Welcome to our Ancient History Projects on the Web
Graphic based on a lithograph "Side View of the Great Sphinx,
Pyramids of Geezeh" by David Roberts ,1838

Introduction: Grade Five and Six students from The International School of Amsterdam have worked on several investigative projects in 1996-97 and 1997-98. In Spring 1997 grade six students spent a month studying Ancient Egypt. They worked in pairs or in threes studying different aspects: the geography, the history, religion, the social structure and daily life and technology. Following the Egyptian project, students chose another civilization they wanted to learn more about. The choices included the Romans, Greeks, Celts, Vikings, Incas, Aztecs, Chinese, Etruscans, Maoris, and North American Indians. The groups then made a presentation to their classmates using multi-media authoring tools and in August 1997 a number of their projects were added to our Grade 6 Social Studies Web Site with links to other Internet resources and related school projects.

During the 1997-98 school year Grade Five students wrote and published several social studies projects including Ancient Civilizations and Their Number Systems and their research projects on the Civilzation of the Ancient Maya as well as art projects on Maya Stela. In January 1998 our webmaster visited the Yucatan in Mexico and prepared an online presentation of her visit to Chichén Itzá as well as a collection of Maya resources on the Internet.

Students used Internet resources (among others) to research their subjects. There are several ways in which teachers can adopt / use / preselect some of these for classroom use. Two articles which give excellent suggestions for turning Web resources into activities appropriate for learners are: Filamentality: Activity Formats by SDSU/ Pacific Bell Fellows and Online Research Modules by J. McKenzie (from September issue of From Now On: Education Technology Journal).