Grade 8 March 30th, 2020 - Hemet Learns Togetherhemetlearnstogether.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/... · 03/03/2020 · March 30th, 2020 These and other resources are also available

Grade 8

March 30th, 2020

These and other resources are also available digitally on the

HemetLearnsTogether.org website.

If a student has a 504 plan or receives mild/mod SAI services, please refer to the

accommodations packet.

#HemetLearnsTogether

HUSD 8th Grade MATH Week of 3/30/20 Dear Parents, Guardians and Students- At HUSD the safety and education of our students is of highest importance in times like this. We are excited that during this time of being off of school that you are continuing to trust us in your child’s education. We are happy to provide resources during this time including this packet of elected work in math that your child can practice and sharpen previous learned skills that will have a lasting impact on their education. Each week you will be provided with the optional packet of work to complete in your free time at home. Continue to check hemetusd.org so that you can be provided with the most up to date information. These tasks should not be worked on longer than 20 minutes each seating. It is okay for your son or daughter to skip a few questions if needed. #HemetLearnsTogether

~HUSD Instructional Support Math Team

Games to Play at home: ● Checkers● Chess● Double Solitaire● Dominoes● Uno

Skills to Practice Daily at Home: ❏ Addition and subtraction integers❏ Finding the area of a rectangle and

triangle

HemetLearnsTogether.org

Topics Covered in this week’s

work:

Things to Create or Try at Home: Mancala Game Supplies Needed:

● Empty old egg carton● 24 beads, beans, small rocks

Here is a How to make a mancala board out of egg cartons.

1. Cut the lid off of an egg carton.2. Cut the lid in half and glue the two ends to the bottom of the egg carton

bottom so that there is a larger receptacle at both ends of the egg carton.Paint the mancala game (optional).

How to play Mancala:

1. The game begins with one player picking up all of the pieces in any one of theholes on their side. Moving counter-clockwise, the player deposits one of the stones in each hole until the stones run out.

2. If you run into your own store, deposit one piece in it. If the last piece you dropis in your own store or opponents store you get a free turn.

3. If the last piece you drop is in an empty hole on your side, you capture thatpiece and any pieces in the hole directly opposite.

4. The game ends when all six spaces on one side of the Mancala board are empty.

❏ Using a graph tolook at a pattern

❏ Working withnumbers byfollowing a step ofaction steps

❏ ProficiencyChallenge (answersnext week!)

Family Challenge: Share with your family tonight the answer to this question. ● What is one thing

that you learned inmath today?

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8th Grade English Language Arts March 30th, 2020

Summarizing and paraphrasing are skills that can help you understand literary and informational texts. While both skills involve using your own words to restate information, they differ in certain ways.

Summarizing is briefly retelling only the main ideas of a piece of writing in your own words. A summary will be shorter than the original work because it leaves out minor details. You can summarize a sentence, a paragraph, a chapter, or even an entire book. Most summaries are objective—they contain only the information and ideas presented in the writing, not your own opinions about the information and ideas. To summarize a long passage, you must identify key ideas in each paragraph and synthesize those ideas, or put them together, into a few sentences.

Paraphrasing is restating information in your own words. A paraphrase can help you understand challenging sentences and ideas. Unlike a summary, a paraphrase does not try to shorten a piece of writing by synthesizing main ideas; it is often about the same length as the original text. Paraphrasing is useful for a sentence or a short passage but not for longer works such as a chapter or a whole book. Paraphrasing is always objective: you restate only information in the original without adding opinions or analysis. To paraphrase a selection, retell each sentence in your own words.

Here is an example of how a summary differs from a paraphrase. Read this sentence:

As she drifted lazily down the river, she thought about her classes and how the homework, due dates, and pressure to make A’s kept her from enjoying even the simple pleasures of a warm spring breeze, a delicious meal, or her friends’ jokes.

A summary of the sentence might read:

She thought about school as she drifted down the river and realized it kept her from enjoying simple things.

A paraphrase of the sentence might read:

Her thoughts about school as she floated slowly down the river led her to realize that academic worries kept her from enjoying simple things like a nice breeze, a good meal, or joking with friends.

Note that the paraphrase is about the same length as the original sentence.

Summarizing and ParaphrasingELA RL.8.2, RI.8.2, W.8.8, ELD PI.8.10b

Copyright © by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company

California Standards Support and Enrichment 1 Summarizing and Paraphrasing

Summarizing and Paraphrasing continued

Summarizing and Paraphrasing Read the following excerpt from a biography of the African-American writer Langston Hughes. Think about the writer’s main ideas. Then notice how one student highlighted and wrote notes about key ideas and then used those notes to answer the questions that follow the excerpt.

from Langston Hughes: A BiographyAccording to a popular story, Langston Hughes first tasted

fame when he was twenty-three years old. When the poet Vachel Lindsay came to dine at the Wardman Park Hotel in Washington D.C. where Hughes was working as a busboy, Hughes left three poems by Lindsay’s plate. Lindsay was so impressed by the poems that he presented them that night at a reading, saying that he had discovered a true poet, a young man who was working as a busboy in a nearby restaurant. For the next few days, newspapers up and down the East Coast ran articles acclaiming the “busboy poet.”

That story is a good one, but it’s a little misleading. Hughes was not an overnight success. He had already put in a long apprenticeship as a writer. He had written his first poem when he was in eighth grade and was first published in his high school literary magazine. Hughes also read a great deal of poetry, especially the works of Edgar Lee Masters, Vachel Lindsay, Amy Lowell, Carl Sandburg, Walt Whitman. Whitman and Sandburg had a strong influence on Hughes because they celebrated the humanity of all people regardless of age, gender, race, or class. Hughes had already seen many of his own poems published in journals and magazines. What’s more, a book of his poetry, The Weary Blues, was soon to be published by a famous New York publisher.

1. Write a two-sentence summary of the diary entry.

There is a famous story that Langston Hughes was discovered by the poet Vachel Lindsay. In truth, Hughes was already a fairly accomplished writer.

2. Write a paraphrase of the following sentence: “The story is a good one, butit’s a little misleading”.

The story is amusing, but it is not entirely true.

According to the story, Hughes got attention thanks to Lindsay.

Hughes had accomplished much as a young man.

Maybe this story is not really true.



Summarizing and Paraphrasing continued

Practice and Apply Read the following excerpt from a short story, identifying key ideas as you read. Then answer the questions that follow the excerpt.

from “The Tell-Tale Heart”by Edgar Allan Poe

“The Tell-Tale Heart” presents the thoughts of perhaps the most famous unreliable narrator in literature. He tells the story of a murder he committed and attempts to convince readers that he is not insane, or mad.

It is impossible to say how first the idea entered my brain; but once conceived, it haunted me day and night. Object there was none. Passion there was none. I loved the old man. He had never wronged me. He had never given me insult. For his gold I had no desire. I think it was his eye! yes, it was this! He had the eye of a vulture—a pale blue eye, with a film over it. Whenever it fell upon me, my blood ran cold; and so by degrees—very gradually—I made up my mind to take the life of the old man, and thus rid myself of the eye forever.

Now this is the point. You fancy me mad. Madmen know nothing. But you should have seen me. You should have seen how wisely I proceeded— with what caution—with what foresight—with what dissimulation1 I went to work!

1. dissimulation (di-sim’yS-la’shSn): a hiding of one’s true feelings.

Questions1. Write an objective summary of the passage by identifying key ideas and

synthesizing them in one or two sentences.

2. Write a paraphrase of this sentence from the passage: “Whenever it fell uponme, my blood ran cold; and so by degrees—very gradually—I made up mymind to take the life of the old man, and thus rid myself of the eye forever.”



8th Grade History

March 30, 2020

These and other resources are also available digitally on the Hemetlearnstogether.org website.

STANFORD HISTORY EDUCATION GROUP sheg.stanford.edu

Central Historical Question: How were Native Americans in Alta California treated under the mission

system?

Materials:

• Timeline• Images A & B• California Missions and Native Americans PowerPoint• Visual Analysis Questions• Documents A-D• Graphic Orgnizer

Instructions

1. Introduction: Use the California Missions and Native Americans PowerPointhandouts to learn what is your Central Historical Question, and to learn the background information, and conduct the visual analysis.Slide 2: Central Historical Question. Today we are going to look at variousdocuments and answer this question: How were Native Americans in Alta Californiatreated under the mission system?Slide 3: Timeline. Get out timeline read the timelineand answer the following questions (displayed on slide 3):i. When does the timeline begin?ii. When does it end?iii. When was the first mission founded?iv. When did the mission system come to an end?v. What happened to the Native American population between 1760 and1845?

Slides 4 & 5: Visual Inquiry. Now you are going to begin by looking at two images to consider the Central Historical Question. Get out Visual Analysis Questions and Images A & B.

• Use the California Missions and Native Americans PowerPoint handoutsto examine Image A for your visual analysis questions.

8th grade History - March 30, 2020

California Missions and Native Americans

California MissionsIn this lesson, students practice sourcing to better understand Spanish treatment of Native Americans in Alta California under the mission system.

Students first examine two 19th-century paintings and consider how the source and context influenced their depiction of life in the missions. Then, students read through an excerpt from a book written by an American novelist, a newspaper letter written by a Scottish-born citizen of Mexico, the account of a French naval officer, and an excerpt from a interview with a Native American born at the San Luis Rey mission to further investigate Spanish treatment of Native Americans under the mission system.


• Key points: You will note that it is unlikely that Weatherbee actually saw thisscene firsthand given that she created the painting decades after themissions had closed and that she had lived in Massachusetts previously. Youshould also note that General Vallejo’s background as a military andgovernment official of the Republic of Mexico might have influenced the wayhe wanted to depict California history in the book he hoped to write. Thismight have led Weatherbee to create a more positive depiction of life in themission in Sonoma.

• Examine Image B for the visual inquiry questions.• You will note that Choris visited missions as part of his expedition. Also, note

the brutal conditions depicted (e.g., Native Americans in chains, a whip beingraised over Native Americans). See the striking contrast between the twodepictions of the missions. Weatherbee’s painting makes life in the missionseem pleasant, while Choris depicts brutality in the San Francisco Presidio.

2. Document Inquiry: Round One. You are now going to explore two accounts of howNative Americans were treated on missions. Get out Documents A and B and theGraphic Organizer.

• Document A:i. Source the document and complete the corresponding boxes on the

Graphic Organizer before you read it.ii. Then read the document and complete the Close Reading section of

the Graphic Organizer.

• Document B: Repeat the same steps for Document B.

• Compare, Contrast, and Evaluate:i. Compare and contrast the documents through completing the Graphic

Organizer.ii. Complete the final component of the Graphic Organizer to consider

whether the documents provide strong evidence of how NativeAmericans were treated under the mission system.

3. Document Inquiry: Round Two. Take out Documents C & D. Repeat the sameprocess for these two documents.

4. Final Reflections.• How were Native Americans treated under the mission system?• How are the images and documents we explored in this investigation similar

and different?• How reliable are the images and documents as sources of evidence of how

Native Americans were treated under the mission system?


• Which of the documents would you use if writing a history of the MissionSystem? Which would you discard? Why?

Sources

Image A: Mission San Francisco Solano de Sonoma, by Oriana Weatherbee Day, 1877-1884. Retrieved from http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/ca1118.photos.010699p/

Color image available from https://art.famsf.org/oriana-weatherbee-day/mission-san-francisco-solano-de-sonoma-37573

Image B: “Vue du Presidio de San Francisco,” painted by Louis Choris. ca. 1815. Retrieved from https://www.loc.gov/item/ca0865/

Color image available from https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/13030/tf5n39p23g/

Document A: Jackson, H. H. (1903). Glimpses of California and the Missions. Little, Brown, pp. 35, 54-56. Retrieved from: https://www.loc.gov/item/02012719/

Document B: Reid, H. (1968). The Indians of Los Angeles County: Hugo Reid's Letters of 1852 (No. 21). Southwest Museum, pp. 80, 85, 88). Retrieved from https://www.loc.gov/item/68008964/

Document C: de La Pérouse, J. F., Margolin, M., & Yamane, L. G. (1989). Life in a California Mission: Monterey in 1786; the Journals. Heyday Books. Retrieved from http://international.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/h?intldl/mtfront:@OR(@field(NUMBER+@band(mtfxtx+g335917844a)))

Document D: César, J. (1878). Recollections of my Youth at San Luis Rey Mission. Spanish Borderlands Sourcebook: Native American Perspectives on the Hispanic Colonization of Alta California, ed. Edward D. Castillo (New York: Garland, 1991).

California Missions and Native Americans

Central Historical QuestionHow were Native Americans

in Alta California treated under the mission system?

3

Timeline Questions

• When does the timeline begin?

• When does it end?

• When was the first mission founded?

• When did the mission system come to an

end?

• What happened to the Native American

population between 1760 and 1845?

4

Image A

Oriana Weatherbee, Mission Solano de Sonoma, 1884

5

Image B

Louis Choris, San Francisco Presidio, 1816


Timeline: California Missions and Native Americans

1760 – Population of Native Americans in California was approximately 300,000.

1769 – Junipero Serra founded Mission San Diego, the first of 21 Spanish missions built in California.

1771 – In one of the first acts of resistance by Native Californians against the mission system, Tongva leaders attacked the San Gabriel Mission in response to Spanish soldiers’ violence against Tongva women.

1821 – Mexico gained independence from Spain. California became part of Mexico.

1823 – The final mission to convert Native Americans was established in Sonoma.

1834 – Mission lands were given to private families.

1845 – California missions were sold at public auction.

1845 – Native American population in California was approximately 150,000.


Image A: Mission Solano de Sonoma, 1884

Oriana Weatherbee, an artist who moved from Massachusetts to California in 1877, made this painting of the Mission Solano de Sonoma in 1884. Between 1867 and 1884 she painted all 21 of the California missions. The paintings were commissioned by Dr. Platon Vallejo, son of General Mariano Vallejo, who served as a military commander while California was part of Mexico. During his time as a commander, he crushed several Native Californian revolts. Mariano Vallejo lost most of his land to Americans after California was annexed by the United States. The Vallejos planned to use Weatherbee’s paintings to illustrate a book they were writing about the history of California, but the book was never finished.


Image B: San Francisco Presidio, 1816

This painting was created by Louis Choris in 1816. Choris was a German-Ukrainian artist who traveled to Northern California as part of a Russian expedition in 1816. He made several drawings and paintings of the expedition.


Visual Analysis Questions

Image A A) Observation Questions

What do you notice about the people in this image?

What do you notice about the setting?

What do you notice about what the people are wearing?

What do you notice about what the people are doing?

B) Inference QuestionsWho do you think the people are in this image? Cite evidence from the image to support youranswer.

What do you think the people are doing? Cite evidence from the image to support your answer.


C) Source Analysis QuestionsWho made this painting?

When was it made?

Is it likely that the artist saw this scene firsthand? Explain.

Why was it made it?

How might the reason for its creation have influenced its content?

What impression do you think the artist wanted to present about California missions?

What details from the image provide evidence to support your answer?

How strong is this image as evidence of how Native Americans were treated under the mission system?


Visual Analysis Questions

Image B A) Observation Questions

What do you notice about the people in this image?

What do you notice about the setting?

What do you notice about what the people are wearing?

What do you notice about what the people are doing?

B) Inference QuestionsWho do you think the people are in this image? Cite evidence from the image to support youranswer.

What do you think the people are doing? Cite evidence from the image to support your answer.


C) Source Analysis QuestionsWho made this painting?

When was it made?

Could the artist have seen the scene in the image firsthand? Explain

What impression do you think the artist wanted to present about California missions?

What details from the image provide evidence to support your answer?

D) Compare/ContrastHow is this image similar to Image A?

How is this image different from Image A?

How strong is this image as evidence of how Native Americans were treated by the Spanish under the mission system in Alta California?


Document A: Helen Hunt Jackson (Modified)

Helen Hunt Jackson was a novelist who wrote about California Native Americans in the 1880s. In one of her books, she wrote a positive description of life in the missions. She did this, in part, to contrast the early mission period of California to the brutal treatment of Native Americans in the decades after California became part of the United States. Below is an excerpt from the book.

There was little active hostility on the part of the savage tribes. They looked kindly to the ways and restraints of the new life. This is the strongest possible proof that the methods of the friars in dealing with them must have been wise and humane. . . .

The rule of the friars was in the main kind. . . . No doubt there were individual instances of cruelty. . . . absolute control of hundreds of human beings could not exist without some abuse. But the Indians were, on the whole, well treated and cared for. The fact that so many thousands of them chose to remain in the missions is proof. . . .

The picture of life in one of these missions during their period of prosperity is attractive. The whole place was a hive of industry: work indoors and outdoors; planters, herders, children in schools; women spinning; bands of young men practicing on musical instruments; at evening, all sorts of games of running, leaping, dancing, and ball-throwing.

Vocabulary hostility: unfriendliness or opposition restrain: to keep under control friar: similar to a priest, a leader in the Catholic church humane: kind and gentle

Source: Helen Hunt Jackson, Glimpses of California and the Missions, 1883.


Document B: Hugo Reid (Modified)

Hugo Reid was a Scottish-born citizen of Mexico who lived in Los Angeles in the 1830s. Reid was married to a Native American woman of the Tongva tribe named Victoria. He wrote a series of newspaper letters describing the Tongva people. Below is an excerpt from one of the letters about living conditions in the San Gabriel Mission.

Indians of course deserted. Who would not have deserted? Those who did had hard times of it. If they went to other missions, they were picked up immediately, flogged and put in irons until they were returned to undergo other flagellations. . . .

The Padre was both severe and cruel in his punishments. I know of acts of barbarity from trustworthy people. The Padre must have considered whipping like food for the Indians, for they had it morning, noon, and night. Although so severe to the Indians, he was kind in the extreme to other visitors. There being so much beef, mutton, pork, and poultry, with fruits, vegetables, and wines that a splendid public table was spread daily, which he hosted.

Vocabulary

desert: to leave or run out on flogged: beat someone with a whip or a stick flagellations: whippings barbarity: cruelty

Source: Hugo Reid, The Indians of Los Angeles County, 1852.


Document C: Jean Francois de La Perouse (Modified)

Jean Francois de La Perouse was a French naval officer and an explorer. He visited missions in Northern California in 1786 while on a worldwide scientific expedition. Below is an excerpt from his journal about the mission at Monterey Bay.

Everything reminded us of a West Indian slave colony. The men and women are lined up by the sound of the bell, one of the religious (Spanish Friars) conducts them to their work, to church, and to all other exercises. We mention it with pain, the resemblance to a slave colony is so perfect, that we saw men and women loaded with irons, others in the stocks; and at length the noise of the strokes of a whip struck our ears.

Vocabulary

exercises: activities resemblance: looking alike, similarity stocks: devices used to physically constrain and punish

Source: Jean Francois de La Perouse, Life in California Mission: The Journals of Jean Francois de la Perouse, 1786.


Document D: Julio Cesar (Modified)

Julio Cesar was a Native American born at the San Luis Rey Mission in 1824. In 1878, historian Hubert Howe Bancroft interviewed Cesar about his life on the mission, which was later made into a book. Below is an excerpt from the interview.

When I was a boy the treatment given to the Indians at the mission was not at all good. They did not pay us anything, but merely gave us food and a breechclout and blanket, which was renewed once a year. They flogged us for any fault, however slight. We were at the mercy of the administrator, who ordered us to be flogged whenever and however he wanted.

Vocabulary

breechclout: shorts slight: small or insignificant administrator: person in charge of running something

Source: Julio Cesar, Recollections of My Youth at San Luis Rey Mission: The Memories of a full-blooded Indian, of affairs and events witnessed at one of California’s most famous “cathedrals of the sun,” translated by Nellie Van De Grift Sanchez, 1878.


Round One Organizer Source:

Who made this document? When was it created?

Close Reading: According to this document, how were Native Americans treated on California missions?

Document A

Document B

Compare/Contrast: In what ways are these documents similar and different?

Similarities Differences

How reliable do you think these documents are as evidence of how Native Americans were treated under the mission system? Explain your answer.


Round Two Organizer Source:

Who made this document? When was it created?

Close Reading: According to this document, how were Native Americans treated on California missions?

Document C

Document D

Compare/Contrast: In what ways are these documents similar and different? Similarities Differences

How reliable do you think these documents are as evidence of how Native Americans were treated under the mission system? Explain your answer.

8th Grade Integrated Science: Collisions Week 03/30/20 Reading:

● Annotate the article: Some teams add extra padding to football helmets to make them safer.

○ Underline important ideas ○ Circle important words ○ Write a “?” next to something you want to know more about

Activity: ● Using items from around the house (cotton balls, egg crates, paper towels, etc) create a

helmet that would protect an egg from cracking or breaking when dropped from a certain height. Egg Helmet Design.

Writing:

● Read the article New helmet hopes to better protect NFL players from concussions. Write a short story about life on this exoplanet.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1-haOIvTcWfMGZMLLHFpySlbVEjVuvZuN

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1-haOIvTcWfMGZMLLHFpySlbVEjVuvZuN

https://drive.google.com/open?id=18pF5Lq74lSAG9AA96ED6u8YmWIE-2nVNbM9X7f3na0g

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1rtUr5M9D1Nf2gD86o6jJn1yo1OZh41ow

Egg Helmet Design

Design a helmet built from household items (cotton balls, paper towels, rubberbands, toothpicks, straws, etc.) that could protect an egg from a 4 foot drop. Sketch and label two helmet brainstorms in the boxes below:

Brainstorm #1 Brainstorm #2

Brainstorm # 1

1. How will this design protect the egg?

2. Why did you choose these items for this design? Brainstorm #2

1. How will this design protect the egg?

2. Why did you choose these items for this design? How are Brainstorms 1 & 2 similar? How are they different? Which design do you feel is the best? Explain.

Egg Helmet Design

Optional Prototype Activity:

1. Construct your helmet prototype based on your chosen design. 2. Drop your egg w/ helmet from various distances from the ground, until it cracks/breaks. 3. Record your data in the prototype observations column.

Distance from Ground

(ft)

Prototype Observations

Improved Prototype Observations

1

2

3

4

5

How successful was your design/prototype? Explain. Based on your data, improve upon your design. Sketch and label your improved design below.

Repeat the procedure above and record your data in the improved prototype column. What did you change on your improved prototype? Why did you make these changes?

This article is available at 5 reading levels at https://newsela.com.

Some teams add extra padding to footballhelmets to make them safer

The Wesleyan School football team in Norcross, Ga., at practice wearing Guardian helmet caps to minimize the impact of head collisions onthe field. Caitlin Hanson, Guardian Caps

CHICAGO — The National Football League on Sept. 5 settled a lawsuit accusing it of not doing

enough to prevent brain injuries. But there is still much confusion over those injuries, known as

concussions. To get an idea, consider the Guardian.

It’s a padded fabric shell that is strapped around the outside of a football helmet to reduce the

impact of collisions. It has been on the market for two years, and while it doesn’t promise to

prevent concussions, Elmhurst College players who wear the shell during practice say it has made

a big difference.

“It gets rid of those little small hits you get in practice that kind of turn your eyes green a little bit,”

said defensive end Nick Spracklen, 20. “It keeps your head fresh, keeps those headaches away. You

leave practice without a headache, your whole day is better.”

Head over to nearby Addison Trail High School, though, and you’ll get a different story.

By Chicago Tribune, adapted by Newsela staff on 09.11.13Word Count 968Level 1180L

https://www.newsela.com/?tag=concussions


Experts Split Over Add-On Helmet Pads

The school recently looked into buying the shells for its players. But when the company that makes

Addison Trail’s football helmets declined to give its blessing, school officials dropped the idea.

They feared that using the Guardian could void the helmet-maker's warranty and expose the

school district to a lawsuit.

As football season begins, safety questions that have hung over the sport for years remain

unresolved. Scientists, companies and lawyers continue to argue over the best way to protect

players from head injuries.

Much of the wrangling is now focused on the helmet. The former players who settled with the NFL

are still suing Riddell, maker of the league’s official helmet, claiming the company sold an unsafe

product.

Into this storm have stepped a few small companies that sell add-on helmet pads, saying they’re a

way to increase protection. So far independent experts are split: Some believe that extra padding

makes sense and others say stricter testing is needed.

“If a company wants to innovate, more power to them,” said Mike Oliver of the National Operating

Committee on Standards for Athletic Equipment, or NOCSAE. “But prove to me, prove to the

scientific community, that your product does what you say it does.”

How To Calculate Concussion Odds?

For years, football helmets have had to meet a simple standard. Companies strap one to a dummy

head equipped with sensors and slam it into a post at varying speeds. If the impacts produce

values beneath 1200 GSI — a level that equates to a small chance of sustaining a fractured skull —

the helmet passes.

While the test is a good predictor of a helmet’s power to prevent catastrophic damage to the head,

it doesn’t say much about the probability of getting a concussion. No one has figured out how to

calculate those odds, a reflection of the injury’s complexity and the many factors that might be

involved, including genetics and prior blows to the head.

The uncertainty has created an opportunity for companies that say they have found new ways to

give athletes better protection.

The Guardian is made by Georgia-based POC Ventures. Lee Hanson, inventor of the Guardian,

said the company’s testing has shown that it reduces the impact of a hit by 33 percent. And

because it is attached to the helmet by straps, he said, it floats slightly during a collision. This

blunts the rotational forces many scientists believe contribute to the severity of a concussion.

Like other makers of add-on pads, Hanson is careful to say that the Guardian can’t prevent

concussions. More research on his product is underway, but in the meantime, he said, “common

sense” dictates that more padding will help players.

Theory Behind Add-On Pads Called Sound

Rob Vito is taking a different approach. His Pennsylvania-based company, Unequal Technologies,

sells Kevlar-fortified pads meant to be added to a helmet’s inner cushioning, which he derides as


“couch foam.” He said his products act like a trampoline: It disperses the energy of a blow across a

wide surface area and reduces the severity of the impact.

“The smart minds are saying if you can lower the energy levels to the head, that’s a good thing,” he

said.

John Thorne, coach of the football team at North Central College in Naperville, said some of his

players started using the Unequal pads this year, but it’s too soon to gauge their effectiveness.

“I’ve been coaching football for 45 years, and I’m always looking for a way to make the game

safer,” he said. “Concussions are a big issue now so we’re hoping this is a good technology. It

seems to make some sense.”

Steven Rowson, a Virginia Tech biomedical engineer who has helped to develop a safety rating

system for football helmets, said the theory behind the new products is sound.

“In general, adding padding is going to reduce acceleration to the head,” he said. “When you

reduce acceleration to the head, you’re going to reduce the risk of concussion.”

Helmet Makers Don't Want Add-Ons Attached

Theory, though, isn’t good enough for NOCSAE, which in early August said that manufacturers

can void their helmets’ safety certification if another product is attached. Some, including Riddell

and Schutt, have said they will do just that.

Schutt spokesman Glenn Beckmann said his company can’t accept liability for a helmet that is

altered.

Hanson said several hundred teams use his product, and he was confident most will want to

continue. Elmhurst College is one of them.

Coach Joe Adam said he planned to keep Guardians on his players’ helmets unless school officials

tell him to stop. He said the shells have proven their worth.

“I can just go by results,” he said. “In 21 practices, we’ve had one concussion. I would think that’s

on the lower side for teams in our area.”


New helmet hopes to better protect NFLplayers from concussions

Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson (3) runs by a Green Bay Packers defender during the first half of an NFL football game onSeptember 10, 2017, in Green Bay, Wisconsin. Photo by: AP Photo/Jeffrey Phelps

An important newcomer got a start in football during the NFL's opening week. It could be seen as

Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Alex Smith led his team to win in their game against the New

England Patriots. It was there as Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson battled against the

Green Bay Packers and as Dallas Cowboys running back Alfred Morris played on Sunday night.

All three players were wearing a new high-tech helmet, available for the first time this season. NFL

officials hope the helmet provides a show of how technology and improvements could help make

the game safer.

Smith, Wilson and Morris were among 70 or so players who wore the VICIS Zero1 helmet. The

product of a start-up company in Seattle, Washington, it might look like the traditional football

helmet from afar. However, it has a completely different design just beneath its outside shell.

The helmet incorporates engineering principles more commonly seen in building cars. The outer

shell is softer and more bendable, made from flexible plastic. Beneath it is a layer of more than

By Washington Post, adapted by Newsela staff on 09.18.17Word Count 697Level 1070L


500 small columns, each measuring an inch or so long, which absorb force and also twist and

move sideways. The construction reduces the force of rotational acceleration, a major cause of

concussions. These head injuries caused by hits to the head have been a concern as retired players

suffer health problems from their years of playing football. Many have shown the effects of brain

injury.

Not All NFL Players Chose The VICIS Zero1

"Think of the current helmets like old cars, all made of steel," said Dave Marver, the VICIS chief

executive officer. "They get in a collision, and they're rigid. The passenger continues to move

forward. Today's cars, though, have bumpers that crumple, that slow acceleration before they

reach the passenger compartment."

The VICIS Zero1 was the top-performing helmet in the NFL's Helmet Laboratory Testing

Performance Results. It fared better than 32 others when tested for hits to the head. Though not

yet available for youth or high school players, it's being used this season for the first time on NFL

and college fields.

Professional players have the option of wearing the helmet of their choice from a list of those

approved by the NFL. There's a poster that hangs in every NFL facility showing that VICIS

finished first in the independent testing.

While nearly all of the NFL clubs have VICIS helmets available to them, players from only about

half the teams wore the new helmet during their Week 1 games. Teams like Seattle, Houston and

Kansas City each had a handful of players take the field in the Zero1. Other teams, like

Washington, D.C.'s football team, didn't have any. The helmet is also being used this season by

players on 20 or so college teams. Some are Alabama, Notre Dame, Florida State and Texas A&M.

Military Helmets Could Be Next

Like other manufacturers, VICIS is careful not to make any claims that its helmet prevents

concussions. Instead, the company says the product's design reduces the severity of hits to the

head in collisions.

"We will have players in the Zero1 get a concussion, almost certainly," Marver said. "We're hopeful

the likelihood is lower, though, because we're reducing those impact forces."

Marver's company has already started studying other possible uses. Marver was in Washington,

D.C., last week for meetings with government leaders. The company has been working on designs

of a military combat helmet that uses many of the same engineering principles as its football

helmet. Marver was meeting with lawmakers to discuss the possibilities.

The current version of the company's football helmet sells for $1,500. That's six times more than

competitors that also performed well in the NFL's tests. VICIS plans to eventually make versions

of the helmet more accessible at lower prices. Marver says he hopes to test the helmet with

younger and lighter football players in 2018 and then start selling in 2019.

"Look, we were founded in part by a pediatric neurosurgeon. We didn't get into this to help 2,000

pro players, even though we want to do that," he said. "We want to help 4 million kids. That's what

motivates us."

Not all NFL players have chosen to use the new VICIS Zero 1 helmet, but it has been made available to them if they would like to use it. Should the NFL require that all players use the VICIS Zero 1 helmet? Should it be required in colleges, high schools, and children's leagues as well? Please explain your answer.