As a culminating project, students selected a project to create from my pre-approved list to better understand daily life in Mesopotamia within one of the civilization structures. In the 6th grade students are to examine and analyze the geographical, political, religious, social, economical, and cultural structures of 7 ancient civilizations. Because it can be overwhelming for students at this age to fully grasp what all these structures entail, I have them become "experts" in one of the structures when we study our first civilization, Mesopotamia. After researching their assigned project, they had to construct a model that best represents their interpretation and understanding of their assigned project.
The students displayed their constructive models of Mesopotamia at our Museum.
Typically what happens in school is students spend hours on a project that simply gets a letter grade. I believe in sharing hard work. It is so important for students to feel validated. I want their efforts to be acknowledged. So, administrators, teachers, staff members, students, and parents from our school were all invited to the museum. The visitors were given a bag of tickets. The visitors were instructed to quiz my students on their knowledge and overall project. If a student impressed them, the visitor gave the student either a green or blue ticket. The green tickets were given to students for most knowledge. If the visitor was impressed with the quantity and quality of content knowledge, he or she gave the student a green ticket. If the visitor was impressed with overall appearance and accuracy of the project, the visitor gave the student a blue ticket. The student with the most green tickets and the student with the most blue tickets each won a 10-dollar gift card to Chilis Restaurant.
Our museum had coffee, water, and pastries for the visitors. The visitors learned a lot of interesting facts about Mesopotamia and my students were excited to show off their work. Thank you to all the parents, guardians, CLMS staff members and district administrators for stopping by and supporting our students here in the LEUSD!
Some projects included: making the lyre instrument, ziggurat, functioning irrigation systems, cuneiform, Hanging Gardens of Babylon, chariots and boats, model of a city state, bazaar, a children's book on the Epic of Gilgamesh, mural of the creation myth story/and gods, and much more!
Click on the link for full project description: Constructive Models of Mesopotamia
Here are a few pictures from the museum over the years: