Passport to Ancient Civilizations

Prior Knowledge:
Students will be introduced to Ancient Civilizations in their classroom during Social Studies period. They will be familiar with the various countries of interest. Classroom teachers will provide students with the research sheet to be filled out in the computer lab.

Objective:
Students will learn about Ancient Civilizations and their contributions to our lives today. This will correlate with Florida Sunshine Standards for Social Studies on Time, Continuity, and Change. Students will learn the significance of scientific and technological achievements of various ancient societies. Emphasis will be on studying Ancient China, Rome, Greece, and India.

Step 1:
Students will bring their research sheet to be completed in the computer lab. They will visit various Internet sites where they will find facts about the daily life of the ancient countries of interest. They will also collect facts about famous places, buildings, and architecture of those countries.

Step 2:
Students will use a word processing program to start typing fast facts from their research paper. Students will have to complete a bibliography with all sources of information from the Internet, facts, and pictures.

Step 3:
Students will use a digital camera to take pictures of themselves. They will have to dress up as a Roman, Egyptian, Chinese, or Hindu person from the past. They will use the Internet to find information on clothing, hair styles, and the correct accessories. Students will make sure to take pictures in front of a white background for easy editing.

Step 4:
Students will use a photo editing program to layer their own pictures with the correct background representing that country. For example, they will have one picture of themselves dressed as an ancient Greek. They will layer this picture in front of Parthenon. They will edit all pictures and save them in a folder to be used later in their passport. Students will print all edited pictures.

Step 5:
Students will print the text boxes with quick facts about the ancient countries. They will use creative layout techniques to compile all these into a passport. They will learn how a passport looks like. With teacher’s help they will bind their own passport including all facts, text boxes, clipart, and edited pictures.

Step 6:
Students can share their passports with the rest of the class. Parents can also be invited. As an extension to this, students and parents can have an evening of fun by bringing food from the different countries students studied, dress up as an ‘ancient Greek or Roman’, and enjoy sharing the students’ work.

Enrichment: Find out if a student has a relative or a friend from the ancient countries of interest and invite them as guests. Students can ask these guests questions and record the answers with a voice recorder or a video camera. Post the activity on the school’s website or in a podcast server.

Assessment
Students will be graded on the following: Completing all parts of passport, 50%
Creativity, originality, and accuracy, 50%