Name of Assignment: History Postcard
Subject: HIST 151 (World History)
Facilitator/teacher: Micheal Ryan
Subject: HIST 151 (World History)
Facilitator/teacher: Micheal Ryan
Project Description
This project was assigned to us as part of a lecture on chariot racing. We created a postcard from the perspective of someone watching a chariot race in ancient Rome. We drew a picture of the race on the front of the card and wrote a letter on the back that details that events happening in the picture.
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Which 21st Century Skill do you feel this assignment addresses, and why?
This assignment addresses financial and economic literacy skills. I chose to write my postcard from the perspective of a poor woman living in ancient Rome. In order to write from her perspective, I had to understand to social and economic dynamics in Rome at the time. Through my research, I found that there was a huge gap between the rich and the poor in ancient Rome. The poor often lived in the worst parts of city. They often did not aquire a specific skillset and were hired for various menial jobs on a day-to-day basis. In my postcard, the woman is taking her son to watch a chariot racing (chariot racing was one of the very few events were the lower and upper class could attend together). Her husband is working various jobs and was not able to attend with them. The woman's son aspires to become a chariot racer because successful racers can make very high earnings. While chariot racing is a brutal sport, anyone from any class could join and it was one of the very few ways that a poor person could escape poverty.
What are you most proud of from this assignment, and why?
I am most proud of my letter. I think that incorporated a lot of important details and I did some background research to make sure it was historically accurate. I based the design on the front card on the letter that I wrote (the famous chariot racer Gaius Diocles was winning a race for the reds team)
How did you develop and/or improve upon your 21st Century Skill with this assignment?
This project required me to do a lot of background research on the social classes and economy in ancient Rome. My research made me more aware of the importance of education or having a profitable skillset. According to the sources I found, It was very difficult for the poor to aquire important skillsets and this limited the to doing menial work for very little pay. In some ways, I think that this still holds true today.
What was most difficult about completing this task?
The most difficult aspect of this assignment was making the information in the postcard accurate and realistic. In addition to describing the perspective of someone in ancient Rome, we had to come up a name and address for the person receiving the card. I had to find an address from a city that existed around the time my letter was written.
How could you improve this work? If you could start over, what would you do different?
I think that I could improve the picture on the front of my card. I decided to use watercolor for my picture but I did not sketch out my design before hand. The final product looked a little bit messy and some aspects were not historically accurate (the lap counter for the races usually consisted on seven dolphins but I only included five). If I could start over I would sketch out my design before painting and make sure all aspects of the drawing are historically accurate.
How does this relate to what you have learned in the past?
This project relates to the lectures we had on ancient Rome and chariot racing. We learned about the significance of chariot racing in ancient Rome and we learned about the development on the chariot itself.
How can you apply this to future learning?
I think that history is a very important subject because understanding our past helps us understand the present. The chariot was a very critical invention and had a huge influence on military design and transportation. Learning about the dynamics of different social classes in ancient Rome also helped me improve on my global awareness skills.