Advanced Charms with Sciences [Select Sixth and Seventh] on Charms

Professor Lorraine Taylor

April 13, 2008 12:56 PM

Advanced Charms with Sciences [Select Sixth and Seventh] by Professor Lorraine Taylor

After a great deal of consideration, Lorraine had decided to make her Advanced Charms with Sciences class into one with a learning rotation. In short, that meant that she could combine the sixth and seventh years into one class, providing them with more opportunities for peer interaction. As far as actual student educuation went, sixth years would learn the spells the seventh years had learned last year in their seventh year. While it sounded confusing at first introduction, the Charms professor had seen it pulled off rather well in her years of being taught and was firmly of the opinion that it would be a good idea to try with this class. After all, even Muggle schools had mixed levels at the higher level, if not even before. It was a good system.

This was rather a smaller class than any of her others, which allowed both her and the students a greater freedom with discussion and learning than the others did. In fact, Lorraine much preferred this class to her others; the size allowed her to introduce some Muggle aspects of practical work (scientific method and all that) to Charms in a way that might not have been possible without the diminished class size. In fact, the woman was planning on having her students learn something that was completely unrelated to what their standardised tests required to pass today. With this group, she was satisfactorily assured that it would not be a problem to have a quick, fun lab before returning to the usual grind of test preparation.

Lorraine was actually seated at one of the desks that was arranged in a circle in the middle of the room. As students filed in, she greeted them by name and chatted with them about their vacations, among other things. Yes, this class was a much more informal atmosphere than most.

Once everyone had arrived, she smiled at the group and began the official discussion. "Water contamination. What can any of you tell me about it?"

OOC: You should know the rules by now. This particular class will hopefully be run as a freeform discussion at the beginning, with a lab in the second part. Have fun!

Subthreads:

What was I thinking? by Dalila Bastet

0 Professor Lorraine Taylor Advanced Charms with Sciences [Select Sixth and Seventh] 0 Professor Lorraine Taylor 1 5

Dalila Bastet

April 14, 2008 1:21 AM

What was I thinking? by Dalila Bastet

Dalila nervously walked into her Charms class. It was rather unusual for her to be nervous, but this was a different type of class. Not only was it RATs level, but it involved science. Dalila hadn't had a real science course since fifth grade, and only remembered a few things from it.

It was her mother who had convinced her to go for it. "I took it" Layla had said, happily. "It's helped so much." And if Dalila wanted to follow in her mother's footsteps, she had to take this class too. But what would she need to know to handle this class? Dalila had spent a good amount of time in her room pouring over general science books from the local library. She now had a fairly good grasp on the scientific method, general knowledge on photosynthesis, and now had a periodic table of the elements tacked into her Charms binder for future reference. But she had no idea what to expect with this class.

She took a seat in the circle of desks and grinned at Professor Taylor, but when asked about her summer, all she could get out was a quick "Good!" before falling silent. Her summer had been the worst ever and she didn't feel like talking about it with her Charms professor...or any professor, for that matter.

Instead, she opened up her textbook and flipped through the pages until she found an interesting diagram on how a spell affects an object on the molecular level. She had little idea of what it was talking about, but i was interesting nonetheless.

Only looking up when Professor Taylor said "Water Contamination" rather suddenly, Dalila glanced around the circle, noting how few people were taking this class. And yet somehow Dalila felt that she was the only one who had thought they had gotten themselves into something over their head. Water contamination? She had no idea what she was supposed to say.

Grasping at straws, she flipped through her book, hoping to come across something useful, but to no avail. So, very unlike herself, Dalila bent her head a little and waited for someone else to start talking, and hopefully, she'd be able to join in eventually.

0 Dalila Bastet What was I thinking? 60 Dalila Bastet 0 5

Zack Dill

April 14, 2008 3:28 PM

You were thinking brilliant thoughts. by Zack Dill

Zack sat down at the desk directly next to the one the professor was sitting at. After the tiny class size of last year, as well as his independent studies that Professor Taylor would be helping him with, he felt no shyness about sitting right beside her. She already knew from the previous year that he took his notes in alien languages, which meant he had nothing to be embarrassed about if she happened to look down at his notebook.

So when Professor Taylor asked after their summers and the new sixth year girl who's name might have been Dana or Darleena or Dalila or something else that started with a 'Da' sound and ended with an 'a' sound only gave a one word answer, Zack was happy to provide more detail. "It was great. I was hired for a summer job at the local community college and opted to get paid in summer courses. I got As in both Algebra and Astronomy, which were the two I decided to take because I thought they'd be the most useful to have on my transcript for college applications, since I plan to go into astrophysics. Plus, Nick - my brother - was out with his delinquent friends or at his own job most of the time - he's sixteen and saving up for a car - and dad got a new job again in May so I didn't have to hound him about looking for one all summer like I did last year - though, honestly, I think he only found one because he was afraid I was going to dump all his beer again if I got home and he was still unemployed - and mom hardly ever cooked, so I had a fantastic summer despite being in Detroit. Plus, I broke five feet in height which, let me tell you, I was starting to worry wasn't going to happen."

He used to be ashamed of his impoverished muggle family that survived on food stamps and subsidized housing, but now Zack spoke of them with only mild exasperation. Sonora was his home now. Academics was his future. That run-down tenement in a Detroit slum had no power over him anymore. That much had become clear two summers ago when he took over the kitchen and the household finances for the months he was there, and was solidified last year when he began bossing his father around and his father had actually listened. This year, he'd been greeted like a grown son coming for an extended visit rather than a child returning home from school. Zack preferred it that way.

Though he hadn't exactly stopped listening, he sat up straighter in his seat when Professor Taylor abruptly said, "Water contamination," without any warning or prelude. He turned alert and interested eyes on her as she continued, "What can any of you tell me about it?"

Zack had not done a lot of related research, but he knew what was common knowledge to most muggle raised kids. Well, at least, the ones who paid any attention in school. Nick probably couldn't have answered the question. "It's a widespread problem that can take several forms, from acid rain, which is cause by air pollution getting absorbed by water vapor, to pollution in lakes and streams and oceans, which can cause wildlife to die or dwindle in numbers and become poisoned and passed along the food chain. Also, there are problems with drinking water, especially in underdeveloped countries like Mexico, or highly industrialized places like Detroit. Trust me, you don't drink the water in Detroit, at least not in my neighborhood."

1 Zack Dill You were thinking brilliant thoughts. 40 Zack Dill 0 5

Dalila

April 14, 2008 8:58 PM

Or I thought I was thinking brilliant thoughts by Dalila

Dalila was momentarily caught up in the conversation the Head Boy was having with the professor. He liked astronomy? He was probably as upset as she was to have the class canceled. At least there was a kindred soul in this class even though he was talking about the wonders of summer school and thought one of Sonora's students was an alien (or so she heard).

Zack had some interesting points, and his talking of pollution reminded something that was a very huge topic in her elementary school. They had spent weeks drawing posters and setting up programs to show how much recycling can help and all the harmful things pollution does to the environment. Finally, some of that came in handy.

"Well, the tap water's fine where I come from. LA has a really good program that filters all the water to make it usable again. But there's always the problem of pollution. I think it's just so many people living together. With all the stuff we do, we just kinda clog up everything. Muggles could really use some magic. They might be able to vanish all their garbage away, so it doesn't just flow into the water."

Dalila took a deep breath and smiled to herself. She had said something in the smart class, and from what she could recall, it had gone all right. Still energized from the adrenaline rush speaking up had given her, she eagerly looked around for someone else to say something, so she could try again. This might not be so bad after all.

0 Dalila Or I thought I was thinking brilliant thoughts 0 Dalila 0 5

Professor Taylor

April 16, 2008 4:47 PM

Are they mutually exclusive situations? by Professor Taylor

The class was small, but that was the way things were meant to be. Very few wizards or witches chose the more 'Muggleish' method of mixing practical science and higher level math with advanced wizardry. Fewer of them were interested in such a class before going to college. Lorraine considered it a great achievement to even have a class of this size. Zack Dill had an excellent (and rather full, it sounded) summer. She had learned over the past year that not all of her students came from homes quite as supportive as hers had been--despite the occasional sibling squabble, the entire family had gotten along rather idyllically and maintained that relationship even now. However, Lorraine found this to be quite disturbing and more of a shame than could quite be accounted for. The value of family was truly going downhill, it seemed.

As she had anticipated, it was Zack that answered her question first. He was the member of her class who seemed truly at home with such concepts as Muggle sciences. Or, perhaps he was the one most comfortable being the odd one out. It was true that the Aladren took notes in a mixture of languages that did not include English, after all. As long as it didn' t impede his learning, as it had not thus far, Lorraine did not particularly bother herself about how he took notes, although she often spent a moment wondering what language it was. With a bit of looking into the matter she could have figured the answer out (Zack himself probably would have answered proudly if she had asked), but Lorraine took it as the mystery that was Zack and continued on.

To her surprise, Dalila jumped in immediately after Zack finished--and brought up precisely the point that Lorraine was searching for in this discussion. Most students faltered, having to reach back to their fifth grade Muggle education, if they had any background in sciences at all. It was a challenge for many. Not, apparently, for this particular sixth year.

"Very nice background, Zack," Lorraine said. "And thank you, Dalila; that is precisely the point I want to discuss today. How can magic aid in the cleansing of polluted waters? Are we as a culture ethically bound to maintain the environment? And how do we effect it ourselves? You may," she added with an amused look in her eyes, "answer any or all of the questions."

0 Professor Taylor Are they mutually exclusive situations? 0 Professor Taylor 0 5

Connor Pierce

April 20, 2008 7:59 PM

Not always. by Connor Pierce

He preferred blondes and she was as utterly off-limits as a girl not dating his brother could be, but the first thought Connor had upon seeing Dalila Bastet in the Charms room was that she - thanks in large part to the badge on her robes - was the best-looking thing there. He'd been worried that he would be the only non-Aladren in the apparently very select group, but Dalila was definitely and wonderfully one of the Teppenpaws. That meant being here might not have to go down as one of the top ten dumbest things he'd done as a wizard, a thought that cheered him up considerably. Sitting down in an empty seat, he smiled at her more warmly than he usually would have done before getting out his notebook.

He'd done his best to prepare for this by going through his brother and stepsister's old science notes in the few weeks between CATS results and September first, but such a course of study did not an expert make. This clear fact was made a great deal clearer by Zack Dill's comments about going into astrophysics. Other than that they might be associated with NASA, there was nothing Connor could think to add to a talk about those. It occurred to him that having company in non-Aladrenhood might just mean having company in failure. That thought wasn't as cheering as the first one.

To his great surprise, this gloomy train of thought ended in the announcement of a topic he was actually marginally familiar with. It had been touched on in fifth grade only months before his mother almost shot the first wizard she ever knowingly met, and he thought he'd seen something on the news about it just over the summer. Before people got worked up about global warming, they'd been, at least the way he remembered it, worked up about water pollution.

Zack jumped in the discussion at once, repeating everything Connor thought he knew about the topic. That was and always had been his problem with discussions: he could think about the issues and even talk about them, but it was rare to not have someone else on hand who knew more and knew how to put it more eloquently than he did. Dalila offered her thoughts next, bringing up the possibility of using magic to fix the problem, which wasn't something he'd considered before. The mental barrier he'd put up between his life as a wizard and his life with his family was a sturdy one out of necessity, but it could be a nuisance at times.

Now, according to Professor Taylor, was going to be one of those times. He listened carefully as she asked questions, fiddling with his pen a little without noticing. Unless he wanted to seriously increase his chances of failing - and, after more or less moving into the library for a year just to get this far, he didn't - he was going to have to speak up at some point even if it did lead to having to nod as a more intelligent member of the class explained what he had been trying to say. When the professor announced that they could answer any of the questions, he decided to just jump in and get it over with.

"I reckon," he said slowly, trying to think of the best way to phrase what he was thinking and half-wishing he'd waited a while to put his two cents worth in, "we do - uh - have a responsibility to do what we can. We've gotta have food and water and stuff, too, so we'll eventually wind up as far up the creek as the Muggles if we don't do anything because we didn't make as much of the mess or something." He seriously doubted that was really a RATS-level analysis of the issue, but it was a start. He wasn't a Talker, but he figured he'd get better at imitating one as he went along.

0 Connor Pierce Not always. 68 Connor Pierce 0 5

Zack Dill

April 21, 2008 11:41 AM

I frequently think my brilliant thoughts are brilliant by Zack Dill

Zack blinked as this new concept of using magic to fix pollution was introduced. Due to conservation of mass and the fact that magically vanished items don't actually cease to exist in their entirety, Dalila's suggestion that garbage could just be banished away was unreasonable, much like rocketing it into space was stupid (in Zack's exalted opinion), but unlike the space junk solution, Dalila's general idea was sound.

Zack tuned out the conversation for a moment as his own brain worked over the possibilities, integrating theories from Charms, Transfigurations, Physics, Chemistry, and even Potions. He sat back in his chair, a look of dumbfounded awe on his face. It wasn't a look he often got - in fact, this was only the second time he'd experienced it and the last time he had, he'd been eleven - but it was the one he wore when some barrier came crashing down and utter enlightenment shone into a previously dark and mysterious cavern and everything else he'd already known was now cast in a slightly different light.

The totality of the change was what put the 'shift' in 'paradigm shift' - as if everything was just a little bit different than it had been a moment ago.

"Wow," he said, then blinked when he realized he'd said it out loud and now he had the attention of the small class. He flushed slightly. "Sorry, I just had one of those moments when the whole world suddenly makes sense. What are we talking about now?"

1 Zack Dill I frequently think my brilliant thoughts are brilliant 40 Zack Dill 0 5

Dalila

April 25, 2008 8:52 PM

But not always? by Dalila

Dalila lifted an eyebrow at Zack. He seemed...transfixed by something she had said. But she had no idea what. It wasn't like she had stated some profound philosophy. This was Charms with Science. It was there in the title. You took a charm and looked at it scientifically. Wouldn't it be reasonable to take something scientific and and find a way to do it with a charm? At least that's what Dalila thought, though she didn't voice it. Instead, her look of confusion shifted to an amused grin. Zack was just weird, but she answered his question simply.

"Water pollution."

She glanced over at Connor, who hadn't spoken up until this point. She didn't know him that well, except that he was Adam's roommate and he sounded like he might be from Texas, but she agreed with what he said.

"I agree with Connor," she said, flashing him a quick smile before continuing. "But although we aren't responsible for most of the pollution because we don't have things like cars, we probably have more reason to help clean it up." She glanced around, for a second and then decided to continue because in her head, it sounded incomplete.

"We live on this planet too. And like Connor said, we also need food and water and stuff. But we have more of an ability to do something about pollution. We have magic and with great power comes great responsibility, right?"

0 Dalila But not always? 0 Dalila 0 5

Zack Dill

April 26, 2008 1:19 AM

I had an embarrassing moment last year, but otherwise... by Zack Dill

"Water pollution," the girl with the D-name supplied ever-so-helpfully. Zack rolled his eyes and gave her an obviously look. But then she was somewhat more informative by addressing the Pecari Prefect whose name was positively confirmed as Conner. He seemed to have said something while Zack was having his epiphany that not only could muggle concepts be applied to magical problems but that the reverse was true as well.

The current topic seemed to be ethical responsibility. And, apparently, Spiderman. Zack looked at D-girl with new and profound respect, a grin breaking out across his face and his eyes lighting up at the quote from one of his favorite comic book heroes.

"Absolutely," Zack agreed. "I draw the line at wearing spandex and web-slinging off buildings, but Peter Parker has the right idea. If you can do something to make people's lives better you should. And since it helps us just as much as it helps the mundanes," he used his preferred term for non-magical people as he always did - Zack thought 'muggle' was a stupid word that sounded completely ridiculous when applied to people like his family, "there is no down side. Dude, people, we can literally save the planet. How cool is that? Who wouldn't want to do that? I mean, besides evil villains and apathetic masses. And the magical science discoveries that would go along with doing something like that have got to be phenomenal. I bet all the world needs is one rich eccentric wizard genius with too much time on his hands and delusions of grandeur," Zack felt there was something oddly familiar about this description, but couldn't put his finger on it, "and pollution wouldn't be a problem anymore."

If he had the money, Zack bet he could do it.

1 Zack Dill I had an embarrassing moment last year, but otherwise... 40 Zack Dill 0 5

Anne Wright

May 11, 2008 12:39 AM

Well, we all have to mess up occasionally. by Anne Wright

For a fleeting moment, Anne wondered if she was insane. She had known from the beginning that joining Taylor's Sciences class was something purebloods didn't do, but it only fully hit her when she actually surveyed the class membership. Of the group, the only one she wasn't dead sure was Muggleborn was the Teppenpaw Assistant Captain. Anne really hoped that the other girl was a half-blood or from one of those little minor pureblood families like Geoff's. She wanted company.

Ignoring any looks she got as best she could, she sat down in one of the circled desks and gave the professor a quick smile. All she'd really done over the summer was read what she could find to get ready for her RATS classes, and that hardly constituted a fascinating topic...unless, it seemed now, you were Zack, which she wasn't, so that was fine. No one else seemed too disposed to ramble on at any length on the subject, so the lesson got started quickly enough.

Anne's initial contribution to the group consisted of doing her best to listen, understand, and transcribe, since she'd read about as much as the others were saying and was having trouble thinking of anything valuable to say. She'd noticed she needed more coffee two hours before, when she'd spent a while in Transfiguration vaguely afraid that she'd worn her roommate's clothes by accident, and she had yet to get back to the Cascade Hall.

Her mood brightened somewhat when she processed that they were talking about ethics. That was an easy enough one to discuss even without the additional research on pollution she'd need to do to keep up with other parts of the topic of the day. Making a mental note to increase the hours of study dedicated to this class, however, did a good job of getting rid of her momentary perk-up, and then Zack did a thing she'd always been kind of afraid he'd do but always made a point of not thinking about him doing: he lost his mind.

Oh, what he said about ethics made sense and fit the vein of the conversation. Even the eccentric-rich-genius thing wasn't too bad. The problem was the lead-in to that part. How had spandex entered this conversation, and who in the world was Peter Parker? Anne was sure no man of that name had appeared in anything she'd read, and she'd done a lot of serious capitalizing on John's new job to get books on various science-y and other topics over the summer. Even, however, if she'd just missed some obscure researcher her genius Seeker knew of, there was no explaining spandex...

No one else seemed to think Zack going nuts was a problem. No one else, in fact, looked like they thought Zack had just gone nuts. She pushed one hand under her hair to support her head as she looked across the circle at Taylor and Zack. "Good points," she said, "but my memory fails me today." She didn't admit this was due to lack of coffee; a class that discussed ethics might contain some anti-coffee people who'd start a war. "Who's Peter Parker?" She wasn't even touching the spandex webs or whatever else he'd said.

16 Anne Wright Well, we all have to mess up occasionally. 59 Anne Wright 0 5

Zack Dill

May 14, 2008 12:16 PM

I prefer continuous brilliance, though by Zack Dill

Zack was oblivious to a lot of interpersonal cues and indicators, but the one thing he could recognize at twenty paces was when somebody thought he'd lost his mind. He'd seen it often enough since he'd made the mistake of trying to warn his neighbors in Detroit about the alien invasion. Most of the apartment complex figured him to be two steps shy of commitment to a psychiatric ward, and he could tell when somebody was assessing his grip on reality.

Like Anne was, right now.

He hadn't even mentioned aliens either. In fact, he didn't have the first clue what made her look at him like that. Usually, when he put that look on people's faces, he could figure out what he'd said that seemed strange to others, but this time, it escaped him.

At least, it did until Anne asked who Peter Parker was.

Relief washed through him. Zack was well aware that genius and insanity were closely linked, but he figured he was sane for as long as he could tell why other people thought he wasn't. And if Anne didn't know about Spiderman, of course he sounded crazy talking about spandex and web-slinging. Just like his neighbors thought he sounded crazy when he talked about things they had no basis for understanding, like magic and aliens. It was all a matter of not being familiar with all the facts.

"Peter Parker is a fictional character in a muggle story," Zack explained. "He got bit by a spider, and developed the power to shoot webs from his wrists and climb up vertical walls, and a few other spider-like traits. His uncle told him 'With great power, comes great responsibility,' just before he was killed, so after that Peter became a superhero called Spiderman, and went out to fight crime and he saved the city a bunch of times from evil villians for no other reason because he could and it was the right thing to do."

1 Zack Dill I prefer continuous brilliance, though 40 Zack Dill 0 5