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 |