Project Overview

The expedition focused on myth understandings, which were focused on the relationship between scientific astronomical phenomena, such as day and night, eclipses, sunrises, and sunsets, and explanations of those concepts throughout history in the form of myths. Each student created one page of a shared book showcasing these various astronomical concepts' scientific and mythological explanations. The guiding question was, “How do we understand the unknown?”

Students engaged with myths from cultures around the world and developed an understanding that concepts like eclipses are explained scientifically today and throughout history have been explained by different cultures in various ways. To decide their page, students picked which astronomical concepts they were interested in and represented them in two areas of knowledge. First, they created a scientific explanation, including a scientific diagram. Next, they represented the concept in a myth from around the world (Aztec, Japanese, Persian, Chinese, Igbo, Bushongo, and other cultures). Many students also included a Greek myth as part of this exploration and connected to their shared text, Percy Jackson: The Lightning Thief. Other students demonstrated their mythological expertise by writing their own myths. Along with these mythological retellings, students created visuals to accompany their writing. Students underwent multiple cycles of self, peer, and teacher revisions throughout this process. Finally, they shared the published book and their reflections of the expedition with elementary school students, parents, friends, and community members at a culminating event.

From EL's ELA Curriculum G6:M1