“The Renaissance was from 1300 to 1600, and when the Renaissance begins, you’re coming out of the Dark Ages and we begin to see this flourishing of education and knowledge especially with the invention of the printing press,” said Kevin Sipe, seventh-grade social studies teacher at PIMS. “By the end of the Renaissance, we have the beginning of the Modern Age. The Renaissance is really the transition from the ancient world into the modern world.
“We did a similar unit before Skyway and Cunningham middle schools merged, so it’s actually been going for quite a while … probably almost 10 years now,” said Sipe. “This is the second year that we’ve included both House I and II. This year is really about everybody – all the teachers have worked together to put this together including our special education and Gifted and Talented teachers. There’s about nine or 10 of us who are doing an activity, and the students are rotating amongst all of us; even teachers that they don’t normally have.”
Among the activities the students took part in included making stained glass windows out of tissue paper, creating both a personal crest and a Renaissance timeline, learning about the history of the Renaissance, as well as medicine and the Plague during that time period, and various acting workshops.
“The idea is that it’s truly interdisciplinary – it covers virtually all their subject areas,” Sipe said. “We’re hoping that they’ll understand that one of the key concepts is a Renaissance person – someone who is talented at many things. The idea is that these great Renaissance people – Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo, etc. – were good at lots of things. They were scientists, poets, historians, philosophers, sculptors, painters … we hope the kids get a little touch of all of that. They get to experience some art, science and history, so when they walk away they have some idea of what the Renaissance was and why it was such a tremendous change in society from what it had been.”
Student Meredith Stewart said she thoroughly enjoyed the Renaissance unit.
“I liked the medicine activity because you learned a lot but it wasn’t too graphic,” she said. “The stained glass windows are fun, too.
“I learned a lot about the Renaissance,” said Stewart. “We watched a couple movies and those were very informative. One of the things I learned was that they used a lot of drawings to explain things. It’s been a fun activity.”
Hayden Dow said the Renaissance Week was not only fun, but educational.
“Some things are more difficult than others,” he said, “but it’s been going well. I liked the acting. I had a speaking part … they handed out the scripts, we read it, and jumped right in. I participate in the school play, so I enjoy going up on stage and being in front of an audience. We had costumes and everything, so it was a lot of fun.
“I learned a lot of things about the Black Death and how it spread across Europe. I found that pretty interesting. It was spread from flies going onto rats, and when the rats all died, the flies went onto people killing a lot of them,” said Dow. “I didn’t really know much about the Renaissance before this week, but I do now and it’s been fun.”
The Renaissance unit wrapped up Friday with a slide presentation and acting performances.
“We’d like to continue this activity next year,” said Sipe. “It’s a hands-on unit and the students seem to like it. The teachers have really enjoyed working as a group. The reason this year’s unit is different is we’ve got five new people who have different ideas, which makes it interesting and that much more beneficial for the students.”
