Investigating the Ancient Past

Archaeological Dig

“Archaeology is like a jigsaw puzzle, except that you can't cheat and look at the box, and not all the pieces are there.”

This term, Year 7 made the most of their opportunity to make the archaeological process come alive by taking part in a dig. 

The students put their trowels, brushes, and sieves to use to analyse the artefacts they found and piece together the story behind the archaeological site they were asked to excavate. 

Hear from 7Y’s Jelena Spajic who told us more about her experiences engaging with the archaeological process:

What did you enjoy the most about the activity?

“What I enjoyed the most was finding unique artefacts. I found this tablet with strange writing on it and it was fun trying to crack the code to figure out what it said and how it connected to the other artefacts my friends found.”

How did the activity improve your understanding of the Ancient World?

“It helped me understand how I can use my thought process to piece together different artefacts and tell a story about the past.”

Roman Catapults

Before delving deeper into their study of the Ancient World, Year 7G were given the opportunity practice their Critical and Creative Thinking skills to create a model of an Ancient Roman catapult using only 10 popsicle sticks, 10 rubber bands, and a plastic spoon.

Using their knowledge of what the onager would have looked like and such limited resources, 7G worked in pairs to create catapults that effectively shot projectiles high up in the air. 

The students then pitted their catapults against each other to see which design could throw projectiles the furthest. Congratulations to Evangel Chuna and Lukas Toma who designed the winning catapult. 

Hear from Thomas Dang who told us more about his experience collaborating with his peers to build a model catapult:

What did you enjoy the most about the activity?

“I enjoyed being able to modify and improve my catapult while working with my friends and limited resources.” 

How did the activity improve your understanding of the Ancient World?

“The activity made me appreciate how difficult it would have been to build a real catapult and how hard it would have been to operate them during wartime especially under pressure.” 

F Floresca

History Teacher