Roman Technology: The Roman Boat Project

Last summer, I took an epic professional development trip to France. We started in Paris, seeing the Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame, traveled to Normandy to visit the beaches, climbed Mont Saint-Michel to look out at the expanse, and headed south to Provence where I visited my #1 bucket list site in the world: the Pont du Gard, an ancient Roman aqueduct. I thought the Roman archaeological sites of southern France had given up all their secrets until I saw its boats. Was I expecting to see so many? No, and I don't know why. After all, Provence is on the Mediterranean Sea, and the Rhone River flows right into it. The Gardon River, which the Pont du Gard spans, is one of its major tributaries. Thus, I should have connected the dots, and I should have anticipated visiting so many ports. After all, I'm from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, a city on the mighty Mississippi, the river that drains the entire continental United States into a giant gulf. We see a LOT of vessels here. Thus, when I started to consider my Roman Technology classes' big experimental archaeology project for the year, I couldn't help but think about boats.



At the Musee Lapidaire in Narbonne, France, I was stunned by this giant 1st-century CE anchor, inscribed with the letters LPP (maybe its owner). That inscription got me thinking, "Who was the owner? What was he shipping? What was his life like? How was this anchor made?" The museum had excellent exhibits on the shipping corridor of ancient Provence. Similar to Louisiana, Provence's location at the confluence of a large river and a large sea amplified the importance of its docks and its shipping industry.

In Amphoralis, a 1st-century BC archaeological site dedicated to the large-scale production of pottery, I visited ancient kilns that produced large amphorae, or storage containers for wine. Its location close to the port of Narbonne was not an accident. Wine was a major export, and ships were carrying it all over the Mediterranean. We also saw the remains of a potter's house that got me thinking, "How many potters were needed to keep this factory running at such a large scale? How did potters throw such large pieces?" (Although, I had already seen British experimental archaeologist potter Graham Taylor demonstrate it in this video).

Because wood does not usually survive in the archaeological record, ancient ships are rarely found and complicated to preserve. Thus, seeing the Arles-Rhone 3, a 1st-century BC Gallo-Roman barge at the archaeological museum in Arles was a true delight. A little over 100 feet in length, this vessel was excavated and ultimately raised from the Rhone River over a long process between 2005 and 2010. It contained a load of building stones, the boatmen's personal belongings, and its original rudder (the long piece of wood jutting out in this picture). The museum even built a new wing to display it!


Amphorae, or clay storage jars, make up the backdrop for the barge. A perfect connection for a vessel that moved things back and forth along a river. And that brings me back to the Mississippi, the river that my students know and interact with on an almost daily basis but don't really think about much. It's the backdrop of our lives here in Baton Rouge, but it's rarely mentioned. Unless students have parents who work in river industries, they rarely ask questions about the river.

Thus, the Roman Boat Project was born in my thoughts. Can we build a working model of a Roman boat similar to the Arles-Rhone 3? "Of course not," said the fearful part of my brain, "that would be crazy!" But I thought the same thing when we first started building a 20-foot mosaic analemmatic sundial, and a 160-foot Roman road, and leather-tooled Roman house slippers. So, I started to talk myself into it by finding people who could help.

1. Boat Building - I have absolutely zero woodworking knowledge and would not even know where to begin building a boat. So, I looked for help. And...I've hopefully found it in Ron Blue, a wooden boat builder at the Maritime Museum of Mandeville, LA. When we spoke, he excitedly told me about his interest in casting ancient coins. He is already researching the Arles-Rhone 3.



2. Modern Barges and the Shipping Industry - I would love to connect this project to Mississippi River industries as much as possible. Do I know a riverboat pilot? Can I ask for help from a Loadstar executive? Connections are already loading.

3. Ancient Vessel and Shipwrecks - years ago, I presented a paper at an online conference with a presenter who had cast a Roman bronze ram!! Dr. Stephen Cassien, a graduate of the famed Texas A&M Nautical Archaeology Program, has already agreed to talk to my students about underwater archaeology and his experiences recreating the bronze casting process.

4. Pottery - I'm sure the Arles-Rhone 3 didn't just carry building blocks. What else did it carry? With one of my former students owning his own pottery business, Bellyfire Studios, I'm hoping to take my students on a field trip to make their own shipments of pottery.

5. Water - if we're really going to build a boat, where are we going to launch it? Fortunately, we have a lake near our school where my students have carried out water-quality testing.

6. The Lives of Sailors - the archaeologists and educators at the Louisiana Division of Archaeology have been my partners for the past 8 years, and I'm so grateful for all of the amazing activities they've shared with my students. They have already brainstormed numerous boat-related archaeology lessons, including one on dendrochronology!

To say I'm excited is an understatement. The next step is funding, and I've already begun writing grants to buy wood - LOTS of it. Wish us luck as we embark on this exciting new journey!

#NathGeo: Beyond the Yellow Rectangle

At the beginning of May, I arrived at a milestone: the end of my 2-year Grosvenor Teacher Fellowship with National Geographic and Lindblad Expeditions. Named after Gil Grosvenor, the legendary president of the National Geographic Society and longtime editor of its magazine, this fellowship helps teachers to gain an explorer mindset through an expedition and outreach work with their students. Throughout his life, he had a love for teaching. As he traveled the country for speaking engagements, he often stayed an extra day and served as a substitute teacher at local schools. He did this very thing in the mid-90s here in my town of Baton Rouge, LA: after talking to the Rotary Club about his time in NG, he spent the next day teaching geography lessons to teenagers at McKinley Middle!

For his 75th birthday, the founder of Lindblad Expeditions offered free berths on its ships to teachers, and the fellowship was born. You can listen to Grosvenor talk about his experience in this podcast. He tells his life story in his book, A Man of the World: My Life at National Geographic.

My fellowship started in April of 2024 when I trained at National Geographic Headquarters in Washington, DC, one of the loveliest professional development experiences of my entire teaching career - the educational sessions, the people, the location, just the whole thing. My expedition, a circumnavigation of the British Isles, starting in Edinburgh, Scotland, traveled up to the Orkney and Shetland islands, continued along the western coast of Ireland, stopped at the magical Isles of Scilly, and ended in London. Paired with Deb Freitag, a social studies teacher from Wisconsin, I left the expedition with such grand ideas about how to implement what I had learned.

My students and I accomplished A LOT. The Roman Shoe Project gained steam through this fellowship. We did a book study, field trips to archaeological sites and national parks, and hosted two archaeology-themed outreach events led by the students. The final requirement of the fellowship was a take-action project to make the world a better place. I hadn't really thought much about what this project would entail, but it happened organically.

This past year, I taught a class called Hands-On History for 8th graders who had already taken my Myth Makers and Roman Technology classes. We tended a garden for the whole year, we did an oral history project about a long-gone sheep farm near our school, we learned about ancient atlatls, dyes, shipwrecks, and all things archaeology. Most impactful, though, we partnered with the Pontchartrain Conservancy as we participated in two of their programs: Consider Litter and FLOW (Facilitating Learning in Our Watershed). The students and I learned so, so much about the water that surrounds us in Louisiana. To be honest, I had no business taking on these projects because I'm not a science teacher. However, the Pontchartrain Conservancy assured me that they did not care - they would train me to do the things they wanted the kids to learn. Me? Doing water quality testing? It happened! And it was awesome. Read about it in this blog post.

This environmental focus in Hands-On History class really got me thinking about how I could bring the environment to my other classes. Then, a researcher friend of mine at LSU reached out to me to see if I'd be interested in participating in a program funded by the Environmental Protection Act, called Plastics on Parade, about plastic pollution caused by Mardi Gras parades in New Orleans. Since Mardi Gras has deep connections to Greek mythology, I seized upon the idea to connect this environmental unit to my Myth Makers class. It worked out so well, that I reported on it as my capstone project for our ending presentation session with the fellowship.

The project was called Poseidon's Promise. You can read about the whole concept behind the project in this blog post. The presentation was difficult in that we were only allowed to choose 3 photos to express our ideas in 3 minutes. HARD! You can see my final presentation and talking points in this link. The most amazing thing about our presentation night was the fact that Gil Grosvenor HIMSELF was in attendance with his daughter. He had turned 95 years old the day before, and he wanted to express to us how awesome teachers are. We sang him the "happy birthday" song, and he watched us give our presentations. I captured this video of him wishing us well. It was a moving end to my fellowship.

This summer, I'll be in DC attending the triennial National Council Session and Convention of Girl Scouts of the USA. While there, I hope to visit the new National Geographic Museum of Exploration, which was under construction during my training time. Even though my fellowship is officially ending, the explorer mindset that I've built will continue. It truly changed my perspective on how to incorporate the natural world into my classes. Next year, my Roman Technology students will be growing cucumbers and lettuce to incorporate into our lessons on ancient food. We'll also be building a Roman boat (fingers crossed on grants coming through) that we can launch in a nearby lake - and yes, we'll be testing water quality in that lake.

All thanks to Gil Grosvenor! Thank you, sir.

Myth Makers: Stories in the Stars

For the past five years, the Louisiana Art and Science Museum has invited my Myth Makers or Roman Technology students to run hands-on history activity stations at a First Free Sunday event. My students, ranging in age from 10 to 16, view this opportunity as a way to share what they've learned over the past year with other kids. The museum views it as a way to bring in patrons who love hands-on activities for their kids. I view the event as a way to promote the classics. I've been so lucky to have this event sponsored by the Classical Association of the Middle West and South's Committee for the Promotion of Latin and Greek through one of its Bridge Grants. The grant form is easy and quick to submit, and the committee is extremely responsive to funding requests.

This museum, with its mission, "seeks to enhance the understanding and appreciation of art and science for general audiences and students by presenting unique, educational and entertaining experiences that encourage discovery, inspire creativity, and foster the pursuit of knowledge." Local industry usually sponsors the free attendance, and they love to see activities that connect with STEM subjects. During one such year, we led participants in mixing ancient Roman concrete since a chemical company was sponsoring us.

In the first few years, we focused on Roman technology class activities like mosaic designing, writing on papyrus with authentic ancient inks, firing tiny catapults, building and testing small bridges, and assembling Roman arch kits. In our first year, over 800 people attended the event. Last year, we focused on Egyptian archaeology as the museum celebrated 50 years of its authentic 3rd-Century BCE mummy. We decoded hieroglyphics and mummified apples. We also partnered with the Louisiana Division of Archaeology whose archaeologists offered sand-art stratigraphy! 

If you'd like more information about how I train my students for this event, you can watch this webinar. After every event, the students and I discuss GLOWS and GROWS of the event, and last year, the students decided that they wanted to host a "myth con," or an event that centered ancient Greek mythology. When I offered this idea to the museum, the staff loved it. Before we knew it, it morphed into a collaboration with the Highland Road Observatory as we celebrated International Astronomy Day. One of the museum directors came up with a way to tie it all together; thus, STORIES IN THE STARS was born.

In the first weekend of May, we held our event, and almost ONE THOUSAND people showed up! My students devised a way to represent as many gods and goddesses as we could through hands-on activities. 

Here's what we offered:

Welcome Station - participants picked up a passport that guided them through the stations. If they brought it back completely stamped, they won a prize.

1. Weave with Athena - participants tried weaving on small frame looms. (See more info on teaching your students to weave with this lesson.)

2. Design a crown like Hera's - participants built and decorated paper crowns. (Don't sneeze at these paper STEM challenges. I can't emphasize enough the importance of being able to manipulate paper and tape - they are super simple materials that can yield impressive results. Don't believe me? Check out Godwin Morris' Engineering With Paper Website. In the event that you'd like to take your crown-making to the next level with a STEM challenge, check out this blogpost from earlier in the year.)

3. Write with Hermes - participants wrote on papyrus with oak gall ink. They got to keep their stylus and papyrus. Check out these writing lessons for more info.

4. Build a Trident with Poseidon - my students pre-folded materials so that participants could easily put together this simple paper trident.

5. Fire a Catapult with Ares - our classic popsicle-stick catapults are easy to build, fun to fire, and memorable to take home and continue to safely annoy family members. Check out catapult lessons here. I don't have an awesome shot of catapult firing, but instead look at these AMAZING works of art done by my students that we used as signs at each station.

6. Construct a Bow with Artemis and Apollo - my students designed this little bow out of dental picks and rubber bands with q-tip projectiles! And it worked great!! (If you're interested in archery, check out this STEM challenge on ancient archers.)

7. Taste a Pomegranate with Persephone and Grind Some Grain with Demeter - participants got to try tasting pomegranates while they listened to the story of Persephone and Hades. They also tried their hands at grinding grain with a simple mortar and pestle.

8. Forge a Necklace with Hephaestus and Aphrodite - participants made simple paper chain bracelets and necklaces. (Interested in making this activity into a simple STEM challenge? Read here.)

9. Listen to a Story at the Fire with Hestia - one of my students read from a storybook about constellations. SO MANY children sat down to listen to her. AND a local TV station interviewed her about the event. You can hear her talking it halfway through this clip.

10. Party Pics with Dionysus - several of my students wanted to dress up as Greek gods and goddesses to walk amongst the mortals. We had a starry background and props for cute picture ops. Poseidon counted over 100 pictures requested of him!

During the event, I had SO MANY adults (many of them parents there with their children) ask who my students were, what school they attended, and how to get into the "Myth Makers" program. This is EXACTLY what we want! I also had my students asking to see the exhibits in the museum. The kids won, the museum won, and classics won.  Here's to many more years of collaboration!

AD ASTRA: Classics in Space

Years ago, when I was teaching at my previous school, the 8th-grade science teacher learned about a program called NearLink, associated with NASA somehow. To be honest, I don't even remember what it was about, but she asked the other 8th-grade teachers to develop cross-curricular activities that could be incorporated into the space science lessons. Once done, the kids got to visit the Louisiana Art and Science Museum for a hands-on mission. I thought it sounded super cool, and even though I was a Latin teacher, I committed to finding a way to incorporate Latin into space. It ended up being an amazing rabbit hole experience for my teaching because I didn't realize I'd find so much stuff!

It started with my discovery of the Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature by the International Astronomical Union. This organization, founded in 1919, oversees the naming of planetary features and new planetary bodies. Its gazetteer is a wonder of words - it shows all the named features of every planet, moon, asteroid, etc., and explains where that name came from! It was here that I discovered that all the planetary features of the moon are named in LATIN!! And that the moons of Jupiter are all named after the female victims of Zeus. And sooooo many more connections to Greek mythology and the Latin language.

The Gazetteer led me to look into the mythology-themed naming of NASA missions. During that research (and trust that it was hard - the internet was just getting going in schools when I was doing this work), I found another fabulous resource: an entire book called Origin of NASA Names where I learned why early NASA engineers oddly chose the name "Apollo" for missions to the moon.

NASA artists included mythological images on some of their patches as well. The NASA Mission Patch Book has pristine images of all the patches and an explanation from astronauts of why they designed them the way they did. There's even some careless Latin on one! (Apollo XIII with "ex luna, scientia")

But hands down, the coolest classical connection I found to space was the art of Robert McCall. I had visited the Louisiana Art and Science Museum one day around the time of our school project and saw the most amazing, otherworldly paintings in an exhibit that featured his art. In many of his paintings, I saw classical columns, temples, obelisks, pyramids, and even famous ancient Greek scientists. I learned that the artist had painted the murals in the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum and had done patch artwork for NASA. Since I couldn't find his art online, I called the museum to see if they had more information about the artist. When I told the museum director about my classics in space project, she asked if I might want to talk to the artist himself. What?! I thought. "That would be amazing!" I remember squeaking out to her over the phone. She called the next day to tell me that he had agreed to speak with me, and then she gave me his phone number. I called him with such trepidation, but it was thrilling to speak with him. He answered my questions thoughtfully and even offered to send me some slides of paintings. And he did!! I still have those slides to this day.

I presented the lessons I created for the NearLink unit at the 2000 annual meeting of the Classical Association of the Middle West and South in Knoxville, TN, "Ad Astra: Using Latin in a Cross-Curricular Unit on Planetary Nomenclature." There, I was approached by an online company that wanted to publish the project on its Website. It eventually won an award for creativity. Then the local newspaper, the Baton Rouge Advocate, called to interview me about the award and project. It yielded a large full-page interview with pictures of the students' work - they designed mission patches and wrote Latin mottos for the mission. 

The new Artemis missions have caused me to reminisce about that project so many years ago. Maybe it's time for a revisit! In case your students are obsessed with Artemis and the new moon missions, I've put together this list of resources. Please use it and enjoy the magic of classics in space.