Earth sits desolate, alone, and inhabited.  We have destroyed it, or did it destroy us? We search through space for our new home, with hope yet with the understanding that a beautiful and productive planet was taken for granted.  We must learn from our mistakes.  We must value the ones that came before us and use their innovations and rich culture to help us find our new residence and make it great too.

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With that, I welcome you to Nebula High.  It is the year 2100 and what a beautiful day it is in space. I am more than thrilled to have you enrolled in my Humanities class this semester. Throughout the course we will be learning about the pre-history of our once habitable Earth where our ancestors roamed and times when humans soared to great heights in science and art.  The course will cover topics that date back to the year 3000 B.C. Each section of the class will be broken down into four classrooms that will be fully dedicated to the teachings of certain subjects I have chosen for this semester. In the first classroom we will start off in Salisbury England where Stonehenge once stood. After pondering about Stonehenge we will travel to Egypt to recall the Book of the Dead. Then we will head to France to be spooked by the gargoyles! Soon after we will return back to England to contemplate the famous quote,  “To be or not to be, that is the question,” and visit the one and only, Shakespeare. I hope you all enjoy the spring semester of 2100 as much as I did some ninety years ago, and yes I am that old.

In classroom #1 I will introduce you to one of England’s most famous mysteries of all time, Stonehenge. The walls of the room are filled with pictures of the excavation sites of the Abbey holes from many years ago which contained bone remains. In the middle of the classroom there is a miniature model of Stonehenge made from parts of the original stones since the real size of the stones at Stonehenge were too large to bring aboard. First, in classroom #1 you all will learn how perfectly aligned Stonehenge was to the winter and summer solstices in respect for life and death.  Circles of stone or wood lined up with the sun at certain times of the year represented the Neolithic people and how they celebrated the living and the dead.  After we cover the alignment of the stones, you will sit in the position of the stones just as they stood at Stonehenge to understand their placement.  I will then pass around the tools once used by the Neolithic people, who carved the stones into their rectangular form. After examining the tools the class will learn about the extreme distance the stones traveled to their destination. You will theorize ideas as to how the Neolithic people moved the stones from the Prescelly Mountains to the Salisbury Plain where they stood on earth. Once you have brainstormed possibilities on how the stones were transported, I will present the rolling method.  Back in 2009 archeologist Andrew Young believed the Neolithic people who built Stonehenge used little stone balls as a way to transport the large and heavy stones. The class will then interact with one another demonstrating the rolling method, and then compare their ideas to Andrew Young’s ideas to see if there has been any sort of progression made on how the Neolithic people transported the stones from miles and miles away. The most significant information that I hope you all gain from the Stonehenge classroom is the intelligence behind the Neolithic people’s engineering of movement for the enormous stones found at Stonehenge and how much they valued life and death.

In classroom #2 we will visit the ancient Egyptians during the 18<sup>th</sup> dynasty. This room is specifically designed for the Egyptian Book of the Dead. To get to the room the class will walk through an ancient Egyptian sarcophagus as if passing through to the afterlife like the ancient Egyptians had perceived. Hieroglyphics and vignettes straight from examples of the Book of the Dead will cover the walls in order to provide images of the test that the Egyptians were to encounter in their afterlife.  Since we were able to preserve it in a glass case, texts from the real book of the dead will be located in the room for the class to view at first hand. During our time spent in classroom #2 you will learn about the test that the Egyptians believed they would have to successfully pass in their afterlife, aided by the Book of the Dead, in order to reach their final judgment day. The class will research the spells, charms, numbers, and magical passwords of the Book of the Dead for room #2’s final project. The class will also learn how the Egyptians spent their entire lifetime on Earth preparing for what was to come next after their death. They spent years and years building pyramids in order to please their gods for good grace and life after death. The pyramids the Egyptian built with an artistic touch set them apart from everyone else in the world. Mummification also played an important role in the preparation for the afterlife. Just for fun, the class will split into groups to roll one member of the group in toilet paper to mimic a mummy. Whoever wins the race will be granted extra credit on their final project. For the final project you will choose sections from the Book of the Dead that most meaningful to a successful afterlife. Each student will then present their own personalized Book of the Dead to the class. The most significant information that I hope you will gain from the class on the Egyptian Book of the Dead is how important the afterlife and the final judgment day was to the Egyptians. The Book of the Dead is what defines the life of the ancient Egyptians.

In classroom #3 we will visit Paris, France to learn about the gothic, monster like creatures of the Notre Dame Cathedral, the gargoyles. The walls of this room will be designed to look like the classroom is located on top of the cathedral’s balconies looking over Paris just like the gargoyles did. The ceilings of the room will be high and arched like the ceilings of the cathedrals in order for you to feel like you are actually in a medieval style church. Luckily enough the ship was able to save some of the gargoyles from Notre Dame and they are aboard the spaceship for display in the classroom. During the time spent in room #3 you will learn how the gargoyles were a new innovative way to drain out the water collected on the rooftops of the cathedrals. They extended far off the walls to prevent any damage from happening to the structure of the church. Without the gargoyles, the cathedral would collapse from standing rainwater. Though the gargoyles no longer serve their purpose here on the ship as they did as gutters for the Notre Dame Cathedral, they are preserved.  The class will also learn about how years ago on planet Earth, the polluted air and the acid rainwater caused the gargoyles to deteriorate. Every so often the gargoyles would have to be remodeled so that the stones they were carved from would not fall or break off. The class will take a look at how it is believed that the gargoyles were creatively made to look like beasts in order to intimidate people or to scare off evil spirits and to watch over Paris and other cities as a reminder of what humans fear the most, themselves. With this in mind, sculptors used their imagination to create beast-like creatures that had little or no resemblance to anything real. For the final project in room #3 the class will be broken up into groups to design a gargoyle that symbolizes a common fear that most people carry with them. Each group’s gargoyle should also have an beast-like quality that the group finds meaningful to survival. The most significant information that I hope you gain from the classroom of the Notre Dame gargoyles is that the gargoyles expressed historical values throughout the middle ages. How people perceived the world is seen within the eyes of each haunting creature.

Our last stop for the semester will be classroom #4 where we will travel back to England to around 1600 A. D.  The class will discuss William Shakespeare’s most famous play,<em> Hamlet</em>. This room is by far my favorite. The classroom will be a complete replica of the Globe Theatre where Shakespeare’s plays were performed. The room will be in the shape of a circle with wooden seats that go up into a diagonal where you will sit. At the floor of the room will be a stage like the one at the Globe Theatre. During the Elizabethan era, <em>Hamlet </em>was a play written by Shakespeare for pure entertainment. Therefore actors from the ship will perform <em>Hamlet</em> during the last couple of days spent in class. To begin, you will learn how the play reflects romance, tragedy, and revenge. Though many plays contain the three elements, <em>Hamlet</em> was by far the most problematic text in all of literature because of the confusion in the meaning of the plot. Though we all know that back in 2080 researchers concluded that there was no significant message, the class will learn about the great debate that took part in deciphering the meaning behind <em>Hamlet</em>.  Shakespeare was a literary genius that only wanted to disrupt the mind of thinkers. He used<em> Hamlet</em> as a device to confuse people for the sake of his own entertainment but no one wanted to believe so until recent discovery. <em>Hamlet</em> is one of literature’s first real views of human nature in real form. Hamlet was a character that anyone could relate to and admire for his resistance to the corruptions of evil that surrounded him as he wrestled with the revenge of his father’s murder.  He wanted to avenge his father’s death, but gave himself time to consider a just punishment. Each individual of the class for their last and final project will come up with a character which holds traits that can be understood and felt  and portrays qualities that represents our society today.  The most significant information that I hope you all gain from this classroom is that Shakespeare’s <em>Hamlet </em>allowed its audience to relate to the play through moral integrity and making conscience decisions but also by showing flaws of human nature.

We are in a time of crisis for humanity as we search the universe for a place to live, populate, and rebuild, but we cannot leave behind nor forget our past strengths, innovations, and advancements.  Nebula High is committed to keeping education significant.  We will continue to learn and study the masters that came before us. The Neolithic people modeled engineering and determination, the Egyptians showed that human life is valuable now and in the afterlife and culture is rich, the sculptors of the gargoyles of Notre Dame demonstrated the art of innovation, and Shakespeare, himself, left a written legacy that has never been surpassed. This semester will hold knowledge of important artistic originality that has withstood time. With the knowledge gained from the class, I hope for you to apply it to daily life and open your eyes to the genius of our ancestors as we write a new history for  the people of Earth.

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