Our learning from the beginning of the first project to the second project was exponential. Our entry event for the second project was to show the film Night at the Museum, where the historical figures come alive. Each student in the program was to "become" an influential historical person from one of ten countries or areas, England, France, Germany, Italy, Scandinavia, Australia, China, Japan, Egypt, and Greece. Students were to know everything about their influential person and be able to answer any question about them. The public exhibition for the second project was to present to 6th graders at the middle school.
To prepare for the presentations, in math they made scale models of a famous structure in that country, in physical science they studied the materials used to build the structures, in English they wrote a story which took place in their country. In social studies they learned the history and stories of their person and country, including why their person was so influential.
The event that truly captured their interest was the Thursday 30 Second Throwdown based on Brad Gustafson's 30 Second Take. We set up a March Madness style bracket featuring all influential people and each week we had them face off for 30 seconds on a topic. Some topics included, who was more historically significant, who would make a better principal of our school, who is more like Santa Claus, with whom you rather be stuck with for a day in the airport. For the finals we did a rap battle. As the weeks progressed, and characters were defeated, the vanquished joined the team of their conqueror. The job of the vanquished was to research both their conqueror and their opponent for the next week. That requirement worked on multiple levels. 1. It kept everyone involved with a stake in the result, 2. As the tournament progressed, everyone got to know all the historical figures 3. It established a team atmosphere in the class.
After each match up we did a poll everywhere vote for the round. Kids loved to see the vote totals as they came in. I'm sure the teachers in the classrooms around ours hated those Thursdays because I don't think it could have been louder as students stated their claims and then threw some dirt on their opponent. I highly recommend doing the 30 Second Throwdown. It was a blast and the kids learned more during that time than they may have in some entire years.
In addition to actually building their famous structures, they had to create a backdrop which served as a billboard showing a map of the country, the flag and something famous about the country. Most backdrops were 4 feet by 6 feet or so. They also had to find or create a costume which represented what the character would have worn or how they had been depicted and have an interactive component for 6th graders to do when they came to learn about the country.
Two weeks before our final exhibition, the we held a "cocktail" type party to practice being characters around other people and answer questions students didn't know were coming. We invited parents and adults from the school to come and talk with the famous people. The highlight was a spontaneous debate between Marie Antoinette and her husband, King Louis XVI of France. The kids had fun showing off how much they knew and having snacks and soda.
When we got to presentation day, we had to transport 50 structures, ten backdrops, our artifacts and interactive components and transform the lunch room at the 6th grade middle school into a museum. The day was amazing!! Our students informed, entertained and delighted the 6th grade students and loved having former teachers there to show off how much they knew and how they had grown. It was a huge success! Some teachers even told us the kids got more out of our Living Museum than they had from the culture fair in Milwaukee. They said our kids were more engaging, entertaining and there was more of an interactive element to our "museum." To that point it was one of the greatest days of my teaching career. We left there excited, and exhausted.
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