Honors Ancient Civilizations-Help

Rebecca Sloat you got excellent resources to start planning this new course. In addition to what everybody said here, I would add the Museum Project. It is a lot of fun for students to explore in depth ancient civilizations. I am sure they will remember this project for years to come. They will transform your classroom into a museum with stations and artifacts made by them to represent their civilization of their choice. It is fantastic! Next year I will teach a course in Latin America and I am planning to incorporate this project in that course as well. 

I teach middle school and they love making Museum Projects.  For my own sanity, sometimes I mix it up a bit and have them create a Theme Park instead.  Doesn't take much stretch to change the setting as many of them have been to Harry Potter World or something similar.  This year we're trying to hook into Artemis Missions by creating a "Build Your Own Civilization Project" based on the Major Civilizations we covered.  Basically take the best ideas from each and apply it to a new colony on Mars.

I teach middle school and they love making Museum Projects.  For my own sanity, sometimes I mix it up a bit and have them create a Theme Park instead.  Doesn't take much stretch to change the setting as many of them have been to Harry Potter World or something similar.  This year we're trying to hook into Artemis Missions by creating a "Build Your Own Civilization Project" based on the Major Civilizations we covered.  Basically take the best ideas from each and apply it to a new colony on Mars.

I love this idea Jessica Lawson ! I'm sure your students have an amazing time creating a theme park. Really like your idea of incorporating the future and the Artemis Missions into the build your own Mars colony project. We have a Big History Frankenstein's Civilization activity and a WH Origins Empire Building activity that might be helpful for your project, but I'd love to hear how you've planned it and your students' thoughts on it. Would you be willing to share some of your materials? I'm sure other teachers would find them helpful and inspirational!

Absolutely!  Let me know the best way to share materials.  I link here or send things to you.

Thank you.  My email is rsloat@qcusd.org Let me know if you would like me to share anything too.  I have some great stuff after 15 years. 

I love the Theme Park idea, Jessica Lawson !

And looking back at this post, I really like the topics and pacing that you have provided, Rebecca Sloat .  Did you do that, or is it a school/district directive?  For better or worse in Maine, we have a lot of flexibility in designing our curriculum.  That allows for lots of creativity and choice, but can also feel overwhelming!  That's why I appreciate the structure that the OER Project provides.

This was designed by one of the the teachers that has been teaching the class for several years, based off of the standards the district put in place for the class.  I believe I have the freedom to rearrange it, as long as I teach all of the content.   

I do love the structure of OER too.  Because when I came to this district they had gotten rid of all of their textbooks and use something called Beyond Textbooks, which is really not rigorous at all.  Since I had been working with OER since the pilot of their World content, i just went straight to here and started using it.  It has been my number 1 resource ever since,