Our Past, Our Future


Introduction

Of all the global civilisations from ancient history, which one is the best?
If you think you know the answer to that question, could you explain how you arrived at it? What criteria did you use to choose the best? What knowledge do you have about these civilisations already? Did you do any research before you made a decision?
Making informed judgements is an important aspect of life. It's hard mental work, but grappling with it will clarify the way you think about things.

Task

United Nations

As a representative of your home country, you recently attended a United Nations (UN) conference on the state of our modern global society. 
The UN country representatives collectively decided that lessons could be learned on ideal societies from ancient civilisations such as:

  • Egyptians
  • Greeks
  • Romans
  • Aztecs
  • Chinese
The civilisations could be put in rank order and modern society modelled on the best one. Alternatively, the best bits could be used from each of the civilisations.

Your job as a researcher for the UN is to find out about each of the ancient civilisations and make recommendations on 'the best' to the UN country representatives based on criteria of your choice. You must justify all your recommendations and make your sources of information clear.
Remember your overall aim is to improve society as we know it!

Process

Activity 1

View the Wonders of the World slideshow. How many do you know? What do you know about them? What do you know about the people and places of the times in which they were made? 

Activity 2

Complete the mapping activity. What do you notice about the areas of the world in which all these early civilisations arose? Why do you think the & Wonders of the Ancient World are all in one particular area?

Activity 3

Working in teams of 2 or 3, brainstorm which aspects of the ancient civilisations are important to research. For example, you might look at:
  • Buildings
  • Art
  • Law and order
  • Education
Think of at least 10 more to add to this list.
Present your ideas as a mind map or other graphic organiser.

Activity 4

Decide with your team how you will organise the information you find about the ancient civilisations. 
Will you make a project book, a collection of notes, a leaflet or a PowerPoint presentation? Perhaps you would like to use a mind map or series of fact sheets. How about a podcast or create a video? How about a mixture of these?
It's up to you!
         

Activity 5

Let's get started on finding out about the different civilisations. 
On this page you will find links to some websites with information about the different civilisations. As you are using them, think about how reliable each source is - you will be assessed on this later. You need to be selective. Can you choose and use the most relevant information? Is it fit for purpose? Does it suit the format you have decided to present your information in?

Activity 6

You've done the research so what next?
Which of the ancient civilisations would you judge to be the most successful based on what you found out?
What criteria are you using to judge success? You need to discuss them with your group and decide upon a list of criteria.
Using these criteria, you need to make recommendations to the United Nations representatives on:
  • what our current society could learn from the past
  • how we might benefit from their traditions in the future
Will you go for one civilisation as the ultimate model of success, or 'cherry pick' by taking the best bits from several civilisations?

Activity 7

Present your recommendations to an audience.
Be prepared to give and receive feedback. 
Be prepared to use your new found knowledge in a  debate. Topic TBA

Many ideas for this inquiry have been modelled on the work of  Mrs K Rossiter on her Ancient Civilisations WebQuest, created in questgarden.com. I would like to acknowledge her original authorship.

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