When writing your reports on your chosen Ancient Civilisation, it would be best to split the research and writing tasks among the members of your group. A great site to help you find and organise your information can be found here.

You can choose from a number of topics to research involving your ancient civilisation including – homes/architecture, entertainment, arts, clothing, religion, transportation, daily life, inventions, food & diet.

The group needs to ensure that the report is accurate, written in your own words, proof read and edited for run on sentences, spelling and punctuation, and accompanied by illustrations or pictures suitable to your topics.

By now you will have started the planning process for how your diorama is going to look. I want you to carefully consider the features of your diorama and take care and effort in constructing it as it will be assessed in line with our Technology and Design outcomes.

This video clearly shows how you can use paper mache to build up the structure of your diorama’s base. You can also find step by step instructions of this video here.

The person who created that video also has some excellent tutorials for helping you with various aspects of your diorama, depending on how far you want to personally take your project.

You can also see a variety of diorama images here to give you some inspiration.

This week our time machine took us to the lands of Ancient Egypt along the Nile. We learned about the power and responsibility associated with being a Pharaoh, the rigid hierarchies of the Egyptian people, and the importance of the geography to Egypt’s development. We learned the names of a few of the more prominent pharaohs including Ramesses II, Tutankhamen, Hatshepsut, Akhenaten and Cleopatra.

We studied the origins and ceremony surrounding the process of mumification and the Egyptian beliefs and customs associated with the afterlife.

Our simulation involved students working in groups and nominating a Pharaoh as their first order of business. The Pharaoh, burdened with the duties of managing a growing empire was responsible for managing finances and the selection of construction tasks for a number of 10 minute rounds. The ultimate goal of each group was to complete a number of tasks in order to gain the knowledge needed to build a pyramid. Pharaohs needed to organise team members, delegate work, administrate the costs and taxes associated with life and building and protect their people from falling victim to rare events of chance.

Everyone agreed that it was a very enjoyable simulation with a lot of learning and development of a variety of skills throughout the week.

Image One- Collaborating on an army recruitment poster       * Image Seven-Eight –  Army recruitment posters

Image Two – Tate carving an ivory soap god                                  * Image Nine – Twelve – Tasks completed! Building the pyramids!!

Image Three – Designing an artifact for the temple

Image Four – Constructing an irrigation pipeline to the Nile

Image Five – A completed ramp for stone hauling

Image Six – Building a doctor’s temple

Continuing on from our journey back in time to the first civilisations, we have been exploring the developments and contributions of the people from the Mesopotamian region.

Working in small groups, (each representing a society from the region) we spent our time recreating Mesoptomanian innovations in law, architecture, written language, trade and warfare. A number of tasks needed to be completed before each group was able to open their Top Secret envelope containing the plans to new technology (a catapult) that would allow them to conquer other societies.

Image One – Trading to gain the resources needed to complete projects

Image Two – Designing and building an Ancient Sumerian Ziggurat

Image Three – A completed Ziggurat Temple

Image Four – All tasks completed, all technologies discovered – the group could open its “secret plans” and build their catapult allowing them to conquer all other cities with a marshmallow firing catapult!

Long, long ago, Australia was home to a number of megafauna that quite possibly stalked the very areas that we now call home! Imagine giant goannas, marsupial lions, flightless ducks bigger than emus, and herds of two tonne Diprotodon roaming the plains….

Your task is to choose one type of Australian megafauna and research it making notes (in your science books) about its;

• appearance (size, coloring, etc.)
• habitat (earth’s physical features that support this life form)
• home (nest? caves? groups? alone?)
• life cycle (development from infant to adult)
• food (What does it eat? How does it get food?)
• special adaptations (unique features that help the animal survive in its habitat)
• enemies (Who are they? How do they interact? Why are they enemies?)
• extinction (when and how they became extinct)

Some sites to help you on your search include;

Minmi paravertebra

Muttaburrasaurus

Diprotodon

Other various kinds can be found here.

Due to the large interest in our previous Ancient Greek unit, we have decided to time travel to other periods of history throughout the term. Our Time-Travel theme will see groups learn about other past civilisations from around the world.

For our first unit we studied the origins of man as a hunter/gatherer living together in small groups dependent on each other for survival. We also explored how one of the first civilisations, the Sumerians developed agriculture, writing and a codified set of laws.

In Day One of our first simulation activity, students were given the task of gathering the resources to survive by themselves. They needed to source food, water and shelter within a given time frame. They were not allowed to interact with other class members during the given time period. Life proved hard for our intrepid individualists and the harsh conditions took their toll. The survival rate on the first day was a mere 24% of the class.

(Captions from left to right – 1) Hunters in a mad dash for scarce game. 2) Gathering water from the river. 3) Building individual shelters. 4) Researching technology to develop farming  5) Survival = Food + Shelter+ Water! )

On Day Two, students worked in small communities to complete the above tasks again in a set time period. This time they could discuss and tactically decide the best division of labour to achieve their tasks. With the increased group size, the water, food and shelter requirements on this day were also greater, and students had to devise better technology to help them achieve their goals. Inventing pottery wheels allowed them to cart water from the “river” more effectively. Increased collaboration enabled more effiicient agriculture, and teams of construction workers could build more advanced shelters. Despite a shorter time frame, at the end of the second day our group’s survival rate had increased to a whopping 68%!

(Captions from left to right - 1) Researching farming collaboratively 2) Using improved technology to gather water. 3) Building group shelters. 4) Inventing the pottery wheel   5) Filling the group’s rain water tanks.  6) A more advanced shelter to house the group)