Mesoamerican Mosaic Projects

 

For our project assessment of Mesoamerican civilizations, I have the students utilize contact vocabulary and research to create a world mosaic. 

Our history curriculum has us cover the 3 major Mesoamerican empires - the Maya, the Aztec, and the Inca. If you do more, just add them as a research option for your kids. 

After our whole class study, I tell the kids to now focus on that either interested them or they would like to learn more about - this will be their project civilization. 

Using textbooks, resource and library books, and the internet, their purpose for research is to find content vocabulary words and phrases that are important to understanding their civilization. Students should be taking record of a minimus of 50 words/phrases, either by hand or on a document so they can refer back to it. 

Before, during, or after, the word research, students are also needing to create a hardcopy poster (I often use large construction paper instead of full poster paper, but that is up to you). On this, I require them to draw, print digitally, or a hybrid of both, 5 images that connect with the civilization (I require one of these to be in the center and the other 4 to be along the edges). 

While I allow for the words and the pictures to be printed, I do not accept an entire digital poster for this as I would like students to utilize paper/scissor organization on a hardcopy. We do so much with digital resources that I find some kids have lost the skill of being able to make a hands-on project.

If you are interested in this project, it is available HERE on my TPT! 

I am always blown away by my student's projects and they always share that they really enjoyed learning more about their civilization this way. 

Maya Disappearance Investigation

The Mayan Civilization was an immense, powerful, and formidable force throughout Central America for 100s of years, until it wasn't. What really caused the collapse of this great civilization built up of city-states? There are many theories as to what happened to the Maya people, and through this activity, my students worked to come up with their own conclusion on what caused their collapse and disappearance. 

This activity is NOT mine alone, it is a hybrid of two different activities that are FREE on the internet. I am sharing this as a resource to provide a further option for teachers and students to utilize in learning about the disappearance of the Mayan Civilization. 

I have combined the following accessible resources to make it more conducive to my classroom and students:

“Teach Like Magic” Cold Case: Rome: https://www.mrroughton.com/history-mystery-labs/cold-case-rome

I actually got the original idea to do this from the blog “To Engage Them All” as she did a similar adaptation of “Teach Like Magic’s” Boston Massacre case. I did that one in my American history class and students LOVED it. I then decided to adapt this one and the Disappearance of the Maya for my world history class.

“To Engage Them All” Blog: http://toengagethemall.blogspot.com/search?q=boston+massacre

Her Boston Massacre Files: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1v8mW2UpNVk22wHIYyemEe6T MfPXwhQVIXdtmOpyN0Q4/edit#slide=id.gcc7a552da_6_23

Through an investigation simulation, my students explored both primary and secondary sources that supported the different historical theories.

My FREE Investigation Packet.

If you liked this activity, check out my FREE Julius Caesar Murder Investigation HERE!