World History Tool Factory Workshop Fun!

I teach World History and I cover Pre-History to AD 1600. The ancient civilizations can be the toughest to teach because the time is too long ago for sixth graders to comprehend. The Tool Factory Workshop would be a way to make the civilizations fun and exciting.
The year begins with the study of prehistoric times and students would learn how to enter information in the database with this time period. Categories could include time in years, description of the time period, geography, technology or skills of the time, and people of the time period. Once students have mastered the database, information would be entered about each ancient civilization as it was covered. Topics would include Mesopotamia, Ancient Egypt, Ancient India, Ancient China, Ancient Greece, and Ancient Rome. Categories for each civilization would be similar to the prehistory topics with some changes depending on the time period. For instance, religion could be added to all the other civilizations since there is knowledge that it existed starting with Mesopotamia. Government could also be added for later civilizations. Students could come up with ideas about the different categories once they have a knowledge of the the civilization.

Once all the ancient civilizations are covered, students would be put into groups and make presentations using the word processor program in the Tool Factory Workshop. Students should enter 5-10 facts about each civilization using the information from the database and add pictures and videos to make the presentations come to life. Maps should also be added to show the location of the civilization. Students could use the animation and character speak features to make historical figures come to life and tell about their time in history. The finished presentations would be presented to the class and the group members would narrate each presentation.

Students would be graded using a rubric which would award points for their group work as well as the presentations. A cummulative test would also be given after the presentations to gage the students' understanding of the topics covered.