Engaging Students in Learning History

Historians interpret the evidence, deciding on the degree of its importance and accuracy and examine written records to understand the past.

Students should be able to:
-Think chronologically
-Understand historical events

In order to practice being a history detective, our task is to find out who the person is based on the artifacts we find in the artifact bags. We will study the artifacts, think and make predictions, who are in the pictures, when/where did this event happen?


The artifact bag we were given contained three items. The first item (pictured to the right) is a Matryoshka. It is a Russian nesting doll that is a set of wooden dolls of decreasing size placed inside one another. The first model of this doll was made in 1890. These dolls are typically used for decoration and entertainment and it was in the artifact bag because it is a very popular item in Russian culture.




The second item that was in the artifact bag was a Russian diploma. After decoding the Russian language, we figured out that this is Dr. Smirnova's diploma! It is from November 29th, 2005 and was used as a certificate to commemorate her training in the academy of science. This item represents the Russian language and it was fun to decode the words and figure out exactly what we were reading. At first we were very intimidated but after we found out what this item was, we were intrigued.

The third and last item in our artifact bag was Gzhel Pottery. It is from the 19th century and Ghzel is actually a city located in Southeast Moscow, Russia. This type of pottery is used for decoration, vases, figurines, boxes, candlesticks, clocks, tea, coffee, dinner sets and much more. It was in the artifact bag because it is an important aspect of Russian art and culture.









We concluded that everything in our artifact bag came from our professor and her culture, which was very interesting to be a part of. If we were confused about a certain Russian word, she would tell us its meaning and give us a little background information. I thought that this hands-on activity was a great way to learn all new information. We got to use the internet as a resource which was extremely helpful but also cooperating with one another was even better. At first we looked at the diploma and was very confused as to what it could be. Then one of my group members realized it said our professors named so we put our heads together and figured out that it was a diploma. I really love the idea of an artifact bag because of how engaging you can make it. I enjoyed researching details about the items in the bag and learning more in such a short amount of time. Using a hands-on teaching strategy is incredibly important and one of the best ways to learn a new topic!