Did you hear about the mummies in Mr. McKell’s class? That’s right, on Thursday October sixth, Mr. McKell’s geography classes learned about Egypt and the mummification process while doing a hands on activity to learn about it. During this activity, the students practiced drying things out by drying and preserving apples. They also practiced their mummy wrapping skills by wrapping one another up in toilet paper. Mr. McKell says, “I did the mummification process activity, because first off, I think it is always good to try to make learning fun. I thought it would make students more engaged and interested in learning about mummification and Egypt in general.”
According to Carlita Devenport, a ninth grader in seventh period geography, learning that Cleopatra was the last pharaoh was very interesting. Mr. McKell likes teaching about the different pharaohs but he also likes how “Egypt kind of changed and evolved over time.” He says, “ I really enjoy teaching about Egypt. Ancient History is one of my favorite subjects. When I was in school I was always fascinated by all the stories from Egypt, Greece, Rome, etc.” One of the things Carlita likes learning about is the pyramids that the Egyptians built. On the other hand, Hailey Gabbitas, also in seventh period geography, thinks learning about Egypt is boring but did like the part about the mummification process.
When it came time to practice the students mummy wrapping skills, Carlita thought it was very hard to wrap others. She also thought that learning the mummification process was kind of weird, but kind of fun too. Mr. McKell says, “I have always been fascinated by the mummification process and how they were able to so well preserve these people. When I was younger I remember learning about mummification, but had always wondered why they did it. So for me it was fun to try to teach this really interesting subject and explain why they did it and how it was tied into their religion.”
If you feel that you need to sharpen your mummy wrapping skills or just want to learn more about Ancient Egypt, you may want to go meet some “mummies” in Mr. McKell’s class!