DIY Medieval Fantasy and Zombie Apocalypse Summer Learning Camps

For this summer, I have been working on some plans for some lessons review (and some new concepts added in) and yet I wanted them to have fun in the summer and be involved in the process.

Medieval -Fantasy Summer Learning Camp

For this summer camp, the themes are broken down into seperate guilds, which can be done as stand-alone camps, seperate guilds done on seperate weeks (or months) or can be done as a rotating schedule. If you have a large enough group, such as with a homeschool co-op or neighborhood camp, you can run all the seperate guilds at once, with everyone breaking down into smaller groups. However you decide to run it, I will give you a general idea of how to do each guild, including posts for many of the specific concepts. Here are the guilds I'll be covering,  but I am sure that many more ideas can be added using a similar format. Be creative and have fun!

The first days of camp are dedicated to research and solving puzzles (such as researching Ancient Greek so they can read a  clue given them) that give them clues that they will need as the camp unfolds. They learn about the imaginary place they will be in the weeks to come - it's fictional history and geography, as well as what lives there.

Once they are armed to fight a common villain, they become heroes in a literature -based scenario that they act out, using their new-found tools and the character traits of the hero archetype, such as honor, courage and compassion. At last, they celebrate their victory together, building camaraderie.

Warrior's Guild

From history and historical heroes, young warriors learn tactical strategies and from the Master-at-arms they learn swordsmanship. Both of these skills help the young fighters defeat their foes.

Healer's Guild

Young healers learn about human biology and apply what they learn to first aid. Using what they learn, the healer apprentices can design healing "spells" and, as long as they can defend their creations with facts they have learned from biology, they can use them to "heal" those wounded the villains in the story line.

Alchemist's Guild

Using lessons in chemistry, young alchemists apply what they learn about pH and chemical reactions to formulate their own potion "recipes" which they can then use to help their comrades defeat the enemy. These recipes have to named and written in Latin, too!

Wizard's Guild

Using lessons in physics, your wizards-in-training will be able to explain how the forces of nature use matter and energy to make awesome results. These wizards graduate from this school by creating their own "spell" which has to be explained by the laws of physics and nature. These spells also have to be named and written in Latin.

Medieval Fantasy and the Hero's Journey Summer Reading
Week 1: The Ordinary World

Week 2: The Call to Adventure
Week 3: Meeting The Mentor, part 1: The Warrior's Guild
               Meeting The Mentor, part 2: The Healer's Guild
               Meeting The Mentor, part 3: The Wizard's Guild
               Meeting The Mentor, part 4: The Alchemist's Guild
Week 4: Crossing the Threshold
Week 5: Tests, Allies and Enemies
Week 6: Approach to the Inmost Cave
Week 7: Ordeal
Week 8: Reward (Seizing the Sword)
Week 9: The Road Back

Zombie- Apocalyptic Summer Learning Camp

This camp is divided into three phases, each of which last a few weeks. In the initial phase, students become aware of the zombie attack. Students learn how to use data of migrations to predict the path of the zombie attack, and using scenarios from literature, the story unfolds from there. Students use the information from lessons in human biology to discover what makes a mutant, as well as teamwork to infiltrate the zombie lair. Students also use lessons in geography and military tactics as they plan their defensive and offensive maneuvers.

In phase two, the zombie attack has abated enough that students can use their knowledge of the physical environment to decide where to build a resettlement. They learn survival skills as they have to re-learn how to care for their basic needs in this new situation. As the story's plot furthers, student use aspects of theater such as play-writing, building props, applying make-up and acting to make short films.

In phase three, students learn about how cultural values affect the use of resources, how the principals of sociology and psychology can be used in order to resolve conflicts within the settlement, and how to encourage the work involved with renewable resources.

Summer Reading List: Apocalyptic and the Hero's Journey
Phase I, part A: Zombie Migrations
Phase I, part B: Zombies and Mutations
Phase I, part C: Infiltrating the Lair
Phase I, part D: Zombies Attack!
Phase I, part E: Zombies Attack!
Phase II, part A: Geography and Resettlement
Phase II, part B: Surviving
Phase III,

I hope our summers will be full of entertaining learning and review!

DIY Summer Zombie Apocalypse Learning Camp, part 2 A: Geography and Resettlement

Geography and Resettlement

In phase two, the zombie attack has abated, and yet there is an on-going threat of their return to the area in which the students are, so student must think about relocation. In this part, students use knowledge of the physical environment to decide where to build the resettlement.

If you are lucky enough to have an area that you can use, such as a park, that has various physical features for your students to use, then you will have the easiest time at completing this activity. All  you need to do is print out or make a map of the area. If you don't, then you can make a map that has the following physical features for your students to use as a guideline to the imaginary terrain at their disposal.

• Body of water (transportation routes, water for drinking and farming)
• Flat land (easy to build)
• Fertile soil (for crops)
• Forests (timber and housing)

Before they are given a map, have your students come up with physical features that would be good for their survival in the event of relocation. Guide them to come up with the previous list and also list beside the features why they are necessary for a good  place for relocation.

Now, give them a map that has these features, as well as other features and have them design, as a group, their settlement. If it is an actual location, they will be able to use the area for future projects.

The Science Fiction-Apocalypse Genre

At another time, you can discuss with your students the books they have been reading. Discuss the science fiction-apocalypse genre, encouraging your students to site examples from the texts they are reading.

• aliens, whether little green men, zombies or vampires
• placed in a different time setting, whether futuristic or alternate history 
• often has advanced technology
• prophetic future, dystopia
• exploration of popular societal or cultural issues

High School Math Project

High school students can complete the outbeak section of Zombie Apocalypse from 21st Century Math Projects. 

DIY Zombie- Apocalyptic Summer Learning Camp, Phase I, part E: Zombies Attack!

Now that your reconnaissance team has located the "zombies" and have reported that they are on their way to where you are, our story continues. Before the "zombies" make their way to you,  however, you need to train your students in tactical maneuvers.

Warm-up Activity : Building a Nerf Zone

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A Nerf zone can be created in several ways with whatever materials you have on hand, or can buy cheaply.

Instructables has instructions on how to make cardboard structures at How to Throw a Nerf Battle Birthday Party.
Coolfest Party ideas shows another way of using cardboard boxes to make field features.

Bunkers can also be made just from garbage bags and inexpensive reflective sticks. Instructions can be found at the Youtube video, Nerf Battle field for $35.

STEAM Powered Family gives suggestions on how to build structures from pallets and old tires.

Hogwash also gives some good ideas for inexpensive pallet structures.

Lesson Tactical Maneuvers

Now that they have worked on the structures for the "zombie" wars, it is time to teach your students some Tactical Maneuvers.

source

The first lesson is called Pieing a Corner. In order to not to be hit by a Nerf gun, teach students to step out away from the corner rather than right at the corner of the structure. Then, they should come out from the structure a little pie slice at a time so they are not too vulnerable to being hit. Have them practice peeking around walls and shooting targets. 

Drill them in rolling and shooting target on their knees. Discuss with them when they would want to use this technique. 

Lastly, drill them on running and shooting a target without stopping. This is a last ditch method.

Now they can divide into two teams (or you can do students against adults, if you have enough), and practice ducking behind boxes, shooting targets and advancing to the other side, using the techniques you have just covered while playing Capture the Flag.

Literature Study:  Apocalyptic Novels

Discuss the characters within the novels and how they are similar and different in the novels. Your student should now be thinking of a topic to write an essay on Apocalyptic novels.

 

DIY Zombie- Apocalyptic Summer Learning Camp, Phase I, part D: Zombies Attack!

Now that your students have found out a bit about the monsters which are out there, threatening the peace, whether they are vampires, zombies or aliens, it is the monsters turn to attack. They can mindlessly attack, but I have found that students prefer intelligent creatures that have motivations that we can understand. Perhaps they are upset about what could be seen by them as an attack when your students obtained the blood for testing. Perhaps they too want to obtain some of our blood for testing. Whatever the reason, the creatures are advancing to the student's location. What to do now?

Warm-up Activity: Play Games

Humans vs. Zombies

Humans vs. Zombies (also called HvZ for short) is a live-action game predominantly played at US college campuses. The official rules can be found at the website of the creators of the game.

Essentially Humans vs. Zombies is a game of tag. I have modified the rules slightly to adapt it to a one-time setting, as the original rules are for a game that can last a long time. The basic idea of the game is that all players except one begin as humans. The one that is not a human is the randomly chosen “Original Zombie.” The Original Zombie tags human players and turns them into zombies. Zombies must tag and eat a human at a predetermined length of time (in the original version it is every 48 hours), in our game will be every 5  minutes, or they starve to death and are out of the game. The Zombies win when all human players have been tagged and turned into zombies.The Humans win by surviving long enough for all of the zombies to starve.

Equipment

Bandanna for each player

Nerf Gun, Marshmallow Launcher or the like

Safe Zones

Ahead of time decide which areas are safe zones in which people can go and not be tagged.

Rules for the Humans:

Wearing a Bandanna: Humans must wear a headband around an arm or leg to identify them as players of the game. (This headband will come in handy when you become a zombie!)

Stunning a Zombie: Humans may stun a Zombie for 15 minutes by blasting them with a blaster or throwing a sock at them.

When Tagged By a Zombie: One minute (hour, in the original version) after being tagged, the human must tie their bandanna around his head – he is now a member of the Zombie team and must tag some Humans.

Rules for Zombies:

Feeding: Zombies must feed every 5 minutes (48 hours in the original version), by tagging a human, by firmly touching any part of the human. (In the original version, zombie feeds by reporting their tag on the website.) He tells the human he has been tagged and the human must react accordingly (see above).

Getting Shot: When hit with a dart or a marshmallow, or the like, a Zombie is stunned for 1 minute. A stunned zombie may not interact with the game in any way. This includes shielding other zombies from bullets or continuing to run toward a human.

Wearing A Headband: Zombies must wear a bandanna around their heads at all times. 

Additional Rules

Blasting Non-Players: Blasting non-players is a bannable offense.

Non-Player Interference: People who are not participants may not directly interact with the game. This includes bringing food to humans or spying for either team.

Safe Zones: A zombie must have both feet outside of a safe zone to tag a human. Humans can stun zombies from inside of a safe-zone.

No Shields: Zombies may not use shields to deflect foam darts, marshmallows or the like.

Zombie Tag

The doctor's antidote zombie

Collect at least five to as many people as you want participating.

Choose a spot to play. It can either be a wide outdoor space, or a theater space, or even a maze-like structure where you have to find your way around.

Ask or choose who will be the doctor.

Everyone but the doctor stands in a circle and closes his or her eyes. The doctor will choose two or more (depending on the number of players) sleeper zombies by tapping them on the head. The doctor will then ask the zombies to look up and recognize each other. (Everyone else must keep their eyes tightly shut.)

Optional: Have the doctor choose a runner zombie and an angel as well. The runner zombie, obviously, can run, unlike the other zombies. The angel can turn zombies back into humans, but only once for each person. The angel also is unaffected by zombies.

Give the doctor a few minutes to hide. Then begin the game. Once the game has begun, the sleeper zombies have to wait one minute before they turn from humans into zombies. Set a timer with a ring if it'll help––it can certainly add to the crescendo of excitement!

At least two humans must find the doctor (he or she has the antidote, of course) and bring him or her to a designated spot (usually an exit to the outdoors, or an elevated place if you're outdoors.)

If you're a zombie, you have no intelligence. You cannot run. You can't guard the doctor if you've found him, and the only thing you can say is, "Brains!" You can say brains to scare your victim, or to ask another person if they're a zombie, for example.

If the humans bring the doctor to the designated spot safely, then it's a human victory! If everyone has turned into a zombie, then it's a zombie victory!

Zombies on the Increase

If you have a spread out area, somewhere with walls to hide behind, corners, and dead ends, you can play this version instead. Get together all the people you need to play. In advance, pick someone to be the zombie, and give this person a head start of about 10-20 seconds.

Indoors are off limits, if you go in you're a zombie (unless you're playing indoors, then the outside is off-limits).

If you're tagged, then you join the zombie team. The zombies can't be defeated, you keep playing until you're all zombies.

You can also band together to stay away from the zombies (this might be a bad strategy, though.).

You must also admit that you are a zombie. Once you get tagged, you are automatically a zombie.

Play again. Remember the last survivor and the original zombie of the last game can't be picked as the zombie.

Zombie Race

This race is suitable for those who are fit and love running. Runners try to reach the end of a determined running race, without zombies touching them. Choose a set of people to be the zombies. Have a ratio of about 1 zombie to three or four runners initially––this will increase as runners are tagged and turn zombie too.

Choose the runners. Have as many as you have space for, or you can do the game in rounds to give more people a chance if it's too crowded otherwise.

Set up the racetrack. Measure the distance the runners have to make and lay down both a start and finish line. The sides of the track must also be marked, beyond which runners cannot go (but zombies are free to roam anywhere).

Have all runners line up ready to run. Have zombies peppered around the racetrack ready to start chasing runners. The zombies cannot run but they can obstruct a runner anywhere on the track. Hence, runners need to be ready to run around zombies but not into each other.

Start the race. Obviously, the object is to reach the finish line unscathed. Runners can dodge zombies but if they leave the racetrack or bump into another runner, they become a zombie too. The winner is the first to reach the finishing line untouched by a zombie. Play as many times as liked.

Lesson: Tactical Maneuvers

Reports have it that the zombies have been seen in or around a building. You need to send out your reconnaissance team to see if this rumor is true. If it is, then the zombies are closing in. You will need to give your students lessons in reconnaissance. 

Cover and Concealment

To teach your students some practical skills in avoiding attack, begin with exercises in cover and concealment. Go to an open area that has some areas in which people can hide (trees, bushes, piles of lumber or the like) and ask your students to hide themselves, while you turn your back and count to 20. Turn around and see how many of the students you can spot. Using a Nerf gun, marshmallow shooter or a rolled up clean sock, aim at the students you can see.

Afterwards, gather the students in a circle and discuss the difference in cover and concealment. Cover is being hidden whereas concealment is hiding so that the enemy cannot hit you. Discuss the instances in which cover and concealment might be used. Discuss what ways students can increase their ability to cover and conceal themselves. Discuss why you were able to see some of the students. In what ways can they improve their cover and concealment? Discuss camouflage.

Hand Signals

Give your students the story of people venturing out in which they wanted to enter a building which they believe the "zombies" are located. How can you communicate what you plan to do without speaking, which might alert the "zombies"? Guide your students, if they don't come up with the idea themselves, they value of hand-signals. Have your students come up with their own hand-signals that they can use in this camp. You can look up military hand-signals to give them ideas, if they are having trouble coming up with them.

MOUT Training

Next, teach your students some basics in MOUT (Military Operations in Urban Terrain) training. Have them pick (or you pick) the leader for this first training mission. Using an empty building or even your home, teach students how to crouch down low to avoid being seen as the walk down the side of a building. The leader for this mission is the one who will give the hand-signals to the other students. He will carefully look in the building and determine how many, if any, "zombies" are in the building. For this first training exercise, don't have any "zombies" in sight. He is to direct one man to go to the opposite side of the front door, while the leader and the rest of the students remain in the other side of the door. The leader will "kick down the door" and then the rest of the troops go in, weapons (Nerf guns and the like) go in, fanning out in both directions, with the leader following up the rear. The student who was on the opposite side of the door remains outside to keep watch of activity on the outside of the building. You probably don't have a building with a door that you wouldn't mind really being kicked open, so the students will pretend to kick down the door as they quickly open it.

Students are to do a similar opening and fanning out as they enter each room of the house. This may take some practice to coordinate smoothly, so have them go through the activity, changing the positions, with you giving the students your observations and advice. Once they can run through it smoothly, change it up a bit and add "zombies" at various locations for them to subdue.

Literature Study:  Apocalyptic Novels

Discuss with your students what common themes are coming up in the novels that they are reading. What are the apocalyptic events? How are they alike/different? Are there steps being taken to avoid the apocalyptic event? How is it dealt with once it occurs? What societal topics are explored?

If you are interested, Intersection of Dystopian Literature and the Contemporary Themes of CulturalAnthropology is an interesting read.

Additional Activities:

Escape the Room game

Play an Escape the Room adventure.

Math Project

For high school students, you can complete the "Outbreak" portion of the Zombie Apocalypse from 21st Century Math Projects.  In this task, half of your class will turn into zombies while the other have tries to cure them... or else they will become Zombies too.

sources and resources:

• Rules and rule variations of Zombie Tag

DIY Zombie- Apocalyptic Summer Learning Camp, Phase I, part C: Infiltrating the Lair

If your students don't come up with the idea on their own, guide them to the idea that they need to infiltrate where the zombies are in order to extract some DNA from them to gain more information about their mutation. You will need to make up a sheet with a gene mutation sequence on it (you choose which one) for them to look at and determine which gene mutation is affecting these invaders.

Lessons in Stealth

Give students a little lesson on how to move silently

1. Maintain Your Center of Balance
2. Get Rid of Noise Makers
3. Don’t Move Blindly
4. Look Out for Landmines
5. Proceed with Caution

Warm-up

After the lesson, turn practice into game time.  Start a game where one person sits centrally in a room (blindfolded, if need be) and challenge everyone else to get from one side of the room to the other without being heard.

Infiltrating the Lair

Now the students are ready for their next assignment. You will need to have equal numbers of students and those playing the zombies. The zombies hide in an area where they can hide, such as a wooded area. Once they are hidden, the students, acting as spies, need to carefully go into the area and find and tag a zombie before the zombie can see them. Once a zombie has been tagged, then the students have won the game. (I make sure this happens after a bit of effort on the student's part by having adults play the zombies so that the zombie can let one of the students catch him.) Encourage the students to prepare in advance what teamwork strategies they will use in order to tag the zombie and "get the blood sample."

The Gene Mutation

After this activity, students are then given a sheet with the gene mutation sequence on it and they need to decide which one the invaders have (see Zombies and Mutations.) Make sure all the students can tell you where mutations take place and how at least one of them occurs.

Writing Activity: Evacuation Plan

Have your students write an evacuation plan. If they are having trouble, have them research how to write an evacuation plan for any disaster. 

Literature Study:  Apocalyptic Novels

Discuss the elements of Apocalyptic or Dystopian literature. To get an idea of the elements, you might want to read Dystopian Elements and Characteristics - Basic Building Blocks of Dystopia.

If you want additional help, you can use Dystopia Literature Circles for Any Dystopian Fiction.

Next Week

Next, the zombies attack and students get to learn defensive and offensive military strategy in order to defeat the attack.

DIY Zombie- Apocalyptic Summer Learning Camp, Phase I, part B: Zombies and Mutations

For our scenario, our creatures are humans that because of an outside force become mutants and obtain some of the qualities of some sort of creature, whether you choose zombie, vampire or another such monster. Students, therefore, review or learn about how mutations occur. 

A gene mutation is a permanent alteration in the DNA sequence that makes up a gene, making the sequence differ from what is found in most people. Mutations can affect anywhere from a single DNA building block (base pair) to a large segment of a chromosome that includes multiple genes. There are two types of gene mutations. Hereditary mutations are inherited from a parent and are present throughout a person's life in virtually every cell in the body. Acquired mutations, sometimes called somatic mutations, occur at some time during a person's life and are present only in certain cells. These changes can be caused by environmental factors or can occur if a mistake is made as DNA copies itself during cell division.

In order to learn about gene mutations, students have to know some about DNA structure, nucleotides and DNA replication. Depending on your students' studies, this may be new to them or it may be review.

DNA Structure

We have built models of DNA before, using various components. 

After students have learned the structure of DNA, they can begin to learn about DNA replication.

source

I also recommend adding some discussion or activities related to learning about the amino acid sequences, which can be done by notebooking...

modeling DNA replication for Interactive notebooks

source: tiffiebleu

or by making something similar to this.

Types of Gene Mutations

Next they can learn about genetic mutations and how they occur.

This is a direction quotation from Genetics Home Reference: What Kinds of Gene Mutations Are Possible?

• Missense mutation: This type of mutation is a change in one DNA base pair that results in the substitution of one amino acid for another in the protein made by a gene. 
• Nonsense mutation A nonsense mutation is also a change in one DNA base pair. Instead of substituting one amino acid for another, however, the altered DNA sequence prematurely signals the cell to stop building a protein. This type of mutation results in a shortened protein that may function improperly or not at all. 
• Insertion  An insertion changes the number of DNA bases in a gene by adding a piece of DNA. As a result, the protein made by the gene may not function properly. 
• Deletion A deletion changes the number of DNA bases by removing a piece of DNA. Small deletions may remove one or a few base pairs within a gene, while larger deletions can remove an entire gene or several neighboring genes. The deleted DNA may alter the function of the resulting protein(s). 
• Duplication A duplication consists of a piece of DNA that is abnormally copied one or more times. This type of mutation may alter the function of the resulting protein. 
• Frameshift mutation This type of mutation occurs when the addition or loss of DNA bases changes a gene's reading frame. A reading frame consists of groups of 3 bases that each code for one amino acid. A frameshift mutation shifts the grouping of these bases and changes the code for amino acids. The resulting protein is usually nonfunctional. Insertions, deletions, and duplications can all be frameshift mutations. 
• Repeat expansion Nucleotide repeats are short DNA sequences that are repeated a number of times in a row. For example, a trinucleotide repeat is made up of 3-base-pair sequences, and a tetranucleotide repeat is made up of 4-base-pair sequences. A repeat expansion is a mutation that increases the number of times that the short DNA sequence is repeated. This type of mutation can cause the resulting protein to function improperly. 

source: Genetics Home Reference: What Kinds of Gene Mutations Are Possible?

Additional learning activities:

• Animal Cell Model
• The Cell, Cell Structure and DNA
• Extracting DNA

For a ready made activity, you can use Zombie Protein Synthesis activity at Ashley 's Interactive Biology Notebooks.

Literature Study:  Apocalyptic Novels

For this week's Literature Circle, you might want to discuss the setting in Apocalyptic novels. Encourage them to cite examples from the texts they are reading.

Next Week

Their next activity will be to infiltrate the zombie lair in order to obtain a sample of their DNA to find out which mutation occurred.

Other related activities:

• Read this interesting article entitled 5 Real Diseases that Could Make You Act Just Like a Zombie.
• Research Renfield Syndrome.

DIY Zombie- Apocalyptic Summer Learning Camp, Phase I, part A: Zombie Migrations

Although I am referring to the antagonists of this scenario's story "zombies", we are actually going to do some sort of vampire-zombie hybrid. You may use zombies, vampires or any creature you wish. The only requirement for this story is that they be humanoid because much of the science part of this camp revolves around human mutations.

The Story Unfolds

The story of the invasion practically writes itself as your students become involved in the solving of these puzzles we have put forth to them. All you have to do, as the leader of the scenario, is guide them if they get off track and paint a picture of the scenario as they need it with descriptive events.

Zombies Appear: Data of migrations

In the initial phase, students become aware of the zombie attack. I suggest that your students go through through the WebQuest Zombie Apocalypse-Survival Plan. Have your student complete one step during this session. (Steps 2-3 during phase II and steps 4-6 during phase III.)

Alternatively you could use the activity at Will YOU be safe when zombies attack? Interactive map reveals how the undead could spread across the US.

activity on the spread of a contagion, The Plague Spreads

If you have high school students doing this you, could complete some activities on Exponential Growth and Decay. Another lesson, which looks simpler, can be found here at The Enlightened Elephant. For younger students, you can complete the activity at Maximizing Learning, or the activity we did when we studied the Middle Ages, The Plague Spreads.

Literature Study:  Apocalyptic Novels

Your students should be reading the Apocalyptic novels of their choice on their own time. Each week your students will be meeting as a literature discussion group to discuss these novels. You will help guide them by having a topic for them to think about each week, but have the discussions go off topic as long as they are still discussing the novels or the genre. For the first week, you might want to discuss the elements of the genre and encourage them to cite examples they can remember from their text to illustrate these elements. If you are not sure how to do this, a good source for help is Dystopia Literature Circles for Any Dystopian Fiction. Dystopian Fiction is really more Post-Apocalyptic, but there are some general themes that are similar. Dystopian themes include:

what it means to be human
corruption
abuse of power
authority
injustice
class system
freedom and the price of freedom
oppression

Apocalyptic Literature tends to have these themes:
what it means to be human
survival
civility
rebuilding civilization
starting over
learning from our mistakes

If you need some additional help, you might want to read Dystopian Elements and Characteristics - Basic Building Blocks of Dystopia.

Additional Activities

Write an Evacuation Plan

“Plan your evacuation route. When zombies are hungry they won't stop until they get food (i.e., brains), which means you need to get out of town fast! Plan where you would go and multiple routes you would take ahead of time so that the flesh eaters don't have a chance! This is also helpful when natural disasters strike and you have to take shelter fast." -U.S. Center for Disease Control

Older students can write an evacuation plan. How would you evacuate and where would you go?

Math Project

For high school students, they can complete the first section of Zombie Apocalypse from 21st Century Math Projects.  Students (or teams) answer the exponential function and logarithm questions and develop mathematical models and make predictions. Using regression functions on TI-Graphing Calculators or Excel is necessary. Along the way they will explore inverse exponential and logarithmic functions.

DIY Zombie- Apocalyptic Summer Learning Camp, Summer Reading List

Have your student pick from the various classic apocalyptic novels. Some of our story is drawn from these books, but it won't ruin, nor particularly gain anything from the books to influence the scenario. The goal is to immerse them in the beginning of the genre and give the student some things to think about.

The Last Man, Mary Shelley Written by the same author as Frankenstein, this book is often called the first of the apocalyptic genre. It is also often considered a tribute to Lord Byron, who had died when he became ill during a military expedition and Percy Shelley, who drowned in a storm in a schooner. The novel's first 200 or so pages describe in the Romantic era tradition the ups and downs of the lives of the main characters, which follow many of the things that happened in Byron's and Percy Shelley's lives through romantic-era goggles. It has many passages for thought, however, as the last man on earth thinks about life and mankind. Because it is a difficult read for the modern audience, I would save this just for high school students.

Brave New World, Aldous Huxley or 1984, George Orwell Both of these novels are not apocalyptic in the sense of zombies and the like, but speak to the political end-of the world. Both appropriate for high school students. 1984 is of a middle school reading level, so a mature middle school student could read it.

The Island of Dr. Moreau, H.G. Wells This novel is the narration from Edward Prendick, who became shipwrecked and is left on the island of Dr. Moreau by a passing boat. Prendick discovers that Dr Moreau is creating Human-Animal hybrids by vivisection. Lots of discussion on ethics and morality can come from reading this book.

Animal Farm, George Orwell Although allegorical, the book does bring up the issues of the differences between man and beast and our responsibilities as ethical men.

The Machine Stops, Graham Greene A short story that addresses the issues of man's connection to the natural world.

I am Legend, Richard Matheson Considered the book that inspired the development of the zombie-vampire genre of fiction. Influential in popularizing the concept of a worldwide apocalypse due to disease. Was adapted into several movies.