Introduction
“Geometry is the archetype of the beauty of the world.” -Johannes Kepler
Did you know that Geometry dates back to 1650 BC! Many ancient civilizations have used geometry to create their beautiful world. In the 19th century, archeologists found that Egyptians used geometry and drew rectangular grids to divide the land into chartable parts. Locations were marked by two numbers, one referring to a row and one referring to a column. This is how they planned the building of their majestic pyramids. The row and column are also known similarly to the y-axis and x-axis.
Surprise! Ancient Egyptians used the coordinate plane to plan their pyramids.
The coordinate plane is used to locate a point given its relative distance from two perpendicular intersecting lines. The horizontal line is called the x-axis, and the vertical line is the y-axis. Their intersection is considered point 0 and is called the origin.
Task
Imagine …..
Today you become an archeologist!
In this project you will find the distance of an ancient Egyptian secret chamber. You will learn about the jobs of archeologists while also learning how to find distances in the coordinate plane. I want you to jump in and explore life in ancient Egypt. They made many contributions to the mathematical world. At the end of the project you will have a mini-album of everything you learned today.
Process
What are archeology and archeologist?
Archeology is the study of human history and prehistory through the excavation of sites and the analysis of artifacts and other physical remains. Archeologists are the professionals that make it happen. Today we will be focusing on the excavation of sites because we are trying to get inside the secret chambers!
On your first page of your mini-book make a list of at least 5 facts about what archeology is and what archeologists do.
Watch these two videos to see how they work in the real world. What is archeology? Want to become an archeologist?
Now… why are we trying to get inside the secret chamber? In Ancient Egypt, they would build magnificent tombs for their Kings and Queens. They have beautiful murals and treasures that helped archeologists tell the story of ancient Egypt.
For the second page of your mini-book you will go on a virtual tour of an ancient Egyptian tomb. In your mini-book draw a small portion of a mural you saw on the virtual tour. Don't forget to be creative and use color! Write 2-3 sentences on what you found interesting exploring the tomb.
Tomb of Queen Meresankh III Tomb of Menna
How does this connect to geometry?
Since Egyptians used the coordinate plane to plan their pyramids, we need to find the distance of a hidden chamber inside a pyramid to fully explore.
On the last page of your mini-book you will draw the secret chamber to find the distance in width and length.
As we learned in class, coordinate planes have a y-axis and an x-axis. They also have 4 quadrants. Let’s start there!
Now let’s solve the real-world problem as archeologists. ****Show your work!*****
An archaeologist divides an area using a coordinate plane in which each unit represents 1 meter. The corners of a secret chamber are found at (−4, 5), (2, 5), (2, 1),
and (−4, 1).
What are the dimensions of the secret chamber?
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Plot the points on your coordinate plane
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The length of the chamber is the distance between (−4, 5) and (2, 5). The width of the chamber is the distance between (2, 5) and (2, 1).
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Use absolute values to find the distances between the points. (Adding the spaces between the points)
In your answer write how wide and long the chamber is.
Your team is now ready to explore the secret chamber, how exciting!
After you are done plotting and finding the distance of the secret chamber, write a paragraph on what you learned doing this project. Can you think of other ways geometry can be applied to the real world?
Evaluation
You will be evaluated with this checklist.
Did you achieve exploring Egypt’s Land?
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Points Received |
Checklist |
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____/10 pts |
Did you include 5 facts about archeology? pg.1 |
|
____/10 pts |
Did you have clear sentences throughout your book? |
|
____/10 pts |
Did you have little to no grammatical mistakes? |
|
____/10 pts |
Did you include a mural drawing? pg.2 |
|
____/10 pts |
Did you include 2-3 sentences on exploring the tombs? pg.2 |
|
____/10 pts |
Did you draw your coordinate plane correctly? pg.3 |
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____/10 pts |
Are your points plotted correctly? |
|
____/10 pts |
Did you show your work? |
|
____/10 pts |
Did you find the dimensions of the hidden chamber? |
|
____/10 pts |
Did you write a paragraph on what you learned? |
|
_____/100 pts |
Total points earned |
Conclusion
You are officially an archeologist!
I hope you learned a lot while doing this project. Learning about ancient civilizations is very important to understand today’s world. Most importantly, it is important you see how math has helped the world thousands of years ago and how it continues to help the world we live in today. You practiced science, history, and math altogether! Ancient Egypt is just one of many civilizations that used advanced mathematics during their time. They built some of the most magnificent structures even in today’s world and all thanks to geometry. I hope you leave today’s class with a brain filled with knowledge and more curiosity.
Continue to be math wizards!
Credits
Digital Giza: The Giza Project at Harvard University . (2017). Retrieved from http://giza.fas.harvard.edu/
Farmer , A. (2019). The History of Geometry . Retrieved from https://www.sutori.com/story/the-history-of-geometry--V81GWJm1noTvEmagfzy3gDwX
INEA Project Videos, Want to be an archeologist? (2015). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ao4vVcfvyuE
Museum of London, What is archeology? (2017). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQtlqyv-llA
Teacher Page
The purpose of this web quest is to engage students in mathematics research in a fun and interactive way. The goal is to stretch their mathematical thinking beyond memorizing math concepts. I wanted to develop a WebQuest that is interdisciplinary and interactive.