Ancient Empire
By:  Alexa Spruit​

Project at a Glance :

This project is designed for a World History unit on Ancient Empires. It introduces students to the Han Dynasty of China and asks them to determine the key contributions that Han China made which are still relevant to the world today.  

Driving question:

How can our class creatively educate others about the impact Ancient Han China has had on World History?           

Standards:

• Power Standards:  Ancient Empires - Greece, Rome, and Han China Historical Thinking Skills:  Content and Sourcing of Primary and Secondary Sources, Contextualization, Patterns of Continuity and Change Over Time, Argumentation.
• Skills4Success:  Technology Literacy, Collaboration, Global Thinking and Communication

Team / Culture Building:

• Create teams based on Skills Inventory and Reflection journal

​Entry Event:

• Students will have a variety of cards with Han Chinese accomplishments written on them.  Things such as "invented fireworks" and "invented paper".  They are going to each start with a card, find another student who they will swap cards with, and then discuss what they predict the outcomes of these inventions would have been.  They will continue to swap cards until they have seen multiple different accomplishments and start to get an understanding of the technologies and ideas coming from this civilization.  ​​

Stakeholders:

• Museums
• Classrooms
• Underclassmen

Empathy Building: 

• Love/Break Up Letter - What do you, as a viewer, love about online museum exhibits? What do you hate about them? How can we use these things to guide our research and final product.

Inquiry / Need to Knows:​ 

• Chalk Talk - brainstorming ideas

• Know/Need to Knows (add a column for students to identify “Where Can I Find this Information?” and “Who will uncover this information?”; document on Padlet or Stormboard 
• Use the A, E, I, O, U ​protocol to explore the content of Ancient Civilizations​
• Save the Last Word - teacher provided article where students identify crucial information​.

Incubation:​

• Idea Quota Idea_quota.pdf protocol​ to brainstorm solution ideas

• Brainwriting - Have students jot an idea on an index card. Then, working in groups, have them pass their index card to the right. They then need to add an additional idea or a complementary idea to the original one. ​
• Students will create Web Diagrams Mindmapping - to jot their ideas down and draw connections between their ideas.​​​

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Solution building:

• Next students will use the Dot Voting protocol to narrow down their ideas to the ones that they believe are the best. 
• 6 Thinking Hats Protocol - Students will look at potential solutions from different perspectives or Thinking Hats. One focuses on the positives, another is critical, another is looking for data, etc. 
• $100 Test - Students will have an imaginary $100 to spend on the potential ideas. The ideas with the most money allocated should be the “best” ideas. Students should be sure to provide a rationale for how they spent their money.

Critique and Revision: 

• Students will highlight their work in a Gallery Walk and obtain feedback from stakeholders.
• Following the Gallery Walk students will send out a survey and use the Seeking Skeptics protocol for further feedback leading to final revisions.

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Authentic Audience:

• ​The authentic audience will include Chinese professionals and underclassman.

Final Presentation:

• Students will have their final product in the form of either a Virtual Museum, Tangible Museum, Documentary video, and or Podcast on display at the final event.

​Resources:

• Click here for teacher's full plan.

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Meet the Educator:

Alexa Spruit teaches World and American History at Hamilton High School.  
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     "I believe that PBL can make lessons come to life for students. It allows students to take charge of their learning and find purpose in it."