(Liberty) Bell Work
| Sentence Surgery Read the sentence below. Do you see any problems? Do not rewrite the sentence. In fact, don't even fix the sentence. Instead, on your paper, tell the writer three things that need to be corrected. As a Child, George spent a lot of Time outdoores |  | Sentence Augmentation* Augment the sentence below to greatly improve it. Record your improved sentence on your paper. He likes going outside. *Augment: make (something) greater by adding to it |
Quick Write
Think about your greatest personal strength. How would your life be different if you no longer had that strength?
Think about your greatest personal strength. How would your life be different if you no longer had that strength?
| Word Work Using words important to today's lesson set, create a list of words to fit in the categories below. Pay particular attention to spelling patterns.
Word Wise Define the following words: speleology vandal | On Target
For example, if the target number is 36, the student may write expressions like the examples here (below). 6 squared |
Was George Washington the country's first cave vandal?
| In 1833, someone who was spelunking in a wild cave just outside Charles Town in Jefferson County, West Virginia (formerly Virginia) discovered an odd signature on the cave wall. There, as certain as anything, was "G Washington 1748". Could this be George Washington? Our George Washington? Is is possible that the future father of our country defaced the cave when he was surveying the area in 1748? In 1748, George was 16 years old. Later, he would become the surveyor for Culpepper County, but for the moment he worked with a surveying team. At some point he used the equipment below (now on display at Mount Vernon). If he found the cave, would he have gone inside? Would he have done far enough inside to have carved his name on the wall? The font used to print the letters seem similar to a font that Washington used when he printed on survey maps. |  |
I suppose there is no way to know for sure, but there is evidence to imply that 16-year-old George was the one who "signed" the cave wall. On April 14, 1761, Andrew Burnaby wrote to the future general and president, requesting information about the cave. A scan of his letter is below.
 |  |  |
George responded, answering his questions about the cave. The transcript of his letter can be found at Founder's Online.
Is this enough evidence to convince you that George Washington is the person who signed the cave wall (See the signature in question in the video, below right.)?
Is this enough evidence to convince you that George Washington is the person who signed the cave wall (See the signature in question in the video, below right.)?
 Washington's Surveying Equipment | |
It does make you wonder if there are any famous signatures in Hoggatt Cave. Perhaps with some exploration we will discover some important historical markings. I wonder what other scientific oddities we will find while spelunking.
