Year 8 Examines Silk Road Inventions

The Aga Khan Academy Mombasa’s Senior School celebrated the annual Year 8 Inventions Fair on 13 January 2017. The event began with an engaging and thought provoking keynote address by the Academies’ Curriculum Development Manager, Alex Holland.

Titled  “The Silk Road Then And Now”, the lecture informed the students about global interactions that resulted from the early Silk Road trade, and also provided them with insights on its modern equivalent such as the Standard Gauge Railway line in Kenya.

Students from Year 8 spent the day researching select inventions that were facilitated by the Silk Road trade. Some of the inventions that they analyzed included nilometers, compasses, public baths, water wheels and cartography.

Each group of students was allocated a particular invention to work on,  based on criteria that helped them re-create and explore the function of their designated invention. They were then required to present a summary of their findings to their teachers and colleagues in the Senior School courtyard at their individual stalls. The presentations educated the audience about the place where the invention was created, the significance of collaboration in its making, and how it could be developed further in modern times.

This presentation had a unique audience in the Year 4 PYP students who found the event highly useful and apt as they are currently studying a unit on inventions in the Junior School.

The event enabled both the senior and junior students to develop their confidence, communication and thinking skills, and also gain more knowledge about crucial scientific and technological inventions that have shaped human lives in immeasurable ways.

By the Senior School Humanities Department