Mughal Miniatures

As we looked at the accomplishments of the Mughal artists, each student was to create a miniature illustration of the story they told in their Griot's Tale. The inspiration was to come from paintings by Mughal artists that shared these characteristics:
   - Full color
   -Tremendous detail
   - Entire page is covered
   - Tells the story
   - Shows people mostly in profile

Griot's Tale

As we looked at the trading empires of medieval West Africa (Ghana, Mali, & Songhai) students learned about the role that griots played in sharing the history and memories of the people. Despite having tremendous libraries in Timbuktu the oral histories of the people remained important in West African societies.

Prezi about the Legacy of the Greeks and Etruscan

In comparing the legacy of the ancient Greeks and Etruscan to the Romans, we see many things that are still important to us today. Students were asked to create a Prezi to compare the legacy of these great civilizations to our own civilization today. Here is a sample of the Prezi that each student needed to create.

Legacy of the Greeks, Etruscan & Romans

Amphoras - Legacy of the Ancient Greeks

For our next additional to the legacies of the past, we looked to the ancient Greeks. They were to design an amphora (height: 36") that had not only creative designs but carefully considered illustrations that explain what a legacy of ancient Greece was in our society today. The outcomes were spectacular! See individual blogs for more details.

Ode to Persian Engineering

Our first assignment was to write an Ode to Persian Engineering. The Persians were exceptional at finding creative ways to irrigate their land (qanats, gardens, and canals), organizing pontoon bridges, city planning and development,  and making beautiful buildings and art work. We only spent a short time looking at their exceptional accomplishments but we were impressed enough to write an ode to their amazing culture.

Here is an example from a previous year

Ode to the Persians

By SH

Never been done since.

Extremely advanced for the times.

Inspiringly amazing.

I must give my regards to Darius the Great.

A bridge out of nothing but boats

Ancient engineering techniques.

Simply amazing.

Two great continents were briefly connected.

Asia and Europe were connected.

Surely amazing.

The idea of even making this contraption

Must of required extensive thought.

Surprisingly amazing.

Bridge of boats.

Crossing a river.

What’s next?

Amazing.

Enduring Question

This year we will be looking at the history of the ancient and medieval world. Our enduring question for the year will be "What is the Legacy of the Ancient and Medieval World?" We will answer this question for each of the civilizations that we study and at the end of the year we will use all that we have put together to be part of the entertainment at our Banquet at Alhambra Palace.

We have chosen this question so that we can recognize the continuum from the past to the present in an effort to help us prepare for the future.