12/11/2026

Morning Announcements

Morning Meeting Agenda

Mon · Social Studies Tue · Literacy Wed · Science Thu · Math Fri · ROAR + Houses
Math of the Day

He took apart a watch and built a clock

In 1753, a 22-year-old farmer borrowed a pocket watch, took it completely apart, and studied every single gear. Then he carved his own version — out of wood — and it kept perfect time for 40 years.

Portrait of Benjamin Banneker Photo credit: [add if license requires]

Meet Benjamin Banneker! He taught himself math and building by studying borrowed books. He was so good with numbers and gears that he built his own working clock out of wood!

Benjamin Banneker took apart a watch, studied the gears, and built a wooden clock
Let’s talk
  • Have you ever taken something apart to see how it works?
  • Why would carving gears out of wood be harder than metal?
  • What’s something you’d like to learn how to build?
Reveal a factHide the fact
Benjamin only had a few years of school! He taught himself the rest by reading and practicing — and he also used math to figure out when the sun and moon would have eclipses!
Try it

Be a gear! Stand in a circle. When I tap you, spin one direction; the person next to you spins the opposite way — just like real gears turning together!

Mystery mathematician: Born free in Maryland in 1731 with only a few years of formal schooling. Self-taught advanced mathematics and astronomy from borrowed books. At 22, reverse-engineered a pocket watch and hand-carved a working clock from wood — the first fully American-made clock on record.

Who is he?Hide
Portrait of Benjamin Banneker Photo credit: [add if license requires]
Benjamin Banneker — mathematician, astronomer, and almanac author. He accurately predicted a solar eclipse using only self-taught math, published detailed farmers’ almanacs for over a decade, and was appointed to the team surveying the land that became Washington, D.C.

His almanacs required serious math: tracking the positions of the sun, moon, and stars to predict tides, weather, and eclipses a year in advance, all before calculators existed.

Two achievements requiring serious math: predicting a solar eclipse and surveying Washington D.C.
Let’s talk
  • Predicting an eclipse a year ahead means the math had to be exact, with no way to “check” until it happened. What kind of confidence does that take?
  • Banneker sent Thomas Jefferson a letter along with his almanac, challenging him on the topic of slavery. Why might sending proof of his own scientific ability alongside that argument matter?
  • He was mostly self-taught. What’s the hardest part of learning something advanced with no teacher?
Reveal the answersHide the answers
Predicting an unverifiable-until-it-happens event requires trusting your method, not just your answer — real scientific confidence comes from the process being sound, not from hoping you’re right. Sending the almanac alongside his letter to Jefferson was a direct rebuttal: Jefferson had written that Black people were intellectually inferior, and Banneker’s own scientific work was living proof otherwise — he let the evidence make the argument. And without a teacher, the hardest part is usually knowing when you’ve made an error, since there’s no one to check your work; that’s exactly why precision and careful verification mattered so much to him.
Try it

Reverse-engineer it! With a partner, pick any everyday object (a stapler, a pencil sharpener) and describe, step by step, how you’d figure out how it works just by taking it apart and studying it — no instructions allowed.

Additional Notes/Activities

If additional activities are needed for the Morning Meeting, they will be added here.