My Time at the Oriental Institute

By Kelsey Waxman, Public Education and Outreach Intern
Summer 2014

Image: Kelsey Waxman. Photo Credit: Carol Ng-He.

The summer internship is a rite of passage for all students. This past May, my friends and I left the University of California Berkeley campus in search of work and learning experiences that would help us to delve more deeply into career fields that interest us as well as calm our nerves (or excite them!) as the post-graduate world inches nearer and nearer. As I now prepare to return to California for my third year of my undergraduate education, I know that I will be bringing with me a new skillset and invaluable experiences that will guide and inform my academic and career choices. I owe this to my time as an intern in the Public Education and Outreach Department of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago.

Chicago Public School Social Science Academy: A Student's Perspective

In the 2013-2014 school year, the Oriental Institute partnered with the Chicago Public School Department of Literacy for the Social Science Academy, a year-round professional development program for classroom teachers. Through this program, we engaged three Chicago Public School teachers (from Orr Academy High School, Gage Park High School, and Alcott East Elementary School) in a project focusing on the theme “Defining Ancient Civilization and Connecting It to Today’s World.” Through an object-based approach, teachers learned how to incorporate primary-source materials, including maps, artifacts, and archaeological discoveries, and integrated them into classroom curriculum that focuses on ancient inventions such as writing, urbanization, and economy. Building upon the scholarship of the Oriental Institute and in alignment with the Common Core State Standards, teachers worked with Carol Ng-He, K-12 & Continuing Education Program Developer at the Oriental Institute, to develop and implement a unit tailored to the needs of their students. Students who participated in the program gained important twenty-first century skills, ranging from making global connections to developing critical-thinking skills.

The following is an excerpt from an essay by a student who participated in the program. In this essay the student reflects upon artifacts that were studied at the Oriental Institute, and the connections discovered between the ancient world and today’s government:

Gage Park High School social studies teacher Andrew Martinek led his students to visit the Oriental Institute Museum.
Image credit: Carol Ng-He. 2014.

Oriental Institute, iPads, Webquests, Target, and Hogwarts. What Do They All Have in Common? . . . A Whole Lot of Learning!

The following post is written by Ms. Nashwa Mekky, 5th-grade teacher at Ivy Hill Elementary School in Arlington Heights, Illinois. She shares her field trip planning and the museum visit experience for her students at the Oriental Institute in January 2014. 


“Where is in the world can we find Mesopotamia?” I ask my fifth graders, only to receive blank stares back. I have a little more luck with, “How about Egypt? What continent can we find Egypt on?” Half the hands shoot up; all ready to answer. There would have to be ample pre-field trip learning before we embark on our class trip to the Oriental Institute. With proper planning, this field trip would be a valuable experience that my students would always carry with them in their schema of learning. But where to start… The OI website of course!
 
The last thing I wanted was to have my students walk through the museum like drones, looking at artifacts as if they were broken pieces of stone. Because I teach in a progressive school district that values 21st-century skills, like global awareness, technology, discovery, and integration of learning, I knew I would find all the resources and support I needed to make this learning experience an authentic one. After all, my school is WIRED, literally.

Doctors: Past, Present, Future - Winning Essay of My Artifact/ My Future High School Contest

My Artifact / My Future High School Student Writing Contest 2013-2014 Winner: 
 
Merrick Fahrenwald
10th Grade, The University of Chicago Laboratory School

Essay Title: Doctors: Past, Present, Future
 

Medical Tablet. Iraq. ca. 750-500 BC.
OIM A3441.

            The manner in which we currently diagnose and treat diseases would have been inconceivable to doctors in ancient times.  Nevertheless, there are medical insights we have today that would not exist without the ideas developed by ancient physicians and healers. By looking at Mesopotamian doctors in their cultural context, I realized that many ancient medical practices that seem primitive today are more advanced than I realized, some being surprisingly similar to those today. This suggests that hundreds of years from now, people will look back at our medical procedures and view them as primitive, unless they too take a closer look at our cultural context. It is fascinating how times can change so much that something that seems natural during one era can seem incredibly odd or primitive years later. In the course of my research, I have learned that some of the medical knowledge we have today would not be possible without the foundation laid by the physicians of the ancient Near East.

Learning about the Past Through Contemporary Technology

By Evie Weinstein-Park, 4^th grade teacher at Solomon Schechter Day School of Greater Boston, Newton, Massachusetts
 
A technology seminar at my school in 2013 prompted me to the Oriental Institute online educator resources. This seminar led me to rethink how to thoroughly incorporate technology and web 2.0 into a unit that I had already taught. I decided to turn to one of my old units on ancient Mesopotamia. I wanted to give my students a “mystery” about the ancient culture to solve with the use of the archaeological discovery. To achieve this, I set out to build a website (via Weebly.com) and a webquest (via Questgarden.com).

Incorporating the Oriental Institute’s “Ancient Mesopotamia: This History, Our History” Website

In planning my unit, I discovered the Oriental Institute’s Dig Into History – Ancient Mesopotamia: This History, Our History through Google search. This interactive website became our unit's real springboard into the ancient past. As an introduction, my students watched the introductory video by Dr. Gil Stein, archaeologist and Director of the Oriental Institute, and completed the “excavating a penny” activity. To enrich my students’ learning experience in archaeology, I invited my school’s former librarian as a guest speaker to describe her own experiences participating in a real archaeological dig in the Southwest. Building upon these experiences, we began our virtual archaeological dig with the Oriental Institute’s website.

The Process

Image Credit: Evie Weinstein-Park

First, we previewed the directions together, using our classroom’s Smart Board. My students were so excited that they couldn’t wait to begin! We used desktop computers in the school computer room, as the website required Flash to run the program. Then, I divided my students into three groups (one for each of the three different “archeological quests” that are offered on the OI website – agriculture, technology, and writing). They worked in pairs, so they could discuss the choices they were making about where to dig and whether the objects supported their respective quest statements or not. As part of their project, they would create a virtual museum exhibit with the Oriental Institute website. By working as pairs, they could also discuss what would go into their exhibits.