HUMANITIES

YEAR 8 RENAISSANCE DISCOVERY PROJECT

History in Year 8 is a cavalcade of fun and excitement as it is one of the best courses going around. We start with the Mongols, have a look at Medieval Europe, participate in Medieval Day, research crime and punishment and finish with learning about the Renaissance. No wonder I am exhausted by the end of semester!

The last few weeks have seen History students working feverishly on their Renaissance Discovery Projects. Working in pairs they research an aspect of the Renaissance, present to the class and make a learning product or model to help facilitate the learning of their topic to the class. Some of the presentations have been amazing but the standard of the learning models have been awesome.

Jonathan Jhoomun

Year 8 History Teacher

Check out the pictures and some of the comments from students in 8E and 8C about their learning. 

8E and their Learning Products

8C and their Learning Products

Tilde and Chantelle from 8E with map and model of Ferdinand Magellan

Anika and Julia from 8C with their Learning Models on Machiavelli

A FEW COMMENTS FROM STUDENTS:

Our names are Kayce and Yael and for the Renaissance project we learnt about King Henry VIII. At first, the only things I knew about King Henry VIII is that he had many wives but thanks to this project I now know his wives’ names and the reasoning behind all of his marriages. To show our learning, we made a presentation about him and a model of all of his wives. This task was fun as they gave us the freedom to choose our partners and our topic. Overall this task was really fun and educational!

Our topic was renaissance entertainment. We learnt about theatre, acting and Shakespeare. We also learnt about other types of entertainment such as sports, music and carnivals. We learnt how some sports are still played today - like tennis, whereas others aren't allowed to be played because they are too dangerous - Jousting. We made a theatre with a stage which showed famous people from the Renaissance on it. Our model showed our learning because we described the life of the famous renaissance entertainers. We really enjoyed the Renaissance because we learnt how their lifestyle was different compared to today.

Annabelle and Kayla (8E)

Our topic was Sir Francis Drake. I think we learned a lot about the life of sailors and explorers in the late 16th century. We also learned a lot about the Anglo-Spanish war, naval tactics used by Drake and the 'unbeatable' Spanish Armada and its defeat. We really enjoyed how open-ended the task was and how many opportunities we had to research different aspects of Sir Francis Drake's life, as well as putting together a presentation for our classmates and thinking about new and unique ways of explaining our information effectively. 

Siddarth and Kevin (8E)

Our topic was Vasco Da Gama.

In our research we learned that he set up a new sea route from Europe to India and opened the world up for exploration. We made the Sao Gabriel, which is the flagship that Vasco Da Gama he used on his first voyage. It shows that we know what ship he used for his first voyage and exploration is his game. We enjoyed doing the research, the part where we compared him to other explorers was the most interesting and fascinating section.

Extra information: Vasco Da Gama, more like, Vasco THE GAMER 

Joshua and Andrew (8E)

My name is Atahan and my partner is Kyle. Our topic was Leonardo Da Vinci. We learnt about Da Vinci’s early life, including his apprenticeship with Andrea del Verrochio, who taught him everything he knew. We learnt about who Da Vinci really was as a person, how he drew inspiration from the things he saw around him. We made a board game that features all of his inventions and some of his paintings, which takes you through a mysterious land. It helped us to comprehend just how many things he invented that we use on a daily basis in today’s world. We both found interest in Da Vinci and we both like board games, so we thought it was a perfect fit. We spent many hours at home constructing the board game and did solid work in class. Through all this, however, it was still fun.

Atahan and Kyle (8E)