Students breathe new life
into ancient American civilizations
SHARING INFORMATION about Incan burials with an Ancient Americans Museum visitor are, from left: Presque Isle Middle School sixth-graders Ethan Jackson, Sarah Beaulieu and Erik Smith.
ANNE BLANCHARD, right, principal at Presque Isle Middle School, learns more about Mayan temples and pyramids thanks to, from left: sixth-graders Phillip Easton, Mark Graves and Wynonna Estabrook. Other topics presented at the recent Ancient Americans Museum included chocolate, food, weapons, calendars, education and jewelry.
HAVE A HEART — Eleanor St. Peter, a sixth-grader at Presque Isle Middle School, holds a real deer heart that her group used to discuss Aztec sacrifices during the recent Ancient Americans Museum held at the school.
RESEARCHING MAYAN FOOD for their Ancient Americans Museum exhibit were Presque Isle Middle School sixth-graders, from left: Taylor Ellis, Meagan Turner, Shelby Johnson, Ian Michaud and Andrew Hewitt.
By Scott Mitchell Johnson
Staff Writer
PRESQUE ISLE — While talking in most libraries is frowned upon, it was widely encouraged recently as sixth-graders at Presque Isle Middle School “transformed” the library into an Ancient Americans Museum and shared their exhibits with family and fellow classmates.
Students in Shannon Blake’s and Casey Johnson’s social studies classes created displays focused on the Aztec, Inca and Maya civilizations.
“We brainstormed a list of topics we felt might interest the students concerning other civilizations, and then they selected which topic they wanted to learn more about,” said Blake. “Our hope was that the students got more of an understanding as to how the way life was and how things have clearly changed.
“We had a pretty good balance of the three ancient civilizations,” she said, “and I hope the kids learned a lot. This was the first time we’ve done something like this and I didn’t know if we’d have much of an audience, but I couldn’t be happier. Several teachers brought their classes down, and we invited parents to attend, as well. Parents were waiting at the door which was nice to see.”
The students, who worked in groups of three to five with each one researching a specific aspect of the topic, spent about two weeks preparing their exhibits. During the museum’s “grand opening,” each student presented their findings.
“Being able to express themselves is important,” Blake said, noting that students were also graded on group work and the overall presentation. “I’m very happy, and this is something I would definitely do again.”
Justin Edwards-Robidou and his group presented Aztec foods.
“I learned a lot,” he said. “I didn’t know that they ate fish, frogs, salamander, rabbit and gopher tamales until I looked it up. I would never try any of those.
“We put a lot of work into our exhibit,” said Edwards-Robidou. “Most of the research was done online. I was a little nervous presenting the information, but I got through it. I memorized most of the information, but I also had a note card just in case. My brother’s a fifth-grader now, so hopefully he’ll get to do this next year. It was a fun experience for everyone.”
Eleanor St. Peter, whose group researched Aztec sacrifices, had an interesting visual aide for her portion of the talk.
“One of the students in my group suggested sacrificing Dobby [a character from the Harry Potter films]. There’s a Dobby doll in the library, so we got permission to use it for our exhibit,” she said. “We also used a real deer heart. It was dissected in health class, so we asked if we could borrow it when they were done. My group thought sacrifices would be a really exciting topic, so we had fun with it.
“Through my research, I learned that the heart was kept in a handmade bowl called a chac-mool. Sometimes the hearts were burned and the smoke went up to the gods,” said St. Peter. “Usually the young, healthy, strong and good looking were sacrificed because they were a better gift for the gods. They did quite a few sacrifices a day. It was an interesting subject to learn about.”
Other topics researched included temples, pyramids, chocolate, weapons, calendars, education and jewelry.
The students were assisted in the project by Gail Hagelstein, library/media specialist.
