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The Birth of the Ancient Olympic Games

Completed by 3 learners
Ages 8-12
Live One-Time Class
In this one-time class, students will learn about the origins of the Olympic Games, the tradition of athletic competition in ancient Greece and the site of Olympia.
Average rating:
5.0
Number of reviews:
(80 reviews)

Live video meetings
Meets once
3-9 learners per class
55 min

What's included

1 live meeting
55 mins in-class hours

Class Experience

US Grade 3 - 6
In this one-time lesson, we will learn about the origins of the Olympic Games in Greece in 776 B.C.  We will investigate the site at Olympia in the Peloponnese through the archaeological accounts of old and modern excavations, ancient literary evidence, and artefacts.  We will take a look at the sports that the athletes practiced, and learn about the people who attended the events.  

We will ask the following questions:
- Did girls and women participate? 
- What prizes did the athletes win? 
- Were there amateur and professional athletes in the Greek world?
- What did it mean to be an athlete? 
- When did the modern Olympic games begin and who revived this tradition?  

We will look at all these topics with the use of visuals from archaeological excavations and museum collections in a PowerPoint presentation.  A few minutes at the end of the presentation will be reserved for the learners to ask any questions that they may have. I teach in an open lecture style, where I go through engaging slides, stories, ancient texts, and information.  I also include the latest archaeological information and theories when possible. Students are asked open-ended questions throughout the lesson and are encouraged to ask questions of me at any time. The informal tone of the class invites the learners to participate as they feel comfortable.

Learning Goals

Students will learn about the ancient site at Olympia and how the tradition of the games began.

Other Details

Parental Guidance
Greek art often involves nudity, but every attempt will be made not to use visuals of pottery and sculpture that may be considered inappropriate.
Supply List
No supplies are required
External Resources
Learners will not need to use any apps or websites beyond the standard Outschool tools.
Sources
I will present the class material through the use of visuals (PowerPoint presentation), both from my own private collection and from archaeological excavations and museum collections. The students will look at the archaeological material and learn how to interpret it, and discover that evidence can lead to different opinions. I strongly believe that all evidence must be investigated and viewed equally, and I do reinforce this important concept every week. As an archaeologist, I base my classes on scholarly texts, scientific secondary sources such as textbooks, scholarly journals (Archaeology Magazine, National Geographic, Penn University publications, etc.), and archaeological reports, while keeping it age appropriate. I also use primary sources, for example Homer, English translations of Egyptian hieroglyphs, Latin texts, etc. Other visuals than my own are drawn from sites such as Open Licensed Images, Ancient World Image Bank, World History Encyclopedia, the New York Public Library Digital Collection, Unsplash and Public Domain Pictures. All sites allow for free use of images, with credits. Learners do not need to access any sites during class.

Meet the teacher

Joined August, 2022
5.0
80reviews
Profile
Teacher expertise and credentials
Master's Degree in Music or Theatre or Arts from Queen's University, Ontario, Canada
I am a trained archaeologist, and I excavated at sites such as Mytilene and Kommos in Greece for many field seasons. I have travelled extensively through Europe, and I have taught Greek and Roman art, archaeology and mythology at Concordia University, Montréal.  I held a position at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, Canada, where I created and led tours for children on the topics of Greek, Roman and Egyptian archaeology, the Medieval period, dinosaurs and natural history. More recently, I have taught labs on water science and solar energy to Kindergarten and Grade 1 students through Scientists in School. Since July 2021, I have had the pleasure of teaching many archaeology and ancient civilizations classes on Outschool. 

Reviews



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