Living in the Roman Empire
PROJECT
Creating A Roman Museum

INTRODUCTION

Creating A Roman Museum is an excellent starting point for student inquiry and understanding. This project-based approach allows students to learn about the Roman Empire through building artifacts, making displays, and creating a Roman Museum. Artifacts that are with to us today tell us the story of ancient Rome. This project enables students to learn about the development, expansion, glory, and decline of the Roman Empire by participating in the creation and operation of a Roman museum in their classroom.

Creating A Roman Museum is formatted for the Ohana Collection and consists of four major steps:

The FOCUS section develops awareness of the overall topic. Students become interested in the subject by viewing the Ohana Collection DVD: Living in the Roman Empire and asking questions: What was it like to be a Roman citizen living in Rome during the growth of the Roman Empire? Why was Rome so powerful? And what caused the Empire to crumble?

EXPLORATIONS provides investigations and experiences to help students understand the content and the relevance of the overall topic. Students gather information about life in the Roman Empire. This includes information about gods and goddesses, religion and myths, Roman warfare, lifestyle, food, clothing, art, architecture, roads, aqueducts, heroes/emperors, and entertainment. Students research and share information about artifacts and stories of the past from local sources such as museums and libraries, and from Internet resources.

In CONNECTIONS, students organize the information they want visitors to their museum to learn. They share and discuss the kind of museum they wish to create in their classroom, what displays they wish to have, and how they will share information with their visitors.

In the ACTIONS section, students demonstrate what they have learned about the growth and decline of the Roman Empire its contribution to development of civilization, and the life of its people. Students learn to communicate using displays and artifacts, and how to create and operate a classroom museum.

PERFORMANCE TASK
Create a Roman museum in your classroom and share it with others.
OBJECTIVES
Students will:
  • Create a museum in your classroom by preparing a floor plan and designing displays with a logical progresion.
  • Plan methods for generating and maintaining displays.
  • Draw up a time line of the rise and fall of the Roman Empire.
  • Plan participation in running the museum by dividing up the necessary responsibilities. (i.e., share information with visitors as a guide, participate in a dramatization, and maintain displays).
  • Take part in gathering and recording information, creating displays, signs, graphics, and time line.

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FOCUS
View the Ohana Collection DVD: Living in the Roman Empire before beginning this project.

Essential Question: How was the information about the Roman Empire passed on to the generations that followed it?

  • Discuss the legacy left behind by the Roman Empire including the various artifacts, art work, myths that have been passed down from generation to generation.
  • View: Chapter 3: The Gifts of the Romans
  • View: Chapter 4: Living in the Roman Empire

Essential Question: What influence has the Roman Empire had on our lives?

  • Discuss names of planets that come from Roman gods and goddesses, months named by the Romans, and Roman numerals.
  • Explain how Latin is the basis for many European languages and how it has been incorporated into English.
  • Identify Roman inventions (such as aqueducts and water heated floors), the Roman games, orators, philosophers, leaders and discuss how these influence life in the twenty-first century.
  • Discuss the art and architecture of Rome and where its influence can be seen today.

Essential Questions: What is a museum? Why do we have them? What are some different kinds of museums?

  • Discuss reasons for having museums and what may be found in them. Name museums you have visited or have heard about.
  • In addition to the Ohana Collection DVD: Living in the Roman Empire, use Web links, books, and other materials to find answers.
  • Visit a local museum.

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EXPLORATIONS
Essential Question: What and where was the Roman Empire?

  • View Chapter 1: Introduction
  • Use Web links, library or other resources.
  • Discuss the size and strength of the Roman Empire and compare it to present-day countries.

Essential Question: Why was the Roman Empire so successful?

  • Discuss the strength and structure of the Roman military and the organizational skills of the Romans.
  • View Chapter 2: Creation of an Empire
  • View Chapter 3: The Gifts of the Romans
  • Use Internet, library or other resources.

Essential Question: In what ways did the Romans improve the lives of the people they conquered?

  • Discuss Roman roads, buildings, baths, etc. (Students present arguments and decide if the Roman Empire improved the lives of people they conquered.)
  • View Chapter 2: Creation of an Empire
  • View Chapter 3: The Gifts of the Romans
  • Students research their answers using the Internet, library or other resources.

Essential Question: What was life like in the Roman Empire?

  • Discuss the life of the Romans, both slaves and citizens; explore the life of a school age child in Rome; look at religious practices and the importance of the gods and goddesses in the Romans' lives.
  • View: Chapter 4: Living in the Roman Empire
  • View: Chapter 5: The Roman Gods
  • View: Chapter 6: Roman Religious Practices
  • Use Web links, library or other resources to gather additional data

Essential Question: What happened to the Roman Empire?

  • Discuss how a huge, powerful, successful empire such as the Roman Empire can fall.
  • View: Chapter 7: The Last Years of The Empire
  • View: Chapter 8: Conclusion
  • Use Web links, library or other resources to gather additional data.

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CONNECTIONS
Essential Question: What should we include in our museum?

  • Explain to the students that the purpose of the museum is to teach others about life in the Roman Empire.

Essential Question: What do we want to teach others about the Roman Empire?

  • What can we include in our museum that will teach others about the Roman Empire?

Essential Question: What kind of museum do we want?

  • Brainstorm museum possibilities such as a traditional museum of static displays, a living museum, a mock archeological site or a combination.
  • Encourage ideas that will result in a unique type of museum.
    (For a sample of a living museum go to Web links and Plimoth Plantation Virtual Tour.)

Essential Question: What will our museum look like?

  • Brainstorm ideas about how to use the space available to create a museum, how the traffic will flow and how the pieces in the museum will be displayed. Draft a floor plan.

Essential Question: Whom can we share our information with and how will we share this information?

  • Brainstorm possible audiences. Discuss who would enjoy the information and be able to understand and learn from it.
  • Brainstorm jobs within the museum and how students can fill those roles.

Essential Question: Who is going to do which displays and which jobs?

  • Brainstorm and list the possible displays, discussing what students wish to teach and how best to share their information.
  • Discuss the merits of working with others or working alone.

Essential Question: How will we know our museum project is on target and the work is getting done?

  • Brainstorm ways to check on work in progress, discuss a possible time line for completion of the project. Perhaps invite a speaker who is involved in construction to visit and explain how progress is monitored.

Essential Question: How will we operate our museum?

  • Discuss the importance of managing a business, making sure people know their jobs and perform them.
  • Brainstorm possible jobs in the museum. How can everyone be involved? How will the visitors be guided through the museum? Decide the hours of operation and days the museum will be open.

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ACTIONS
Create and operate a museum of the Roman Empire in your classroom:

  1. Determine the space where the museum will be housed.
  2. Create a list of displays and assign students to design them.
  3. Students create displays that will be in the museum and produce written materials guide book, signage, display information, scripts for presentations and role-playing.
  4. Students role play jobs, decide how guests will be escorted through the museum and determine how displays will be explained to them.
  5. After role-playing, share what went well, what needs improvement and what needs to be changed.
  6. Invite guests and operate the museum in your classroom.
  7. Have guests fill out a comment card after they have been through the museum.
  8. Evaluate and discuss the data collected. Brainstorm adjustments as needed.