The Voyages of the Mimi

The Second Voyage of the Mimi

This adventure takes place three years later. The Captain and his grandson have a new team of scientists on board. Their purpose is to travel to Mexico near the island of Cozumel to study the ancient Maya civilization. Their studies lead them on a search for a lost city. During this search, they encounter looters who may have already found it. The science and math topics explored are astronomy, archaeology, the ecology of the rainforest and the ancient Mayan number system. In this program, there are twelve adventures and expeditions, including trips to the Old Royal Observatory on Greenwich, England and the Monteverde Rainforest in Costa Rica.

Segovia in the story was modeled after a real person named Victor Segovia. Segovia believes that some of the buildings at Tulum were used to mark the appearance of the sun on certain days. He hypothesizes that the Maya could tell when the winter solstice occurred. The small temple that you see in this picture was built in the exact spot so that if you were sitting on the throne on the first day of winter, you would see that the sun if framed in the temple. In the video, CT and Segovia test this theory and find that it does make sense. It looks like the Maya were good astronomers.

In the expedition that follows this edisode, Ben, the character that plays the captain's grandson, travels to the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, England. There he visits with Dr. Stuart Malin and gets a lesson on how the earth rotates and learns about the different time zones around the world. Later, he stands on the prime meridian and observes his shadow. The curator of astronomy at Greenwich, Carol Stott, explains how Greenwich astronomers used the position of the sun in the sky to let the rest of the world know how to set their clocks. She lets Ben look through the big telescope.

This telescope is on the roof of the observatory and is equipped with special equipment to protect the eyes when observing the sun. Carole made adjustments on the telescope so that it was the right height for that day. The series of black lines on the telescope represented the prime meridian. At noon, the sun came into view on this telescope and was framed between the center lines.

The Components

• A Field Trip to the Rainforest

  This software introduces students to the diversity of life in a Central American rainforest. It includes an interactive Field Guide, information about seventy palnts and animals in the forest, and a Food Chainactivity to help students identify predator/prey relationships.

• Maya Math

  Students study the base twenty maya number system. In Maya Calculator, they explore the Maya and other number systems. In Maya Calendar they see how place value played a part in the Maya Calendar. In Glyph Trek students apply their knowledge of the Maya number system to find an ancient Maya city.

• Explore and Discover

  Explore and Discover software is contained on the laserdiscs and the CD ROMS. It allows students to explore in depth the many themes introduced in the Mimi adventures.

• A Field Trip into the Sky

  This is the newest addition to the Mimi software. This CD-ROM software allows students to experience the mysteries of space. The Sun and MoonLabs are interactive laboratories in which students explore the sun-earth-moon relationships. The Field Guide includes out of this world photography, NASA videos and animation. A multimedia encyclopedia, a visual database, and a challenging educational game are also included.

• Scuba Science

  Like the Whales and Their Environment component, Scuba Science uses the Bank Street Laboratory. It includes readings, activities and experiments using the micro-computer based lab to study the physics of pressure, temperature, sound and light. The Bank Street Laboratory consists of sensor probes, an interface box, and the computer to gather light, temperature and sound data.

Voyages of the Mimi | The First Voyage

Standards and Reform | Implementation | Research and Development | Critique | References