Colorado Springs School issued the following announcement on Nov. 3.
The mountain town Pow Wow at 89,500 feet, where residents ski everywhere, and children learn at school how to make skis and design ski runs. Alien-like creatures whose river contains a green liquid called glassay that cures COVID-19 in two days with one gulp. Raindrops that are citizens of a megacloud, where slavery has never existed because they learned what it did to the United States and wish not to repeat those mistakes but to fix them.
These are some of the elements of culture that 8th graders imagined for their Civilization Projects in Ancient Civilizations history class.
“This is an extensive project that requires students to think creatively about ancient civilizations of the past, while at the same time letting their creativity and imaginations take them places they never dreamed,” said teacher Amos White, who has taught at CSS for 22 years.
Ancient Civilizations is a survey course in which 8th grade students examine the cultures of the ancient world in order to understand and compare the elements that constitute each society. They discover why and how these civilizations came to exist. Civilizations studied include ancient Mesopotamia, India, China, and Africa, as well as the Near East, Egypt, Greece and Rome. Students are introduced to historical research and engage in critical examination of primary documents and sources while studying the principles, theory, and history of historical writing.
A major component of the class is students creating their own civilization, which includes writing a paper, building a model, and giving a five- to 10-minute oral presentation about their model and civilization.
Wyatt S. ’25 created Crayola, a civilization of crayons whose meaning of life is simply to be colorful. The only resource they use is wax, and because it produces no emissions and is recyclable, Crayola has reversed global warming. The wax is grown in tree farms, then molded into items such as food and cars. There’s no sexism because there’s only one gender.
Laws in Crayola include no killing and no hurting others, and they are not allowed to create inappropriate things out of wax in public. There are no police, but citizens can make arrests. For those who break the laws, the punishment is getting melted for materials.
“I got to experiment with all different ideas of what I could do, and it was cool that I actually got to make it. It wasn’t just a project on paper but also a model,” Wyatt said. “It was fun to create your own civilization and create your own laws - and the people you made didn’t have to follow them either. You got to do whatever you wanted.”
Students write a three- to five-page paper that identifies and explains the seven elements of culture:
- Geography
- Economics
- Religion and philosophy
- Knowledge, education, and the arts
- Political science
- Sociology
- History
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