Build Rome in a Day

RESEARCH

 

 

Online Searches for Images

 

Students need to research what their monument looked like.  On each of the “Small Blueprint and Information Cards” is a small drawing of the structure.  Students should go online to look for more pictures of how their monument looked in ancient times, not what it looks like today in ruins (if any of it is even still standing).  Often it is helpful to include the word “reconstruction” with the name of the landmark in a web search for images.  For some of the monuments, students might also need to include the word “Rome.”  For instance, if you search for the “Senate House” without including the word “Rome,” you will get the one in Washington, D.C.

 

On the “Resources” page of this website, you will find a number of helpful links for finding images of the monuments.

 

The Information Chart

 

In preparation for giving tours of the city on the day the class builds Rome, students must conduct the research necessary to fill out the “Information Chart” included in the Student Assignment Packet.  Click on the image to the left to download a Word document version of the “Information Chart” if they would prefer to type their information into the chart rather than writing it in by hand.  Teachers can decide whether to allow students to conduct their research jointly if they are working on their projects together, or if each student must fill out a separate “Information Chart.”

 

If teachers wish, they can have the students use the information gathered in their “Information Charts” to write paragraphs on their monuments, which can be turned in for a grade.  (A caveat: some of the monuments are much more difficult to find information on than others, and some provide an overload of information, so these paragraphs can be rather inequitable, if you are grading on content.  I actually assign a different writing assignment on a famous Roman person, which is not included on this website, but which I relate indirectly to the project.)

 

Since I have four class sections contributing different buildings to make one large model, the presentations in one class period would only cover one quarter of the monuments in the city, and would make for a rather incomplete tour.  Therefore, I actually require each student to research an additional monument that was built by someone who was not in that student’s period, making sure that someone will be talking about the most important ones, like the Colosseum, the Circus Maximus and the Pantheon.