Mr. Yard's Myth Adventures

The Mythology Project

Introduction Task Process / Resources Evaluation Reflection / Conclusion Teacher's Notes

Introduction
Everyone knows about Hercules. A lot of people know about his father, Zeus, and many of the Greek Gods. Some of you may know about Thor and Asgard. But what about Thor's father Woden, who gave up his eye for the power of prophecy? Or of Thor's friend Baldur who was killed by a sprig of mistletoe because of the treachery or Thor's half-brother Loki? There are far, far more mythological stories than what you see in cartoons, as many stories as stars in the sky. You and your classmates are going to take a glimpse into five cultures and discover the broad world of mythology.

Task
Groups should be no more than four students. Once you are assigned a mythological culture (some cultures may be used more than once!) go through the resources and investigate. Read through the information and discover who the primary gods and heroes are. Read some of the myths associated with your culture. How was the world created? How will it be destroyed? Are there any important cities or objects in the mythological culture? These are all questions you will address in this project.

There will be three components to this project:

1) WRITTEN : Describe examples of the four types of mythological stories (cosmic, god, hero, object/place), List the major gods and goddesses, heroes, etc. Tell the creation or apocalypse story. Make sure you are very specific. The report should ultimately be several pages long. The report must be word processed. All members must participate in this section, and the best way to do that is to give each person a section to write about.
Did you forget what the four types of mythological categories were? Click here for a reminder.

2) VISUAL : Create a series of visual aids. Suggestions include a "family tree" for the gods, pictures of the characters, examples of the geography or architecture, a representation of a mythological story, or a PowerPoint presentation. They do not have to be drawings on posterboard - they can be 3-dimensional. There should be at least five poster, slides, or items. All members must participate in this section!

3) ORAL : Perform a mythological story for the class. Simply turn a story into a play for us. The performance must be memorized, although it can be filmed. Costumes are required! Be creative. All members must participate in this section! You can have one person as some sort of narrator with everyone else acting out, or everyone can be part of the play. You will have to explain to the class the context of the story before you present.

Each person in the group will have a specific role:

1) KING / QUEEN OF THE GODS. This person will be the group leader, keeping everyone on task and keeping things moving along. If someone in the group isn't doing his or her job, the King needs to let the teacher know!

2) THE MESSENGER GOD. This person will keep track of the written research. This doesn't mean he or she does all of the written work! It simply means he is responsible for bringing the written portion of the project to class every day and making sure every person has a role with the written portion. If someone in the group isn't pulling his or her weight with the written portion, it is the Messenger's job to report this to the teacher.

3) THE SCULPTOR. This person deals with the visual portion of the project. He or she should keep track of the ideas and materials for that project and make sure that every person has a role. Again, this doesn't mean that he or she is responsible for doing all the work for he visual project. The Sculptor should report team members who aren't working on the visual aides to the teacher.

4) THE MUSE. This person will handle the oral presentation. This could mean getting copies of the script to everyone, keeping track of costumes and props, and making sure everyone has his or her part memorized. Again, the group will create the presentation, but the Muse will simply keep track of it. The Muse must also report team members not adequately working on the presentation to the teacher.

If there are less than four people in a group, remove the King or Queen. There should not be more than four.

Process and Resources
Every group should start with the Encyclopedia Mythica page to get a basic idea of your myth. This is the best place to find information on heroes, gods, goddesses, specific places, or specific objects.
You will also find an extensive image library in the Encyclopedia to help you in your visual aides. As you discover more names and events, check back and look them up in the Encyclopedia!

Once you have an idea about several names and places, go to specific websites that contain more information on your myth. Here is where you will find more in-depth information on characters, full mythological stories, maps, and pictures.

Greek:

Site One Site Two Site Three Site Four Site Five

Egyptian:

Site One Site Two Site Three Site Four Site Five

Norse:

Site One Site Two Site Three Site Four

Chinese:

Site One Site Two Site Three Site Four

Celtic:

Site One Site Two Site Three Site Four

Evaluation

	Outstanding (41-50)	Competent (31-40)	Developing (21-30)	Not Yet Successful (0-20)
Written Report	Contains all aspects Full participation Grammatically correct	Missing an aspect Not full participation Grammar issues	Missing two aspects Not full participation Substantial errors	Missing 3-4 aspects Unacceptable organization
Visual Aides	5 or more visual aides Highly creative Full group participation	Three to four aides Somewhat creative Not full participation	One or two aides Lack of creativity	No or unacceptable visual aides
Oral Presentation	All members participate, Presentation memorized Costuming Shows understanding.	Moderate participation Memorization issues Costume issues shows understanding	Poor participation Lack of understanding Lack of costumes	No participation

Reflection and Conclusion
Some questions to ask yourself:
Have you noticed similarities between the different cultures?
Do many of the stories follow specific patterns?
Do you have a better understanding of the cultures?

Some questions to ask the class as a whole:
Which group had the best and most creative oral presentation?
Which group had the best costumes?
Which group had the most creative visual aides?
Did each person in each group follow his or her role?

Teacher's Notes
This web quest was originally written for accelerated freshmen English students.

Recommended teacher source materials:

Campbell, Joseph, The Power of Myth

Lemming, David Adams. The World of Myth

Recommended time for the entire project is three weeks (each class being 40 minutes) with at least five consecutive days on the computers.

The following standards are used in this Web Quest:

TECHNOLOGY:
3T-P1. Communicate to a variety of audiences using professional level technology tools
4T-P1. Routinely and efficiently use online information resources to meet needs for collaboration and communications
4T-P2. Manage and communicate personal and professional information utilizing technology tools and resources

LANGUAGE ARTS:
Viewing and Presenting: Plan, organize, develop, produce and evaluate an effective multimedia presentation, using tools such as charts, photographs, maps, tables, posters, transparencies, slides and electronic media
Listening and Speaking : Deliver oral interpretations of literary or original works

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