Fall of Roman Empire - Barbarian COMIC!

While studying the fall of the Roman Empire, students enjoyed using their creativity to create a comic strip telling the life story of a tribe of barbarians who invaded the Roman Empire and ultimately made it fall. Enjoy several student examples of comic strips below!

Visible Thinking Strategies - Cause & Effect Chain of Events

Students put their thoughts down on paper today using a Visible Thinking Strategy (VTS) called "Cause and Effect Chain of Events."  Students were given a list of 33 weaknesses of the Roman Empire that led to its fall, a packet of sticky notes, markers, and a piece of poster paper.  Their task was to use their creativity to show cause-and-effect examples leading to the fall of Rome.  Using higher-level thinking, students had to first categorize weaknesses and then put them in an order showing cause-and-effect that they could easily argue and support with evidence.  Then, they chose their "Top 3 Reasons for Rome's Fall" and argued their positions in writing using citations from their research.  Below, enjoy their creativity, interaction, discussion, and debates as they put their thoughts to paper!

Top 3 Reasons Rome Fell - Arguments with Citations:

"Exit Ticket" Twitter Poster - #1 Reason Rome Fell:

Utopian Society Project

"Utopia" is defined as "any real or imaginary society or place considered to be perfect or ideal."  In this project, students were challenged with creating their own version of "utopia" addressing one of the following scenarios:

•  If you were one of the first humans to exist on earth, where would you live?
• Which REAL historical civilization would you want to join?
• Where would you live in a zombie apocalypse?
• How might a futuristic society successfully thrive?
• If you were to create an imaginary utopia, where would it be?

Students both illustrated and explained their ideal society using several components of geography:  location/landforms, climate, waterways, natural resources, food, movement, connections, architecture, communication, and entertainment.  Enjoy these creative worlds below:

Enjoy a 4-student collaboration of coexisting utopian societies on the Island of MASP:

Student #1 - Forest:

Student #2 - Volcano:

Student #3 - Canyon:

Student #4 - Mountain:

Even a utopian society created online using "Minecraft" video game:

A futuristic space station dwelling:

Click here to see examples from 2014 too!