Students in GT Humanities have spent the past few weeks preparing for the Museum Exhibit Project. The project entails creating artifacts for a museum exhibit that revolves around an ancient civilization.
Students will be presenting their projects on Monday and Tuesday in the library during periods 1A, 2A, 3A, 2B, and 4B. Staff and students are welcome to visit museum exhibits.
The main purpose of the project is to help students learn more about their civilizations and the role of culture in their civilization. “We hope that students take away a few things: A deep understanding of how worldviews shape the world around them, [a] deep understanding of one particular culture, [a] broad understanding of many cultures, [and a]n appreciation for the challenges of modern museum curation, including looting, provenance, context, and interactivity,” humanities teacher Sarah Wiseman said.
Students’ projects ranged from 3D models to paintings to food. “For the project, I’m making cornbread because I’m doing the Mayans and they ate a lot of corn,” sophomore Sri Medha Pedaprolu said.
But, the scope of the project isn’t just arts and crafts. Students have been researching their civilizations for weeks prior to the project.
“Students started by selecting civilizations that they were interested in,” Wiseman said. “We formed groups of 3 based on student interests. Then, each group completed some presearch where they got basic background information on their civilization’s worldviews that would help them with their research project. After that, students selected individual topics within their civilization: social structures, governance, or observable culture. They researched these, collecting evidence and practicing putting it in context. After that, students created a thesis and organized their argument using an outline. After that, students drafted their argument as a research paper, receiving peer feedback. They submitted their final papers. Then, groups came back together and looked for patterns between their final research paper. How did worldviews uniquely shape their civilizations society, governance, and observable culture? Students used their research to develop a proposal for their projects based on the call-for-proposal process used by professionals.”
But despite the intense research the project requires, it’s ultimately a fun way for students to learn more about ancient civilizations. “My favorite part is actually the baking,” Pedaprolu said. “I’ve never baked before, but it’s really entertaining”
In the end, Wiseman loves seeing the original museum exhibits students come up with. “My favorite part of this project is always seeing the museum exhibits,” Wiseman said. “Our students are so creative and thoughtful! I always learn something new and am blown away by their ingenuity.”
Students in GT Humanities get to step in the shoes of museum curators for a week as they tackle the challenges of creating a museum exhibit revolving around an ancient civilization.
“Students are creating museum exhibits about civilizations from around the world from before 1450 CE,” humanities teacher Sarah Wiseman said. “These interactive exhibits should explore the connections between worldviews and how they shape society, governments, and observable culture.”
But this project isn’t a one-day thing; in fact, students have been putting weeks and weeks of effort into ensuring that their exhibits provide a comprehensive understanding of their chosen civilization.
These interactive exhibits should explore the connections between worldviews and how they shape society, governments, and observable culture,
— GT Humanities teacher Sarah Wiseman
“First, we all picked a topic in groups of three and then each of us picked to either explore the social, cultural, or political aspect of that empire,” sophomore Laura Huang said. “Then we all wrote a research paper and then after that, we developed a theme to work around for our project and create artifacts.”
Although students get to pick different lenses with which to analyze their civilization, the main focus of the project is still the culture of a civilization and the various factors that impact it.
“This quarter, our skills are cultural developments and interactions (how worldviews shape society, governments, and observable culture), evidence in context (supporting an argument using specific and relevant evidence, placed in historical context to build understanding),” Wiseman said. “The arguments made by the exhibits fit with cultural developments and interactions. The exhibits themselves will feature evidence, and the wall text will put that evidence in historical context.”
For many students, it’s important to create the most informative and comprehensive exhibit possible in order to share as much information with their peers about their chosen civilization as possible.
“I hope [visitors are] more intrigued, like they’re intrigued by the Mayans and wanna learn more,” sophomore Sri Medha Pedaprolu said. “We want them to walk away thinking that our museum was well-curated as well.”
My favorite part of the project is the interactive part of it where we get to walk through the museum and see what everyone else has been working on,
— sophomore Laura Huang
For other students, the museum project serves as an opportunity to learn more about other empires and civilizations and a moment to appreciate all their peers’ hard work.
“My favorite part of the project is the interactive part of it where we get to walk through the museum and see what everyone else has been working on,” Huang said.
But for Wiseman, the best part of the project is seeing students’ innovativeness and creativity manifest in the exhibits they design.
“My favorite part of this project is always seeing the museum exhibits,” Wiseman said. “Our students are so creative and thoughtful! I always learn something new and am blown away by their ingenuity.”
