The students, who were studying ancient cultures, wanted to make a model of the Parthenon. The columns are inner cardboard tubes from paper towel rolls. Along with the Doric capitals, which are 3" styrofoam balls cut in half, and the 1/2" foamcore abacus, the columns determined the scale of the model which is 3' wide and over 6' long, cut in half to reveal the statue of Athena within. One team member made individual work booklets on the Parthenon for the students to absorb them while another team member worked with a few students at a time on different aspects of the model. Working from a floorplan of the building, the team explained how each elevation was generated. Each student made a least one column and glued it in place on the large plan. On triangles of white paper, the students created their own pediment images based on Greek myths. These were the beginning of their individual temple facades which included drawings of their own personal gods or goddesses. The students cut out the sections for the steps, columns and entablature, and reassembled them on cardboard backing. They selected one student's Athena for the interior. They took rubbings of pennies and nickels to discover that both Monticello and the Lincoln Memorial are modelled on the Parthenon. With lengths of adding machine paper, they worked out the actual scale of the building and unrolled them to compare the size of the Parthenon to their school. A spelling test was repeated to help the students become more comfortable with the vocabulary associated with the Parthenon. The roof tiles were laid using red tickets that had been wrapped around pencils to create curved pantiles. The students made scale figures and placed them around the inside of the model. The gold foil for the interior was a non-Athenian touch that no one could resist.
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