Latin_Nora

Pomepeii Scavenger Hunt Using Google Earth

This activity is designed to be used after completing stage 4 of the Cambridge Latin Series. I chose Google Earth because it is engaging and gives the students a more vivid feel of the scope of the geography.

At the beginning of the class, each student is given an iPad and asked to activate Google Earth. I give them a few minutes to play with it, locate their own house, etc. Then I ask them to locate their school. From there, they must search for the “scavi di Pompeii” (the archaeological excavations of Pompeii). As the device pans over to Italy and pinpoints the location, the students are basically taking a virtual tour across the Atlantic. This gives them a real sense of the distance between Arlington and Italy and, more specifically, the distance across the Atlantic. I encourage the students to think about as many voyages across the Atlantic as they can (e.g. Columbus, the Mayflower) and to think about how difficult and dangerous they were.

Once we are safely in Italy, and have found the archaeological site of Pompeii (I circulate around the room to be sure all the students are in the right place), I have them explore the city a bit. They really enjoy this as it is almost like being there. Having already covered the general outline of Pompeii, its forum, and the major landmarks in class, I have them “roam” the city and try to locate some of the places we’ve read about. This makes it so much more “real” than just reading it in a book. Even better, there are tons of photos uploaded to the site that give them wide variety of different views, close ups, and works of art.

After that, they move on to finding the specific locations and objects on the activity sheet. I ask them to take a screen shot of each location/object as they find it. These screen shots will be included in their camera roll and will become part of their grade for the exercise. They are asked to find general things like the forum and theatre, and more specific things like statues and mosaics. These things aren’t always that easy to locate, so they basically have to walk through the city to find them.

I also ask them to write a short Latin sentence about each site, tying in the grammar, vocabulary, and storyline for the textbook. The students really enjoyed this project! They were on task, sharing information with each other, and very excited about “going to Pompeii.” It really fired their enthusiasm for the characters and the stories in the books.

I would definitely do this again next year, and would like to develop additional scavenger hunts for Latin II (Roman Britain), Latin III (Rome), AP (Caesar’s Gaul), and IB (the Roman Empire at its peak expansion).

This project was simple to do, and didn’t involve a lot of paper! It fit easily into a block period.