The Project



The Ancient Greece Project

The Ancient Greek project is about critical thinking. The project requires you to make a ‘reasoned judgment.’

Adults, like judges, frequently use their critical thinking skills to make important decisions. Having the skills to make a ‘reasoned judgment’ is an important step in you becoming and adult.

The Steps

• learn about reasoned judgments,

• pick a research project,

• do the research (take and make notes, cite your sources, ask questions)

• present your information, your ‘reasoned judgment’, and defend your decision,

• manage your time efficiently,

• evaluate your work, and

• show off your growing skills (and have some fun doing this)

What is Reasoned Judgment?

" ...critical thinking...means making reasoned judgments”

One approach to making a reasoned judgment involves the collection of evidence and then deciding upon and applying a set of reasons before making a judgment.

The process consists of:

1. Being clear about what you're evaluating and why you're doing so.

2. Determining reasonable criteria based on your purpose.

3. Collecting enough relevant evidence to make a sound judgment.

4. Applying your criteria accurately and fairly to what you've gathered.

Reasoned judgments are based on information or evidence that is accurate, relevant, and credible.*

* Edited from material found, on March 25, 2007, at

The Challenges

#1: Moving to Ancient Greece

Scientists have invented time-travel. Your job is to develop a promotional presentation that attracts families to move to Ancient Greece.

Research the following:

1. What might attract fathers, mothers, teens, and children to Ancient Greece as a place and time to live? What would they see, hear, taste, touch, feel?

2. What would they do for work and play? What would life be like for each family member?

3. What would be especially interesting or attractive to various family members?

4. What would they wear? Where would they live?

5. What would they miss?

6. What can they do, in Ancient Greece, to help take their minds off what they might miss?

7. What would they not miss at all?

#2: Who has it better: the Ancient Greeks or your Family?

You are sitting in Math class and daydreaming. What are you dreaming about? You are imagining what life would be like in Ancient Greece. Would you still have to do math? Would life be harder or easier? What would you miss? What would you not miss?

As is usual with your daydreams, you begin to imagine having an argument with a friend about which would be the better place to be, here or there. As is usual with your daydreams, you take the argument too far, and decide to challenge your friend to a PowerPoint duel (If we were in the 16th Century, we would use swords, but we are not, so we’ll use PowerPoint).

Research the following:

1. What did the women, men and children do during the day? What do they do today in Canada?

2. What did the Ancient Greeks do for work? What about Canadians? Which do you think are happier in their work? Why?

3. What did they do for entertainment? What do we do for entertainment? Which can be more fun?

4. Who made the decisions about laws and how things should be handled? Who makes those decisions in Canada today?

5. How were the Ancient Greeks “civilized”, and how were they “uncivilized”? How are Canadians today “civilized” and how are we “uncivilized”?

6. How do the living conditions compare? Climate, homes, food, clothes, health, and fitness…?

7. How do culture and education compare? Philosophy, literature, architecture, and schooling?

8. How were people treated in Ancient Greece? How does the way we see people today compare with the Ancient Greeks?

9. How does our sense of personal security and safety differ from the Ancient Greeks?

10. How much control did the Ancient Greeks have over their lives? How much control do we have? What are the benefits and drawbacks of each?

#3: Which city would be better for a family to live in Sparta or Athens? (Use daily life and info on Sparta and Athens)

Life in Ancient Egypt, where you live, is okay, but your family is thinking about moving to Greece where there may be more opportunities. You have stumbled across a magical device – a computer. You will use it to create a project that persuades your family to move to either Sparta or Athens, and shows them that you know what you are talking about.

Research the following:

1. Compare the quality of life for each member of the family:

a. What would they do with their day?

b. What would be their work?

c. How would they entertain themselves?

d. How much control do they have over their lives?

e. How do the living conditions compare? Climate, homes, food, clothes, health, and fitness…?

2. How did the way people were treated differ between the two city-states?

3. How did personal security and safety differ?

4. How did the values of the people differ between the two city-states? How did that effect life for each family member?

5. How do culture and education compare?

#4: Who has the better heroes?

You are having an argument with one of your teachers. The teacher feels that there are no real heroes today; that heroism ceased during the times of the Ancient Greeks. You disagree with your teacher (surprise, surprise). Create a presentation to persuade your teacher that you are right.

or

You are having another argument with one of your teachers (You are the argumentative one, aren’t you!). The teacher feels that the heroes today are far more heroic than those of Ancient Greece. You disagree with your teacher (Again!). Create a presentation to persuade your teacher that you are right.

Research the following:

1. What is heroism?

2. What are the similarities and differences between heroes today and heroes of Ancient Greece?

3. Who are our heroes? What does it take to be a “larger than life” hero today? What did it take to be a “larger than life” hero in Ancient Greece?

4. What are the myths and stories about heroes of Ancient Greece? What do these myths and stories say about the Ancient Greek view of heroism?

5. What are the myths and stories about heroes of today? What do these myths and stories say about our view of heroism and our civilization?

# 5: What is the Greatest Legacy of the Ancient Greeks?

You feel that we would be nothing if it were not for the accomplishments of the past. (This shows how intelligent you really are.) You challenge a classmate to prove the point that the greatest legacy of the Ancient Greeks was their _________. Your partner is going is going to pick another legacy. You smirk knowingly…for you will create a presentation that will simply bulldoze any opposition. Nike! Victory will be yours!

Research the following:

1. What is a legacy?

2. Architecture and Art

3. Science, Inventions, Technology

4. Mythology, Literature, Drama

5. Democracy and Government

# 6: Without victory in their wars, the Greeks would be unimportant and we would not need to study them?

The movies “The 300”, “Alexander the Great”, and “Troy” all point out how important the wars that the Greeks fought was to their civilization and to us. Without victory, we would not have ____________, __________, or ____________. Your challenge is to determine which of the wars fought was the most important one and explain how this victory cemented the Ancient Greeks place in history.

Research the following:

1. What is important to know about the Greek army and navy?

2. What was the cause of the Peloponnesian war and why is this important?

3. What was the cause of the Trojan war and was this war important?

4. Why were the Persians and Greeks constantly at war? Why is this important? How did these wars shape the Greeks?

5. Who was Alexander the Great? What did he achieve? Why are his achievements important?

6. How did the wars of the Greeks influence our civilization?

How to present your ideas

We want to leave this open, in my opinion, so that students can play with the idea of how they want to show off their knowledge.

1. PowerPoint presentation

2. Photo Story 3 project

3. Negotiated alternative. I want to show my ability to make a ‘reasoned judgment’ by doing the following...

“To Do” List

Task Deadline

1. _______________________________________________ __________

2. _______________________________________________ __________

3. _______________________________________________ __________

4. _______________________________________________ __________

5. _______________________________________________ __________

6. _______________________________________________ __________

7. _______________________________________________ __________

Ancient Greece Power Point Project: Criteria Sheet

Learning outcomes to be evaluated:

__ /5 Depth of understanding, accuracy __/5 Persuasiveness

__ /5 Effective use of technology

|5 |4 |3 |2 |1 |

| |Project includes all |Project includes enough |Project includes enough |Project includes minimal |

| |factual information |factual information to |factual information to |factual information, |

| |required to demonstrate a|demonstrate a thorough |demonstrate a |demonstrating incomplete |

| |highly developed |understanding of a |satisfactory |understanding of a |

| |understanding of both |reasoned judgment. |understanding of a |reasoned judgment. |

|As for a 4, with the |sides of a reasoned | |reasoned judgment. | |

|amount and quality of |judgment. | | | |

|information going far | |Information is accurately| |The information lacks |

|enough beyond what was |Information is accurate |presented and connections|The majority of the |depth and/or little or no|

|asked for that this |and a variety of |are drawn between |information is accurate, |connections are drawn |

|project could be used as a|connections are drawn |relevant facts. |but it lacks depth and/or|between relevant facts. |

|resource for future Grade |between relevant facts. | |a few connections are | |

|7 students. | | |drawn between relevant | |

| |Project makes several |Project makes several |facts. |Majority of the |

| |clear attempts to |clear attempts to | |information presented as |

| |convince the audience of |convince the reader of |Project does attempt to |topical research |

| |the writer’s point of |the writer’s point of |convince the reader of |presentation, with little|

| |view with respect to the |view. |the writer’s point of |or no attempt to convince|

|As for a 4, with |critical challenge. | |view. |the reader of the |

|your point of view being | |Technology is effectively| |writer’s opinion. |

|so persuasive that it can |Technology is used very |used to support the | | |

|stand up to all critical |effectively used to |opinion of the writer. |Technology is used to |Minimal use of the |

|questions posed by Ms. |support the opinion of | |support the opinion of |technology in an |

|Brickman |the writer. | |the writer. |effective manner. |

| | | | | |

| | | | | |

|Technology is used | | | | |

|seamlessly to support a | | | | |

|reasoned judgment. | | | | |

Self-evaluation

I feel I deserve a ___ because I...

Next time I would do a better job by...

I demonstrated a “Habit of Mind” when I...

Teacher evaluation

I feel you deserve a ____ because...

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