Students at Crone Middle School get hands-on lessons about the Middle Ages

Plastic golf balls were flying across the lawn outside Crone Middle School in Naperville recently when students were transported to the Middle Ages.

The school's traditional Middle Ages day for sixth-graders gave students hands-on experience with medieval life, beginning with an assembly and knighting ceremony in the morning and ending with students stepping outside to launch balls from catapults and learn more about the weapons commonly used during that time period they've been studying .

“(I'm learning) more about what they used to do in the medieval times and how everything worked and how they would defend themselves,” sixth-grader Karleigh Kaczmarowski said.

In the morning, students were visited by knights who showed them swords, shields and armor, performed a mock battle and took the students through the advantages and disadvantages of various types of medieval weapons.

And later, several students were honored by being knighted. Four boys and four girls were voted by classmates to become honorary knights and ladies of the manor because of their respectful nature.

In the afternoon, three rotations of students collected plastic golf balls and took turns launching them into recycling bins using teacher-made catapults.

“I think it's really fun and a fun way to get outside (to learn) what it was like back in the medieval ages and what knights had to go through,” sixth-grader Matt Malone said.

“This is hands-on learning,” math and social studies teacher Valerie Barrett said. “It's a far richer experience than anything that we could do inside the walls of a classroom.”

And if students thought they were merely getting a break from class, they were wrong — besides interacting with a weapon used during the Middle Ages, students also applied problem-solving skills, among other things. Science teacher Matt Blaser said the activity helped students understand the scientific method, a process of trial and error.

“You can change the angle at which the catapult shoots, so they're trying to figure out which angle is the best angle to make the object fly at the right trajectory to make it into the target,” Blaser said.

Language arts and social studies teacher Michele Brinkman said students also learn teamwork skills.

“I think it's almost cross-curricular because, really, you need problem-solving skills in any subject. It's a life skill,” Brinkman said. “And with team-building activities, that's a life skill, not just a classroom skill.”

Back in the classroom, Barrett said, students would discuss the larger implications and context of the catapult activity.

“What if these were real weapons? What kind of damage could that do to a country?” Barrett said. “Those are things we need to explore in the classroom as a follow-up.”

Barrett said Crone Middle School tries to incorporate as many hands-on learning activities as possible into its curriculum.

“Especially at the middle school level, it's very important to maintain their level of engagement, and that gets more difficult to do as the kids get older,” Barrett said. “It's really important that you constantly seek ways to incorporate hands-on learning into your lessons, across all the subject areas, so this fits in with our culture at Crone.”