Myth Makers: All Hail the Queens

My Myth Makers have been hard at work this year getting ready for their Pegasus National Mythology Exam. Part of that prep work, of course, is reading and listening to all the stories, taking notes, and practicing their knowledge. But the other, FUNNER, part of the Myth Makers class is MAKING. This year, I've developed two new STEAM challenges that the students really enjoyed so I thought I'd share them here.

THE INCREDIBLE CROWN PROJECT: A few years ago, I wrote a STEM challenge in which the students had to design and build their own scepter to represent their personal god/dess power. You can read more about that project in this blog post. The kids loved it, but it took up a LOT of space in my classroom to store the projects. Some of these things were as tall as the students with multiple and moving parts. So this year, I thought I'd scale down the idea while still sticking to the theme of royalty and focusing specifically on Hera, queen of the gods, often demonized as the "jealous" wife of Zeus when in fact, she's more of a victim of his bad behavior. The project asks students to create a special crown for Hera, symbolizing her status. Because she was too busy to join us for a fitting, Hera had designated ME as her model. THAT detail really got some eyerolls (as I expected), but they totally used me as their mannequin. LOL

You can see the guidelines in this document. I started by demonstrating to the students how to fold a simple paper crown - this video explains it well - that would serve as a strong base for their designs, and they practiced using scrap paper before they began their actual project. It's super important to always start STEAM challenges by instructing the students in some basic skills, such as how to fold paper effectively. I know it sounds crazy, but some kids don't know how to make really flat, crisp folds. I'll never forget this incident from a couple of years ago: a new science teacher came over to my classroom to discuss an idea he had. He was going to use paper airplanes in his lesson, and I stopped him immediately, asking, "Are you sure the kids know how to make those?" He thought it was a ridiculous question, but he ended up having to rethink his lesson on the "fly" when, indeed, the majority of his students knew nothing about paper airplanes. It's a good reminder that, in today's world, teachers should not assume that students have the same experiences with making and building that our generation did. Years ago, during a lesson with arch building block kits, an 11-year-old told me he had never used building blocks before. Making is not the norm anymore!

The students worked in partnerships to make their crown designs, and some of the finished designs blew me away with their artistry!! These makers literally had paper, tape, scissors, and markers to make these things, and they totally delivered amazing works of art. After time was up (some teams worked until the very last second just like in Project Runway), we cleared a runway through the classroom, and I modeled each crown. One student asked if she could be the "commentator," and it was hilarious! As I worked that runway, the students wrote reflections on their work and the work of others (see page 2 of the linked document above). After it was over, I displayed the crowns easily by flattening them and stapling them to a bulletin board in my classroom (a plus if you have observers who like to see students' work). Can I just say how marvelous some of these were?! One team actually created paper peacock feathers that hung down from the back of the crown and shaped a paper bird on the front. It was stunning! Hera would definitely have wanted to wear these.

THE NUPTIAL NECKLACE PROJECT: The kids liked making crowns so much that I decided to keep going with the theme of adornment. Using Hephaestus as our maker model again, I challenged the students to make a necklace for Aphrodite. In the story of the mismatched love of Hephaestus and Aphrodite, he crafts many beautiful items for her, including a golden girdle (or belt) that makes her irresistable. Before the challenge, I taught the students two methods for designing their necklaces: paper chains and paper beads. They had lots of supplies to choose from, including glossy magazines and colorful papers. Some chose the simpler paper chain method, but others didn't shy away from making paper beads. These are beads made from long, triangular strips of paper that are rolled up on a stylus and glued to close them. There are so, so many tutorials online and so many materials that can be used to created these. But once I taught the students the basic methodology, they were off and running, taking the method into whatever direction they wanted to. Using the engineering design process as we do with every project, the students worked in teams of three and began with a sketch. After sketching their designs, they got to work on making and creating.

As always, they completely "ATE" this project (as they say). One team went deep into the relationship of Hephaestus and Aphrodite. They made shackle bracelets because they felt as though he was trying to restrain her from being with Ares. 

I modeled the necklaces in another fashion show, and they wrote their reflections (all linked in the document above). They learned a lot about Hephaestus, making, collaborating with partners, and had fun doing it all.

When I design maker challenges, I'm reminded of Dale Dougherty’s writings (he sums them up in this TED Talk). In case you don't know, he's considered by some to be the founder of the Maker Movement. “Makers are playful, resourceful, and experimental. They not only help themselves, but they help others. Makers do well because they can adapt to change as self-directed learners, but they are also agents of change. In this movement, makers are setting their agendas and asking others to join them.” I encourage my students to be MAKERS on a small scale because I'm hoping to inspire them to do BIGGER things later in life. They need practice!

Hands-On History: Our Soil Mates

I had the most horrifying nightmare last week about WORMS. I was in San Francisco attending the annual joint meeting of the Society of Classical Studies and the Archaeological Institute of America to present as part of a panel on using experimental archaeology in the classroom. I had been invited to talk about using STEM challenges in the classics classroom. The night before the presentation, I went to sleep worrying myself over it for no good reason. I've given countless presentations to large and small audiences, teachers and the general public. I should NOT have been worried, but I was. (You can see my presentation here, and my scripted notes here, in case you're wondering.)

I woke up a few hours later in sheer terror. In the dream, I was talking to an old friend of mine when I casually nudged the bottom of my lip. When I looked down at my finger, there were worms all over it! I ran to a mirror and found a gaping hole right under my lower lip where worms had evidently been living for a quite a while because there were a lot of them. I gasped in horror wanting to look away when someone deep down inside me said, "You've GOT to do this." I reached into the hole and pulled out a gigantic worm and smushed it with my fingers. That's the moment I woke up, reeling from the ever-so-real feeling of worms living in my face. I couldn't go back to sleep so I looked up dream interpretations about worms. And judging from the search, a LOT of people are having this exact same dream, and I was shocked at the supposed meaning: worms in your skin or body represent worries eating away at you, and how you deal with them is significant. If you're pulling them out in the dream, that means you are taking control of your concerns and conquering them. In light of my worries about my presentation, I guess that makes sense.

But then I remembered another reason I have worms on my mind. My worm babies!!! The worms in my classroom decomposing our lunch waste! I was worried about them not getting enough food for the past week with my being in San Francisco for the conference. This past year, I've been teaching a class called Hands-On History, an outdoor learning class that has covered lots of random ancient wisdom including gardening. Through my National Geographic fellowship cohort, I learned of a granting opportunity in the fall with a small non-profit organization called Let's Go Compost. Led by Lauren Click who signs off on emails "wormly," they help classrooms and Girl Scout troops learn about vermicomposting and its benefits. The grant provides a vermicomposter, lessons on the benefits of composting, a book about vermicomposting, and a gift card to purchase worms from Uncle Jim's Worm Farm. I signed up so quickly, thinking that my students would LOVE this opportunity. Well, forget my students - I don't care if they love the worms or not because I ABSOLUTELY AM IN LOVE WITH THESE WORMS. This project has been my absolute favorite this year for so many reasons.

1. Worms in the mail! As soon as our worms arrived in the mail, I had to put them into the vermicomposter to chill out. They were discumbobulated from being in the mail for 48 hours. The directions said that some of them would try to escape due to confusion. I also had to make sure that I darkened the room so they would feel at home in the dark dirt. I took them to school the next day and set them up there. Some of my students were absolutely horrified and refused to even look at the worms, much less hold one or sing to them (as I frequently do). Others were delighted and asked if we could name the worms. What a great idea!! Thus, the students filled out a Google form with names like "Mr. Beast," "Messi," "Phillip Raymond Carmichael, Jr.," "Sigma," "Drake," "Poseidon," "Cherry," and "Wormy Wormington III." And we frequently refer to our "soil mates" by their names: "Do you really think Chappel Roan, Dumbo, and Tha Destroyer are going to like that avocado?"

2. Worms are fascinating. They don't consume the food waste that we deposit in the composter because they don't have mandibles. They actually consume the bacteria that grow on the decomposing food, but they like certain food bacteria more than others. They LOVE pumpkin bacteria the most! When we discarded a small jack-o-lantern in the composter, it was like the worms had decided to have an all-night rager with free booze and a DJ. These worms were all OVER this pumpkin! We've also been finding worm eggs and pregnant worms, which means that our worms are happy and well-fed. Worms are mostly self-sufficient, and they won't overpopulate their space.

3. Food waste is a huge problem all over the world. My students and I have learned so much about food waste since we got our soil mates. Farmers and consumers throw away food for many reasons, sometimes just for cosmetic ones, like bruises on apples. I had watched my own students throw away cafeteria-prepared food by the plateful, and it disturbed me that all that potential and eventual dirt was being discarded in large plastic bags, slowing down the decomposition process. In addition to vermicomposting, we also used some of our grant money to purchase large compost tumblers to take care of our larger food waste. With just the kids I eat lunch with every day (about 30 per day), we've clocked anywhere from 2 to 5 lbs of food waste per day.

4. Greens and Browns For composting to work well, you need to even out the green (food scraps) and brown (plant matter like grass clippings and leaves) material that goes into the composter. I've learned so much from the Compost Coach, a wonderful book by Kate Flood, a compost enthusiast. Knowing how easy it is to do now has made me sad that not more people do it.

5. The Harvest After a couple of months of feasting, our soil mates had produced enough castings for us to harvest and use in our garden. And if you're thinking that castings are another way to say "worm poop," you would be correct. The students were not super interested in this aspect of the process, but it would have been hard for them to do in such a small space so I took the lead! I harvested about half a gallon of castings which, unlike traditional compost, needed no time to cure. In fact, the very next day, we used the castings to plant a winter crop of onions in our school garden. The kids are doing an experiment to see if the castings are actually more beneficial for the plants than regular potting soil.

I've enjoyed taking care of "my wormies" so much that I listed them as one of my inspirations on a "vision board." In early January, I was invited to an "Envisioning Party" at which we used old magazines to render some aspirations for 2026. I love the letter W so I tried to write goals that all started with W. Of course, worms start with W so I had to include them. They are a reminder that the earth's tiniest creatures are super important to the success of life on earth. They really are sooooo Wonderful!!