Monday, October 04, 2010

Aztecs and Mayans: an intro to Mexico

The roots of California place names, early history and architecture extend to Mexico.

The study of Mexico in this class will put an emphasis on balance of the positive and negative social factors, on awareness of the difference between Aztec and Maya cultures and the artful side of Mexican culture.

The guiding theme is that students - in their long-range future - will work with Mexican people and perhaps with people in Mexico. This will be commonplace in American business.

Images generated by students and vocab notes from the map study:

- sombre ro
- poncho / serape / rebozo
- Tex-Mex cooking, ex fajitas
- chili pepper orognated here
- vanilla bean origination
- chocolatl is an Aztec word.
- Aztec and Mayan pyramids.

Strengths of both Aztec and Maya civilization:

-calendars
- astronomy
- mathematics
- architecture
- cities
- language and books
- botanic medicine

It is called Land of the Feathered Serpent; see the Aztec god Quetz,coatl. And see the long-tailed bird called the Quetzal.

Comparison in notebooks on US and Mexico-
- demographics such as population and per capita income.
- land area and climate
- economy and government.