Section 3.1 Assignment - Visual Timeline
For this section assignment, you will be creating a visual timeline for six time periods of the Ancient Greek era.
To begin, you will need to understand that all historical periods have a beginning, middle and an end, and that these dates were given to the period of history by a historian at some time. Later, these dates, or the definition of an era, may have been changed by other historians and they may be changed again.
You learned in this section that the Ancient Greeks didn't call themselves "Greeks" and never thought of themselves as living in Ancient Greece during a particular time period, such as the Classical time period.
Time periods are like definitions. They are tools that we use to make it easier to talk about history.
Your topic for this assignment is to look at what features of Ancient Greek civilization remained constant throughout this era, and which features changed. It is the features that stayed continuous that allow us to define this as one era.
Next, you will need to understand that we can characterize the types of changes that occurred during an era. We will focus on the two below.
Duration - this can be long term or short term
Pace - this can be gradual or abrupt
Keep these terms in mind, as you will need to know them.
Step 1
Open the pdf file "Time Periods of Ancient Greece" which is a content file that you will use for the assignment. Read through that first.
You will notice that it includes a link to the site "Ancient Greece" which includes more detailed information. You can access that below.
Ancient Greece (note: some of the links on this page do not work)
Other links:
Step 2
Open the file "Continuity Change" next. This is the document within which you will create your visual timeline. Take a look through it before getting started.
Step 3
In the left column, you will need to list at least four features of Ancient Greek Civilization that remained relatively constant. For example, you might look at the types of crops that were grown throughout this era, during all time periods. You should be able to find all of your information on the Ancient Greece website, but you are allowed to research on your own.
In the centre column, you will need to write the dates for each period.
In the right column, you will need to find at least one feature that defined this period and which was not typical of the others. You might also look at a feature that changed during this period.
Step 4
For each feature that remained constant, you will need to find at least one image. You will paste those images into the appropriate column. Since the images will be quite small, you will want them to be iconic, so that someone looking at your timeline can make them out.
You will then find an image for the defining characteristics of each era.
Step 5
You will need to answer these questions in the text-box below.
1. What do you notice about what changed and what stayed the same?
2. How would you characterize the types of changes that occurred during this era? (Remember to use the terms "duration" and "pace.")
Note: Some students may choose to hand in the timeline portion of this assignment in hard-copy as a poster. If so, speak to your teacher first.
This will be marked according to the following rubric.