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Lesson 1. The History of Sugar

Historically, was not very important. It was a
plant which people to enjoy its sweetness. That changed, however, when
a was developed in India for sugarcane juice into
sugar . In this form, sugar could be , carried, and sold
around the world. In the 11th century, sugar was to Western Europe
by Crusaders who it in Asia.

The center of sugarcane later moved from Asia to the

Americas, following the arrival of European . Sugarcane grew very well
in the hot, environment of the Caribbean islands. Plants started to be
on large sugarcane there. Yet, before the 18th century,
sugar was too expensive for most people to buy. In fact, it was sometimes called
“white gold.” Around this time, however, it became possible to -
sugar. As a result, the price . In the 19th century, people started to think
of sugar as a .

As more and more people developed a taste for sugar, for the
product greatly increased. The sugar economy , starting a period of
major social change. a sugarcane plantation required a lot of workers.
Plantation owners wanted the cheapest source of labor. Sadly, the
trade grew bigger the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries as
sugar became more . During the 18th century, almost a people
were taken from Africa to work on sugarcane plantations. People from East India and
other parts of Asia were also brought to the Americas to work on the plantations.

Global of sugar continues to increase today. The sugar

no longer uses slave , but many workers receive very
pay and live in . For something so sweet, sugar has a history.

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Lesson 2. Candy Making

What do lollipops, marshmallows, and caramels ?
They are made using the same ! First, sugar is in water.
Then the mixture is boiled. As it cooks, some of the water away, and the
candy mixture gets closer to sugar. In other words, the mixture has a higher
of sugar. This also raises the sugar mixture’s cooking .
The type of candy that results on this temperature. The higher the
temperature, the harder the final candy will be.

Today, candy makers use to control the cooking temperature.

But before the of the thermometer, they the cooking
temperature by testing the candy’s . This is simple to do. All you do is
drop a of sugar in cold water. If a thin thread ,
the candy is at the “ ” stage. This shows that the temperature
(110 – 112 °C) for making syrup has been . If a ball forms in the water
but loses its when you take it out, the candy is at the “soft ball” stage.
Thus, the names of the match how the sugar mixture in cold
water. The chart below shows how cooking temperature to a candy’s
hardness.

When the proper is reached, can be added. After

that, the mixture is poured into . The molds cause the candy to cool in the
shape, like a lollipop or a square caramel. the
candy is done, it can be from the molds and eaten!

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Lesson 3. Sugar Addiction

Are you the kind of person who always a bar of chocolate nearby?
you feel weak or sleepy without your . If so, you may have
a problem that millions of others have: sugar .

Addiction means using a or doing an activity over and over

again, its negative effects. Playing computer games, drinking, and
eating are examples of that can develop into addictions.

There are four stages of that happen during a sugar addiction.

Stage one begins with a strong for something sweet. This happens
because sugar causes the body to dopamine. It is a that
creates feelings of . In stage two, even after sugar has been eaten,
the desire and grows. This is because the body becomes less
to the effect of sugar over time. So, it is necessary to
more sugar to produce the emotions. In stage three, when a sugar
is not , the person feels bad. Sugar addicts experience negative
symptoms. They also feel physical , such as headaches, sleepiness, and
of energy. Over time, a sugar addiction will reach stage four. This is when the most
health effects of sugar addiction can be seen. Unhealthy body weight and
are examples.

a sugar addiction can be , but it is important for

your health. There are a few things to . It’s simple
you probably have heard before. Eat three meals a day, get enough sleep, and
exercise often. Choose sweets, like fruit, and salty snacks.
These usually cause people to want to eat sweets. Don’t push yourself too hard.
Remember that changes happen .

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Lesson 4. Why Cats Can’t Taste Sweetness

Dogs, like many humans, can’t cake! If they find a piece of cake
on the floor, they’ll eat it. Cats are different. They might be about
the cake, but they won’t eat it. Why not?

When you eat something sweet, it into tiny molecules,

including sugar . These move across your until they
a sugar receptor. Then, they the receptor. When that happens, a
signal is sent to your brain. The signal reports the of sugar and,
, you taste sweetness. During our , this ability to taste
sweetness helped us . This is because sweet-tasting are usually
safe to eat and a lot of energy.

us, cats have a diet that only meat. This might be

why the ancestors of cats lost the to taste sweetness. Or,
their diet may have changed after they stopped sweetness. Scientists
aren’t sure. But their studies do show that the that make cats’ sugar
are broken. All cat today, like tigers, cheetahs, and house
cats, share this . As meat eaters, the of modern cats did not
need to taste sweetness to know if a plant was safe to eat. So the animals survived
to their genes, and our pet cats them.

Sometimes, you see cats eat something sweet. But it’s not because
the food is sweet. , it may be the smell they are drawn to, or other
in the food. Your cat simply cannot enjoy cake as much as you can!

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Lesson 5. Benjamin Franklin’s Life

Benjamin Franklin is one of the most famous in American history.
As a writer, an inventor, and a of the United States of America, he greatly
the world he lived in.

Franklin was born in 1706 in Boston, Massachusetts. He was one of 17 children,

which that his life was not very easy. Most of the time, he had to take care
of himself. However, this taught Franklin the importance of being ,
and clever. At 12, Franklin went to work for his brother James, who a
newspaper. Franklin wrote under a name so people wouldn’t know how
young he was. His pen name was Silence Dogood. loved Silence Dogood
and never that “she” was a named Benjamin Franklin.

When he was older, Franklin his brother’s newspaper and started his
own printing . His paper, The Pennsylvania Gazette, became a ,
newspaper at the time. In 1732, Franklin began Poor Richard’s
Almanack, which he printed for more than two . Like other
, Poor Richard’s Almanack was general information, like
planting dates, weather , and advice.

But there was much more to Benjamin Franklin than his writing. He spent a lot
of time working on to help . The Franklin stove, which warmed
people’s houses, is one such example. In the 1750s, he became famous worldwide
fo r h i s with a n d t h e i nve n t i o n o f t h e
. Franklin used his to work for he believed
in, like American independence. In 1778, he the French to support
the Americans during their war for from Britain.

Franklin’s writings, inventions, and will never be forgotten.

Although he died centuries ago, the bright of his still warms the
world.
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Lesson 6. The Declaration of Independence

Every year on July 4, Americans together to fireworks
and their pride. Why is this date so special? To answer this
, we have to go back in time to 1775. In that year, the in
North America paying to the King of England. They
wanted to from England and start their own country. in the
colonies got together and wrote down all of the reasons why they wanted
from Britain. Their became famous in American
history. It was called the of Independence.

A small team of men, including John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin
Franklin, worked together to write the Declaration of Independence. They didn’t only
say that they wanted independence. , the writers of the Declaration made
a careful and detailed . First, they explained that all people have certain
. These include the right to live, to have , and to find happiness.
Then they showed how the King of England them those rights. According
to their argument, any government that those rights was a poor
. And it had to be .

The next summer, the final of the Declaration was ready. Important
from all over the colonies signed their names to it to show .
The day the document was , July 4, 1776, became known as Independence
Day.

When the Declaration was signed, it gave the American colonists the
they needed to win the war. They for seven more years.
Finally, in 1783, they the British and their independence. Every
year since 1776, Americans have celebrated the feeling of national on July
4.

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Lesson 7. The Lightning Rod

You’re outside in the middle of a . The wind is . Suddenly,
white fire shoots down from the sky. A roar the ground. Just like us, people
in the 18th century were of lightning. They knew it caused fires that
buildings. Unlike us, they believed was a sign of evil. However, that
changed when Benjamin Franklin what lightning really was.

Franklin that lightning like electricity and wanted to test

the idea, so he an experiment. It was actually dangerous. He
tied a key to the of a kite. The key would show the ,
of electricity by making sparks. Next, Franklin went outside as a storm ,
to fly his kite. Lightning hit the , traveled down the string to the key, and
made . Knowing that lightning was a form of electricity, Franklin thought of
a way to people’s houses from lightning. His invention became known as
the lightning rod.

Franklin a metal rod on the of a building. One ,

pointed toward the sky and the other was to a wire. The wire ran down
the building to a piece of metal underground, away from the house.
Lightning always looks for the fastest way to get to the ground. The of
the metal rod and the was to give lightning a fast but safe to the
ground. If lightning near the house, it would travel through the rod and
wire instead of hitting the building and setting it on fire.

Franklin wanted his inventions to be to others. So he would be happy

to know that lightning still protect people and buildings today. In Franklin’s
case, lightning sparked a truly invention.

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Lesson 8. Franklin’s Virtues

Benjamin Franklin is as an important figure. His hard
work and played a major role in his success. But his values
may have been a factor as well. We have a good idea of what
guided Franklin during his . In his ,
he wrote about the virtues he wanted to live by.

At the very top of his , Franklin put the virtue of showing with
food and drink, which he felt the senses when taken in . Second,
Franklin the virtue of . He wanted to avoid unimportant
and only speak when he had something useful to say.
was the third virtue on the list, as Franklin thought everything should have its own
time and place. Fourth, Franklin listed the virtue of . When he
to do something, he thought he should always it. There
were 13 virtues in all. For the most part, they personal development and
- in all matters.

Franklin knew that in order to live by these , he would have to work

very hard. So he made himself a and practiced one virtue a week. He
himself at the end of the , and after 13 weeks he started over
again. At first, he did not earn very high , but with practice, he got better.

Benjamin Franklin was not always able to meet the high he set
for himself. However, we can his attempts, and we can follow his example.
Everyone has room for . Consider making your own list of virtues that
you want to live by.

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Lesson 9. Camera Obscura

Nowadays a camera can fit in the of your hand, yet in ancient times,
it was the size of a room. The word “camera” is a to that fact. It comes
from the Latin “camera obscura,” meaning “dark .” The “dark
chamber” was an invention that led to the of the modern camera.

The camera obscura was a dark room with a hole in one wall to let in
light. The light on a piece of paper. Someone inside the room could see
an image of the outside on the piece of paper. But it wasn’t a very good image. If the
hole was large, the image was bright but . If the hole was small, the image
was sharp but . The image was also - . Early
found a use for the camera obscura, though. They could watch the sun during a solar
without looking at it .

In the 16th century, some made the camera obscura more

. The hole was by a glass lens, which made images sharper
and , and a mirror was used to the images right-side up. ,
found the improved camera obscura to be a good . They laid paper beneath
the image and drew over the . Then, they could paint on top of the lines
they had drawn. This helped artists make extremely paintings.
Growing interest in realistic images the idea behind
modern .

The film camera was developed when people discovered a way to

images onto . Soon after, film cameras became for the mass
market. Later, digital cameras became another step in the of the camera
obscura. What will cameras of the future look like?

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Lesson 10. Red-eye Effect

Have you ever taken a perfect picture—and then that everyone’s
eyes were red? Why do our eyes sometimes look red in ?

It is an effect that happens when a flash is used. Under conditions,

the eye’s iris in bright light. This makes the small, and does
not let much light into the eye. When a flash is used, however, are
different. When a flash , the does not have enough time to
. Thus, the pupil stays wide open for the photo. The flash is so bright that
some of its light off the retina, a of at the back of the
eye. Because of all the in the retina, the light that it reflects
is red. This is why the pupil red in the photo.

The red-eye is not as easy to notice in everyone. For example,

people who are not directly in front of the flash are not as ,
to the effect. In addition, there is a natural in how the pupil reacts to
changing light conditions. Some people have pupils that become very . These
people are more to experience the red-eye effect. Those who have smaller
pupils are less likely to it.

The red-eye effect can be by backing away from the

of the photograph. The further the camera is from the , the less reflected
light it will . New cameras come with a special “red-eye reduction” setting,
which the camera to flash instead of once. The first flash
your pupil, and the takes the photo. The smaller your pupil,
the less red light it will reflect back to the camera.

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Lesson 11. Ansel Adams’ Photography

Water over the of a . It drops more than 700
meters into a cloud of white . You can almost hear the water like
thunder as it falls. But there’s no sound. It’s not a real but a photograph
of Yosemite Falls, taken by one of the world’s most famous nature :
Ansel Adams.

Adams likely first saw the waterfall on a to Yosemite National Park in

1916, when he was 14 years old. The of the national park must have
him greatly. He spent much of his photographing it.

The beautiful images that Adams made were more than art. They showed the
power and of nature. This was something the country needed to be
of. During Adams’ lifetime, natural were being
to make room for roads, farms, and growing cities. Adams believed
strongly in the of America’s wild space, and used his
to affect . For example, he traveled to Washington in 1936 to win support
for a area in California. It became Kings Canyon
National Park.

The effect of his art was very . “Not everybody trusts paintings but
people believe photographs,” Adams once said. His pictures, like The Tetons and the
Snake River, how Americans saw nature. Looking at his photographs,
people that nature was a form of art. It was something to
and care for.

However, Adams had . They said it was wrong to photograph and fight
for nature when there was so much human in the world. But Adams
believed that the world of nature would help heal people.
very , his nature photography saved the American
for future to enjoy.
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Lesson 12. Photo Manipulation

Everyone knows that photographs cannot lie. Or can they? Photo
can change a photograph to show something other than the
. Through darkroom or software like Photoshop, a photo
can make an image tell a lie.

In fact, history, people have used to tell lies.

Joseph Stalin, the leader of the Soviet Union from 1922 to 1953, is one example. He
was known to manipulate photos in order to keep the from seeing certain
images. In many cases, the images he wanted to hide were images of people. At that
time, people who did not with the Soviet government were seen
as . When Stalin someone an enemy, he had that person
killed and removed from all records and photographs. , he erased them
from history.

The Soviets were not the first to manipulate photos to the public.
In 1865, when President Lincoln was , newspaper
wanted to the president as a hero to the nation. They looked
for a photo that showed Lincoln’s leadership and but couldn’t find
anything that worked. What they found, however, was a very photo of an
old president, John Calhoun. So they took Calhoun’s body and Lincoln’s
head onto it. The image was presented as a real of the president. The
is that, , Calhoun and Lincoln were . Calhoun was a
famous supporter of , while Lincoln’s greatest was
ending slavery.

Photo manipulation remains common today, and makes it

easier than ever before. People should learn to manipulated images and
question the of the people using them. Everyone must think ,
they may be manipulated by these messages.
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Lesson 13. Different Kinds of Stars

If you one star in the sky tonight, could you find it again
night? It would be , since most stars look alike in the night
sky. speaking, they’re all similar: hot, bright made mostly
of hydrogen and helium gas. However, they can be broken down into three :
dwarfs, giants, and neutron stars.

Dwarfs are the smallest type of star. Gravity is related to a star’s size, but even
in these small stars, its inward pull is . It compresses the hydrogen gas
that makes up the of the star. The hydrogen at the core
gets so hot that it turns into helium. This process, called fusion, enough
force to balance the force of gravity. When everything is in
balance, the star a size.

Giants, as their name hints, are large stars. Like dwarf stars, they use
at their cores through . When all the hydrogen gas at the core
becomes helium, fusion stops, and takes over again. The core gets so hot
that the gas it starts to burn. The energy that is put out by
the gas causes the outer layers of the star to . In other words,
the star grows into a “giant.”
Neutron stars are actually stars. These only form from stars that were
very large . When smaller stars die, they simply become small
and . Larger stars, on the other hand, die in a
known as a supernova. The that is left over after a supernova is a neutron
star.

These three of stars are quite , and each category

contains many types. All the points of light you see in the night sky include a wide
of stars.

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Lesson 14. Van Gogh and Stars

Read this list of by Vincent van Gogh: Cafe Terrace at Night,
Starry Night Over the Rhone, and The Starry Night. What do these paintings all have
in common? They all stars.

Night scenes with , starry are one of van Gogh’s

as an artist. For van Gogh, was a special, almost
time. Working outdoors at night helped him the world of
spirits and dreams that inspired his . He painted his first
scene, Cafe Terrace at Night, on a street in Arles, France.

Soon after, van Gogh made another with stars, this one
Starry Night Over the Rhone . In the picture, the sky is full of stars, and at the
gas lamps from Arles off the river. Showing the color and
of the nighttime world was important to van Gogh. He
worked by the light of the stars and the city, where he was
able to study the scene carefully to catch its .

The Starry Night was made months later and was not based on
but on memory. The painting has a , ,
quality. Some consider the lines and forceful color in The Starry Night
a reflection of van Gogh’s mental at that time. He had suffered a mental
and went to live in a hospital. Through his work, van Gogh
to express the mystery and strangeness he around him.
, the world of The Starry Night does seem more like a dream than .

These paintings are what van Gogh is best known for today. Although he died
more than a ago, his starry paintings live on, like stars, and
everyone who sees them.

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Lesson 15. Pentagram

The five-pointed star with five lines is known today as the pentagram. It is an
ancient that has held different . Today, we can see the
pentagram worn as or as designs on clothing.

The Sumerians were the first to use the pentagram. They wrote about the
symbol in that date back to 3000 B.C. In the of that
, the pentagram was a character in a writing system. It ,
a word that had a of meanings, including “corner” and “room.” The
Babylonians, a culture with close links to Sumer, used the pentagram
in reference to the . The pentagram’s five points five
planets―Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn.

In ancient China, the pentagram to Wu Xing, the five

that make up the world: metal, , fire, earth, and water. In
ancient Chinese thought, these elements are always changing. They have different
and effects on one another. Fire, for example, can melt metal;
water can fire. When the elements are in their traditional
and the relationships between each are ,
the shape that results is a pentagram.

In European , the pentagram had magical properties. The

of the star affected its . With one point facing
, the pentagram represented “white” magic (good). ,
with two points facing upward, the same symbol for “black” magic (evil).

Today, the pentagram is more closely with music ,

than with any of its ancient meanings. Some rock fans seem to like the pentagram’s
European to evil. It is fine to wear a pentagram as a fashion ,
but it is good to know the of the symbol.

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Lesson 16. Constellation Legends: Capricorn

What would you call a that has the head of a goat and the ,
of a fish? You could call it a goat-fish. Or, if you Greek
, you could call it Capricorn.

Greek stories tell about a war in that started when a group of

younger gods challenged the group of gods. The younger gods, known as
the Olympians, the ruling Titans. In , the Titans created
Typhon, a dragon-like monster with 100 heads, which they sent to the
Olympians.

The attack of the ruling Titans might have been without the
quick thinking of one of the younger gods named Pan. Pan was an hero.
He was best known for women, not for strength or . One
day, Pan was in the river, trying to get a date with a beautiful water . He
happened to be the first Olympian to notice the of Typhon. So he quickly
his gods. He told them to animals, so the
monster could not them. Pan started to turn himself into a goat, but
he was in the river. So instead of becoming goat, he made his lower half a
fish. Zeus, the Olympians’ leader, fought Typhon. When Zeus got seriously ,
Pan helped him so that he could finish the .

When it was , Zeus Pan by moving the stars to create

a of Pan as a goat-fish. It is an image we now know as the
Capricorn. You can find Capricorn yourself, if it is
early in the evening in September and October. It is the second-dimmest Zodiac
constellation and has very old in an Greek myth.

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