Week 16

I tried to get one of the kids to write this week's blog, but they were all too "exhausted". It seems the mid-term exams took everything they had...I thought they did a good job with the two days of solid testing. I think we all realized that our study habits need improving. In addition to grading, both Carol and I will be spending this coming vacation week organizing each of the students' portfolios. We will be including the graded exams in the portfolios, and each student will receive a written evaluation of their progress these past months.

While review and testing took a good chunk of our time this past week, we did manage to squeeze in some interesting projects. I think the project that consumed our time and imaginations most was our mummification ritual. We began this 5 week experiment on Tuesday with a ritual cleansing, spice application and salting of our 1st Dynasty pharaoh, Djen. Djen is actually a 2 pound Cornish Game Hen. The students removed his organs, cleaned them, and packed them in salt. They also started making the four canopic jars that will hold these organs when they are fully desiccated. The body of Djen was also prepared and placed in a sealed plastic bag. Each week, students will remove the body, pour off the standing liquid, re-spice (for smell), and re-pack the body in salt. The body will be weighed and measured each week in order to track the amount of liquid removed. Is it gross? Totally. Does it smell? Oh, yeah. Are any of us eating chicken right now? Only the die-hards. So, why are we doing this? I know that most of us know the details of Egyptian mummification, but if you're anything like me, these well-known descriptions have become a bit banal. When you are going through the steps of mummification with a 2 pound chicken and the smell is enough to make you gag, it becomes a little easier to understand the implications of the same process on a 150+ pound man (without the convenience of seal-able bags). And it will make for a great story someday.

So, we are off for the vacation week. We'll be back, blogging, in two weeks. Have a great holiday!