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This One Will Get Your Goat

Morocco

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Morocco is located in the northwestern part of Africa adjacent to the Sahara Desert.

Does your answer change depending on where you are in the country?

What can you infer about the climate in Morocco?

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140 BCE-500 CE

Romans invaded and ruled.

A Very Brief History Of Morocco

1000 BCE

Phoenicians Earliest written history of people in Morocco.

~400 BCE

Berber Tribes

Took over the area and formed the Kingdom of Mauritania

~700

Arab Rule

Introduced Islam

1240

Berber Dynasty Tribes regained control

1500s

Arab Rule

Conquered area again

1800s

Morocco remained independent

1912

French Rule

Forced takeover caused unrest

1956

After WWII, momentum gained to hand back control to Moroccans.

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Berber Guides

There are about 32 million Berber people are still living in Morocco

Berber Woman with a Donkey

Berber Toddler

Market

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"File:Argan Tree.jpg" by Loyal Naturals

This is the Argan Tree (also called Morocco Ironwood). It originated in Morocco and is also found in Israel.

It can survive long periods of drought, heat, and chalky, poor soil.

What do you notice in this picture?

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Can grow as high as 26-32 feet

Produces a fruit high in its branches that’s firm, with a thick peel and a bitter pulp

Pit is almond-shaped, resembles an olive

Many uses for the tree

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Argan Tree Uses

Timber

Building and furniture. It’s hard and withstands insects.

Decoration

Locals make wooden trinket boxes to sell to tourists.

Food

The residue after pressing is a paste called amlou. It’s sweetened with honey and used as a bread dip

Medicine

Traditional use: preventing liver and blood diseases

Modern research: twice as much Vitamin E as olive oil, rich in antioxidants

Cooking

The oil has a nutty flavor and is used in cooking and salads.

Fuel

Oil is used in lamps for light

Cosmetics

Oil pressed from the fruit is used in skin treatments and soaps. This is a lucrative source of income.

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For centuries the Berber people knew that you if crack the pits open, inside are oil-rich kernels that can be roasted and cold-pressed. The resulting Argan oil has been coveted for its healing properties.

Extracting the oil is time consuming. The shell is very hard and takes a great amount of strength and patience to both crack yet preserve the kernels. The argan pit is about 16 times harder than hazelnuts.

Patty ready for pressing

Pressing by hand

Argan nuts - raw, roasted and shelled

Oil

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But there are challenges to harvesting the fruit—

However, nature has a unique solution.

The trunk is thorny, making it hard and painful to climb.

Shaking branches sometimes works, but the yield is low.

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"File:الماعز زيت شجرة.jpg" by E.3

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"File:Goats climb argan trees.jpeg" by Dan Lundberg is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0

Goats have been spotted foraging at elevations up to 8,500 feet.

They don’t like eating food that has dropped on the ground.

Goats gain anywhere from 47 to 84 percent of their calories from the fruit and leaves of the argan trees.

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“Goats in tree” by CarolineG2011

Goats are part of a group of mammals called ruminants.

Food passes through four stomachs.

Food is digested through the different stomachs using fermentation to further break down nutrients. It’s then regurgitated and chewed again, also known as “chewing the cud.”

Goats can chew an average of 50,000 times a day

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www.needpix.com/photo/610810/morocco-goat-argan-argan-oil-cosmetic-free-pictures

Even though the goats love the fleshy part of the fruit, they can’t digest the pits.

They either spit them out, or the pits are excreted (yes, pooped).

The pits remain intact and are cleaned for pressing.

So it’s a win-win!

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How are goats able to climb so high?

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Goats’ hooves have two split toes.

The outer part is hard keratin, shaped like a parabola. This adds strength.

The textured rubber-like pads on the bottom give traction and flexibility on uneven surfaces.

To provide even more adaptability, each toe can move and operate independently.

“Make a wide V with your index and middle fingers and try pressing down against something with their tips. Since walking on an artiodactyl hoof is anatomically similar to walking on the tips of two fingers, the mountain goat feels the muscles and tendons working against each other somewhat the way you do. It adjusts the tensions accordingly in order to fine-tune its grip on uneven surfaces…Now you will find that the more weight you put on your fingertips, the more they want to diverge sideways. In like fashion the mountain goat’s toes divide the downward force of the weight on a hoof. When your fingers, or the toes of the hoof, are placed on an incline surface, part of the weight continues to be directed sideways—a horizontal vector of force as distinct from the vertical vector. There is thus less net force being exerted in a singe downward line; hence there is less likelihood of overcoming the force of friction along that line and beginning to slide…What is going on here is a fanning out of forces. If all the downward force could be converted into sideways forces, it would in effect be canceled out…The third and final dimension is simpler to explain. Solid rock, talus, dirt or snow can become wedged in the crotch of the V and act as an additional brake.” (Chadwick 1983: 51)

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I count 14 goats on the dam, then a wolf chases 15 more onto it. How many goats are now on the dam? What math equation did you write to solve this problem?

Look at photos, I don’t know how many goats are on the dam. I do know 5 more climb onto it? How many goats are now on the dam?

Let’s do some math

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I am sightseeing in Morocco and see three trees that have the EXACT same number of goats in them! How many goats do I see?

See the goats in this tree? I know this tree can hold DOUBLE the number currently in it. How many goats can this tree hold?

What limitations do you see to possible values?

Let’s do some math

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You know that:

3 times the sum of 7 and a number is 3(n + 7)

the quotient of a number and 4 is m/4

What are the answers to these two examples?

7 less than three times a number is

The quotient of n and 15 plus 16 is

Your Turn

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7 + p

p + 7

3(h - 14)

(k - 5)/2

What’s the story (and not)?

Tower of Baa in Illinois

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Alpine ibexes are relatives of the goat, and, as their name suggest, they live in the Alps mountains in Europe.

The dam is 161 ft tall with an incline of around 80°. How close is that to perpendicular?

The goats lick the stones for salt and minerals. They are herbivores, so their diet lacks a good source of sodium.

This is also a great method of avoiding predators. Can you guess why?

"File:Cingino Staumauer mit Steinböcken.jpg" by Zaufensgraben

Cingino Hydroelectric Dam in Italy