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SINGULAR PROJECT. MUST COMPLETE INDEPENDENTLY.

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SINGULAR PROJECT. MUST COMPLETE INDEPENDENTLY.

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We are going to use this Padlet as a virtual bulletin board to post our final projects for our Meso-America Unit.

You will choose a project to complete from the three choices on the Padlet. There is one project from each of the civilizations we learned about. Review the requirements for each project and choose one to complete by the due date, Tuesday, October ?, 2025.

Read carefully the instructions for each project. Complete and turn in any reports needed for the project to Ms. Garret along with the project itself.

Have fun!!!

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MAY COMPLETE INDEPENDENTLY, OR WITH A PARTNER, OR GROUP OF THREE.

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MAY COMPLETE INDEPENDENTLY, OR WITH A PARTNER, OR GROUP OF THREE.

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MAY COMPLETE INDEPENDENTLY, OR WITH A PARTNER, OR GROUP OF THREE.

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MAY COMPLETE INDEPENDENTLY, OR WITH A PARTNER, OR GROUP OF THREE.

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SINGULAR PROJECT. MUST COMPLETE INDEPENDENTLY.

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SINGULAR PROJECT. MUST COMPLETE INDEPENDENTLY.

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The Aztecs were located in Central Mexico. Their capital city was Tenochtitlan, with a large population of over 250,000 people. The city had marketplaces, paved roads, and palaces. There were also five lakes and extensive wetlands in the valley of Mexico.

The Aztecs built floating gardens by weaving sticks together to create a giant raft. The giant rafts were surrounded by water canals. The canals enabled drainage of the wetland soil during seasonal rains. During the dry seasons, the water could infiltrate the floating gardens from the canals, the soil easily absorbing the water. These gardens were up to 300 feet long by 30 feet wide. They piled mud from the bottom of the lake to the top of the raft to create three feet of soil. The floating gardens were anchored by willow trees. They planted beans, squash, tomatoes, peppers, and corn throughout the year.

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Image: Museo Nacional de Antropologia, Mexico City

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Ancient Mesoamericans made folding-screen books with pages made from either deerskin or bark paper. These manuscripts were huge compared to the size of modern books. The Dresden Codex is a Maya book of astronomy that is 74 pages long and eleven feet (three meters) wide when laid out flat. The Maya used mostly bark paper for their books. To make the paper, they soaked the inner bark of trees in water to soften the wood. The bark was then beaten with stones, or a wooden mallet, until smooth. The soft, flat bark was whitewashed and painted by scribes. Scribes were men and women skilled in the art of writing and reading glyphs.

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Image: Quipo in the Museo Machu Picchu, Casa Concha

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The Inca used a quipu (kee-poo) as a tool for recording special events and information. Quipus kept track of different resources such as population, crops, livestock, types of weapons, or just about anything else that could be counted. They were also used to record events and time. You could say quipus "tied" the Inca Empire together!

The quipu is a series of colored strings and knots. The colors of the strings, the way they are connected, the types of knots, and the placement of the knots all provide unique information. Yellow, for example, often stood for gold or maize (corn), while red could indicate warriors.

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Fighting to Keep Mexico’s Floating Farms Alive

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Threads That Speak: How The Inca Used Strings to Communicate | National Geographic

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Objective: Students will attempt to create a garden that floats on water.

Material Suggestions (not all required):

1. Soil,

2. seeds or small plants,

3. bin, sink, or bathtub filled with water (for at home test),

4. glue,

5. corks, (teacher provided if needed)

6. Styrofoam,

7. sticks, (teacher provided if needed)

8. Duct tape

9. Toothpicks, (teacher provided if needed)

10. Any other material you think would be necessary to create chinampas.

Directions: Students must test materials that can support the weight of a garden while floating in the water. Their design must have soil, seeds (or plants), a bin filled with water.

**Do not bring bin with water to school. We have a class bin for demonstration.

Students must have at least three Chinampas in their design. Use and complete the pdf worksheets below to conduct your STEM challenge. Turn in your chinampas and completed worksheets.

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Objective: You will construct and give values to the Incan counting device called a Quipu.

Materials:

1. Yarn (different colors), (Teacher can provide if needed.)

2. Scissors,

3. Tape

4. Typed User's Guide, student created

Directions: Use different colors of yarn to make your own quipu.

Example: The different colors can keep track of your favorite items, such as books, video games, art supplies, tools, etc.

Example: Or you can tell a story about your life, for example, the year you were born, and the year you started school by attaching four different colors of yarn to a plain-colored cord. The first strand stands for thousands, the second for hundreds, the third for tens, and the fourth for ones. (For example, if you were born in 2009, you would tie two knots in the first color of yarn, no knots in the second and third strands, and nine knots in the last piece of yarn.)

Example: Or, you can make a weather quipu using yellow yarn for the sun, white for snow, and blue for rain. Every time the weather changes, tie a new strand to the weather quipu. If the weather stays the same, just tie a knot in the yarn that is already there.

Example: Tell your own story by choosing the objects, events, or activities you want to record or keep track of. Pick a color of yarn to represent each object or event you picked.

Step 1: Construct the Main Cord

Once you have decided what your Quipu will represent, measure and cut a thick main cord using several strands of black or other plain-colored yarn and braid them together.

This will serve as the "time" cord, indicating the order that events happened. The number of times or events in your story will dictate the length of yarn you need. Stretch the yarn between two chairs or tape the ends to a desk or wall to make knot-tying easier.

Step 2: Construct the Counting Portion

Cut smaller pieces of yarn in various colors to use as secondary cords. Tie each colored string to the "time" cord, in the order they happened in your story.

Tie knots in each string to represent information.

NOTE: if you have a lot of items to keep track of, you might want to have a single knot represent units of 10, 100, 1,000, or more.

(See worksheet below for demonstration and practice.)

Step 3: Write a "User's Guide" for your Quipu. This should be a typed set of directions, explaining the function of your quipu and what all colors and knots represent.

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Objective: You will create a "Mini Codex" about the Mayan Civilization.

Materials:

1. Mini Codex Book receive from Mrs. Garret

2. Color tools of your choice: Watercolors, color pencils, markers, etc.

3. Textbook(s) and Completed Reading Notes for chapter 23.

4. Any other helpful resources, i.e. Kids Discover magazine.

Directions: Include the following pages in your codex:

1. Title Page (Front Cover) - Title, Illustration, Proper Heading

2. Each page of the codex must illustrate the following Maya topics from the textbook and your Reading Notes 23:

Page 1: Geography (map) of the location of the Maya that includes the modern-day countries that the Maya once existed.

Page 2: Social Structure, i.e. the Social Structure Pyramid

Page 3: Glyph Writing System,

Page 4: Mathematics,

Page 5: Calendar System,

Page 6: Religious Beliefs,

Page 7: Agriculture,

Page 8: Entertainment,

Page 9: Family Life

3. Each illustration must be in color for the final project.

4. Each illustration must include a one-sentence caption that explains the meaning of the illustration.

5. The final codex must be free of spelling, punctuation, and grammatical errors.

6. All writing must be typed or written neatly!

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A ruler had been placed with pottery vessels and six cylindrical vases, some of these had rings around their interiors showing that they once contained a dark liquid.

The writing on one vase states that is, "a drinking vessel for cacao."

Several of these vessels were sent to the Hershey Company, the largest chocolate manufacturer in the United States and were found to contain chocolate residue!

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Why don’t you try to make your own chocolate pot?

What you will need:

Clay

Rolling pin

Piece of cloth, – canvas is ideal – for rolling out clay; using this prevents the clay from sticking to the table

Clay cutting knife, pencil, ruler

Water and small sponge

Paint, brushes, varnish

Stripwood guide, 6mm thick – optional

Instructions:

1. Take a ball of clay and make a small pot. Flatten the sides and make a good shape.

2. Roll out some coils of clay and add them to the pot. Smooth the edges. Leave the pot to dry for a bit. Add more coils if you need them and smooth the outside and inside as much as you can.

3. Roll out a long rectangle of clay. You can use the canvas and wood strips as guides. Cut out the rectangle using a ruler.

4. Try the strip on the top of your pot. If it is too long or too high, then cut it to the right size.

5. Wet the edges of the pot and the rectangle with some water. Join it to the pot and smooth the join with your fingers.

6. To make the lid – roll out more clay and cut a circle that is slightly larger than the neck of the pot. Cut another small strip. Make a thick coil of clay for the handle, and bend this into a half-circle shape.

7. Join the small strip to the underside of the lid, smoothing all edges; this is to stop the lid from sliding off the top of the pot! Join the thick coil to the top of the lid and trim it to fit.

8. You can now decorate the sides of the pot by drawing into the clay using a pencil or wooden sticks. Leave to dry for a bit, then neaten the edges. Add the glyph for ‘cacao’ on the pot.

9. If using clay, the pot can be fired and then painted, or if using air-drying clay, it can be painted when dry. Don’t forget the jaguar pelt markings on the handle!

Now it is time to add some chocolate!

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Making Natural Chocolate from scratch is rewarding and delicious. 10 Easy Steps.

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NHM Online Presents ChocoLAte: From Beans to Bliss, a video series celebrating the diversity of Los Angeles and its people through the lens of chocolate.

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NHM Online Presents ChocoLAte: From Beans to Bliss, a video series celebrating the diversity of Los Angeles and its people through the lens of chocolate.

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Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County (NHM)

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Oaxaca Unwrapped: A Journey Through Chocolate

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Chocolate's Timeless Journey: A Brief Virtual History of Chocolate

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Chocolate's Timeless Journey: A Brief Virtual History of Chocolate

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Explore the stories of community and connections through the lens of chocolate in Los Angeles.