International Baccalaureate Program

Educating for Excellence

 

Rigor + Relevance + Relationships = Educational Excellence

MYP in the Classroom

Northside Blodgett

MYP Unit 6th Grade Archaeology Unit

Instructors Nicole Walsh, NSB Orange Team

Sixth grade students in Northside Blodgett’s Orange Team are really digging in to their schoolwork, thanks to an exciting unit on Archaeology. The centerpiece of the unit is a Webquest designed by Nicole Walsh, the team’s Language and Humanities teacher, that serves as an interactive outline for the myriad components of the curriculum. “With the Webquest, we are able to incorporate Science, Technology and Language, as well as connecting homo faber and the MYP’s five Areas of Interaction,”says Mrs. Walsh.

The Northside sixth graders work independently to complete the first steps in the Webquest. The introduction sets the stage, announcing the 1991 discovery of Oetzi, a 5,300 year-old male body, and introduces the Webquest’s essential question: What can artifacts tell us about the ancient past? As part of the process, the students click on links to get background information about Oetzi, record information in scientific journals and learn applicable vocabulary and terms. The final task of the Webquest is an evaluation, in which students complete a rubric assessing their essay project.

Numerous classroom activities complement the Web exploration, with the most memorable being the classroom “dig.” Mrs. Walsh set the mood by darkening the room and charging students with their mission: to uncover relics of a past civilization, carefully recording, measuring and labeling each find. The students worked in groups of two to find artifacts hidden in in tubs filled with cat litter. Students were reminded that archaeology is a gentle, slow process, and that sometimes, nothing is found.

Language is integrated as the students complete their “site report,” a “how-to” essay on the archeological method and findings from their classroom dig. In addition, students will complete a reflection based on the guest speaker’s presentation. All the component work resulting from the Webquest and classroom activities will be incorporated into a project portfolio. Students also can earn optional extra credit by answering the unit’s Essential Question. As a culminating activity, the classes visited the Museum of the Earth in Ithaca.