Transformative Teaching in Action: 7th Graders Survive Medieval Europe

This ambitious unit is built on the power of faculty collaboration, with teachers from six different departments jumping in to create integrated, hands-on activities. The result is a learning experience that extends far beyond the history classroom.

The unit functions as a medieval survival challenge, where every completed activity earns the students points toward "surviving" the Middle Ages. The experience began with students creating simple peasant surcoats in the Makerspace with Ms. Muller. Dressed in their historical garb, they went to Mr. Gummerson’s garden to work as peasants, completing tasks under the watchful eye of "Lord Gummerson" and "Lord Mehron." The unit's most visceral lesson came when the "Lords" collected their "tax"—a tomato—helping students understand the practical realities of medieval life. 

The learning continued as students stepped into a monastery's scriptorium. They made their own ink with Ms. Muller and practiced the focused discipline of writing with a quill, copying verses from the New Testament and gaining insight into the life of monks and nuns. Ms. Geriak created an exciting Viking escape room, where students had to strategize and solve puzzles to safely reach the protection of a castle. Even technology played a role, with Mr. Van Buren bringing the Middle Ages into the 21st century by creating an augmented reality experience for students to explore a castle. 

This immersive approach allows 7th graders to fully compare and draw conclusions about their experiences as people from the Middle Ages to their life today. By feeling the effort of physical labor and the impact of the tax on their limited resources, students don't just memorize facts; they gain historical empathy. They can then analyze modern concepts of property, governance, and resource management with a deeper, more personal context. This powerful, integrated approach is made possible only by the exceptional collaboration of our dedicated faculty. As one student was overheard saying, “This is one of the biggest collaborations I’ve seen. So many teachers are coming and being part of this.” By witnessing this exceptional teamwork firsthand, our students gain an invaluable lesson: that collaboration across disciplines leads to greater, more transformative results, establishing teamwork and collaboration as a powerful value for their own future.