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Level Three
| Unit 1: Are You a Genius? |
An organization that recognizes and nurtures geniuses is Mensa. Mensa was established in 1946 for the smartest two percent of society. It has since grown to 100,000 members and operates in 40 countries. The Mensa website includes a trial exam to test your thinking ability.
Can you think like Albert Einstein? Try completing some of the puzzles that Einstein was interested in. Another famous thinker was the artist Leonardo da Vinci. He worked with new art techniques including perspective, vanishing point and sfumato.
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| Unit 3: Jane Austen |
Jane Austen is a famous British author who lived in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. One of her most famous works is Pride and Prejudice. Pride and Prejudice is available on the WWW in hypertext format with illustrations, and explanations of unusual vocabulary and plot points. If you want to learn more about Jane Austen, you can read her first biography which was written by her nephew.
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| Unit 4: Do You Believe in Ghosts? |
There are many famous ghost stories, but a lot of these stories are based on fake ghost sightings. A person who looked for fake spiritual phenomena was the famous magician Harry Houdini.
The second lesson tells a story written by Lafcadio Hearn. Hearn moved to Japan and became fascinated with its history and culture, especially its stories, which he helped to popularize in the West.
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| Unit 5: You Are What You Eat! |
Do you like chocolate? Most people would say yes. In fact, chocolate is one of the world's favorite snacks. This is partly because it can be prepared in so many different ways and partly because it makes us feel good. You can read more about chocolate on the WWW.
Eating a diet with too much chocolate, however, isn't good for you. In order to be healthy, you need to understand the relationship between regular exercise and a balanced diet. A good resource is the Food Guide Pyramid, which shows how to maintain a good balance in the foods that you eat.
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| Unit 6: Marco Polo |
Marco Polo is a famous Italian explorer who was born in 1254. He is most famous for a book he wrote telling the story of his travels and time in China. However, there is a big question about whether Polo actually made the trip. You can read the different perspectives and decide for yourself. You can also see the path that he supposedly took on a map. |
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| Unit 7: Mazes and Labyrinths |
Mazes and labyrinths look the same, but they have one big difference. In both you begin at the start and have to make your way to the end. In a maze, however, you must avoid becoming lost, while in a labyrinth you won't become lost as you only have to follow the path to the end.
You can find maze games online, print them and try to solve them at home or in class. Alternatively, you can see pictures of mazes and labyrinths from the portfolio of a famous maze maker.
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| Unit 10: Epidemic! |
The Black Death and Spanish Flu were two infamous epidemics that killed millions of people around the world. After the Black Death, the Italian writer Giovanni Boccaccio set his collection of linked stories, The Decameron, during this time of upheaval.
Both the Black Death and Spanish Flu were viruses that had spread from country to country. Today, the risk of epidemics (like SARS and Avian Flu) is greater because of the increased ease and frequency of international travel.
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| Unit 11: The Tale of Genji |
The classic Japanese story The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu is available in English with pictures from a UNESCO website. The Tale of Genji was written around real places, many of which you can still visit today. You can see photographs of some of these places on the WWW.
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