CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES
The following classroom activities are designed for students to explore and master concepts outlined in this unit. This unit should take 7 class days of a 90-minute class to complete.
PART ONE
In this section, students will establish a millennium in the past by exploring the art history of Cahokia. By the end of this section, students should be able to identify that Cahokia was a Pre-Colombian major metropolitan area, in what is now Illinois, and reached its peak one thousand years ago. Students should be able to identify how we know what we know and identify how we make inferences based on archaeological evidence. Students should show understanding of historical analogues through written reflection.
Day 1
As a class, students will share prior knowledge of Pre-Colombian Native American art and culture, identifying what they know about the food, dress, and art of various people groups including the peoples indigenous to their area. Students will then be introduced to the Cahokian culture, and take notes on aspects of Cahokian daily life, culture, and art. After learning Cahokia existed a millennia ago, students will begin to explore what a millennium means. Students will participate in the deep time mapping exercise mentioned above where they trace geological time on their arms to understand geologic time. Students will research to establish what life was broadly like a millennia ago and how it differed from their life: what did the political world map look like? What inventions would they not have had that we do? What were dominant religions and where were they followed? Students will submit research.
Day 2
Students will review art historical information about Cahokia and show understanding via a quiz.
Students will then be assigned to illustrate different scenes from life in Cahokia. First, students will look at an example illustration and identify where the sources for the visuals would have come from without photography (archaeological artifacts and assumptions based on placement of artifacts). Students will use archeological evidence as justification for their designs to show they understand how we know what we know in terms of history.
Students will reflect on their learning in writing to show their understanding of what life would have been like for different people at different times in Cahokia’s history. Why would someone move to Cahokia or away from Cahokia? What would it have felt like living there at the beginning of Cahokia, at the height of its power, and during the collapse? How would it change depending on who you were in that society? Why do you think people tolerated human sacrifice?
PART TWO
In this section, students will learn about the environmental and health issues with the proliferation and slow decomposition of plastic. Students will learn how artists can respond to this problem, and how they can make art out of plastic. Students will collect plastic during their day they would have otherwise thrown away to make art. By the end of this section, students should be able to articulate the issues with the plastic life cycle and identify how art can be used to solve problems in their community.
Day 3
Students will review prior discussions about representations of time to discuss decomposition. Students will share as a class through teacher led discuss any prior knowledge of what decomposition is and how fast items decompose. Students will learn plastic takes a very long time to decompose and has proliferated at every level of the ecosystem, and the environmental and health issues involved in this problem. Students will learn about the plastic life cycle, and where in their community and how plastic is either thrown out or recycled. Students will share their thoughts about what they can do to help, and learn about artists like Richard Lang and Judith Selby Lang. Students will identify plastic used during class that can be saved and used to make art.
Students will be assigned to collect plastic pieces they find or would otherwise throw away. Plastic must be cleaned and brought into class to use. Students who are unable to complete this can instead write a written reflection where they discuss what plastic they noticed themselves using and throwing out throughout a 24-hour period.
Day 4
Students will review the plastic they gathered and discuss anything they noticed about the types of plastic they used and would have thrown away. Students will use personal, group, and class supplies of plastic as well as glue and chipboard to create assemblage artworks made from plastic. Students will reflect on and identify elements of composition, texture, and color scheme in their work.
PART THREE
In this section, students will establish what millennia in the future will look like by exploring the science and art design behind the proposed marker for nuclear waste. Students will create their own design that could last ten thousand years and communicate danger without using language. Students will justify their choices through writing. By the end of this section, students should be able to articulate the basics of the nuclear life cycle, including Virginia’s use of nuclear power in the electric power grid. Students should be able to identify the radiation dangers in nuclear waste, and the science behind the WIPP markers. Students should be able to show understanding of using non-language symbolism to communicate an idea through their model of a WIPP marker.
Day 5
Students will be asked to list the oldest artworks they can think of. Students will research the date of the oldest artwork on their list to establish a timeline of what human life was like then. Students will then be asked to add to their list everything they know about nuclear power. As a class, students will share their list to establish an understanding of basic scientific and historical facts about nuclear power. Students will then learn about the scientific and historical background of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, and the challenge to have the marker last ten thousand years. Students will compare the list of their oldest artworks to see if any meet or surpass the ten-thousand-year mark.
Students will be introduced to the project to build their own Waste Isolation Pilot Plant marker. They will review the rubric: it must communicate danger without language and must be designed to last ten thousand years. Students will establish how much can change in ten thousand years by learning about what life was like in 8,000 BCE. Students will then imagine the future they are designing for by completing a narrative writing prompt imagining life in 12,000 CE.
Day 6
Students will review symbolic communication through a class-wide review of everyday symbols such as road signs. Students will share their interpretation of these symbols to establish effective symbolic communication: how will people interpret colors, shapes, and expressions? Using symbols such as Fallout Shelter, students will learn how symbols can lose their meaning if transmission of information is lost. Students will discuss their interpretation of the symbol, to see if any universal reactions can be found from the colors or shapes.
Students will then explore how the evolution of language can make it fallible in symbolic communication use. Students will use The Bayeaux Tapestry to learn how the English language was changed by the Battle of Hastings and will read samples of what English would have sounded like a millennia ago.
Students will use their understanding of symbolic communication to draw their Waste Isolation Pilot Plant prototype design, to be submitted and then built next class.
Day 7
Students will review the rubric for their project, and work as a class to create a list of challenges their design could face over ten thousand years, from political instability to weather to degradation of materials. They will then list the materials they think would best survive the length of time and why.
Students will then make a 3D model of their design from the previous class out of given materials. Recommended materials for this project, based on ease of classroom use, include cardboard, scissors, tape, paper, plaster strips and water, and clay.
Students will reflect on the project through writing, explaining the thought process for their design and justifying it through their cited research.
Once finished, models can be displayed in the school without explanation and with paper and pen inviting onlookers to write their interpretation of the monument. Students can later review these interpretations and see if they match their intentions.
By the end of this unit, students will have completed research and reflection writing on Cahokia, created their own artwork out of plastic trash, and shown their understanding of the nuclear life cycle by creating and justifying their design for an effective and long-lasting marker for nuclear waste. By doing this, students will understand more clearly the length of a millennia.
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