Artifact Bag Presentations

In class, we were assigned to create an artifact bag based off of an explorer from our own unit plans. Since me and my group taught about Christopher Columbus, I had to find artifacts that pertained to him. Along with a literal artifact bag, we were required to used technology, which is how I came up with my Presentation for the lesson. Thinking about which three artifacts I can put in my bag was difficult. Also, since I don't have a car on campus it was difficult to arrange time to buy any tangible items I can put into the bag. I came up with including a birth certificate, a map of Columbus' voyages, and sugar to represent goods that were exchanged. This hands-on activity/lesson is a great way to engage students and gets me excited to come up with great ideas like this for my own future class!

Birth Certificate

The first item I chose to incorporate in my artifact bag was a birth certificate. I created this on my own and put the words in Italian. For the lesson, I would have the students decode the words from italian to english and have them share their findings. For some, they may know right away what this document was, but certain students may not have a clue about the italian language. I thought that this was an important artifact to include because it proves when and where Christopher Columbus was born. It shows his own culture but also gives an opportunity for the students to use technology as a resource to look up translations. I tried to give the birth certificate an older, burnt out looking background in order for it to seem more authentic. 

Map of Four Voyages

The second item I included in my artifact bag was a map of Columbus' four voyages. This map showed exactly where he departed from, where he landed, and the specific routes he took. It also showed the accurate start and end dates for all four voyages. Some students don't know that he took four different voyages, so looking at this map can really help the students grasp that idea. This map was a very good clue to guess who the explorer was because it showed a picture of a boat with the year 1492, which is a very important date for students to remember.

Sugar

The last item I included in my artifact bag was sugar. The sugar was meant to represent all of the goods that were exchanged during Columbus' infamous Columbian Exchange. Sugar is one, but it represents everything that was brought to and from Europe and the Americas. Food, animals, diseases, and plants were also brought back and forth, this creating the Columbian Exchange. This was the only tangible item I could find on such short notice but I thought that this was something important to incorporate because the Columbian Exchange was so important and is still widely known. 

In addition to my artifacts, I included two other sources of information for my students. The first one was a website. This website has information all about Christopher Columbus, quizzes, games, timelines, photos and much more for the students to explore as an extra resource. This websites encourages the students to explore facts about Columbus and become an "expert!" My second resource was a book a chose called Columbus Day by Dennis Brindell Fradin. This book discusses how the achievements of the man credited with discovering America led to the present-day celebration of his landing in the New World. This book shares a lot of important information about how Columbus first discovered America, how he got his funding for his voyages, and much more. It also explains how Columbus Day is important in our country now, which is something a lot of students may not be aware of. 

Creating an artifact bag was really fun! I think that this is such a great way to engage students. If I were to do this lesson incorporated into my unit plan, I would have done it as an introduction to get students to guess who the explorer is! A lot of my classmates also did an incredible job with their own bags/presentations and you can check them out here: 

Kristen's Presentation Alexis' Presentation Rachel's Presentation Michaela's Presentation

Cassandra's Presentation Aimee's Presentation Cierra's Presentation Ganny's Presentation

Amanda's Presentation Marie's Presentation