Fandom High School

"Good morning," Ghanima said as everyone arrived in the Danger Shop. "Today, we are going somewhere slightly warmer than last week."

"Rainforests are forests characterized by high rainfall, with definitions setting minimum normal annual rainfall between 1750–2000 mm. The monsoon trough, alternately known as the intertropical convergence zone, plays a significant role in creating Earth's tropical rain forests. 40 to 75% of all species on the world's habitats are indigenous to the rainforests. It has been estimated that many millions of species of plants, insects, and microorganisms are still undiscovered. Tropical rainforests have been called the "jewels of the Earth", and the "world's largest pharmacy", because over one quarter of natural medicines have been discovered there. Rainforests are also responsible for 28% of the world's oxygen turn over, often misunderstood as oxygen production, processing it through photosynthesis from carbon dioxide and storing it as carbon through biosequestration."

"A tropical rainforest is a biome found within 10 degrees north or south of the equator. They are common in Asia, Australia, Africa, South America, Central America, Mexico and on many of the Pacific Islands. Minimum normal annual rainfall between 1,750 millimetres and 2,000 millimetres occurs in this climate region. Mean monthly temperatures exceed 18 °C during all months of the year."

"The rainforests are home to more species or populations than all other biomes added together. 80% of the world's biodiversity are found in tropical rainforests. The leafy tops of tall trees - extending from 50 to 85 meters above the forest floor - forms an understory. Organic matter that falls to the forest floor quickly decomposes, and the nutrients are recycled."

"Tall, broad-leaved evergreen trees are the dominant plants, forming a leafy canopy over the forest floor. Taller trees, called emergents, may rise above the canopy. The upper portion of the canopy often supports a rich flora of epiphytes, including orchids, bromeliads, mosses, and lichens, who live attached to the branches of trees. The undergrowth or understory in a rain forest is often restricted by the lack of sunlight at ground level, and generally consists of shade-tolerant shrubs, herbs, ferns, small trees, and large woody vines which climb into the trees to capture sunlight. The relatively sparse under story vegetation makes it possible for people and other animals to walk through the forest. If the leaf canopy is destroyed or thinned, the ground beneath is soon colonized by a dense, tangled growth of vines, shrubs, and small trees called a jungle."

"Today you have two options. You can wander around the ground level, looking for medicinals and various creatures and plants, or you can climb the trees"

As per usual, Ghanima's classroom had ditched the standard desk set-up for divans, cushions, oversized chairs and other non-school-standard seating. Ghanima herself was sitting on her desk, absently eating lemon drops as she watched the students wander into the room. Once the last of them had arrived, her face lit up with a smile.

"Well now," she said, her voice carrying effortlessly. "Some of you look rather familiar!"

Ghanima was not sure if it was a mark of approval in her choice in subject matter, or if her students were simply masochists.

She was not ruling out either option.

"For those of you that are new, I am Lady Ghanima Atreides, and this is 'Keeping Your Advantage: Terrain & You.' If you have not had one of my classes before, you may call me Lady Ghanima, Miss Ghanima, or Miss Atreides, whichever you are more comfortable with. The first person to call me Lady Atreides gets detention," Ghanima announced, smiling. "Lady Atreides is my grandmother, and I will not answer to it."

"This is a class intended to give you a basic grounding in the varying types of terrain you may encounter." Ghanima hopped off her desk to take a seat on the floor with everyone else. "The simple fact that you are at this school is testimony to the fact that you never know where you may find yourself."

"From cityscapes to icebergs, each week we will look at a different type of terrian, and one thing you can do to make your life easier. Please be aware that there is no syllabus to this class, because I don't want you to have time to prepare for each scenario. Many times you will have to work with only the things you have on you during an emergency, and learning to keep your wits about you is important."

"First, however, I'd like you all to introduce yourselves. Name, rank, how long you've been at Fandom, and type of terrain you are most familiar with. If anyone is interested in a TA position, see me after class."

"You. Start."

Class today met in one of the classrooms, which Ghanima had converted to piles of pillows, blankets, squishy chairs, and low tables set with Fremen tea services (sans Spice), snacks, and photos from last week's trip.

"I'm interested to hear what you all thought about last week," she began, perched on the back of an overstuffed chair. "How do you feel you fit in with the terrain? What did you enjoy? What did you feel was your greatest advantage, and what was your weakness? How would you compensate for that next time you find yourself in a similar situation?"

"Terrain is far more than basic physical geography," Ghanima said once the class had arrived. "You also need to take into account local culture, whether or not you're in an urban setting. You never know when you're going to stumble across a local."

The danger shop shifted around them, becoming a giant costume shop. "Which means knowing how to dress the part. For our next class, we'll be going to the Field Museum. Today, I want you to try on a few different things until you find something to optimize your survival amidst dozens of tour groups while blending in seamlessly, and do some research about where we're going."

Really, Ghanima just wanted to go see the Haka exhibit, and taking the students along with was a good excuse.

When students arrived at the Danger Shop today, they wouldn't find a Ghanima. Or at least, not one they recognized immediately.

Instead, there was an utterly adorable lioness cub lounging against the door, one with familiar blue-on-blue eyes. And, if you were the imaginative sort, its rather toothy yawn might have looked as if it was laughing at you.

If you wanted, you could go in and cue up any of places you'd visited in the semester to explore again. Ghanima wasn't going to stop you. But she wasn't going to begrudge anyone a day off, either.

When students arrived in the Danger Shop today, they'd find it set up for rock climbing.

"Hello, students," Ghanima said briskly, a pile of handouts available on a bench beside her. "If I had known where your Fall Break was headed, we would have studied this sooner. Today, we study mountains and rock climbing."

"The important thing to remember about mountains is that each one is different, depending on the size and location," she said. "High mountains, and mountains located close to the Earth's poles, reach into the colder layers of the atmosphere. They are consequently subject to glaciation, and erosion through frost action, and such processes produce the peak shape for which mountains are known. Some of these mountains have glacial lakes, created by melting glaciers. Mountains can be eroded and weathered, altering their characteristics over time, so even if you've been to an area once, it may not be the same as before."

"Tall mountains have different climatic conditions at the top than at the base, and will thus have different life zones at different altitudes. The flora and fauna found in these zones tend to become isolated since the conditions above and below a particular zone will be inhospitable to those organisms. These isolated ecological systems are known as sky islands and/or microclimates."

"Mountains are also generally less preferable for human habitation than lowlands; the weather is often harsher, and there is little level ground suitable for agriculture. At very high altitudes, there is less oxygen in the air and less protection against solar radiation Acute mountain sickness, caused by hypoxia - a lack of oxygen in the blood, affects over half of lowlanders who spend more than a few hours above 3,500 meters, or 11,483 feet."

"Today, you'll be learning how to scale these majestic landmarks." Ghanima gestured to the gear and the walls. "There's easy, medium, hard, and expert trails here today, you just have to follow the color-coded tape paths. Or, you can try making your own goals. Race each other, work in teams, or get a feel for some of the unconventional maneuvers you might have do in order to move about a mountain."

"I just ask that you warm-up on the easy and medium trails first, no matter how advanced you think yourself. I don't want anyone getting hurt after surviving Skyrim."

The class had been handwavily instructed to meet in the Danger Shop today. Ghanima was not going to field-trip this one. "Welcome back," Ghanima said as the students entered the Danger Shop. She was standing beside two large trunks, and the room was blank, not yet assigned an environment. "Today, we're going a bit farther north than many of you, myself included, are accustomed to."

She pressed a button on the remote, and suddenly the students would find themselves surrounded by snow. "Welcome to the Arctic!" Ghanima said cheerfully, apparently unbothered by the sudden drop in climate.

( There are strange things done in the midnight sun / by the men who moil for gold; / The Arctic trails have their secret tales / That would make your blood run cold )

"Now get to work," she said, opening the second chest to distribute tools to the class before taking a knife for herself. She wasn't going to ask the students to do something that she was unwilling to attempt herself. "Feel free to work solo or in groups. I programmed the room so that we've got one hour to dark, and you don't want to be caught out without a place to sleep."

The students had been handwavily instructed to meet at the Causeway today, where a portal awaited. "Good morning," Ghanima said as everyone arrived. "Today, we are going somewhere slightly warmer than last week."

( At first I thought I was fighting to save rubber trees, then I thought I was fighting to save the Amazon rainforest. Now I realize I am fighting for humanity - Chico Mendes )

"Today we're exploring. Each level of the rainforest is home to different types of life, so we're starting here and going up the trees to see animals and plants."

Each of Ghanima's students had handwavily received a hand-written letter telling them to meet at the main campfire today - with a map, for the new students - and as people arrived, they'd find their teacher tranquilly sitting on a log, playing with a praying mantis that was climbing all over her fingers.

"Well now," she said, her voice carrying effortlessly as she set down her little friend. "Many new faces! How very exciting! And for those of you that I've seen before... welcome back."

Ghanima was not sure if it was a mark of approval in her choice in subject matter, or if her students were simply masochists. She was not ruling out either option.

"For those of you that are new, I am Lady Ghanima Atreides, and this is Keeping Your Advantage. If you have not had one of my classes before, you may call me Lady Ghanima, Miss Ghanima, or Miss Atreides, whichever you are more comfortable with. The first person to call me Lady Atreides gets detention," Ghanima announced, smiling. "Lady Atreides is my grandmother, and I will not answer to it."

"This is a class intended to give you a basic grounding in the varying types of terrain you may encounter, and how to survive it. The simple fact that you are at this school is testimony to the fact that you never know where you may find yourself."

"From cityscapes to icebergs, each week we will look at a different type of terrain, and one thing you can do to make your life easier. Please be aware that there is no syllabus to this class, because I don't want you to have time to prepare for each scenario. Many times you will have to work with only the things you have on you during an emergency, and learning to keep your wits about you is important."

"Today, we are going to start with the most basic skill you can have: making a fire, and some basic cooking skills. I'd like you to work as a group to get this fire started, and then we'll make some hot dogs, s'mores, baked potatoes, and grilled cheese."

The students had received hadwavey notice that class would meet in a classroom, instead of the Danger Shop. Ghanima didn't want to be around any more fancy technology today.

And if she was doing an internal head-count as her students arrived, well, she doubted anyone would blame her.

The classroom itself had been transformed; no desks, large pillows and blankets, and juice and hot tea on the one remaining table. Anyone who had taken any of Ghanima's classes before knew that this meant Movie Day.

"Sometimes, you find yourself in an unknown situation, forced to rely upon allies that you barely know," she began gently, as the last student arrived. "You can either resent this, or make the best of it. You won't always be the one who knows the terrain best, who is familiar with the environment, but you can always find someone who is."

"Watch the film, get some sleep, or go to the clinic if you have not already been checked out by a healer of some sort."

[OCD up.]

"Good morning," Ghanima said as everyone arrived in the Danger Shop. "Today, we are going somewhere slightly warmer than last week."

( At first I thought I was fighting to save rubber trees, then I thought I was fighting to save the Amazon rainforest. Now I realise I am fighting for humanity - Chico Mendes )

"Today you have two options. You can wander around the ground level, looking for medicinals and various creatures and plants, or you can climb the trees"


[OOC: OCD UP!]

Class met in the Danger Shop today, and when students arrived, they'd find themselves in a landscape that looked like something from a science fiction film. "Good morning, class," Ghanima said. "And welcome to Mount St. Helens."

"Mount St. Helens is is an active stratovolcano, most famous for its catastrophic eruption on May 18, 1980, at 8:32 am PDT which was the deadliest and most economically destructive volcanic event in the history of the United States," she stated. "Fifty-seven people were killed; 250 homes, 47 bridges, 15 miles of railways, and 185 miles of highway were destroyed. A massive debris avalanche caused an eruption, reducing the elevation of the mountain's summit from 9,677 ft to 8,365 ft and replacing it with a 1 mile wide horseshoe-shaped crater."

( This little planet may look like a single solid mass, but it’s really made up of several massive plates of earth and rock )

Today you have two options. You may explore the crater here for Mount St. Helens and ponder the destructive forces that destroyed half a mountain, or you can create your own miniature volcano to study the unpredictability of these geological giants."

[OOC: The OCD has exploded all over this post. Go to it.]

"Welcome to your last official class of the semester," Ghanima said as the students arrived. "Today, we're looking at a type of terrain that is near and dear to my heart: the desert."

( History is written on the sands of Arrakis )

"The sign-up sheet will be on the door of my office until next Monday." Another wave of her hand, and the worms vanished as she turned back to them. "Now go play, and no throwing snakes at each other."

[OCD up]

Today when the students arrived, the Danger Shop was already set to today's terrain. Students would see pristine beaches stretching for miles, with an island about a half-mile offshore.

"You may be wondering what sort of terrain you need to learn about with a beach," Ghanima began once everyone had arrived. "Rather than build sandcastles, however, today we'll be learning about scuba diving. Water covers most of this planet, so being able to move through it is an important ability."

( Nothing in the world is more flexible and yielding than water. Yet when it attacks the firm and the strong, none can withstand it, because they have no way to change it. So the flexible overcome the adamant, the yielding overcome the forceful. Everyone knows this, but no one can do it. )

She went on to explain how to suit up properly, as well as the mechanics of scuba diving. "Today we're looking at two ways you might need to use the ocean, and scuba, to achieve a goal," Ghanima continued. "There's three scenarios today, and you can choose just one, or all, if you have the time."

"So suit up, and enjoy the water."

[OCD is up, dive in!]

"Welcome back," Ghanima said as the students entered the Danger Shop. She was standing beside two large trunks, and the room was blank, not yet assigned an environment. "Today, we're going a bit farther north than many of you, myself included, are accustomed to."

She pressed a button on the remote, and suddenly the students would find themselves surrounded by snow and cold winds. "Welcome to the Arctic!" Ghanima said cheerfully.

( There are strange things done in the midnight sun / by the men who moil for gold; / The Arctic trails have their secret tales / That would make your blood run cold )

"Now get to work," she said, opening the second chest to distribute tools to the class before taking a knife for herself. She wasn't going to ask the students to do something that she was unwilling to attempt herself. "Feel free to work solo or in groups. I programmed the room so that we've got one hour to dark, and you don't want to be caught out without a place to sleep."


[OCD Up!]