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Lessons on Ancient Greece for Middle School

Discover the fascinating world of Ancient Greece with our comprehensive lesson plans and resources. The ancient Greek civilisation that emerged along the Mediterranean Sea was unique and has left an enduring legacy that continues to influence the world today. From its rich political and philosophical ideas to its art, literature, and scientific advancements, Ancient Greece has shaped the way we think and live today.

Our lesson plans and resources are designed to bring the ancient world to life in your classroom and are suitable for face-to-face and online instruction. Each resource is created by experienced history teachers and includes interactive activities, primary sources, and opportunities for research, critical thinking, and analysis. These activities will engage students and help them understand the complexities of Ancient Greek civilisation.

The political ideology of Ancient Greece had a profound influence on Western civilisation. The concept of democracy, for instance, was first established in Athens and still forms the basis of modern political systems today. Additionally, the games, drama, and other cultural practices of Ancient Greece are still celebrated and studied today.

Ancient Greece was also a civilisation that greatly valued knowledge and learning. The Greeks were responsible for many scientific discoveries and advancements, particularly in mathematics, astronomy, and medicine. This legacy continues to influence how we think and understand the world today.

Ancient Greek Inventions and Discoveries

Unveil the secrets of the past with “Exploring Ancient Greek Inventions and Discoveries,” a lesson plan that catapults middle school […]

Exploring Ancient Greek Philosophers

Set sail on an enlightening journey to Ancient Greece with our “Exploring Greek Philosophers” lesson plan. This dynamic worksheet will […]

Ancient Greek Gods and Goddesses

In the “Discovering Ancient Greek Gods and Goddesses” worksheet, students will explore the fascinating world of Greek mythology through engaging […]

An Introduction to Sparta

An Introduction to Sparta Worksheet is an essential tool for middle school children studying ancient Greece for the first time. […]

Ancient Greek Governments

The lesson plan on Ancient Greek Governments is a valuable resource for educators looking to provide their younger students with […]

Ancient Greece Diary Entry Worksheet

This history lesson plan, “Ancient Greece Diary Entry Worksheet”, provides an interesting opportunity for upper primary and younger middle school […]

Ancient Greek Legacies

Welcome to Ancient Greek Legacies, a concise and compelling lesson plan designed to whisk middle school students back to the […]

Ancient Greece Crossword Puzzle

The Ancient Greece Crossword Puzzle is a professional-looking worksheet that is perfect for any student studying Ancient Greece. This puzzle […]

Ancient Greek Gods & Goddesses Match Game

The ancient Greeks and Romans both had a rich pantheon of gods and goddesses, each with their own unique characteristics, […]

Ancient Greek Warfare

Studying Ancient Greek Warfare is crucial for all middle school students who want to delve into the depths of world […]

Ancient Greece Hoplite Worksheet

The Ancient Greek Hoplite was one of the ancient world’s most iconic and well-known soldiers. This powerful warrior was at […]

Alexander the Great and Pericles Worksheet

The Alexander the Great and Pericles Student Worksheet provides an opportunity for middle school students to learn about two significant […]

Ancient Greece Personalities Assessment Task

The Ancient Greece Personalities Assessment Task is a comprehensive assessment task designed to help students gain a deeper understanding of […]

Daily Life in Ancient Greece

In this lesson plan, we’ll explore the daily life of the Ancient Greeks, focusing on the city of Athens. Ancient […]

Ancient Greek Religion

In this lesson plan, we’ll be diving into the world of Ancient Greek religion. The Ancient Greeks were deeply religious […]

Ancient Greece Find-a-word

Welcome to the Ancient Greece Find-a-word activity, a worksheet designed to introduce younger students to the exciting world of Ancient […]

The Geography of Ancient Greece

Discover the geography of Ancient Greece with our engaging history lesson! Designed specifically for younger students or those new to […]

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Ancient greeks planning.

The Ancient Greeks Planning (Intended For Y5) Set A

Please note that this planning is intended for my own school but can be used as a basis for your own planning, free of charge. set a is the most up-to-date version of this unit having reflected on the planning of set b below. both sets of planning focus on the impact of the ancient greeks, their achievements, who they were influenced by greek culture and daily life. this planning comes with a number of supporting powerpoints and worksheets for most lessons and  also comes with an enquiry framework document showing how each lesson fits together to answer the main statement about the topic, helping to keep it coherent and purposeful. there is also a rationale for the enquiry and alternative questions/statements that could be used or tweaked. also included is a 'crib sheet' to make notes about the core information needed for the end of unit assessment, highlighting the key aspects of learning from this unit. a new addition are the knowledge reminder sheets that can be stuck in for each lesson which reminds children of the key learning from the main input to aide memory retention and to help make them more independent during the lessons. this planning is detailed but more refined than set b and includes subject knowledge within the planning, which is sometimes replicated (but simplified) on the accompanying resources for the children to learn and use. this set is probably more useful if you are studying the greeks for a half term rather than a full term. i am happy to send the resources to accompany this planning, just send a message using the form through the contact page stating which set of planning (set a, set b or both) and an email address. a googledrive link will be sent to you to access these resources, so please check your inbox, spam and junk folders shortly after sending your email. some external resources in this planning includes: mozaweb.com - requires a subscription to use in the classroom but limited access is given with a free account  .

The Ancient Greeks Planning (Intended For Y5) Set B

Set b is essentially identical to set a apart from a few tweaks to a few lessons: l1 - the chronology in set b includes more on the earliest greeks l3 - the number of greek achievements is greater and requires more time to study them and more for the children to think about l5 - set b's version of alexander the great's empire focuses more on the entire empire itself and has a different task this set is probably more suitable if you are studying the greeks for an entire term rather than just half a term, or if you are able to accommodate more than just an hour to most lessons. like set a, it includes the enquiry framework with rationales, the crib sheet for the children to stick in and all of the accompanying resources which i can send. this planning is very detailed and includes a whole host of subject knowledge within the planning, which is often replicated (but simplified) on the accompanying resources for the children to learn and use. i am happy to send the resources to accompany this planning, just send a message using the form through the contact page stating which set of planning (set a, set b or both) and an email address. a googledrive link will be sent to you to access these resources, so please check your inbox, spam and junk folders shortly after sending your email. some external resources in this planning includes: mozaweb.com - requires a subscription to use in the classroom but limited access is given with a free account.

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Ancient Greeks Planning

Subject: History

Age range: 7-11

Resource type: Unit of work

Last updated

16 May 2022

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Ancient Greeks: 10 lessons for KS2

A fully-resourced unit of 10 history lessons for KS2, covering the Ancient Greece topic.

What you get: 10 lesson Powerpoint files 10 detailed lesson plans Teachers’ notes, including curriculum coverage Pupil activity sheets for all lessons

About the Unit The ten sessions in this unit aim to give an overview of life in Ancient Greece, including a focus on its achievements and influence on the western world. As with all of the KS2History unit plans, there is an emphasis on allowing pupils to consider the sources of evidence that form our understanding of this period of world history.

Aims of the Unit

• To gain an overview of significant people, places and events from Ancient Greece
• To contrast daily life in Ancient Greece with modern day lifestyles ! To consider broader historical context, particularly with regards to the expansion of the Ancient Greek empire and lasting legacy
• To become familiar with historical sources, debates and accurate vocabulary relating to Ancient Greece

Lessons in the Pack

• Who were the Ancient Greeks?
• Why were Athens and Sparta so different?
• What was Alexander the Great’s impact on the Greek empire?
• Why did a small Greek army win the Battle of Marathon?
• What were the Ancient Greek gods known for?
• What happened at the Ancient Greek Olympic Games?
• What were the Ancient Greek philosophers famous for?
• Did the events of the Trojan Horse story really happen?
• What was daily life like for children in Ancient Greece?
• How significant is the legacy of Ancient Greece for life today?

This pack contains everything you need to teach this unit, including differentiated activity ideas so that it can be adapted to the needs of your class. The Powerpoint text is also editable.

This pack is brought to you from Ks2history.com .

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ellie_miller

Great planning! Interactive, fun and informative. Lots of different historical skills covered through different types of activities too. Thank you! :)

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Always excellent resources. Best on the market for History!

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Lessons and resources for primary history

Lessons & Resources

Ancient Greece Lessons Pack

A complete 10-lesson history unit of work for Key Stage 2 (ages 7-11), with detailed lesson plans, Powerpoint slides, teacher guides and printable activity sheets.

FREE: 'Who were the Ancient Greeks?' Lesson

A free lesson introducing the Ancient Greeks, including powerpoint, lesson plan and pupil resources

Greek Myths Teacher Pack

A book and Read & Respond Guide for teachers planning around an illustrated Greek Myths collection.

Recommended Books

Visit BooksForTopics for a full range of ks2 Ancient Greeks books.

1. Who were the Ancient Greeks? (FREE)

2. Why Were Athens and Sparta so different?

4. Why did a small Greek army win the Battle of Marathon?

3. What was Alexander the Great’s impact on the Greek empire?

Free downloadable lesson .

Info Guides

Video Links

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/clips/zx67xnb 

A video from BBC Bitesize about Greek theatre.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/clips/z9kmhv4 

A video exploring the question 'What did the Greeks do for us?'

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Ancient Greece KS2 Lesson Planning and Resources

We've got a comprehensive selection of Ancient Greece KS2 lesson plan packs and free resources to support teaching your KS2 children about the ancient Greek civilisation. 

If you would like to know more about this fascinating topic make sure you read our Ancient Greece fact blog and our Olympics fact blog .

Ancient Greece Topic

This fun and engaging KS2 Ancient Greece Topic for Year 5 and Year 6 will take your class back to one of the most fascinating civilisations in hist...

Aesop's Fables

What is a fable? This Aesop's Fables KS2 English lesson pack will help you teach your class what a fable is, and how this particular genre of writi...

Greek Myths

Immerse your class in the wonderful world of Greek gods, mortal heroes and mythical beasts with this Greek Myths KS2 English Pack of reading compre...

Aesop's Fables The Lion and the Mouse

This famous fable is a great way to introduce your class to Aesop - a storyteller from Ancient Greece. Aesop's Fable 'The Lion and the Mouse' teach...

Ancient Greece Topic Cover

This colourful topic cover will complement your teaching of our 'Ancient Greece' scheme of work for KS2. You can print a colour version or a blank ...

Ancient Greece Brain Teasers

Join the greek gods to solve some challenging Brain Teasers aimed at year 5/6. This slideshow is a great time filler in the classroom and is perfec...

Ancient Greek Gods and Goddesses Posters

These twelve free Ancient Greek Gods and Goddesses KS2 Posters make a perfect display for your History topic! Featuring the following Greek gods an...

Ancient Greece Word Bank

Key vocabulary and accompanying images to help support your children's writing. This resource is part of our KS2 'Ancient Greece' cross-curricular ...

Ancient Greek Alphabet for Kids

Download and display this Ancient Greek Alphabet for kids and display in your classroom! It is a great accompaniment to our Ancient Greece Topic.

Ancient Greece Word Search

These three differentiated 'Ancient Greece' word searches are a fun way for your KS2 class to consolidate their Ancient Greek vocabulary as they se...

Ancient Greece Labyrinth

Can your class work their way through the ancient Greece labyrinth? This tricky challenge would be a perfect time filler for early finishers of our...

Ancient Greece Acrostics

Challenge your class to write their own ancient Greek acrostic poems! This tricky challenge would be a perfect time filler for early finishers of o...

Ancient Greece Reward Jigsaw

Rewarding good behaviour with these 'Ancient Greece' reward jigsaws for KS2 will be easy! Your class will want to see what the finished picture loo...

Ancient Greece Timeline KS2 Cards

Download these handy Ancient Greek Timeline KS2 Cards to support your class in understanding the chronology of the ancient Greek civilisation. Use ...

Ancient Greek Shield Designs

This set of free Ancient Greek shield designs sheets includes photos of real Greek shields as well as colouring and design challenges. It is a grea...

Ancient Greece Group Name Labels

Fold these fun and colourful nets into name labels and place them on your tables. Looking for some ready-to-teach History lessons? Check out PlanBe...

Athens and Sparta KS2 Comparison Chart

Explore the differences between the ancient Greek city states of Athens and Sparta with this FREE Athens and Sparta KS2 Comparison Chart. Find out ...

Greek Gods and Goddesses Word Search

Introduce your KS2 class to the gods and goddesses of ancient Greece as they search for the Olympians and the Titans. These 2 differentiated word s...

Greek Gods Crosswords

Try these 3 differentiated 'Greek Gods' crossword puzzles to help your class find out about the deities of ancient Greece. Your class will learn th...

Greek Vases KS2 Picture Cards

This Greek Vases KS2 Picture Cards FreeBee is a great resource to complement your Ancient Greece topic. Use as part of a display, as the inspiratio...

Greek Masks KS2 Display Cards

These Greek Masks KS2 Display Cards are the perfect accompaniment to any topic about Ancient Greece. Take a look at our Ancient Greece Topic for Ye...

Greek Mask Template

Download these two Greek Mask Templates for your class to make their own versions of the comedy and tragedy face masks that were used in Greek thea...

Greek Vase Template

Use these Greek Vase Templates to encourage your class to use their creative skills to design their own patterns and images suitable for an ancient...

Hercules Activity Sheets

Add an educational slant to film-watching with these fun Hercules Activity Sheets! Whilst watching the film, children are encouraged to note down a...

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• Ancient Greece for Kids

Free Ancient Greece Lesson Plans, Simulations, Activities for 6th grade - can be adjusted for any grade

For ancient greece: these are free use lesson plans, classroom activities, simulations, interactive activities, review activities, concluding activities and projects written by us and by other teachers for ancient greece. we have had great success with these ideas in our classroom. we hope they work as well for you..

Greek Geography Activity: Working in small groups, be real estate agents. Sell your site. Use real location names. If its a sea, name it. Give reasons why anyone should settle down in such a mountainous area. Remind students that the Greeks were independent. Their culture developed from villages that grew into unique and independent city-states . Have groups create a "For Sale" brochure or sign.

Geography Lesson Plans - several

Travel in Ancient Greece, a mix of city-states and locations - how geography affected the development of ancient Greece

Government:

Lesson Plans Early History - Minoan, Mycenaean, Greek Dark Ages

Lesson Plans for City-States & Government - Athens, Sparta

Worksheet: Ancient Greece, Democracy, lesson plan

Lesson Plans Greek Wars - Trojan, Persian, Peloponnesian

Greek government in different city-states: Determine how each government in ancient Greece would handle a convicted violent criminal

Religion/Greek Gods

Gods, Goddesses, Myths - many, include projects and classroom activities

Business Cards: Tell the kids the gods are really getting upset. People are coming to the temples asking them to do everything. They don't do everything. They have jobs. People need a reminder of what jobs each god can do. In frustration, the gods have come to you to fix this. You need to create for them some business cards that they can use to advertise what they do best. (Example: Apollo, Want a sun tan? See Apollo. Or Hera: Wedding Consultant. Aphrodite: Love Advice for the Lonely. Work in groups. If you have multiple classes, work in large groups. Give each class different gods. That way, when they are all posted on the wall, the kids in each class can enjoy them. Assign groups the gods they will be helping. Give them some time. Have each class them share their business cards ideas with the class. Collect the card so can make a montage of all the cards from all classes on your wall.

Job Application: Zeus is retiring. Apply for his job.

NEW: Comparing stories and myths, in three steps

Step One : Language Arts/Social Studies - Using Ancient Greece as the location and setting, and the personalities of the ancient Greek gods:  Case Files of the Hercules Detective Agency (original short stories about ancient Greece)   Join Herc and his buddies as they solve the many problems facing the ancient Greek people. Meet some monsters! Visit the Olympics! Find out how kids got an education. How did men get their hair cut? How did people meet each other to get married? Who were the Oracles? What were the gods really like and how did they get along? What was the stone zoo?  What happened to the missing olive trees? How did Hercules and the Minotaur become best friends? Way we use these stories in the classroom : Small group activity : Divide into small groups. Assign each group a different case file (story) to recap, illustrate, and present. Have students explain how the story used the setting, daily life, and the gods of ancient Greece to create a fictional story. Next step: Draw names from a hat to create the next small groups and have each group write an original story using Ancient Greece. They must start with a list of characters (including deities or monsters if any), a location, an event, and then build from there. Illustrate and present their story to the class. This assignment was a lot of fun and taught the kids a great deal about ancient Greece. Nothing like using the real gods characters to make sure they fit the story. Then we finish this part of the activity by bringing in the real myths that we have already discussed, myths that were told over and over by the ancient Greek storytellers.

Step Two: Write their own Greek Myths: Monster Myths : Small Group Activity. I especially like having the kids write their own monster myths, complete with Greek God villain and/or hero/heroine and a happy ending, early in the unit. First, have your students read some additional Greek Myths if time permits as a review the Greek gods. Point out especially for this lesson the myth of King Tantalus   (beware mere mortals who think they can lie about the gods or use the gods for their own purposes.) Working in small groups, have kids write a short made up myth. As kids read their myth aloud, by giving parts to various group members or by selecting a narrator, the rest of the class has to ooh and ah and cheer because that's how things were done when the Ancient Greek storytellers told their tales. It was the myths. legends, and heroes that gave the early Greeks the unity and confidence they needed to escape the rule of the hated Dorians.

Step Three: Conclude this activity: Compare the difference between a story and a myth. (The difference is that a story does not need to include a god or goddess or mythical being.  A myth requires it.)

 Pieces of the Past: Tell your students: Imagine you are a famous archaeologist and you have just discovered the ruins of an ancient Greek home. Go through each room, carefully piecing together the clues. Each group in your class is assigned a room. The group creates clues (pieces of the past) for that room and its purpose in ancient Greece. Then, each group's room becomes an exploration station. Set up your stations around your classroom and allow students to explore each station and create a list of "discoveries" that tell us about daily life in ancient Greece. Then open class discussion. Although this is fictional writing, it is also technical writing as the assignment requires the discovery of artifacts and clues. We teach multiple classes. Some of our groups during this two-day activity chose to add to existing rooms. Some created nearby businesses. Some created neighbors. I had two groups, actually, who challenged the findings of two different discovery stations. One group was clearly, based on their presentation, seeking a grant to correct misinformation. Very fun. Our two-day activity became a four day one and I left the discovery stations up for about 10 days.

  Trading Market Simulation , barter in ancient Greece. Optional use: Students can create products that would be needed in ancient Greek daily life to barter. This can be as simple as a word on a piece of paper or a quick drawing. 

The News, what's going on in the ancient Greek world: The Daily Athenian, newspaper project

Lesson Plans and Activities for Daily Life, Homes, Women, School - many, include projects and classroom activities   

• Worksheet:: Ancient Greece, education, lesson plan
• Worksheet: Ancient Greece, home life

Greek Olympics:

Ancient Greek Olympics for the Classroom 3-4 days mini-unit with student role handouts and games .  This is a great group activity, and really helps the kids understand the concept of city-states and the fierce competition that existed in ancient Greece between them. I usually use this early in the unit because it's so much fun, and so very Greek.

Lesson Plans: Ancient Greek Olympics

• Worksheet: Ancient Greece, Olympics, lesson plan

Famous People

Mock Trial: Socrates, Mock Trial, Classroom Activity (2-3 class periods, 55 minutes each, Mr. Donn)  

Conduct a Socrates Seminar , Socrates Seminar Classroom Activity

Activity: TV Interviews with the Great Greeks

Famous People Lesson Plans - Pericles, Socrates, Aristotle, Plato, Alexander the Great, lesson plans, Great Greeks

Aesop's Fables  

Alexander the Great, lesson plan, critical thinking, computer lab web activity (Mrs. Donn)

Alexander the Great and Johnny Appleseed (classroom activity and lesson idea to transition 6th grade units, from Greece to Rome)  

Achievements/Inventions/Art/Architecture

Gift Wrapped Greeks - one of my personal favorites for teaching and reviewing inventions and achievements

Worksheet: Ancient Greece, alphabet, free download, school history)

Art & Architecture - Vases, Columns, Theatre

Greek Pot Patterns - Printable Download - Greek Vases

Lesson Ideas for Ancient Greece (some ours, some sent to us) -   Paper Columns, Make a Greek Chiton

Lesson Plans: Achievements, Inventions  

Worksheet: Parthenon Marbles, lesson plan, controversy

7 Wonders of the Ancient World (as selected by the ancient Greeks)

Concluding Activities and Review: 

Classroom Game, Review: Greek Bingo with printout Greek bingo card

Online Game Day: Ancient Greece - Games and Interactive Learning Sites for Kids - I set this activity to work by creating a scavenger hunt sheet of things for kids to find in the sites listed on their exploration sheet. The kids have to site the source for each scavenger find for verification. 

Concluding Activity : Fifth and Sixth Grade Greek Fair

Review: Online Quiz: Ask Mr. Donn, Interactive Quiz Questions with Answers about Ancient Greece for Kids and Teachers 

Ancient Greece for Kids and Teachers (Mrs. Masters) Review, Activity and Game

Complete Units:

Early & Classical Greece Units - 6th grade (Mr. Donn)  

Ancient Greece, with essential and guiding questions, 8th grade (Mrs. Baldwin)

Ancient Greece Unit (133 pages)

Ancient Greece and Rome, a comparison (35 lessons, Core Knowledge)

Ranch View Middle School Ancient Greece - unit handouts

Welcome to Ancient Greece, Overviews & Units

More free use activity and project ideas for kids and teachers to use in your unit study of ancient Greece. These activities can be adjusted for any grade.

Critical Thinking Activity : Question what you read on the web! - computer lab, small group activity

Choose Your Own Adventure (from a long and creative list of Classroom Activities and Possible Assignments)

Activities: Over 90 Ancient Greece Activities for elementary and middle school Kids and Teachers - some ours, some sent to us

Great Links from Poulsbo Middle School, Kitsap County, WA - Ancient Greek Civilization

Webquests & Resources

My Ancient Greek Activity Book - Includes making business cards for the gods .

Choose Your Own Adventure from over 70 different classroom activities and possible assignments

New teachers : Easy desk arrangements for the classroom - I move my desks around all the time, depending upon the activities I'm doing that day. It took me forever to realize I can have the kids move their desks, after I mark the spots with masking tape. You don't want to have the kids moving into formations all the time, but occasionally it's a smart thing to do. Tell them you need their help prior to movement. It's a team building activity. It's not your classroom that way, it's "our" classroom. They will want to help you. 

Greek Worksheets -

• History for Kids (These are useful to assign for optional homework for a little boost in grade - does not count against, only counts for)

Explore Ancient Greece

For kids: overview.

Geography & Maps

Early Greece: Minoans , Mycenaeans , Dorians

Greek Dark Ages

Rise of Greek City-States

• On Land: Greek Warriors
• At Sea: Greek Ships
• Persian Wars
• The Delian League
• Peloponnesian War

Alexander the Great

• The League of Corinth

Hellenistic Greece

Decline and Fall

Achievements & Contributions

Inventions & Discoveries

Interactive Timelines

Investigate Real Life Artifacts

Play Greek Games! Interactive

For Kids: Art, Culture, Government

Greek Drama and Theatre

Greek Dance

Ancient Greek Olympics

Types of Government

Roots of Democracy

Greek Alphabet

Greek Vases Tell a Story

Greek Columns and Architecture

Elgin Marbles

For Kids: Greek Mythology

Ancient Greek Myths for Kids, retold by Lin Donn

• Zeus, Hera, and Little Io
• The Competition, Athena and Poseidon
• Theseus, the Minotaur, and the Maze
• Dionysus and Ariadne
• Icarus and Daedalus, Wings
• The 12 Labors of Hercules
• Demeter and Persephone, Reason for the Seasons
• Apollo's Oracle at Delphi
• Perseus, Andromeda, and the sea god, Poseidon
• King Midas and the Donkey Ears
• And Many More

Ancient Greek Gods & Goddesses

The 12 Olympians

Mount Olympus

Greek God Family Tree

Religion, Gods

Acropolis & Parthenon

For Kids: Ancient Greek Daily Life

Greek Women

Greek Slaves

Pets & Toys

Hair Styles

Education, School

Wedding Customs

For Kids: People

Pericles Funeral Oration

Greek Philosophies

Greek Legends

Greek Fables

Aesop's Fables

Homer's Iliad & Homer's Odyssey

For Kids: Interactive Quizzes

Greece Geography

Early Greece

Greek Government

Greek Olympics

Alexander the Great & Gifts from the Greeks

For Teachers

Activities and Projects

Lesson Plans & Units

PowerPoints

Jeopardy Games

Interactive Games

For Kids and Teachers: Other Ancient Civilizations

See Also: Early Humans for Kids and Teachers

Archaeology for Kids and Teachers

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Ancient Greece

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A web of suggested ideas for linking science with the topic Ancient Greece. 

This web acts as a tool to support topic planning and the embedding of cross-curricular links. Each topic is split into three age ranges to cover different abilities.

If you need to link a specific area of science to a topic, then science ideas webs can be used to provide relevant, scientifically-accurate links. Alternatively, if you have more flexibility as to the science embedded, the science ideas webs provide a variety of possible biology, chemistry and physics links for you to choose from based on what fits best contextually.

Ancient Greece - science ideas webs

How to use science ideas webs, additional information.

The science ideas webs in this resource are licensed under an  Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International licence . © Royal Society of Chemistry 2015,  CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 .

The Victorians

The Stone Age

Maya and Aztecs

Ancient Egypt

The Vikings

The golden age of Islamic science

World War II

• Teacher notes
• Atomic structure
• Properties of matter
• Lesson planning
• Cross-curriculum
• Asking scientific questions
• Making predictions
• Designing experiments
• Physical chemistry

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• History of the idea of elements, including the contributions of the Greeks, Boyle, Davy and Moseley.
• 1. Appreciate how scientists work and how ideas are modified over time.

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April 2, 2024

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Last chance to record archaic Greek language 'heading for extinction'

by University of Cambridge

A new data crowd-sourcing platform aims to preserve the sound of Romeyka, an endangered millennia-old variety of Greek. Experts consider the language to be a linguistic goldmine and a living bridge to the ancient world.

The initiative, led by Professor Ioanna Sitaridou from the University of Cambridge, contributes to the UN's International Decade of Indigenous Languages (2022–32), which aims "to draw global attention on the critical situation of many indigenous languages and to mobilize stakeholders and resources for their preservation, revitalization and promotion."

Romeyka is thought to have only a couple of thousand native speakers left in Turkey's Trabzon region, but the precise number is hard to calculate especially because of the fact that there is also a large number of heritage speakers in the diaspora and the ongoing language shift to Turkish.

Romeyka does not have a writing system and has been transmitted only orally. Extensive contact with Turkish, the absence of support mechanisms to facilitate intergenerational transmission, socio-cultural stigma, and migration have all taken their toll on Romeyka. A high proportion of native speakers in Trabzon are over 65 years of age and fewer young people are learning the language.

The newly launched trilingual Crowdsourcing Romeyka platform invites members of the public from anywhere in the world to upload audio recordings of Romeyka being spoken.

"Speech crowdsourcing is a new tool which helps speakers build a repository of spoken data for their endangered languages while allowing researchers to document these languages, but also motivating speakers to appreciate their own linguistic heritage. At the same time, by creating a permanent monument of their language, it can help speakers achieve acknowledgment of their identity from people outside of their speech community," said Prof. Sitaridou, who has been studying Romeyka for the last 16 years.

The innovative tool is designed by a Harvard undergraduate in Computer Science, Mr. Matthew Nazari, himself a heritage speaker of Aramaic. Together they hope that this new tool will also pave the way for the production of language materials in a naturalistic learning environment away from the classroom, but based instead around everyday use, orality, and community.

To coincide with the platform's launch, Sitaridou is unveiling major new findings about the language's development and grammar at an exhibition in Greece.

Sitaridou's most important findings include the conclusion that Romeyka descends from Hellenistic Greek not Medieval Greek, making it distinct from other Modern Greek dialects. "Romeyka is a sister, rather than a daughter, of Modern Greek," said Sitaridou, a Fellow of Queens' College and Professor of Spanish and Historical Linguistics in Cambridge's Faculty of Modern and Medieval Languages and Linguistics. "Essentially this analysis unsettles the claim that Modern Greek is an isolate language."

Over the last 150 years, only four fieldworkers have collected data on Romeyka in Trabzon. By engaging with local communities, particularly female speakers, Sitaridou has amassed the largest collection of audio and video data in existence collected monolingually and amounting to more than 29GB of ethically sourced data, and has authored 21 peer-reviewed publications . A YouTube film about Sitaridou's fieldwork has received 723,000 views to date.

Grammar and a new phylogeny for Greek

Sitaridou's analysis of the Romeyka infinitive is key. All other Greek dialects known today have stopped using the infinitive found in ancient Greek. So speakers of Modern Greek would say "I want that I go" instead of "I want to go."

But, in Romeyka, the infinitive lives on and Sitaridou has observed uncontroversial proof that this Ancient Greek infinitive can be dated back to Hellenistic Greek due to its preservation in a structure which became obsolete by early Medieval times in all other Greek varieties, but continued to be used in Romeyka while also undergoing a cross-linguistically rare mutation to a negative item.

Sitaridou's findings have significant implications for our understanding of the evolution of Greek, because they suggest that there is more than one Greek language on a par with the Romance languages (which all derived out of Vulgar Latin rather than out of each other).

Historical context and new field work sites

The roots of the Greek presence in the Black Sea are steeped in myth: from the journey of Jason and the Argonauts to Colchis, to the Amazons. But what we know is that the Greeks began to spread around the Black Sea from approximately the 6th Century BCE. Ionians founded Miletus, which, in turn, founded Sinope, which, eventually, colonized Trebizond. In the Pontus, the language of the first Greek colonizers of Trebizond was the Ionic Greek of Sinope.

In the 4th Century BCE, the passage of Alexander the Great's army contributed to the creation of another Greek-speaking center, to the South of Pontus, at Cappadocia. It is possible that from Cappadocia, Greek may have also spread northwards towards Pontus.

However, the decisive phase for the expansion of the Greek language seems to be Christianization. The inhabitants of Pontus were among the first converts and are mentioned in the New Testament. The Soumela monastery was founded in 386 CE, around 20 years after the region officially adopted Christianity. The fall of Trebizond to the Ottomans in 1461 led to the city becoming majority Muslim.

Prof. Sitaridou said, "Conversion to Islam across Asia Minor was usually accompanied by a linguistic shift to Turkish, but communities in the valleys retained Romeyka. And because of Islamization, they retained some archaic features while the Greek-speaking communities who remained Christian grew closer to Modern Greek, especially because of extensive schooling in Greek in the 19th and early 20th centuries."

Recently, Prof. Sitaridou started field working in a new site, Tonya, where no other field worker has ever reached, only to reveal significant grammatical variation between the valleys indicating different Islamization onset. In a publication, to appear soon, it is argued that both the syntax of subordination and negation systems in Tonya show different patterns and thus diachronic development from the Çaykara variety.

In 1923, under the Greco-Turkish population exchange, Greek-speaking Christians of Pontus were forced to leave Turkey and relocate to Greece while Romeyka-speaking Muslim communities in the Trabzon area remained in their homeland as they professed Islam, explaining why this Greek variety is still spoken in small enclaves in the region. Since 1923 and until very recently the two speech communities were oblivious of each other's existence.

Preservation of heritage languages and why it matters

Speakers are still reluctant to identify Romeyka as one of their languages since, for Turkish nationalists, speaking Greek goes against the very fundamentals of one's belonging.

From a Greek nationalist perspective, these varieties are deemed 'contaminated' and/or disruptive to the ideology of one single Greek language spoken uninterruptedly since antiquity, as Sitaridou explains in an article which is about to be published by the Laz Institute in Istanbul.

In Greece, Turkey and beyond, Sitaridou has used her research to raise awareness of Romeyka, stimulate language preservation efforts and enhance attitudes. In Greece, for instance, Sitaridou co-introduced a pioneering new course on Pontic Greek at the Democritus University of Thrace since the number of speakers of Pontic Greek is also dwindling.

"Raising the status of minority and heritage languages is crucial to social cohesion, not just in this region, but all over the world," Prof. Sitaridou said. "When speakers can speak their home languages they feel 'seen' and thus they feel more connected to the rest of the society; on the other hand, not speaking the heritage or minority languages creates some form of trauma which in fact undermines the integration which linguistic assimilation takes pride in achieving."

The same ethos traverses a new project about the documentation of a critically endangered language, Sri Lanka Portuguese, among Afrodescent communities in north-western Sri Lanka. Sitaridou will be documenting and analyzing "manja," the only remaining linguistic and cultural expression of African heritage for these communities.

Exhibition at Mohamed Ali's historical house in Kavala this April

The Romeyka exhibition runs at the MOHA Research Center in Kavala, Greece , from 29th March–28th April 2024.

The exhibition features previously unpublished archival material from Exeter College, Oxford and photographic material from British School of Athens which give us a glimpse into the Greek-speaking communities and language in the southern Black Sea shores 110 years ago taken by R.M. Dawkins, one of the first field workers in the area.

This is combined with photographs and video material from Prof. Sitaridou's own fieldwork, interspersed with panels and audio material to communicate her linguistic findings.

The exhibition aims to generate further reflections on endangered heritages, fragmented and shared identities and collective memory as well as helping us get a better grasp of multilingualism, localized experiences, intergenerational stories of co-existence and displacement, diasporic selves and language loss, and alternative modalities of being and belonging both in Greece and Turkey.

Provided by University of Cambridge

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How did ancient peoples of Wisconsin view solar eclipses?

The solar eclipse happening Monday is a rare phenomenon and one question being discussed in many Wisconsin schools is “how did ancient peoples of Wisconsin view solar eclipses?”

David O’Connor , a member of the Bad River Ojibwe Tribe in northern Wisconsin and American Indian Studies Consultant for the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction , helped develop a lesson plan this year for Wisconsin teachers to help answer that question.

The Ojibwe have various legends and stories surrounding eclipses. But these are not just stories.

They represent a worldview of how celestial bodies interact with the world, human lives and concepts of afterlife and rebirth, according to the lesson plan .

These stories, often told during the long, winter nights, were not only entertaining, but also helped teach valuable lessons in life.

One Ojibwe eclipse story tells of a time when animals hunted humans

One story tells of a time when people were not the chiefs and did not hunt animals, but rather animals hunted people.

The animals had such a bloodlust for people that they eventually killed nearly of all them, except for a girl and her little brother who had escaped.

The boy soon became an avid hunter himself hunting small animals with a bow and arrow.

One day, the boy felt like something very hot was following him and burned him.

His sister then helped him make a snare to catch whatever had burned him along the melted path in the snow. This is the path of the sun.

The next day the sun rose and became caught in the snare and darkness followed.

The animals were scared of the sudden darkness and sent some of the largest and most fearsome animals to try to free the sun from the siblings’ snare — today we know the sibling as the moon.

But getting too close proved too hot for them and they were burned.

Finally, it was the mouse, which was as big as a mountain in those days, that went up and chewed through the snare, but the intense heat shrunk him down to the size he is today.

Since that time, the people have been hunting on land following the cycles of the sun and moon, according to the lesson plan .

The little boy’s name is Tickabis and is known as the man on the moon.

Another Ojibwe story about a solar eclipse was that it represented an extinguishing sun

To prevent the sun from completely dying out the Ojibwe people would shoot flaming arrows at it darkened to rekindle it.

Instead of hiding or banging drums, like in some other ancient Indigenous traditions, the Ojibwe shot these arrows with one eventually reaching high enough to reignite it.

Another story tells that the fire of the sun is eclipsed by the darkness of humanity

While darkness may arrive for a time, the light and fire of the sun will always return.

“The eclipse is an intimate union between sun and moon,” the lesson plan reads. “The Grandfather Sun and Grandmother Moon are in a sacred union, giving birth to new life on Earth.”

The Ojibwe represent six of the 12 organized tribal nations located within what is now known as Wisconsin.

The Ojibwe word for solar eclipse is “Makadewaabikizi a’aw giizis,” meaning “there is an eclipse of the sun.”

Frank Vaisvilas is a former Report for America corps member who covers Native American issues in Wisconsin based at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Contact him at  [email protected]  or 815-260-2262. Follow him on Twitter at  @vaisvilas_frank .