This Course's Evaluation and Review

My History Element’s Course Evaluation

Introduction...

During this previous Element’s Course we achieved many exciting tasks and learned how to successfully reenact a battle between the Romans and the Scottish Barbarians. We learned about different types of weapons, what soldiers wore back then during battles and clever Tactics that led many armies to sweet victory! Not only did we learn about weapons, but we also learnt how to become an independent learner. We all became independent learners from all the group work that we did together and I also got the chance to gain more confidence when speaking in front of a class. Some of us also found the true meaning of teamwork when drawing out our successful plan to invade and destroy the Roman Empire. 

How Was The Experience?

During the few weeks of preparing for the reenactment I experienced something that I never experienced before. I learned how to be a leader that I never thought I would become and learned how to break out of my comfort zone to new ideas in creating useful objects for our battle including the water well and the leaches. Apart from creating those materials I also mastered how to use wood to design rakes, pitch forks and syths. I thought that the D.T lesson that we had was extremely productive and useful as it taught me how to manage my time better and to work faster. 

Throughout the battle I also gained new skills and learned how to lead use my weapons usefully. I also thought that I had a few clever moments to help myself to survive. One of the smartest moments I had was when I blocked flames coming to me with the water from the well that I made. I also thought that it was bright how I prepared leaches if any of our soldiers got diagnosed with ‘Mad cow disease.’  I also learned how to hide and savor our precious items including food and water. 

How Did The Planning Affect Your Outcome?

The planning that we accomplished on paper was well prepared as we were going to use the whole of block 3 and 5 playground for our battle. We also thought of different sections that would be covered by part of our army such as the farmers and the spies. However, on the day of the battle it was pouring rain. Therefore, our plans were changed to fit the area of the sports hall. My whole group was overall very pleased that our teacher allowed us to have some time to prepare for our battle before the actual day. We are very thankful for this because if we didn't have time to prepare of plan we wouldn't know what to do on the day.  Therefore, our planning before hand was very affective! Our research into war tactics and weapons really helped us with our outcome of the battle because the information in which we found gave us ideas of the kind of weapons we could use in our battle. The researching was also very affective because when we went into the D.T room we already knew what to make using the various materials because of the research that we did. 

Did everyone in our group cooperate equally?

The people in our group did cooperate equally because we split all of the jobs that we had so that everyone got a chance to work. A lot of people researched and created objects for the battle with spare material that they had at home including apples (red construction paper), food, swords and war uniforms. Everyone did work because the team managers including Claudia and me made sure that everyone completed their tasks within a week. During the battle we also made sure that everyone was doing something instead of just standing to the side as if they had nothing to do which was what some people actually did.  As well as that we created weapons for everyone so that nobody would be left out with nothing to use to kill people. This also gave them the experience of what it must have felt like to fight in a battle and the kind of strategies that you used. 

During your battle what were some of your strengths?

During our battle we had a number of different strengths. Our team exceeded in the making of the weapons because all of us had a job and this was really helpful because whenever someone finished their task they would find someone to help afterwards. This was therefore very productive and productive and constructive because we had nobody standing around doing nothing. We were also very strong in the making of our plan because we spent a lot of time discussing it with everyone in our group to make sure that everyone would know what to do on the day of the battle. The group managers, including me, told everyone to memorize their places and their actions. This was very strong because we weren't clueless on the day of the battle and we were all very proud of this achievement. Another area in which we were very strong was how to use our weapons accurately. Some of us also thought about our food and water supplies and the types of medicines we found need to cure any diseases picked up from the opposing team. Therefore, I took those thoughts into account and created a well for water supplies and to take out fires from flame throwers, apples, leaches (as medicine) to suck the pathogenic blood out of us. I thought these were really clever ways to succeed our battle. 

During your battle what were some of your Weaknesses?

During our battle and preparation we also had a few weaknesses and areas to improve on.  One of our weaknesses which actually determined the outcome of our performance was where to build our base and how to make a big enough wall to keep the other army out. We also had a lot of trouble keeping in mind that the battle was set in Scotland, so, we therefore had to also think about what we would use to symbolize mountains. Many of us forgot about what the mountains would be, so, the other army came closer to our base than what we planned. This was very substandard because this actually was one of the reasons why we lost the war. Another weakness was the type of material that we used for some of the weapons. During the making of the scythe  we decided to use cardboard paper for the blade-part of the weapon. This was a very bad idea because on the actual day of the battle all of the scythes ended up bending and breaking. This was because the the weapons which the opposers were using to destroy our weapons were stronger. Therefore, next time we would like to use wood to tear the paper uniforms of the opposing team. The new comers of this course next semester should also keep this idea in mind for their battle.

If we were to repeat the battle again, we would think about creating mountains to make it harder for the enemies to get to our base. This would be very affective for our performance because we could spy on the enemies to see when they are coming and then ambush the soldiers. Next time we would also build more rake-like objects as well as stick objects to hit and scare the opposing team. These type of weapons would be a lot more affective than tree bark which was something that we used. If we were to repeat the reenactment a third time then we should attack the enemies in a larger group because this is much more powerful and strategic than going off one by one in separate directions. We would also need to think about our war tactics more creatively. One way to improve our tactics is to hide under our shields for protection with our scythes and rakes sticking out to penetrate the legs of the enemies. For this idea to be able to work we would also need to extend the length of the shields, big enough to cover our head and shields when crouching down.