Helena's Anc. Wld. Hist. project

The teacher for Ancient World History at the high school set a final project to create something that has to do with anything learned that semester and bring it to class. Talk about vague! Helena has a hard time choosing and executing when instructions are that vague. So she put it off until the last possible moment. That is where I come in.

I suggested she make an ancient Roman vase. I have clay, glazes, and a kiln. And just enough know how to get started. So, we went to my classroom one weekend and built! Actually, the whole family came. Will 'snow boarded' down the steep hills in the back playground while Bill recorded him. Helena and I worked in the classroom. The picture above is of Helena's vase. The picture below is mine. I decided it would be best to build two, just in case one of them exploded in the kiln. A plan B. And, actually, my plan B is the one that bit the dust! Someone knocked it over on Monday and broke off the right handle. So...

I built a Plan C! In the end, we fired all three, glazed them, and fired them a final time. Helena's original piece was not attached (meaning that it was made of 3 parts that were supposed to fuse together with glaze during firing). During the final firing, the pieces slipped apart and it didn't turn out. She turned it in anyway, along with my two pieces, which she had helped glaze.

Do I think it is cheating that she turned in a pot that I built? No. She turned in hers as well and told the teacher she had help from a parent. I have seen some of the 'student projects' turned in, and believe me, this one is really low end! There was a Hanging Gardens of Babylon built to scale. There was a tableau of Barbies and Kens in full Egyptian costume, complete with an Osiris headdress on one of the Kens. Those Barbie clothes looked professionally done in every way! And that miniature papier mache?! Oi!