Students in grades 7 – 8 studied Ancient China, first by researching one of its many dynasties: the Han, Song, Zhou, Shang and Tang Dynasties. They had to develop a presentation by dressing up and acting as one of the emperors of their dynasty and bring to school an artifact that would represent something about their dynasty. They discussed the main accomplishments of their dynasty and showed the geographic area each dynasty covered. A timeline of important discoveries and events, such as the invention of silk, iron, gunpowder and paper, was included along with the origin of Buddhism and Islam and how all these discoveries traveled from east to west, and west to east along the Silk Road. Finally they read about Confucius and Lao Tzu and created a poster based on one of Confucius’ sayings, and wrote a short story based on one of Lao Tzu’s sayings. This led to a fascinating discussion about what makes a fair government and further exploration into the different forms of government