Big Thoughts - the Medieval Smartphone
A few years ago I launched a series of Thinking Big talks at the school where I work. Teachers gave half hour talks about topics that interested them on Friday lunchtimes and students could choose to attend or stay away. Perhaps because there was no connection with any exam or test, the talks proved to be very popular. So much so, in fact, that some 6th Formers approached me and asked if they could join in. That year, they gave talks on everything from Beekeeping to the Septuagint to the Politics of Remembrance. It was great.
Those Thinking Big talks are still going strong - in fact, we had one today - so I’ve begun to branch out. Each Friday I now also send all staff and students some Big Thoughts. I simply choose an article or video or story that has got me thinking and share it. Again, students and colleagues have a choice. They can read what I send or ignore it completely. There’s no testing or compulsion involved.
So, I thought I’d share with you what I’ve been sharing at school. Each Friday I’ll post something and hope you find at least some of these Big Thoughts thought-provoking.
I’ll start by offering you a combination of history, science, and design with some religion, mathematics and sailing thrown in. I also want to give huge thanks to the DT Department at school for making the astrolabe you can see above. Read on to find out more.
The starting point for these Big Thoughts is The Light Ages: The Surprising Story of Medieval Science, a fantastic book by Cambridge historian, Seb Falk.
To find out more about this book, I’d recommend listening to Seb Falk on the excellent The Rest is History podcast:
In his book, Seb Falk writes specifically about the astrolabe. He calls it the medieval smartphone. Here's a short but fascinating video about what it is and how to use it to navigate.
If you’d like to give it a go, you could make one of your own. (It’s also a great activity for children.) Here are some sites which give templates and instructions:
https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/education/dyw-astrolabe.html
https://in-the-sky.org/astrolabe/index.php
https://www.joh.cam.ac.uk/way-stars-build-your-own-astrolabe
Please let me know how you get on!