Erin Jensen
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Summer Camp 2008 A Typical Day The museum provides a snack and juice at midmorning. Lunch is at noon. Most children bring a brown-bag from home or lunch may be purchased from the Museum Café. The afternoon is largely recreational with at least an hour of outdoor free-play at a Penn campus field (weather permitting). Camp ends at 3pm. Pre-camp supervision (8am–9am) and after-camp service (3pm–5pm) is also available for an additional fee. During summer 2008, Anthropologists in the Making will explore the following themes:
Travel the world using your tummy! Search the museum’s galleries to find tools used to acquire, prepare, and eat food. What people eat and drink can tell us many things about their environment and culture. Create and taste cuisine from around the globe. Grind corn to make tortillas from scratch. Roll a vegetarian sushi roll. Make an African stew. Mix a variety of Indian spices together to make masala. Is your mouth watering yet?
Week 2: Survival of the Fittest Why do you have wisdom teeth? Find out the answers to this question and others as you discover how human beings and their early ancestors evolved over time while you explore the Museum’s special exhibition Surviving: The Body of Evidence. With fellow campers, test your team’s wit, strength, and skill. Learn about the field of physical anthropology and what it can tell about the people of past civilizations including rituals, burial practices, and war. Examine casts of fossilized bones and skulls from the human evolutionary record and make your own cast of a bone.
Take a trip down the Nile and back in time as you explore 5,000 years of Egyptian history. Using the Museum’s galleries as your guide, visit a palace, see a sphinx, and come face-to-face with a mummy. Learn about royalty, religion, and art as you participate in a variety of hands-on activities that illustrate life in ancient Egypt. With your fellow campers, create a life-size tomb filled with treasures. Discover what life is like in Egypt today from a native Egyptian. Week 4: The Roman Empire The Roman Empire began as a tiny settlement that grew into the city of Rome and then expanded throughout Europe, Northern Africa, and Central Asia. Explore the vast impact this ancient civilization had on culture, trade, and religion. Learn about different members of Roman society including senators, citizens, subjects, and slaves. With newfound friends, create a variety of art projects, including a large floor mosaic. Meet a brave legionnaire from the Roman army and a courageous gladiator when costumed re-enactors visit camp. Week 5: Fun in the Field Get your hands dirty in a simulated dig and experience the different roles that archaeologists play throughout the excavation process. Uncover artifacts and features from an “ancient” Mesoamerican civilization. Learn proper archaeological techniques while you discover, catalog, sketch, and interpret your finds. Explore the famous sites of Copan and Teotihuacan and learn about the people who once lived there and what they left behind—remains of pyramids, temples, markets, and ballgame courts. Meet a Mesoamerican archaeologist and hear about their experiences in the field while you share your new knowledge with them.
How do you choose to communicate each day? It is most likely a combination of both verbal and non-verbal ways, including speaking, body language, writing and singing or playing an instrument to name a few. Explore how people from around the world, past and present, communicate with one another. Decipher ancient writing styles, including cuneiform and hieroglyphs and make a Chinese name seal. Learn how body language and gestures vary between cultures. If you look and listen carefully, even the museum’s artifacts have something to communicate to you. Take on the guise of one of the objects on display and share its story with others. Week 7: Amazing Architecture Buildings and structures, past and present, can shed light on the daily lives of people, their political systems, and religious beliefs. Learn about architectural feats created long ago and make a model of your favorite “Seven Wonders of the World.” Experiment with building Roman arches and domes, Greek temple facades, and Native American dwellings. Take a walking tour of the University of Pennsylvania’s campus to see what the designs of its buildings can tell us and look at the work of architects Frank Furness and Louis Kahn.
Hear the captivating and colorful myths of past and present cultures in the Americas, Africa, and Greece. With a group of fellow campers, create your own myth and perform your tale for others. Often, designs and patterns on objects are more than just decoration. Discover the hidden meaning of these motifs and what they symbolize. Through an art activity, create your own personal symbols. Go on a scavenger hunt in the galleries to discover artifacts with magical properties.
For more information |
For more information
Week 1: Global Cuisine
Week 3: Egypt: Ancient and Modern
Week 6: Learning the Lingo
Week 8: Myths, Magic, and Motifs