Survivor - Gabon - Season 17 - Episode 7

Vocab:
Reward
Delusional
Blindside
Totem pole


Crystal tripped over the rice. Matty was quite upset at this and then she opted not to eat. Was this a reasonable, mature response? How do you define the word maturity?

Dan talks about his “inner child”. Corinne says that he is acting like a child trying to fit it. What does it mean to have an “inner child”? How can you care for yours?

Sugar has taken 5 trips to Exile Island. Create a model of your ideal “Sugar Shack”. Also, find out what a real Sugar Shack is and what it is used for.

One of the most touching parts of Survivor is always their contact from home. Choose a family member that has affected you. Write and deliver a heartfelt note.

Sugar seems to have a combination of beauty and brains. Do some research on other women in history that posses this lethal combination.

Rice is the most valuable thing they have right now. What is the most valuable thing that you have? Why?

Play the FreeRice game and help feed others in the world that are starving

Be yourself vs. holding it in – Jeff asked several tribe members where they were on the scale between these two extremes. Which do you think is more advantageous as a survivor contestant? Why?

Survivor - Gabon - Season 17 - Episode 6

Vocabulary: Liability, oath, challenge, burden
Today’s episode is rated “PG-L”. What are the different ratings? What do they mean? Do you think ratings are a good or bad idea? Why?

Science – Fire and heat is very important to the players. Fire produces radiant heat. Find out about radiant heat. What are the benefits and deficits? List three other examples of radiant heat.

Volunteerism - Our bodies must have food to survive. Both tribes are very concerned about rationing , but this is not an issue reserved just for Survivor. Find out about world hunger issues. Find a way that you can help and do it.

You can see that people are starting to mentally break down. Do you think Survivor is a more physical or more emotional challenge? Why?

Have you heard the saying, “There is no ‘I’ in teamwork.” What do you think this means? How does this relate to FANG?

Kenny may have made the move of the game in the episode. How did Kenny use psychology to get the idol back into Sugar’s hands? Why would Sugar give her power away to another person, let alone such a powerful man? Do you think this is wise?

Did FANG miss a huge opportunity tonight?

Survivor - Gabon - Unit Study - Episode 5

Ethics – A major part of Survivor is lying, but the 10 commandments strictly prohibits lying. Do you think just because it is a game that it is ok to lie? Is there other times that it is ok to commandments? When? Why? Discuss with your parents.

Science – an elephant comes very close to one of the camps this week. Study elephants. Try to answer the following questions:
1. Where are elephants still found in nature? Mark on a map.
2. How heavy can elephants get?
3. How old are elephants known to get?
4. Find out about elephants endangered status. What issues relate to their decreasing numbers.
Create a poster about your findings.

History – Dan called the other tribe the “axis of evil” and the “evil empire”. What historical references is he making?

Critical Thinking - Independence is usually seen as a positive characteristic but when G.C. goes missing the other tribe mates see his independence as a negative trait. When is independence seen as a positive when is it a negative.

Physical Education - Create a simple obstacle course. Blind fold a friend and lead them through the obstacle course using just your voice. Switch positions. (Be very safety conscious when you set up your course)

Critical Thinking – do you think Jeff alters the outcome of the game through the choice of his questions at tribal council? Why or Why not? Do you think this is fair?


If you are as big of a Survivor fan as my DD, you may want this to help you along with your research.

Survivor - Gabon - Unit Study - Episode 4

Vocabulary – Rank, Confidence, Contributor

Oral conversation - The contestants participate in a ranking challenge. Using picture cut outs from the Survivor website, create your own rankings of the two tribes. How is your ranking the same and / or different from the ranking of the tribes on the show? Explain your choices to someone.

Bible - Matthew 19:30 says, “But many that are first shall be last; and the last shall be first.” How might this scripture be applied to this challenge in the game? What do you think it means in life?

Critical Thinking - If you were to put together the ultimate tribe, given the players in the game, who would you have chosen?

Critical Thinking - Think about how it feels to be picked first and last. Design a way of picking people that does not inflate or deflate people’s egos.

Morals & Ethics - Winning, Trying, Dominating, Giving Up. Rank these words in importance. Explain your choice to someone.

Survivor - Gabon - Unit Study - Episode 3

Vocabulary
Idol
Strategy

Photography / Storytelling – The producers of Survivor constantly uses symbolism in their film edits i.e. a snake or a spider eating a fly. Choose one and explain the meaning.

Arts & Crafts – In Survivor tradition, eventually there will be an individual immunity idol. Using the information that you have amassed about Gabon, create a potential immunity idol.

Math – The immunity challenge involved a math problem. See if you can solve it yourself. “The sum of both end values equals the sum of the middle two, the last is equal to the second minus the third and is one less than its neighbor.” The numbers are 1,2,4,5,6,7. Watch the clip, http://www.cbs.com/primetime/survivor/video/video.php?cid=834167134&pid=it9TiKBc_LWzcEWzw92X8T8riBm1Xxgv&play=true&cc=86 to find the answer.

Survivor - Gabon - Unit study - Episode 1

Ok, I finally had time to watch the entire Survivor episode 1 (If you did not catch it on Thursday, find it on On Demand or at http://www.cbs.com/primetime/survivor/. Here are some ideas to begin creating a unit around the show. I would start with my entry on September 25th, so that you have a little understanding about the location. Then you can begin with some of these ideas:

Careers – Each candidate comes with their own experiences and careers. Listen to all of their jobs. Which job would you like and why? What jobs do you think will help them survive?

Prediction – Having been introduced to everyone, who do you think will be the sole survivor? Why?

Bible –
1. Jeff calls Gabon “Earth’s last Eden”. To what is he referring? Why do you think he makes this comparison?
2. Jeff talks about fire being life. Where else have you seen this correlation?

Government – In Gabon elders are respected as leaders. Why do think this is? In the history of your country, has this idea of elders being leaders been a tradition? Explain.
For those that are in the US, how did our founding fathers ensure that we would follow our elders?

Opinion –
1. What would you consider essentials for survival?
2. In the race for individual immunity or food, which would you have chosen? Would you have turned around to help your other teammates up the hill?
3. What characteristics help a survivor? What characteristics hinder a survivor? Add to these lists throughout the course of the program.

Action –
1. Try to create a hut / shelter in your own backyard. If you don’t have a backyard, create one in your house.
2. With parental supervision, try lighting a fire with two sticks, with a bow, or with flint.
3. Ace had his tribe practice Yoga before the challenge. Learn at least 5 Yoga positions.
4. Puzzles are always a big part of survivor. Try to solve a Tower of Hanoi puzzle.
5. Tree mail and exile hints are often written in riddles. Visit Squigly’s House and try to solve some riddles of your own.
6. Create a map to a hidden treasure. See if someone else can follow it and find what you have hidden.

Science –
1. Elephants are a help and a hindrance. How? What dangers do elephants pose?
2. In the challenge, the contestants have to march through a leech filled swamp. What is a leech? Find out how leeches were once used in medical treatments.
3. The show depicts many different indigenous animals. Identify at least 5 throughout the course of the show. Create a poster that tells about these animals.
4. Hindsight is 20/20. Create a field journal that the survivors would have appreciated at the beginning of their experience. Throughout the course of the show compile a journal that teaches contestants important information and skills that would have helped them to be the sole survivor.

Math – If every contestant’s name was put in the pot to be pulled, what would be the likelihood of any one survivor would be picked out. What increases the odds of having your name in the pot? What decreases it?

Vocabulary – Look up the definitions of the following words. Practice spelling them correctly.
Immunity
Exile
Pedestal
Alliance
Analytical

Come back next week to see what I come up with for episode 2. If you have any additional ideas, please add comments.

A Study Guide to Survivor - The Beginning Season 17: Episode 1

Our homeschooling will take an interesting turn starting today: Survivor, the show has started. Unfortunately, we were all busy tonight and did not see the whole show, but even in the few minutes we had the show on, a fun fact came up. DS said, “Oh, I’m glad I’m not there right now.” They were showing one of the contestants sitting on the edge of the water with a hippo nearby. DS knows that interestingly hippos are very dangerous and have been recorded as killing humans. He also knows from one our visits at a zoo that Hippos projectile poop and spread it even farther by flipping their tail (there are various YouTube videos to show this phenomena if you are interested – you can’t quite get the full effect because you miss the beautiful scent, but I’m sure you can imagine.).

This will be just the beginning of our exploration. We will have to find Gabon in Africa and research the culture, habitat, animals, etc. Maybe we’ll have to create a little study guide for the season. I’m sure DD would volunteer for that job.

You could always start with some geography games placing African nations in there right locations on Sheppard Software.
You could listen to music from Gabon.
You can color in the Gabon flag.
Perhaps you could even have the kids pretend that you are going to travel to Gabon and ask them to find out about currency, language, weather, etc.

I did not get an opportunity to really see the whole episode, so when I do perhaps I can add some more ideas. In the meantime, you may want to check out their website.

Some people may not feel that Survivor is appropriate for young children. My DD has watched it since the first episode and yes there were a few uncomfortable issues, but we have always watched it as a family and discussed things that we agreed with in the show and things that we didn’t. We have been able to have many interesting ethical discussions and a few conversations about the difference between real life and cyber life. Fortunately, the advent of On Demand and the internet has helped alleviate some of DD’s stress over choosing tv over real life. Now I try to use her tv addiction to encourage learning. II also find it to be a great behavioral persuader. There is nothing that gets DD to rethink her behavior faster than the threat of loosing tv privledges on the night of Survivor.

If your child is like DD, let’s ban together and come up with some activities that can expand their learning while they follow their interests.