Background Information: Our Virtual Cave

 
The pupils like the subject-matter they learn in history in the 6th grade. So we started a history project and ccordinated the work in other subjects too: German Language, Biology, Music, Arts, Crafts..

The work was divided into three main parts:

• research
• an exhibition and
• presentation.

We did most of the research in history classes.We collected books and articles about the life of cavemen, read them and discussed the results. During this discussions we got the idea of building a stone age cave in the hall of our school building.

Then the pracical work started. The students built a model of a stone age valley. There you could see a cave, a fire place, bears and other animals.
They also tried to copy stone age tools, clothings and jewelery. They built the cave into the hall and decorated it with pictures of holy animals. One of the teachers, Clarissa Hänel, wrote a play about the "discovering of our cave" and practiced the play and different songs with the students. Students of the "Creative Branch" made the impressing entrance of the cave.

The work lasted for five weeks. Then we invited the parents and other guests to the official presentation. First we offered a hearty stone age meal. Then they saw the play about "The discovering of the Cave". Finally special trained guides took them on a tour through the cave. All the visitors had to wear helmets and take a flashlight with them. Caves are very dark and sometimes dangerous.
Our guestes seemed to enjoy the evening very much.

Goals we reached during the project:

• The students worked very hard independently, even on weekends. Especially the tour guides had to prepare themselves very carefully. They knew much more about life in pre-historic times than the other students.
• When they tried to copy stone age tools, they learned to respect the accomplishment of the early men.
• They learned to talk and act in front of a crowd without fear.
• They learned how tto extract important information from a larger amount of information.
• This was a fund rising project to. The money helped to finance field trips. In the following year 3 classes went to London, one to Italy.

The cave was exhibited for 3 more weeks in the school building. Then we had to remove it.

But all the pracipants enjoyed the work very much. We all learned, what can be achieved, if we work together.

Special thanks to the teachers involved: Karin Winter, Brigitte Ströbl, Roswitha Schäfer, Clarissa Hänel.

We all worked very hard to reach our goal and became a very special team.

Willibald Fuchs

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