The 7th Grade Museum

Of Exploration Encounter and Exchange

Renée Charity PriceSt. Catherine’s School

Richmond, Virginia

Who We Are 7th Grade students at St. Catherine’s

School

Independent PK-12 girls’ school

Located in Richmond, Virginia

120 year history of educating girls mind, body, and spirit

www.st.catherines.org

What We Did Created a course entitled: Africa, the

Americas, and Europe: An Exchange

Replaced a course that examined European Renaissance history from Western perspectives to provide a more global perspective

New course introduces regions and peoples before, during, and after the explosion of exploration that occurred beginning in the 1400s

What We Did We introduced a student created museum

as the capstone project for their year long study of civilizations such as the empires of Ghana, Mali, Kongo Kingdom, Great Zimbabwe, Aztecs, and Incas.

Capstone Project

Foundations of the Course

We grounded the course in essential questions AND eight lenses through which to analyze world history. We apply these to the civilizations we examine using primary and secondary sources, a text, and other materials to form a knowledge base from which to conduct further research.

All year long, students think about the essential questions while wrestling with the course material. They even come up with their own questions along the way. During our class activities, projects, and writing assignments, students learn to think critically about the specific historical events, but also analytically across time periods and regions.

Foundations of the Course

Sample Essential Questions

How am I connected to these people/their stories?

How do we really know what happened in the past?

To what extent is history up to interpretation and influenced by who is telling the story?

What should we do when sources clash or disagree?

What causes things to change or stay the same?

How do cultures build upon the achievements of other peoples?

The Eight Lenses

The Eight Lenses 1) Population: Population is all about people. How many people are there in a certain

society? Is the population increasing or decreasing? Are the people moving from one place to another or are they staying in the same place? Why?

2) The Environment & Natural Resource Management: Natural resources include parts of the environment, such as rocks and minerals, timber, plants, animals, water, and fertile soil, which can be used by people for some type of benefit. Resource management refers to how people use those natural resources. Are there enough natural resources to provide food, water, and shelter to people? Do the people overuse the natural resources or do they underuse them? What are the effects of overuse on the environment? Does overuse change or hurt the environment and the people living in it?

3) Trade & Economics: This lens refers to the exchange of goods and services. Do people use money to pay each other? What do they buy? Why do they buy it? What do they produce? How? Do they trade with other groups of people? How does this affect their culture and way of life?

4) Geography: By geography, we mean where in the world people are physically located. What are the climate and terrain like? What is the physical landscape? How does the landscape affect culture and the way people live?

The Eight Lenses 5) Science & Technology: With this lens, students should consider scientific

advancements made by different societies and how those advancements affect life on a daily basis. What tools do people use? What scientific knowledge do they have? Do science and technology make life better or worse?

6) Conflict: Conflict refers to disagreements within societies and between societies, often resulting in physical violence, such as war, or physical separation. What role does conflict play in different societies? What disagreements exist within a society and what disagreements exist with other neighboring or invading societies? What is the outcome of conflict?

7) Government & Culture: Government refers to how communities are organized and controlled. Is there a king? If so, where does he/she get his/her power? Or is there an elected leader? Are there laws or rules to live by? What are the cultural similarities and differences between societies? What languages do people speak? How do they express themselves in art, music, and dance? What are their marriage and family customs?

8) Religion: Religion means the belief in and worship of a superhuman power, such as one god or multiple gods. Religion usually includes a system of faith and worship. With each society that we study, we will look at different belief systems. How is religion practiced? What god or gods are worshiped? How does religion reflect the culture?

The Museum Process After several months of foundational

studies, we individually guided students through the entire museum creations process- from understanding the “Big Idea” behind the museum, to identifying a research topic, finding sources, drafting text, creating visual and experiential learning stations, and opening the exhibits to the community.

The Museum ProcessIn the Spring, students are introduced to the Museum’s big idea statement. It is essentially a summary of our entire year of studies up until that point in the year.

THE BIG IDEA:

The Age of Exploration has changed world history. Ever since first contact, civilizations in the Americas, Africa, and Europe have exchanged elements of their cultures. Each region was forever changed by exploration and encounter in both positive and devastating ways.

The 7th grade will create a museum that examines these civilizations before contact, their encounters, and the legacy of their exchanges with each other.

The Students’ Task Role: You are a museum assistant! You are in charge of

selecting a topic, conducting research, and creating an exhibit related to the BIG IDEA.

Audience: Museum goers will include students, parents and teachers.

Format: Your exhibit will include written museum text and a hands-on or interactive component that teaches more about your topic.

Topic: The topic must be directly related to the BIG IDEA. You can select from one of the many ideas on the project idea sheet, or you can propose your own topic. Select a project that appeals to your interests.

Choosing a Topic Using the BIG IDEA framework,

students select a topic relating to any of the regions or civilizations we have studied throughout the year. They must identify a research question and determine the lenses they will apply during the analysis.

The Museum Process

Visit Each year we visit a

professional museum, and then we think critically to analyze its effective and ineffective aspects. This helps students understand the task before them.

Research Students use extensive

library resources including online encyclopedias, databases such as ABC-CLIO, books, atlases, etc.

Collaborate Students collaborate and

document their research using NoodleTools, an online research support software.

WriteStudents work with both their history and English teachers to learn how to write clearly and succinctly for a museum audience.

Create Students plan, design,

and build their exhibits.

Opening Day! After weeks of hard

work, students guide parents, other students, faculty, and community members through their exhibits. In the picture, This students’ exhibit allowed visitors to discover advances in medicine during the Renaissance in Europe.

Sample Exhibit Student project

detailing the impact of sugarcane production and trade from multiple perspectives.

She created a multimedia presentation and visual diagram to show the impact of the production and trade of this crop.

Sample Exhibit A project on life on a

slave ship during the middle passage allowed visitors to read informative text and view a detailed model to help imagine its horrors.

Sample Exhibit A student project

that explored the historical roots and present day tradition of the Afro-Caribbean musical forms Bomba y Plena.

She created informational text and created a listening station of videos and music samples.

Sample Exhibit A student project

that detailed the history and cultivation of the potato and the tomato. She highlighted the exchange of these important food crops during the age of exploration.

Detailed Sample ExhibitA sample project, focused in West Africa, introduced visitors to the Empire of Ghana’s participation in a gold-salt trade network. Her exhibit writing focused on the following topics:

HOW DID GHANA’S WEALTH AND ADVANCEMENTS FLOURISH WITH THE TRADE?

GOLD MINES IN WANGARA: WHAT WERE SO IMPORTANT ABOUT THE WANGARAN GOLD MINES?

SALT MINES IN TAGHAZA: HOW WAS SALT CULTIVATED IN THESE TIMES?

SILENT BARTARING: HOW DID THE SILENT BARTARING PROCESS WORK?

Detailed Sample Exhibit The student then created an illustrated digital

children’s book featuring a young Arab trader making the journey across the Sahara in order to teach the facts about the gold salt trade that she uncovered during her research.

Museum visitors learned how Ghana’s empire benefitted from its location near key rivers and trade routes and capitalized on their geographic position between the locations of the desired gold and salt.

Detailed Sample Exhibit A student project focused on the life and travels of

Ibn Battuta described the life and journey of the north African explorer and scholar. Her exhibit focused on the following topics:

THE LIFE AND TRAVELS OF IBN BATTUTA

THE RIHLA (Ibn Battuta’s account of his travels)

THE IMPACT OF IBN BATTUTA’S WORK ON OUR UNDERSTANDING OF THE EMPIRE OF MALI

Detailed Sample Exhibit The student recreated an excerpt from Ibn Battuta’s

account of his travels that focused on the months he spent traveling and living in the empire of Mali.

She provided her own annotations in response to the observations he made there, from his accounts of court life, to Ibn Battuta’s positive and negative judgments on the practice of Islam by the Malian people.

Evaluation and Reflection

Students are evaluated formally and informally throughout the entire process on research process, writing process, collaboration & creativity.

Museum Project Benefits

In a Student’s Own Words

“I used to think that history consisted of memorizing facts, and I found it boring. But after taking your class, I’ve realized that history can be more than that. History can be analyzing actions and learning from them. History can be studying the choices of past groups or individuals and seeing how those choices affect the world. It can be realizing that every action has a ripple effect, and that a person across the world from another person can determine their fate. Tying all this together, I think the main lesson I have learned from you is that everything is interconnected, and everything has cause and effect…

You taught me that anything can be easy if you start with a strong base and build upwards from there. In this case, the base was strong sources, but this could also apply to other situations. I can use this information not only to help me complete school projects, but also to help me complete any challenges I face in life.”

-Excerpt from a thank you letter from a current 8th grade student

Works CitedD’Acquisto, Linda. Learning on Display: Student-Created

Museums That Build Understanding. Alexandria, VA: ASCD. 2006.

Wiggins, Grant P., and Jay McTighe. Understanding by Design. Alexandria, VA: ASCD. 2005.