INQUIRY 6

CALCULATING CALENDARS

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INQUIRY PROBLEM:

You are the Minister of Time for your people. Since time travel has become quite common on Earth, people not only live in different places, they live in different times as well. An invitation to attend a world-wide meeting to discuss a new proposal for a world calendar has arrived. Since the Ministers of Time for various countries and religions all use different calendars, you must translate the date on the invitation (calculated by the Gregorian calendar) to the date of your calendar so that you arrive at the meeting on time.

DESCRIPTION

Classroom Innovation Activity:
Students identify calendars from other culture groups, calculate dates based on those calendars, then compare all calendars and note the reasons for their differences.

History Lab Exhibit:
Timeline of Timepieces

TOPIC & SKILL AREAS

• Cultural perceptions of time
• Compare and contrast
• Places and regions
• Math

MATERIALS NEEDED

• Invitation cards
• Pictures of calendars from Timeline of Timepieces -
     www.historylab.org
     "Time Resource Kit"
• Calendar reference books and books about various cultures

IMPLEMENTATION

1. Make up invitation cards using the calendars listed below and in Mapping Time. To simplify the activity, you can have students calculate the year only based a particular calendar.
   TIME: 1 hour prep time
2. Divide students into teams of two. Present the above inquiry problem to students and hand out invitation cards. One card to each student team.
   TIME: 15 minutes
3. Have the students use books, articles, people, and Internet searches to find information about the calendar specified in their invitations.
   TIME: 1-6 hours
4. Students perform calendar calculations to determine meeting date. They must show any mathematical equations they used and provide a written explanation of how they arrived at their date.
   TIME: 30 minutes-1 hour
5. Students identify and pinpoint on a world map the country and area of origin where their calendar is or was used. Note each location on a world map mounted for class viewing throughout the project.
   TIME: 30-45 minutes
6. Class reviews all the dates determined by student calculations. Call on all "Ministers of Time" to announce the translated invitation date to the class, including the country, population, and time period specified. Create a chart on the whiteboard or overhead to list all student-identified dates for comparison.
   TIME: 30-45 minutes

REFERENCES

Dictionary of Geological Terms. Robert L. Bates & Julia A. Jackson. New York: Doubleday, 1984.

What Time is It? A.G. Smith. Toronto: Stoddart, 1992.

CALENDAR EXAMPLES

• Julian Calendar
• Gregorian Calendar
• Jewish Calendar
• Mayan Calendar
• Babylonian Calendar
• French Republican Calendar
• Buddhist Calendar
• Persian Calendar
• Chinese Zodiac Calendar

Author: SL
Last Modified: