Viewing history through a modern lens can take many forms. From a fifth and sixth-grade perspective, it involves interpretation, creative play, and expression. In the MICDS Middle School Winter Term course Capturing Historical Moments, taught by Middle School History Teacher & Dean Mark Duvall and Middle School Math Teacher Dustin Delfin, students revisited significant historical moments in time through the built environment of LEGO and Minecraft.
Students were first tasked with exploring three questions:
- How do we and society tell stories of the past?
- Why is remembering the past important to societies and communities?
- What are the different ways communities and societies remember the past?
Stories of the past are generally shared through writing, pictures, memories, and sharing stories with friends and family. These stories can be passed down through generations, and monuments can made to honor people or important events. Stories help keep cherished memories and historical events that affect society alive.
Once students thoughtfully answered the initial questions, they began researching a historical topic of interest. From WWII to ancient Greece, students noted details and started ideating what their historical artifacts, settings, monuments, and scene(s) would look like in the physical (LEGO) or digital (Minecraft) world. All projects were displayed on a microsite, including some stop-motion films!
Check out a few of the projects here:
Cooper Newman ’32 and Mannan Ahuja ’32: WWII
Cooper N. said, « We picked WWII and chose the bomb on Hiroshima, the Berlin Wall, and Pearl Harbor. We felt like those were the most important parts of the war that changed the trajectory of what would happen in the end. LEGO and Minecraft were my favorite parts, and I know a lot about WWII, so I enjoyed it. »
Ruby Walker ’31 and Ellie Swank ’31: Ancient Rome
« I enjoyed being able to transform historical settings and different parts of history and recreate them with my own vision, » said Ruby. « Ellie and I worked together on ancient Rome using both LEGO and Minecraft to make a monument to Gaius Marius because of his great impact on Rome’s political and military culture while he was alive. »
Ellie said, « I built an ancient Roman gladiator arena. It was challenging to make it realistic using pictures and drawings, and we could not find a desert in Minecraft. Building in Minecraft was 100% the best part, though. »
William Benoist ’31, Cooper Dalton ’31, and Luke Giles ’31: WWII
Cooper D. shared, « We made the Battle of Normandy in Minecraft and had to figure out how to make a beach along with water. We built ships and had to work around missing certain colors of blocks. We loved looking from above at the beaches of Normandy. »
Sammy Weil ’32 and DJ Day ’32: WWI
DJ said, « WWI building was the most fun. We were excited by building things and history. I was a little surprised to see how they started the war with cavalry and muskets and ended with artillery, which is still used today. » Sammy said, « The stop motion was fun, and we used it to show what the Battle of Verdun was like during the war. »
Priyanka Gandhi ’32 and Hannah Terry ’31: Ancient Greece
« We chose Ancient Greece and the Acropolis in Athens, » said Hannah. « We had no ideas and thought it was the coolest place. We did our research and writing to learn more. Researching was tiring, with all the reading and writing, but we had fun being with friends. I do recommend this class; it’s fun. If you’re someone who does not want to work hard, this is not the class for you. »
Priyanka said, « This class was much more fun than I expected. I liked building with LEGO and doing stop-motion. I drew the artifact, a very detailed pot, and it was hard to draw. »
Delfin said, « It was fun to see students take what they learned during the research stage and put their own creative spin on their historical monument, setting, and artifact creations. »
« All of the groups did a great job working collaboratively together to problem solve through challenges, » added Duvall. « We even had some mixed fifth and sixth-grade groups who barely knew each other come together to produce very awesome projects. »