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Teaching with and
about Roman coins an be an exciting way to help students get
in touch with a part of the everyday lives of ancient
people. Roman coins are among the easiest artifacts to use
in class because they combine art, religion, history,
politics, and a few simple words in Latin. There is
something for everyone on coins, whether it be elementary
students who are learning about the Roman gods, world
history students learning about imperialism, art students
examining the development of portraiture, Latin students
learning vocabulary for the major virtues and characteristics
of good leaders, or students studying the public roles of
women in ancient and modern societies. There are innumerable
projects that can be constructed using images from Roman
coins, but, unfortunately, few teachers have any training in
ancient numismatics or experience with coins. The VCRC was created to provide a resource for teachers and their students. The catalog is useful in itself, but one of the most important features of the VCRC is the section on education. It is split up into three parts with an access page for each: this page for teachers, a page for students, and a page list of other educational resources. This page links to files that outline most of the teaching projects, list their objectives, and provide step-by-step setup instructions. Teachers can then direct their students to the appropriate project link on the student page. The items that follow are roughly parallel to the student projects. When there are several projects of a single type (e.g., Mystery Coins), there is usually only one page listing rationale, objectives, and setup. I have also included some more general information on teaching with coins, some of which is linked to the student page as well.
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The VCRC is operated by Robert W. Cape, Jr., Austin College.
Please
direct comments, questions, and suggestions to rcape@austincollege.edu.
