Ancient Civilizations and Excavations

We spent some time last week discussing questions that the students had related to ancient civilizations. After generating several, we categorized them according to subject matter and then discussed the differences between "open ended" and "closed ended" questions, including the advantages and disadvantages of each. Students then chose a focus for their projects. Some have chosen to learn about individual civilizations while others are focusing on art, writing or medicine across different civilizations. They began their research last week and will continue through the end of the month.

As a part of their research, the students took part in a mini excavation of sorts, finding "artifacts" in their playground. These included maps and clues related to their chosen topics, which they had to work together to organize geographically and then learn more about using the internet.