Seven Wonders
Of the World

Subjects

• Art History
• Ed Technology
• Geography
• World History
• Sociology

Grades

• 3_5
• 6_8
• 9_12

Brief Description

Ignite interest in history and the beauty of the world by learning about the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World and Seven Wonders of the Modern World.

Objectives

Students will

• appreciate the "The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World."
• think about/discuss the architectures/natural formations that might be considered the wonders of the modern world.
• create a presentation using PowerPoint to showcase what they have learned.

Keywords

history, Seven Wonders, ancient world, modern world, map

Materials Needed

• student journals (or paper for writing)
• a large wall map of the world
• computer with Internet connection

The Lesson

Begin the lesson by talking about the beauty around us. Ask students to identify/talk about the most beautiful places they have seen in their own community. Where is each of those beautiful things? Are they natural or manmade?

Can students agree on a ranking of their list of the most beautiful places in their community?

Then ask students to think outside their own community and identify places in their state that might be among the most beautiful/remarkable. Is there an agreed ranking of those places as to which is most beautiful?

Introduce students to the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Share pictures of them from one of these Internet sources:

The Seven Wonders of the World (infoplease)
Seven Wonders of the World (NationMaster)
Wonders of the World (ThinkQuest)
The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World (Travel Channel)

Arrange students into groups of 3 or 4. Assign one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World to each group. Have students use library and/or Internet resources to learn more about the "Wonder" assigned to them. Among the information students will want to find is when the Wonder was built, who built it, where was it built, and does it still exist? Before the end of the class period, bring the groups back together so they can share the information they have found.

• Show a picture of each of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World as students in each group share the facts they learned about their "Wonder."
• Create a simple timeline to illustrate when the Wonders were constructed.
• Mark on a world map the locations of the Wonders. Discuss why the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World seem to be concentrated around a particular region of the world. (That was the whole known world in that age!)
• Discuss why these seven places might have been called the "Seven Wonders of the Ancient World." What characteristics qualify them for that title?

Wonders of the Modern World
Now that students have learned about the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, let them work in their groups to brainstorm places in the "Modern World" that they might nominate for a list of the "Seven Wonders of the Modern World." Groups should come up with as many places as they can list. Give students about 10 minutes to brainstorm, then bring them back together to share their lists and to create a class list of places that might warrant being included on a list of the "Seven Wonders of the Modern World."

Introduce students to a list of the actual Seven Wonders of the Modern World. You might use one of these Internet resources:

The Seven Wonders of the Modern World
The New Seven Wonders of the World (Travel Channel)

Share the story behind each of those wonders. Add them to the timeline and map created above.

How many of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World were on the students' class list? You might see some additional candidates for the list of Seven Wonders of the Modern World at this Web site:

The New 7 Wonders of the World

How many of those additional candidates did students have on their class list?

You might also introduce students to the Seven Medieval Wonders and the Seven Natural Wonders of the World.

You might close the lesson by writing the name of each of the Wonders -- ancient, medieval, modern, and natural -- on a slip of paper and having students draw from a hat or jar one of the slips. Have each student create a PowerPoint presentation about the Wonder of the World that s/he selected.

Assessment

Students will be evaluated based on their technical expertise, presentation skills, and participation in class discussions.

Submitted By

Priya Ravikumar, DAV Public School in Mumbai, Maharashtra (India)

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