The 6th grade humanities class recently went to the San Francisco Legion of Honor to explore key ancient Greek artifacts as part of the kick off to their final humanities Project Based Learning unit of the year.
PBL units traditionally begin with an entry event, the purpose of which is to intentionally ignite student authentic curiosity about the driving question, “How are we still connected to ancient Greek culture, language, and mythology today?” Students explored the Hall of Antiquities searching for 3 key artifacts, a statue of Asklepios, a rare gold wreath, and an amphora of Herakles, before finding other artifacts that were of interest to them and generating need to know questions.
In addition to an engaging entry event, another cornerstone of Project Based Learning is honoring student voice and choice and creating opportunities for sustained, authentic inquiry. As they continue to build knowledge and consider their need to know questions, students will not just cover the standards on ancient Greece but select their own way to answer their driving question and pursue one research area in more depth. Last year students researched a wide variety of connections on themes from education to health care, military power to the role of Olympic athletes, and much more! We can’t wait to see what sparks the interest of students this year!
A fun bonus was seeing the excitement on students’ faces when a few of them were able to locate the mystery artifact they researched in our fall PBL on ancient Egypt! It was a fun challenge to see if they could spot the artifact they spent so much time researching back in October! Many were surprised at either how big or how tiny it looked in person!
#SaklanPBL
FRIDAY BLOG 
You must be logged in to post a comment.