By Clare Starkey, Haley Lykins, and Kelli Hansen
Introduction
The University of Missouri’s division of Special Collections holds over 100,000 items, dating from the eighth century to the modern era, and focuses on books, periodicals, manuscripts, maps, posters, printed ephemera, and artifacts. Though the typical patrons are collegiate researchers, classes for elementary and middle school students are common and are an important part of the University of Missouri’s mission to benefit all Missourians. In the spring of 2024, Special Collections at the University of Missouri hosted a series of field trips for every sixth grader in the local public school district—more than 1,300 students—under the theme of “Ancient Writing Technologies Lab: Cuneiform, Papyrus, Palm Leaves, Oh My!” This workshop gave students a chance to experience ancient writing technologies from across Africa and Asia while interacting with primary sources. Conceived in consultation with the school district’s social studies coordinator, we provided hands-on activities on the history of the book to complement the school curriculum on ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt, India, and China. This post will cover the advantages and pitfalls of hands-on teaching on a large scale, as well as the strategies we used to make the most of a shoestring budget and a small staff.
The Ancient Writing Workshop
For this workshop we set up three stations representing the ancient world. Items from the University’s collection were included to provide a real-life example of the focus of each station and included cuneiform tablets, papyrus fragments and a facsimile palm leaf book. The students visited the University of Missouri campus over the course of 14 field trips throughout April and May. There are seven middle schools in Columbia, Missouri; approximately half of each middle school’s sixth grade class visited each day. In addition to Special Collections, students visited the University of Missouri’s Museum of Art and Archaeology, Museum of Anthropology, and Francis Quadrangle. School teachers and administrators divided the students into several groups, which rotated among the various locations. Although Special Collections hosted only 10-25 students at a time, around 100 students overall visited each field trip day. To protect the materials as hundreds of students moved through the classroom, we used clear tabletop display cases. Students and staff did not handle the collection materials during the activities.
In each 25-minute session, groups of 3-8 students would spend 7 minutes at a station before rotating to the next one. Each station began with a short informational presentation about the collection item before moving onto the activity.
The learning objectives for the workshop were:
· Discuss different writing surfaces from different times and different parts of the world
· Describe the advantages and disadvantages of writing on clay, papyrus, and paper
· Interpret, analyze, and evaluate primary sources
The full lesson plan for the workshop can be found on the Special Collections website.
Station I. Cuneiform Tablets
Students made replica clay tablets using playdough, and used chopsticks and reference sheets to write their names. They did not take the clay tablets home with them.
Station II. Papyrus
Students drew hieroglyphics on small sheets of papyrus using calligraphy markers. They were able to take home what they drew.
Station III. The Palm Leaf Book
The students punched holes in long strips of paper and then tied them together with yarn and secured the book at either end with beads. They were encouraged to write a story and were able to take home their books. This activity was adapted from Multicultural Books to Make and Share by Susan Kapuscinski Gaylord (Scholastic, 1994), https://www.makingbooks.com/palmleaf.shtml.
Challenges
Resources
This field trip opportunity came to Special Collections during one of the busiest times of year for an academic library: finals season. With a staff of six people and little funding, we had to make the best of what we had. Our first step was recruiting volunteers from different departments of the library. We had 44 workshop sessions to staff, each requiring at least 3 volunteers. MU library staff from a variety of departments instantly began filling our sign-up sheet, taking some of the burden off our department. Our post-workshop feedback survey revealed that many volunteers found the experience enjoyable, if a little chaotic. Most volunteers liked the varied and brief stations, and the opportunity to provide students with a hands-on experience rather than a lecture.
Providing 1,300 students with supplies meant finding the most cost-effective tools and materials. For the cuneiform tablets, we used chopsticks as styli and started out using Crayola Model Magic as clay because it was less messy than the alternatives. However, it was expensive, dried out quickly between sessions, and lacked enough definition to allow students to see the marks they made with the stylus. Later, we switched to homemade playdough, dyed light brown with food coloring, and “cooked” in the library’s staff lounge. Because we reused the dough between groups, students used hand sanitizer liberally both before and after the station. The ingredients cost less than $50 for over eight batches of playdough.
The next station, papyrus, was the most expensive. There are multiple online sources of writing material made of the papyrus plant, but our budget would not allow us to give each child a letter-sized sheet of papyrus. In the end, we cut the sheets into eighths and gave the students each an index-card-sized piece of papyrus. For the palm leaf book station, we enlisted the help of the preservation librarian, who used the library’s industrial paper cutter to chop large quantities of copy paper and cardstock into strips. We purchased several inexpensive hole punchers, but these proved to be unnecessary because the students needed help punching holes. Cotton string and plastic pony beads were purchased inexpensively online.
Overall, we spent less than $1 per child on supplies and were able to provide materials to support their learning experience.
Engagement
We began the field trips with a very different format: a mostly lecture-based tour. We quickly found that this format was not age-appropriate (an observation borne out by our colleagues at both museums) and pivoted to a more hands-on lesson plan. This came with its own set of challenges.
One challenge of this workshop was the limited time frame. Our staff sometimes struggled to complete both the educational and craft aspects within the allotted 7 minutes. At the same time, we found some students would only engage in an activity for 1-3 minutes. We learned to spend 2 minutes describing the rare books from our collection, sometimes starting the activity as we explained. This helped to increase their interest in the rare books on display. Allowing them to hold their own piece of papyrus as they examined an early Egyptian fragment of the same material made the history of the object feel “real” to the students. Modifying the activities to become more game-like also increased engagement. At the papyrus station getting students to write their name in hieroglyphs and then asking them to challenge the staff member running the station to guess their name resulted in increased interest in the activity.
Modifying the activities to become more game-like also increased engagement. At the papyrus station
getting students to write their name in hieroglyphs and then asking them to challenge the staff member
running the station to guess their name resulted in increased interest in the activity.
Fine motor skills also became an issue. Although the palm leaf book activity had been recommended for second and third graders when Multicultural Books to Make and Share was published, many of our sixth graders in 2024 had difficulty threading beads onto yarn, punching holes, and tying knots.
Conclusion
Hosting every 6th grader in Columbia gave us the knowledge to adapt and perfect our lesson plan. The palm leaf book activity needs adjustments. Students showed less interest in the project, and it required disproportionate preparation from volunteers. By the end of our workshop sessions, we were brainstorming the possibility of a scroll craft that requires less time and more options for personalization. We also plan for more collaboration with the museum and teachers/field trip chaperones. Most groups remained on task, but both the limited time frame and large group size caused some behavioral issues. Some students found the crafts too easy, while others found them challenging. In future sessions, we want to provide more options for students with different needs. Splitting into smaller groups and altering the format of the various field trip locations might create more room for engagement.
It was exciting to see our primary sources utilized by a new age group. The experience taught us to look beyond the walls of our academic institution for opportunities of outreach and instruction. Students learn about these objects in class, but for some it might have been their first in-person experience with a rare and historic object. Attaching that experience to a fun, interactive craft could help spark their interest in history. Our staff and volunteers also found the experience rewarding. It was an opportunity to get out of their comfort zones, interact with coworkers outside of their own departments, and teach to a new audience. Special Collections looks forward to more Ancient Writing Workshops.
Clare Starkey holds a BFA in Creative Writing and a MLIS from the University of Missouri. At the time of the field trips, she was a Library and Information Specialist for MU’s Special Collections. Her research interests include AI literacy, cultural heritage, community outreach and increasing information accessibility.
Haley Lykins holds a BA and an MLIS degree from the University of Missouri. She previously served as a Processing Coordinator for the University of Missouri’s Special Collections, where she worked on the Samir Husni Magazine Collection. Currently, she is a Public Services Archivist at the University of Missouri Archives, where she supports access to archival materials and provides research assistance.
Kelli Hansen is the Stephen E. and Evalyn Edwards Milman Director of Rare and Manuscript Collections at Cornell University. She was previously Head of Special Collections at the University of Missouri. She holds an M.A. in art history from the University of Missouri and an M.S. in Information Studies from the University of Texas at Austin.