Unit #2 Reflection - Prehistory + Early Humans

1. Describe how you prepared/studied for the unit test.
I started my studying by going through all the notes from this unit in my notebook, reviewing everything and highlighting things. After that, I reread my blog posts to help remember that content. I then used Ms. Moore's suggested method, which was writing out all the big ideas on one paper ("cheat sheet") and studying from that. I re wrote that paper twice. I briefly quizzed and was quizzed by my classmates before the test, but that didn't last long.
a) Do you think your studying strategies were effective? Why or why not?
I think that most of my strategies, especially going over and highlighting my notes in my notebook, was pretty effective. One thing that didn't really work was rewriting my big ideas again and again. I still had trouble remembering the big ideas during the test.
b) How will you prepare next time?
Next time I will do everything like this time, except I will study more and better about the big ideas. I won't rewrite the cheat sheet, I will just study harder and quiz myself on it.
2 What was the most surprising thing you learned about during this unit?
When I started learning about the Hobbits (see earlier blog post), I was pretty surprised. The Hobbits were small, lived quite recently, but early and primitive in terms of evolution. I always thought that evolution was a clear path, with each next human in time all a little more like us than the next. When I learned about the Hobbits, I realized that evolution wasn't a set path where everything gets more advanced and like us as time goes on.
3 If we had more time to spend on Prehistory + Early humans--what would you want to learn more about?
I would like to learn more about some of the more modern early humans, like the Cro-Magnons and Neanderthals. I was wandering the other day, what was the difference between the Cro-Magnons and some native tribes that lived in North America? They did live an extremely similar lifestyle, and I remember reading in the textbook that Cro-Magnons looked pretty much like us and they could be mistaken for a modern human if they were alive today. Other than the newer early humans, I am pretty satisfied about what we learned this unit.