Ancient Greek Project:  Social Studies

The Impact of Greece: Then and Now

On November 20th, our students will be teaching the audience at our Greek event how influential ancient Greece was.  They will be creating “Then and Now” products.  Over the last week, the 7th graders have been doing a fantastic job researching their topics.  Now it is time for the research to be strengthened and organized as it is applied to their product.  Below are the requirements for this product.

The Required Sections: There are two sections to this product.  

1. Displaying/presenting the information

The information that the students have been researching will be displayed to teach the audience.  The students are able to choose how they want the information displayed; many have chosen to use a tri-fold display, others have chosen to use a digital slideshow such as PowerPoint or Prezi.  At times throughout the event, the students will be present at their display to answer any questions from the audience.  

2. Accompanying piece/Interactive component

This section adds a deeper layer of learning for the audience.  The students will create a product that allows the audience to interact with the information/topic.  This physical piece will reinforce the information display’s content.  Often, it is discuss that this piece should give the audience a “non-googleable” experience that reinforces the learning from the students’ display.

Example:  

1. Display:  Greek inventions tri-fold. The left side could contain organized information about key inventions and those who invented them.  The importance and use of each is explained. The middle portion can be used to show examples of each invention and how they were used.  The right side of the display should contain information about how these inventions have impacted us today.  There should be examples of modern items that we use that have been influenced from ancient Greece.  

2.  Accompanying piece/Interactive component: In the past, I have seen individual students create the useable versions of these ancient inventions.  A working version of Archimedes’ screw was created using recycled PVC pipe, plastic tubing, and duct tape. That same year another individual student created a working version of the “iron hand” with dowel rods, wood scraps, pulleys, and string.

All students are completing this in small groups of 2-4.