Following in Roman Footsteps

What kind of architecture did the ancient Romans use?
How do we still rely on this architecture today?
What allows the Roman arch to hold so much more weight than other structures?

These are just a few of the questions that were answered during Ms. Miller’s Sixth Grade Ancient Roman Architecture cross-curricular lesson. The students were introduced to Roman architecture and were guided through a research process during Library/Media class. Upon completion of the research, the students designed on paper the arch model they thought would hold the most weight and followed up by building their design in clay. The groups then tested their design by placing books and other heavy classroom objects on top of the clay model. One of the arches even held Ms. Miller! Everyone was impressed by the successful designs of ancient Romans.