On Monday, 20 November, grade 5 students invited their parents to come and see what they had been learning about in their second unit of inquiry of the year: ‘Where we are in place and time’. Throughout the unit, students explored how evidence from artifacts can help us to understand different civilisations.

Students from different classes accepted the challenge to create their own civilisations, and the artifacts that would go with them. The artifacts needed to help others understand the most significant parts of the culture of the civilisation that was being portrayed. This was also a unique experiential learning opportunity as students acted like anthropologists, ethnologists, and sociologists. Artifacts produced included money, government buildings, and even new languages!  

Most student groups created a map to show the land structure of their civilisation to explain things like how the civilisations people used their natural environment, and how trade agreements with other countries around them were set up.

Co-curricular activity time during this unit provided students with additional time to both research and create the artifacts that represented their past/ancient civilisations. These artifacts were also on display for parents to see.

During their Open Minds experience, students continued their unit learning as they visited three different museums: the Peranakan Museum, the Asian Civilisations Museum, and the National Museum. Not only did students see real life artifacts in a museum setting, they saw the types of things that are worthy of being in a museum, and drew inspiration for their own artifact creations.