Rolling Into a New Quarter

It was so much fun to work with our students to choose our project topic for this quarter - and together we chose the History of Transportation! 

To begin, we travelled back 15,000 years to a time before vehicles or even domestic animals.  We took a virtual field trip to the Lascaux caverns in France to learn about how archeologists learn about early human history. We learned about early innovations like the wheel and domestication of horses, and created our own cave paintings.

Next, we hopped forward in time to Ancient Rome to learn about chariots and the Roman roads. We watched a re-enactment of a chariot race, and then built our own chariots.

We were shocked to learn that almost 2,000 years after the fall of the Roman Empire, people were still travelling in wooden carts pulled by animals! This week, we are learning about the challenges faced by families travelling the Oregon trail, and we are building our own covered wagons. We're also playing an Oregon trail simulation game. Hopefully we will make it to Oregon!

To cap off our studies this month, we travelled to Roaring Camp, a replica 1880s town with a historic railroad. We were so excited to see a real covered wagon, and shocked at how small it was!

In December, we'll meet Henry Ford and learn about the innovations that allowed the car take over the world. We'll follow the rise of the interstate highway system, and learn about some of the less wonderful side effects of our car culture.

Finally, in the new year, students will use all they have learned to design and build their very own vehicles of the future. Are self-driving cars the future? What about flying cars? I can't wait to see what our students will invent!