This past school year, Ascanius: The Youth Classics Institute introduced a new program, eToga Trek, whose goal was to share Latin and Ancient Rome with students all over the world. In each of these online videos an engaging instructor guides the viewers through a lesson about Roman culture. Elementary school students and middle school students are the target audience, and the videos are available completely free of charge.
Five videos were unveiled throughout the school year. The topics included Families & Bullas, Roman Clothing, Greek & Roman Architecture, Mosaics, and Games & Knucklebones. The instructors keep students actively engaged by including pictures from the ancient world, webquests, and hands-on activities or crafts. In addition, the episodes promote critical thinking by encouraging students to write their thoughts and questions in a journal. As motivation for keeping a journal, the program offers a contest with prizes for students who share questions or comments online.
Ascanius has shared the joys of Classics with young children through its Roman Explorers and LatinSummer programs since 2000, but this year marked the first time that the organization has offered an online program. The flexibility of this free video series is exciting: The videos could be utilized as stand-alone lessons, or they could be incorporated into existing units of study. Ascanius hopes that the series will be used not only in traditional classrooms, but also by homeschool groups, enrichment programs, and families.