Year 8 Brings Silk Road to Life!

Student display board showcasing Silk Road trade routes and the use of camels for transporting goodsOn Friday, 20 November, the Senior School at AKA, Mombasa organised the third Year 8 Inventions Day. The annual event focuses on bringing the Silk Road to life through student projects that capture the various sights, sounds and smells associated with the Silk Road trade routes. The event also showcased collaboration and mentorship as groups of Year 8 students presented their projects to the Year 4 students, who asked thoughtful questions and recorded their reflections about all the knowledge they gained from the event.

The 'rabab' is a musical instrument played across the Middle East and parts of South and Central AsiaThis event is firmly grounded in the Year 8 curriculum that explores the Silk Road through the statement of Inquiry: ‘The interaction of diverse cultures is a catalyst for the spread of ideas, and the development of technology and a better understanding of the world.’  The day commenced with a keynote speech delivered by Ms. Alex Holland, Curriculum Development Manager for the Academies Unit.  She provided a window into the Global Context of ‘Orientation in Space and Time’. Connecting the Silk Road to modern times, Ms. Holland highlighted the huge development project funded by the Chinese, which seeks to bring the Silk Road back to life as a modern-day land and sea trade network extending as far as Nairobi.

Students explain their projectThe Silk Road is an important topic in history that also provides for very rich and diverse content that students can visually recreate, thus bringing a historical discussion of cultural exchange to life by making it accessible through their renderings. For example, the Year 8s had a taste of the life of an inventor as they recreated the pinhole camera and learnt about the way in which the evolution of this invention was only made possible through the meeting of minds and the sharing of ideas.  

Student project: The Tessellation Through TimeIn small groups, the Year 8s then dealt with a tough task! They were given a short amount of time and required to work under pressure to research an invention from the Silk Road era and explain the role of collaboration and the impact of the invention they were investigating through history.  By late afternoon, the students had transformed the Humanities courtyard into a caravanserai infused with the sights, sounds and smells of the ancient inns which supported the flow of commerce, information and people across the network of trade routes along the Silk Road.  Students tried some of the commonly traded food items and also got to meet an Arabian camel – an animal that was vital to the movement of people and goods along the Silk Road.

Year 4s gather after the event with their reflections Finally, the students presented to Year 4s, who were very excited and asked lots of insightful questions from the senior students. Year 4 students were exploring the theme of 'How the world works', and studying the employment of technology and scientific knowledge by human beings in improving lives.

Student project on porcelainYear 8 students presented on various topics including paper-making, map-making, elephant clocks, windmills, automatic fountains, compasses, porcelain, musical instruments such as the rabab, and many others. Anoush Alibhai of Year 8 studied the windmill with her group. They examined the development of the windmill and compared it to what it was like in the 6th century AD. They also investigated how it can be used in the future and devised solutions for making windmills more effective by using air-borne floating windmills, generators that are less noisy, and making windmills that are smaller and portable.

The event was graced with a real camel!Primary Years Programme Coordinator, Ms. Khona Bhattacharjee said she felt very proud to see the current Year 8s, who are her former students, present so confidently. She was very pleased with their personal development and also appreciated how the Inventions Day encouraged students to observe the application of peer expertise and primary sources of information.