Teenagers may be the last people to be trusted with creating an empire, but students in Humanities start the year creating an original civilization and putting together a crash course video which they will present to their class on Monday.

“This project is a way to take what we know about characteristics of earlier civilizations and early culture and to show understanding by creating our own,” Humanities teacher Sarah Wiseman said. “What makes it fun is that instead of just like writing a report or answering questions on a test, students get to flux their creativity by doing something that’s interesting to them. For example, we have one student who is really math science oriented and he has made his own recipe for like a flamethrower weapon as a part of his project.”

Students are working in groups of three or fours, and are tasked with creating an original creation myth, artifacts, and crash course style video for their civilization which will count as two major grades with both group and individual parts.

“We try to have individual components and group components,” Wiseman said, “So that individuals are rewarded for their effort, but that groups are encouraged to work together towards a common goal.”

Grades will be based on student’s individual artifacts, creation myth, and essential question response and action.

“As I grade the projects I’m looking for the students’ creativity to come into it,” Humanities teacher Elizabeth Evans said. “So that they are able to demonstrate that they know what all the elements of culture are and they are able to think philosophically about culture and then present that in a way that is unique and creative.”

Students will explore how the first civilizations of the world viewed the world and how that influenced their beliefs and culture. The crash course presentations allow the whole class to learn about different cultures and have a deeper understanding of their history.

“I’m most excited about making my artifact,” freshman Bonnie Wu said. “It’s an interactive project where you actually get to explore the Mesopotamian culture.”