Any suggestions, or other ideas.  Which episodes would be must covers?  Old or new as long as the old ones are on Netflix.   Really looking forward to this and seeing it come together, as they had so much fun and learned a quite a lot doing a Hogwarts themed school last October.

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He has met a lot of historical figures - Shakespeare, Marco Polo, what was the queen on Dinosaurs on a Space ship?  Hey, you could watch first episode of season 7 and make souffles.  They catch Jack the Ripper in season 7, too.  There's the one with Martha where they see the empire state building being built.  Oh, and that french woman who was the king's mistress.  and the flying Titanic.  Winston Churchill.  Rory the Roman in stonehenge.  

 

i cant think of much food except fish fingers and custard.  apparently they were not really fish sticks, but some sort of fried coconut flavored stick.  but there is a doctor who cookbook.  I noticed recently there are also dr who Yahtzee game.  You could also look up biographies of the actors.  

 

i wasnt very impressed with the science of the early shows - the daleks ran on 'static electricity' when they tried to pretend made sense?  

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they do drink a lot of tea . . . i've been watching really old stuff, so i keep thinking i should have better ideas, but i just dont.  There was something with the first doctor in the french revolution, but i found the early historical shows painfully boring.  The Highlanders was some sort of history of scottland or something, but i had no idea.  

there is an episode where they are at a station that controls the weather.  hmmm.  

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The science thing is tricky...  Maybe water on Mars?  Or layers of the earth and some geology and watch a Silurian episode like The Hungry Earth?  Honestly, there are so many "we're drilling" episodes, there's got to be something there for science.  Or something with nanotech or robotics or cybornetics?  Lots of potential tie ins for that.

 

Chips (aka fries) for the food.  :)  Or...  Yeah, I don't know what other food.  I know there's fish fingers and custard thing, but I liked 9 and 10's love of chips.

 

How about doing Da Vinci and watching City of Death for art instead of the more obvious Van Gogh?

 

History is easy, obviously.

 

Math...  Hm...  There's the thing about happy numbers in 42...

 

This is a great idea.  Have fun!

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What a FABULOUS and fun idea! Wish our DSs were young again just so we could do this too! :)

 

 

Science tie-in for you, courtesy of my DH! :)

"Partners in Crime" = fat aliens -- for science, study fat! (David Tennant/Catherine Tate, 1st episode/4th season)

 

Here's an experiment having to do with the insulating properties of fat.

Here are two experiments on the amount of fat in different types of foods: this one for younger students (similar experiment here), and this one for older students).

Youtube video showing how how bile emulsifies (breaks down) fat.

Here's an oil (fat), water, soapy water and surface tension experiment... You can also experiment with how soap breaks down oil (fat). This one tests the surface tension of first water and then oil (fat) by trying to float a paper clip.

Here's one that shows the different densities of different liquids, including oil (fat).

 

You could also read some nutritional articles about fat:

- how much fat is healthy

- types of fat -- and a more detailed article on types of fat

 

 

More potential tie-ins:

History: Doctor #1 (William Hartnell) visited the Aztecs, the ancient Romans, and the Old West

History: Doctor #2 (Patrick Troughton) "War Games" episode involves WW1 -- BUT, it is insanely long and repetitive at 5+ hours long!!

History: Doctor #10 (David Tennyson) "Fires of Pompei" is set just before the volcanic eruption of Pompei in 79AD

 

Fiction: Doctor #2 (Patrick Troughton) "The Mind Robber" episode includes many mythic and fictional characters

Fiction: Doctor #4 (Tom Baker) "Brain of Morbius" episode is a spin on the story of Frankenstein

Fiction: Doctor #7 (Sylvestor McCoy) "Battlefield" episode is a spin on King Arthur and Morgana myth

Fiction: Doctor #10 (David Tennant) "Unicorn and the Wasp" episode involves Agatha Christie and solving a mystery

Fiction: 2010 Christmas special (Doctor #11, Matt Smith) is a spin off of A Christmas Carol

Fiction: 2011 Christmas special (Doctor #11, Matt Smith) is a spin off of The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe

 

Music: Doctor #2 (Patrick Troughton) carried a recorder in his pocket and played to help him think...

Food:  Doctor #4 (Tom Baker) was known for offering Jelly Babies from a bag in his pocket in many episodes...

Sports: Doctor #5 (Peter Davison) in "Black Orchid" plays cricket in 1920s England...

 

 

ETA with Math Tie-In ideas [just for you, Farrarwilliams, cause you were wondering... ;)]:

 

If you're willing to watch an original episode, "Logopolis", the last Tom Baker (4th Doctor) episode -- and, you see him regenerate at the very end -- includes a race of mathematicians who use "block transfer calculations" (via the abacus) to create from math. How about tying in with how to use an abacus for math?

 

You could also learn about the concept of recursion, which esp. comes into play in the following episode "Castrovalva" (first 5th Doctor -- Peter Davison -- episode). You could include images by Escher, study fractals (see here, here, and here, play "pass the candy", ideas for demonstrating recursion to young children, and math activities (for high school students).

 

Examples of recursion in the real world: 
- Russian Dolls (dolls that fit inside one another, the smallest doll is the base case) 

- the Russian doll-like series of little cats in the Cat in the Hat's hat, in Dr. Seuss's book, The Cat in the Hat Comes Back

- mirrors opposing each other (infinite recursion, no base case)

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What a FABULOUS and fun idea! Wish our DSs were young again just so we could do this too! :)

 

 

Science tie-in for you, courtesy of my DH! :)

"Partners in Crime" = fat aliens -- for science, study fat! (David Tennyson/Catherine Tate, 1st episode/4th season)

 

Awesome list Lori!   One correction to note - the 10th doctor was play by David Tennant, not Tennyson. 

 

Off topic, Partners in Crime happens to be one of my episodes. I even have a squishy Adipose that I throw at the kids when they're acting stupid.  :laugh:

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Oh, wow!  Thanks everyone for all the responses and ideas.  I've got so many ideas like  watching Fires of Pompeii and study about the civilization and then make a volcano(dd's been wanting to make one anyway), making a robot spider, dog or bug for a cyberman episode or k-9,  making plastic to go along with a nestene one, learning about 3d to go with Army of Ghosts, discussing time and what it is and our perception of etc.,  gotta do the fat experiments, that is dds favorite episode and was thinking of making our own plush adipose and the marshmallow adipose for our final dinner.  Since it'll be close to Christmas, have to do Dickens which will be good since we were planning to read some of his other Christmas stories this year and then make Doctor who snowflakes.  We'll make sonic screwdriver pens that I found off pinterest.  Love the idea of studying fractals, Escher and recursion.   Why do I think this going to end up being more than one week for sure? :D  Some foods I'm thinking are adipose marshmallows, fish and chips fried in Krillitane oil, bow tie pasta(cause bow ties are cool), tardis cake and jelly babies oh what about beans on toast.  I've been pinning and searching like crazy.  Thank you all so much.  You all are making this turn out great! :)

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I think to start our theme weeks, I'm going to send each them a companion kit with a few things every space traveler needs like a tardis key and a journal along the lines of River's that they will use during it to do creative writing projects like discussing where they went that day with doctor and the such.   This should be fun!

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hmschooln -- those are all AWESOME ideas! I SOOOO wish I had school age children to do this with!!! You might consider turning this into a one-month unit study -- since the 50th anniversary is Nov. 23, and December is often a hard month to keep children focused due to the coming holidays, how about spending 3 weeks doing all your cool Doctor Who activities, along with just regular math? Maybe you can even make your own spelling lists for 3 weeks around Doctor Who words...

 

Love the TARDIS journal idea for recording their findings -- Think Geek, Ebay, and Entertainment Earth have ones you can buy!

 

 

ETA:

Oh! And of course, for arts & crafts, make your own Weeping Angel -- see here or here. Or a light-up TARDIS -- see here, here (this one would be great for a scale modeling project!), or here. Or for a life-size one out of a refrigerator box: here. And check out the WAY fun decorations for a Doctor Who themed party -- maybe you could wind up your unit with something like this -- all the things you've made along the way... 

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Thanks Lori for all your suggestions.  Originally, I was going to do this for a week or so and have it end on the 50th, but I'm thinking I like your idea of starting on the 50th and going through the Christmas special since we do take a really relaxed schedule in late November through Christmas anyway and there's so many ideas.  Oh, I do think we'll have to do a weeping angel and I think the Tardis model will be a great project for dh to help the kids with.   Thanks to all of you who have replied and helped me plan this. :D

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