GENRE: Picture book / Biography
HONORS: None
REVIEW: Eratosthenes was a curious lad. He was educated in Athens, Greece and eventually became a tutor in Alexandria. Alexandria housed the best library and museum in ancient times and Eratosthenes took full advantage of it. Shortly after he arrived in Alexandria, Eratosthenes, or Pentathlos as he came to be known, (meaning someone good at many things) became the head librarian. Eratosthenes really wanted to know how big around the earth was so he studied, worked on mathematical equations involving the arc of a circle, the sun and its shadows, and even hired some men to walk from Alexandria to Syene, Egypt. Finally, he was able to calculate the circumference of the earth as being 24,662 miles. The amazing this is that he was only off by about 200 miles.
OPINION: As I was reading several picture books on a trip, I kept passing them back to my daughter who is thirteen. Of the five books, she read after me she said, "The one about the librarian was cool". Kathryn Lasky did a good job taking this scientific concept, bringing it down to an appropriate level, and making the book enjoyable in the process.
IDEAS: This book could be used when teaching about the history of astronomy and how ancient people were able to discover concepts about space before telescopes. I wish I had known about this book when I was teaching astronomy to fifth graders. A teacher could also tie in Eratosthenes with a discussion of Columbus and the misconception that everyone during Columbus' time believed the earth was flat. Finally, in math teachers could look at the formula Eratosthenes used to determine the circumference of the earth.
No comments:
Post a Comment