SCHOOLPORTRAIT DIAPOLITISMIKO GYMNASIO THESSALONIKIS
Identification
The
Intercultural Gymnasium of Thessaloniki
is located in
the
capital of
Thessaloniki was the second most important city of the Byzantine Empire, next to
Today
A BRIEF INTRODUCTION OF THE SCHOOL
The Diapolitismiko Gymnasio Thessalonikis (Thessaloniki Intercultural High School) was founded in 1985 for
the children of emigrants returning to Greece from Germany, the United States and Canada.
Its original name was
the High School for Expatriate Greek Children (Gymnasio Apodimon Ellinopaidon).
Early in the next decade, following the mass influx into Greece of refugees from
the countries of the former Soviet Union, the profile of the school began to change. Although many of these
children were of Greek descent, their first Language was Russian rather than Greek.
Since then the school has continued to receive children from the former Soviet republics, children of immigrants, economic
refugees from Albania, China, Romania, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Poland, Uzbekistan, Serbia, Palestine, Lebanon and political
refugees from Somalia, Nigeria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, St. Domenicus, Tibet, with none knowledge of the Greek language.
The Greek Embassy or Consulate places entrants in one of the school’s three grades, according to the level
they have completed in their country of origin.
Each grade has a beginner’s section, for children with no Greek at all. Children in these sections are given
14 hours a week instruction in Greek as a second language, taught from suitable textbooks, in place of the Ancient Greek
and Literature classes prescribed by the regular curriculum.
For all other subjects, all children, whichever language section they are in, follow the regular
programme prescribed for Greek schools. Bilingual teachers give some instructions in the children’s native tongue.
ACTIVITIES
Since the year of its foundation, our school has participated in many different activities.
Some of the most important are the following:
For several years, the two schools exchanged visits.
A commemorative celebration for our school’s 20th anniversary in the Pylaia
The school has one computer classroom with fifteen computers, connected to a network and the necessary peripheral equipment.
To teaching maths the teachers use a variety math commercial software that the Greek Pedagogical institute has bought the licenses and translate them in to Greek language, Cabri , Geometry. Sketchpad, Function Probe, Modelus and recently the open source software Geogebra
Collaborate and exchange teaching experiences on the web in on-line educational project based on Cabri java applets with high school teachers from Belgium and Italy, Sint-Donatusinstituut Merchtem Belgium, Flanders (Ivan de Winne) and Cesare Vivante Bari Italy,(Palmira Ronchi).Subject: From Greek Geometry to ICT: a Virtual School project
Three construction problems by the early Greek mathematicians attained the status of classical problems in mathematics:
• Angle trisection
Construct an angle that equals one third of a given angle
• Doubling of a cube
Construct a cube whose volume is double the volume of a given cube
• Squaring a circle
Construct a square whose area equals the area of a circle
These three famous geometrical construction problems were very influential in the development of geometry.
They occupied many mathematicians until modern times.Very often another problem is attached to this list;
• Construction of a regular heptagon
Construct a polygon with 7 sides. These problems are legendary not
because they have no solutions or because the solutions are extremely hard to find.
The Greek mathematicians imposed themselves some important conditions for the valid solutions
to the construction problems. The only available tools are a straightedge and a compass (and of course a pencil)
Crop circles (in French : les agroglyphes, in German : Kornkreise) are geometric, non-geometric or random figures in crops or vegetation. They appear in the form of one simple circle, multiple circles or more extensive and complicated patterns. The dimensions of crop circles differ too. Simple circles can have a diameter of just a few metres but the more complicated patterns can be as big as several football fields. These figures are most commonly witnessed in the South of England, in areas close to old places of worship like Stonehenge or Avebury.
Many patterns of crop circles show such an intriguing structure that they are simply waiting to be discovered. The purpose of this article is not to find out how crop circles are being made. The internet offers a lot of information (but unfortunately also a lot of nonsense) on this subject. Theories about the origin of the circles differ : some see them as messages of aliens, others think they are produced by well organised circle makers (hoaxes), still others think they are the result of exceptional weather conditions.
This article concentrates on the mathematical patterns that are hidden behind the crop circle structures and wants to support the willingness to discover the underlying mathematical patterns that enhance the fascination for the artistic beauty of the patterns.
“Construction with compass and ruler” seems to be a particularly efficient tool for these reconstructions but modern geometry software offers us precision, unknown before. One thing cannot be denied : the makers of crop circles must have a sound knowledge of geometry.
More on http://users.sch.gr/dkastani/encrop.html
