Apocalypse Theories Post 8

I designed an "Apocalypse Theories Exhibition Proposal" booklet for students to fill in which included making "SMART" goals for three periods. Upon collecting them in there are still very few students who have got to a position where they have practical things to carry on with. Making an action plan is a very hard task and one they will still need lots of help with. There is lots of potential in many of their proposals and also evidence of what looks like a completely wasted 90 minutes of social studies for others. Is it because we have taught students to become so dependent on teachers that they are struggling so much? It is all very interesting anyway. Shifting the division of labour away from me so we are all active participants working towards a common goal is going to require a cultural shift in our class, but one that I am sure they are all up for. I have written in a whole lot of feedback on their proposals so the next test is to see the extent to which they take it on board.

What I am enjoying is the beginnings of the "French Pass Effect". At school camp, for 6 awesome days it feels like everyone forgets who is supposedly more intelligent than anyone else. There is an appreciation that everyone has different strengths in different contexts.

Anyway, what I really want to write about is Zombies. A bunch of students still really want to do this topic so I have said they need a water tight proposal before I accept their idea. After a short google search it does seem like a perfectly plausible topic. I have found one blog article which refers to the cranberries song "Zombies" in the following way:

"I think this music video is very telling of both the influence of zombies into modern popular culture and on the principles that zombies represent. The band decided to name their hit song after the famed ghouls because they portray the militants in Ireland, being told to patrol violently and following orders without regard for humanity. In this way, zombies often come to mind when thinking of people blindly doing things, whether violent, like Nazis, or whether innocently, like following the trends of consumer culture (such as the representation of the mall in Romero’s Dawn of the Dead). I thought this was really interesting to see how zombies in America have evolved from being simply flesh-eating monsters to entire symbols of mindless following."

Such an approach could easily lend itself to a sensible contribution to an exhibition on Apocalypse theories. I also found a great guardian article in the science section titled 'Zombie ants' controlled by parasitic fungus for 48m years. It is pretty amazing and I guess it would involve some science to explore if this could happen to humans, or more to the point, I expect, why it couldn't. There is also evidence that our culture's obsession with zombies also stems from early encounters between European explorers and Caribbean voodoo cults.