Social Studies Project: Ancient Greece Time Capsule

You are visiting Greece and on one of your adventures, you feel something unusual on the ground. You can see a bit of some hard material sticking out of the ground, so you begin digging. You uncover a case that has Greek letters engraved on the outside. With excitement, you pick it up and bring it back with you to where you are staying. With your friends’ help, you open the case and discover a treasure: a time capsule. What secrets do you uncover?

Anything that encapsulates or preserves matter over a period of years is a time capsule. Think of a time capsule as a “message in a bottle” sent forward in time to tell people in the future what life was like in the past.

Here is your task: Create a time capsule that “originated” in your assigned time period of Ancient Greece. The artifacts should teach about people’s lives, traditions, and the world around them.

Requirements:

  1. Writing: one from each member of the group:

A memoir/autobiographical essay from a “resident” of the time period that tells about his/her day-to-day life, physical surroundings, family, government, interests, art & culture, fears, and beliefs.

  1. Two-dimensional artifacts: 2 or 3* pictures that represent important aspects of your life. These can be handmade, drawn, or computer generated pictures but NOT photographs.
  2. Three-dimensional artifacts: 2 or 3* created objects that represent important aspects of your life. These must be handmade, not readymade.
  3. Descriptions: Each artifact needs to have a description, including why this artifact is important and what future generation can learn from it about your society. Descriptions should be at least 3 sentences long. You can use a number or lettering system with a legend outlining which summary goes with what artifact. That way when you hand in your Time Capsule box, it is marked accordingly.
  4. Container: Decorate the outside of a small container. Some ideas for containers: coffee can, small shoe box, small shipping box, etc.
  5. Student performance sheet: a list of students in your group and what each specifically did to contribute to the group work.
  6. References: a reference sheet/bibliography showing that each student in the group has utilized at least 2 sources other than your social studies text.

* 5 artifacts in total

Aspect of Project / Due Date
2-dimensional artifacts / 1/11/2016
3-dimensional artifacts / 1/11/2016
artifact descriptions (all 5) / 1/15/2016
reference sheet (2 per student) / 1/22/2015
student performance sheet (showing each student’s tasks, completed or not) / 1/27/2016
container / 1/27/2016
presentations (begin) / 1/27/2016
memoir / 2/3/2016

Ancient Greece Time CapsuleRubric*

Name:Date:HR:

Group Aspect / 5 / 4 / 3 / 2 / 1 / 0
artifact #1
artifact #1 description
artifact #2
artifact #2 description
artifact #3
artifact #3 description
artifact #4
artifact #4 description
artifact #5
artifact #5 description
container
reference sheet
Individual Aspect (Memoir) / 5 / 4 / 3 / 2 / 1 / 0
physical surroundings
family/ government
interests/culture
fears/beliefs
miscellaneous
total number of checks per column
column total
total score / /75 = %

*The student performance sheet: This will indicate which individual students should be held accountable for missing/incomplete aspects. Without this sheet, all students will be held responsible for any missing or incomplete work.