The Parthenon Frieze, British Museum
The activities and lesson plans developed for this Web site comprise a multidisciplinary unit that uses television, the Internet, and other resources as learning tools to explore and understand the ancient Greek world.
The lessons are designed primarily for middle and high school level students, though most could be adapted with minor modification for use with elementary school children.
Based on 'The Greeks: Crucible of Civilization' PBS series, first shown in February 2000 as a special two hour twenty minute broadcast, the lessons detailed here are specifically tailored to the resources provided by this Web site and hotlinks to relevant pages are provided in the 'Extensions, Adaptations, Further Resources' section below. Where details are given for appropriate parts of the documentary they are expressed in hours/minutes/seconds with a prompt line for the 'in' and 'out' points.
Lessons 1 'Two Faces of Greece: Athens & Sparta'
Using comparative tables of data students investigate the differences and similarities between democratic Athens and the military aristocracy of Sparta.
Lesson 2 'The Daily Athenian: A Greek Newspaper Project'
Students compile a newspaper or journal for ancient Athens, compiling news, sport, entertainment and gossip about the city in its heyday.
Lesson 3 'Interview A Famous Greek: Reconstructing the lives of the ancient Greeks'
Drawing on the 'Character Stories' section of this Web site, students perform a role playing exercise to examine the motives, beliefs and values of the men and women who made Athens the center of the Greek world.
Lesson 4 'Oedipus the King: An Introduction to Greek Drama'
A classroom reading exercise based on 'Oedipus Rex' by the playwright Sophocles, designed to introduce the origins of drama and such Greek concepts as irony, fate and hubris.
Socrates Screensaver
Download a "virtual Socrates" screensaver for your classroom computer!
PC Version - Mac Version
Educational Standards:
This site has been developed using the standards developed and administered by the National Center for History in School at the University of California, Los Angeles under the guidance of the National Council for History Standards. Further information can be obtained at http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/nchs/standards/
About the Author:
This part of the Web site was written and developed by Nick Bartel. Nick began his teaching career in the Peace Corps in Micronesia. Since then, he has worked primarily in middle school teaching language, arts, and social studies in San Francisco Unified School District with study and teaching opportunities in Hong Kong, Seoul, Korea, and in a refuge camp in Thailand. He has traveled extensively through North Africa, Europe, and Mexico and continues to be an avid traveler through the Internet.
He has a B.A. in sociology from U.C. Santa Barbara, has undertaken graduate work at S.F. State University and U.C. Berkely; is involved in the U.C. Berkeley's ORIAS Project, Harvard's PACE Project, and TESL at S.F. State.
You can also buy the book and the video of 'The Greeks: Crucible of Civilisation' from ShopPBS. Click on the image to go directly there.
