Hank Gardner

Idea Books, Set 2

Table of Contents

Here Come…. The Mongols

History…………………………………………..………………………………...……………1-3

Dear Mr. President

Chemistry……………………………………………………………………………...……….4-
6

Nature: Beauty or Beast

English……………………………………………………………………………………...….7-8

Drones, Fun and Legal

English……………………………………………………………………………………..…9-11

Slavery DBQ
History…………………...…………………………………………………………………..12-1
4
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Hank Gardner
Tierny
WHAP Period 4
11/27/18
Here Come…. The Mongols

Evaluate the extent to which the Mongols should be seen as a positive or a negative
force in history.

The Mongols changed the course of History. Many people see them as a bad or

evil force, but I see them a positive force in history. The reason being is that they

conquered the most amount of land in their time period, when they conquered an area

they allowed people to live there normal life and because the helped a lot with trade

during that time period.

Genghis Khan was a very influential leader, he did almost the impossible by

uniting a bunch of pastoralist tribes and turning them into the fighting force you imagine

when you think of them. He was able to conquer over 4,860,000 square miles of land.

To put that into perspective Adolph Hitler was only able to conquer 1,370,000 square

miles of land and the continental United States is about 3,036,885 square miles. (Doc 3)

So at his time, Genghis Khan led the Mongols to do something extraordinary, which was

conquered the most land in just a small short period of time. Most people find this very

interesting, but important because event to this day, the most famous wars with the

largest invasions have still not beaten the “Mongol record.”

The next reason that I think that the Mongols should be seen as a positive force

is that once they conquered an area, most of the time they allowed the people to live
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there normal life and just taxed the area. For example from Russia “The Russian

Orthodox church flourished under the Mongol policy of religious toleration.” Also,

another example from Persia is “They made extensive use of the sophisticated Persian

Bureaucracy, leaving the greater part of government operations in Persian hands.” (Doc

4)This shows that in most places, people did not resist that the Mongols let the people

live there normal, daily lives.

The last reason that I think that the Mongols have a positive impact on the world

at the time was they helped with having more reliable and secure trade. When he was

not at war or invading other regions Genghis Khan had his soldiers protect the silk road.

This made it safer to trade, which in the end let new trade channels from Asia, to East

Africa and even parts of Europe. This was the first time that the trade routes were being

heavily used since the days of the Roman and the Han Empires. One reason that the

Mongols did this was to make money off of merchants and wealthy country by taxing

them. The Mongols also introduced a standard set of weights and measures, which

made trading a lot easier. (“World History”)

In conclusion, I think that the Mongols were a positive force during the there time

because they conquered a lot of lands, let people live there regular lives, and even

helped trade along the silk road. I think they were so successful because of great

leaders like Genghis Khan.

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Works Cited

World History: Preparing for the Advanced Placement Examination. Perfect Learning

Corp, 2018.
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Hank Gardner
Gregory
Chemistry Period 7
11/27/18
Dear Mr. President

Write a 500-word letter to the president of the United States explaining why we should
either keep our system of measurement or switch to the metric system. Provide a
justification and history of each system including what major countries use which
system and why.

The United States is one of 3 countries to use the customary system. Let's be

real here, it is outdated and should not be used. We should use the Metric system

because it is way easier to use, and it is more common, making it easier to share

research and information. I know that this is way off topic but imagine instead of running

one-mile races, you only ran 1600 meter races, or instead of a 3-mile race, you ran a

5k. This could be a very cool world that we might live in if we use the Metric system.

(“Blankenbicker”)

The Metric system is relatively easy to use once you know how to use it.

For example, the unit for distance is a meter, then once you learn the prefixes like mili,

cent, then you know what every different measurement for the meter is. (mili, means

1,000 so millimeter means 1 thousandth of a meter, and centi means 100 so it means 1

hundredth of a meter. Once you learn the different types (a liter is a volume

measurement, a gram is a mass measurement, and the meter is a distance

measurement) and memorize the prefixes (Centi- means 100 and so on) It really gets

easy. (“Harris”) The other reason why we should use the metric system is that more and
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more science equipment and equations are using the metric system. You could always

use dimensional analysis to help convert, but you could make a mistake.

Because the United States along with 2 other countries decide to use the

customary, sharing ideas, and research can be hard. In order to make it easier to share

research with the other one hundred and ninety-three countries, we should convert to

the metric system of measurement. So now after scientist finish their hard research,

they don’t have to spend there valuable time converting numbers so that all the other

countries can understand what they are talking about. Also, they could make a mistake

when converting it, and that would cause a whole different answer for everybody else.

On the other hand, if we really didn’t want to change, we could always force all one

hundred and ninety-five countries to convert to the really complex and complicated

contrary system, because obviously, the United States is the best country and all others

should worship us, and thank us for not blowing them up or invading them.

So, in conclusion, I think that we should switch to the metric system because it is

easier to use, (if you know how to use it) and because it is way more common in the

world that we live in today.

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Works Cited

Blankenbicker, Adam. “The Metric System, the United States of America, and Scientific

Literacy.” PLOS Ecology Community, 27 July 2013,

blogs.plos.org/scied/2013/01/28/the-metric-system-united-states-of-america-and-

scientific-literacy/.

Harris, William. “How the Metric System Works.” HowStuffWorks Science,

HowStuffWorks, 28 June 2018, science.howstuffworks.com/metric-system.htm.

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Hank Gardner
Kelley
English II Period 5
11/27/18
Nature: Beauty or Beast

Explain to your reader the lessons nature teaches us about life.

Nature is both a beauty and a beast. Mother Nature teaches us lessons all of the

time. Sometimes we understand what she is trying to teach us, sometimes we don’t

figure it out for a while and sometimes we never figure out what nature is trying to teach

us. Nature is also a beast, trust me, and it will punish you.

Nature is one of the greatest teachers in life. Nature teaches us a lot of lessons.

One example of nature teaching us that for everything there is a season and the right

timing. Sometimes in our life, we want certain things to happen right now. It is hard to

understand why some of our actions don’t have results immediately. It is all about the

flow. Nature also teaches us that sometimes it is better to listen, then to talk. If you have

ever been out in the middle of nowhere it is dead quiet, until you stop and listen and you

hear all of these wonderful sounds like the leaves blowing, the birds chirping, and other

sounds of nature. This is another example that we can apply to our daily lives. In real

life, it might be better to listen than to talk. One last example that shows that Nature

teaches us lessons about life is that nature is beautiful, in its simplest form. If you have

ever been to the grand canyon, or to the mountain ranges of New Mexico you know

what I mean. Nature is beautiful and life is also beautiful.

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On the flip side Nature is also one of the greatest punishers. You hear about

these natural disasters all the time now, and they only seem to be getting more

frequent. It seems like nature wants to punish us. Just a couple of weeks ago, the very

river that sits across from our school was flooding other things like homes, businesses,

and roads in countless other places. (thank god the school didn’t flood, because that

would be “horrible”) You might be thinking how is nature trying to teach us a lesson with

this, well I think that she is trying to show us that we need to care about the environment

more and subjects of important topics like global warming. She is trying to tell us that if

we don’t do better, it will only get worse. Same goes with all the forest fires that have

been happening in California over the last couple of years. They are only getting bigger,

worse and more frequent. The same thing with all the hurricanes that have been hitting

our coasts, they are just getting more and more frequent and devastating.

So as I conclude this piece, I truly believe that Mother Nature is both a beauty

and a beast when it comes to teaching us lessons. She teaches both positive lessons

and quiet horrible negative lessons, and we can still learn a lot from nature.
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Hank Gardner
Kelley
English II Period 5
11/27/18

Drones, fun and legal!

“Is it legal to fly drones in public places and Should we allow drones with camera in
public places or is it an evasion of public privacy.”

As more and more Drones are hitting the market, there are a couple of driving

questions. One question is, “should it be legal to fly in public places?” and another is

“should it be legal to film in public places, or is it an invasion of peoples privacy.” There

are many different and important aspects of these questions. Like how is this drone

photography different from just having your phone or a camera and taking a picture in a

public place. Also, there is important stuff about flying drones in some areas.

First off, let's get on the same page of what a drone is. According to

Merriam-Webster, a drone is “an unmanned aircraft or ship guided by remote control or

onboard computers.” In America, the most common types of drones are ​fixed rotor,

single rotor, or multirotor. A fixed winged is like a plane, a single rotor is like a

helicopter, and a multirotor is like a quadcopter. (“what”) The most common

non-commercial use drone is a multirotor drone, and this market is just getting started.

The FAA estimates that there will be seven million drones flying over America by 2020.

Since the FAA started keeping drone incident records in 2014 there have been a

total of 4,489 incident reports. Keep in mind that there is probably way more than this,

then just don’t get reported or go unnoticed. The FAA received 1,688 reports of drones
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flying in restricted airspace or violating rules in just 2017 alone. To put that in

perspective the first year that they started to keep records (2014) there were just 263

reports of drone incidents. (“​Flatley”)

Now to talk about the most difficult (and debated part), is it legal to fly drones in

public places with cameras. This all is dependent on where you live, here are some of

the regulations in Austin. Mostly, it is legal to fly drones. There are some regulations

though, like you are not allowed to fly around or on University of Texas grounds, the

Texas State Capital, and around natural disasters like wildfires. Also, use common

sense, and don’t fly near military bases or near airports, because it is highly illegal.

Some other very useful information is as of 2016 it is legal to fly drones in City of Austin

Parks if operated non-commercially. Personally, I see them all the time flying around

parks like Zilker. While the legality of taking pictures is widely debated you are allowed

to use the camera feature of your drone at any public place.

So overall Austin is pretty drone friendly, although there can be some strict rules

and regulations. Due to not a lot of research out in 2018, some of the legality is weird

and complex. I would always suggest that you check in with the local authorities before

flying somewhere new.

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Works Cited

Flatley, Daniel. “Safety Incidents Raises with Increased Drones.” Bloomberg.com,

Bloomberg,
www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-12-05/safety-incidents-rise-along-with-p
opularity-of-civilian-drones​.

What Is Vertical Farming? | AgriTechTomorrow,

www.agritechtomorrow.com/article/2017/10/the-3-main-categories-of-drones-and
-their-advantages--disadvantages/10316​.
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Hank Gardner
Tierny
WHAP Period 4
11/27/18

Slavery

Write a DBQ about Slave Trade

Slavery was very bad and horrible in every aspect of it. Families were separated,

packed closer than sardines in a can, but instead, they were chained to each other on a

ship, auctioned off like cattle and overworked in the fields and in the houses. (lots were

overworked to death.)

In Document two we learned that slaves were transported on really big ships.

Lots of ships had over 400 slaves on them. They were laid together on a ship with their

heads touching other peoples feet, and there feet touching other peoples heads. They

also had buckets ever so often for the slaves to relieve themselves, but its kinda hard to

do that when you are chained to someone else. Also whenever the slaves refused to

eat, the sailor would give them hot coals, (to burn or brand them) and threaten to put

down there through next time. These were horrible times for the slaves, the ships were

diseased riddled and full of rats. Lots of slaves didn’t make it off of the ships, about ten

to fifteen percent died during the middle passage.

In Document four, It shows that slaves were auctioned off like cattle. In fact,

chattel slavery comes from the same Latin root that cattle comes from. They were

brought on stage and people would bid on them, this was really hard on the slaves. This
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also did very horrible things like separate family, which there are multiple accounts off.

Then just like that, you are someone’s property. They could work you as much as they

want and do whatever they want with you. In many cases, after they didn’t want you,

they would sell you or just kill you. Lots of times these slaves would be whipped,

branded or even hung if they got in trouble with there masters.

This Brings me to my last point. In Both Document one and in Document eight it

both talks about how slaves were overworked and how many of them died because of

malnutrition, dangerous work, not a lot of sleep and overuse. For example, lots of the

slaves who worked on the Brazilian sugar cane farms would get injured and some of

them would be so injured that the overseers would keep an ax to “amputate on the

spot”. Also, especially the Brazilian slaves were overworked and did not survive long.

The average life expectancy for a slave at this time on those plantations was 23 years.

So In conclusion, while slavery was not good, It was very common up until it was

banned in 1750. Some reasons that it was so bad was that the slaves were overused,

separated from there families and pretty much treated like animals when they were

transported from Africa to the Americas. Hopefully, we learn from our mistakes and

there is never something as horrible as this again.

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Works Cited

Mongol DBQ from Blend

World History: Preparing for the Advanced Placement Examination. Perfect Learning
Corp, 2018.