Reference packet

🧪 Lab · Return to the Activity

This required packet helps you choose a reference; it is not a worksheet to submit. Open a source before relying on it. You may start with either selection below or apply the same selection questions to your own learning goal.

These selections reuse the sources and bounded claims in the existing Curiosity Gallery. Their source notes record checks on 2026-09-10 and 2026-09-11. This packet adds a study route; it does not claim a fresh independent investigation or reproduce source passages.

Mountain measurements

Begin with 📎 Resource · Which mountain is tallest?. For this lab, practice explaining what a comparison measures instead of memorizing a winning mountain.

• NOAA National Ocean Service: What is the highest point on Earth as measured from Earth's center?: locate the comparisons of elevation above mean sea level, base-to-summit height, and distance from Earth's center. These are different measurements, not interchangeable rankings.
• USGS: How big are the Hawaiian volcanoes?: locate the ocean-floor basis for Mauna Kea's height and the rounded above-water and submerged portions. Use it to check what the base-to-summit comparison includes.

Starting goal: “I can explain why Everest and Mauna Kea can answer different height questions.” Transfer: “Would the same comparison answer which summit is farthest from Earth's center?” Check NOAA rather than assuming that the first explanation transfers unchanged. Agency summaries support this introductory distinction; exact survey heights or disputed definitions of a mountain's base require further evidence.

Cooling, place, and access

Begin with 📎 Resource · How did people keep food cool before refrigerators?. Practice narrowing a claim to the place, period, purpose, and access its evidence supports. This is historical study, not a food-storage experiment.

• Encyclopaedia Iranica: YAḴČĀL, PDF: inspect “Literary evidence” for the Mari court account and “Use and typology” for later Iranian ice houses. The existing walkthrough attributes mountain ice brought to the Mari court, apparently chiefly for royal wine, to Jørgensen's synthesis. This is not our direct reading of ancient texts. Court evidence does not establish ordinary household access.
• French Ministry of Culture, Mari: Excavation history: inspect the location of Tell Hariri in the middle valley of the Syrian Euphrates.
• French Ministry of Culture, Mari: Geographical location: use the site-specific geography as a further check when locating the city.

Starting goal: “I can revise a claim about cooling so it does not turn court evidence into a claim about everyone.” Transfer: “Does evidence for later Iranian ice houses establish their date or ordinary household access in ancient Mari?” Keep differences of place, time, and purpose visible.

The original walkthrough records a wording difference: Iranica places the Kingdom of Mari on the upper Euphrates; the excavation history places the city site in the middle valley. For locating the city, follow the site-specific account. The reason for the wording difference remains unresolved; do not ask AI to invent a reconciliation.

Choose a reference for your own question

Select a readable passage, diagram, or worked example from an identifiable source. Ask who produced it, what specific claim or skill it supports, and what falls outside its scope. A teacher-approved text, source document, or relevant institutional explanation can be a starting point. An AI answer by itself is not the reference for checking that same answer.

Locate the part you will use before asking for a hint. If you cannot open or understand it, ask a facilitator for an accessible equivalent with attribution or choose another bounded goal. Share only a short passage you are allowed to provide. Keep gaps visible rather than replacing missing evidence with a plausible answer.