Students will learn about the history of Europe and the Mediterranean through the art, architecture and artefacts of a number of ancient cultures.  We will learn to "look" at details of their physical culture to find clues about the way people lived in the ancient world, and we will also learn to interpret material evidence. The goal of this class is for learners to recognize major works and landmarks in European and Mediterranean history.

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. 

Since this is a small class, I am able to assess the needs of my learners and shape my lessons to meet their needs and goals.

No pre-requisite classes necessary.

I will present the class material in Power Point format with photos taken from both my own private collection and from archaeological excavations and museum collections.  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, and Public Domain Pictures. All sites allow for free use of images, with credits.

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.  

Learners do not need to access any third-party sites during class.