What was the most significant invention of Ancient Egypt? Dragon's Den Project

“My purpose is to engage students in dialogue so they can see others’ points of view – in a world that needs this more than ever. I do this by sharing lessons on this site which connect students with the past and inspire critical thinking.
Please read below to find details about this one.” Dan

The title of this lesson is “What was the most important invention of Ancient Egypt? Dragon’s Den Project.”

This is a great project-based lesson designed to introduce students to the topic of Ancient Egypt and to promote the second-order concept of significance and includes graduated learning outcomes (all of you will/most of you will/some of you will).

The lesson begins with a starter activity where students are asked to identify which of the given inventions was not invented in Ancient Egypt. This leads on to a second activity in which they see how many inventions which originated in Ancient Egypt they can identify. From this the class are then introduced to the idea of how historians decide what makes an event or discovery significant and they explore the acronym GREAT: G = ground-breaking, R = remembered, E = extent of importance to people at the time, A = affected the future, and T = turning point. Lesson objectives are introduced (all will/most will/some will). For the main task students are placed in groups and given a card with three different inventions on. They need to choose one of their inventions and explain in presentation form why they feel it is so significant. They can make models and sales pitches to accompany their explanations to the ‘dragons’ (get senior teachers to come in to act as these if they’re good sports). The lesson concludes with a peer assessment class voting plenary on which they felt was the most important invention and why. This lesson has been designed for high school students but can work with slightly younger classes too.

Before you leave be sure to follow Dan’s History Highway for more info on hundreds of fully-resourced lessons for busy teachers!

Wishing you a terrific day.