Many events of the past have impacted our worldview today. According to Learn Alberta, “Worldview is ‘the ‘lens’ through which the world is viewed by an individual or group.” Our worldview is shaped through multiple factors, some of which may connect to historical events– which brings us to this project’s driving question:

What can we learn from the past, and why does it matter to us today?

“How it’s Going/ How it Started” is a meme that originated on Twitter during late 2020, and also the title of this Humanities project. Our class used this meme to compare the worldview of those in the Medieval and Renaissance times to our worldview today.

However, in order to do so, we had to learn about various historical events first before drawing a conclusion as to what the worldview of those of the past may have been like. We also had to establish what was “Historically Significant”, as it was a Curricular Competency for this project. This means that we had to make the decision of what was and was not worth remembering based on the historical events we reviewed in class.

An example of such are the Medieval Ages, which were a time of suffering for many. The society of this time followed a hierarchy. Those who were born into a rank, stayed in the rank. Millions of peasants were exploited and stripped of their freedom. Despite the suffering of this era, agriculture improved tremendously. Consequently, the economy rose as well as the population.

There was also the Renaissance (meaning rebirth) era, which lasted from the 14th to 17th century. This was the start of new faith in the effort of humanity, along with growth of influence and size amongst many towns. Due to the fact this was a time filled with more leisure and money, appreciation of artwork began to heighten. Florence and Venice were two of the most notable Italian cities during the Renaissance. A family known as the Medici’s grew in power during this time, using the fortune they made as wool and silk merchants, as well as bankers. Under this family’s control, Florence launched attacks on a number of other city states, including Siena.

At the start of this project, we also discussed what makes a good museum. Here is my work for Milestone 1, in which we were to create a museum exhibit for a meme we made. This meme was supposed to compare how we felt about the start of school year compared to when we began this project in early February. This Milestone also connects to a Core Competency known as Empowered Learner; meaning one who makes use of technology efficiently in order to represent and build knowledge.

A visual I made of the 7 Aspects of Worldview.

As mentioned prior, there are several aspects through which factor our worldview: Geography, Society, Beliefs, Values, Knowledge, Economy, and Time. Our class also made a collage and summary explaining historically significant events that happened to ourselves in our lives, and how those events affected our worldview.
Worldview Collages: Museum Companion

Ms. Maxwell, one of our teachers, then combined our work into a book. Scroll through to find my collage! Unfortunately, I made my summary far too long, so I had to narrow it down for this assignment. You can find my original summary here! For this project, we were also separated into groups for each aspect of worldview. I was part of the Time group, along with Alfie, Cooper, Dylan, Luca, and Nolan. My responsibility in this group was to ensure that everyone was on task, whilst completing my own work.

Together as a group, we agreed that “Our worldview aspect can be explained as the way the duration of events are measured. It can also be seen as how time is viewed by a society, meaning mechanically (clocks) or naturally (where the sun is in the sky).”

We also had to design “How it Started/How it’s Going” memes to compare our worldview to those of the past. Our class then combined all our memes into a virtual museum. Here is our museum room design that our room designer, Alfie, and techie, Nolan, collaborated on.

You can also find our class’ virtual museum here:

For my Time Worldview meme, I chose a painting of “Christine and the Sybil pointing to a ladder from the heavens”, from the Book of the Queen, France (Paris), c. 1410-1414, Harley. On the left side of this image, is an unedited version of the painting. Meanwhile, on the right side is my representation of how Time has since changed in my worldview today.

There were two aforementioned Curricular Competencies for this project, “Empowered Learner”, and “Establish Historical Significance.”

As stated earlier, an Empowered Learner is a student who uses technology in their learning in order to build their knowledge. Even though in PLP (Performance Learning Program) we use iPads and technology in class, there’s a difference between using technology to learn as well as to represent learning, and simply just using technology. Throughout this project, we made use of technology to learn about the worldview of those in the Medieval and Renaissance eras, as well as our own. We also represented our learning through our Worldview collages and museum exhibition.

To Establish Historical Significance means to decide what from the past is important to remember today, as priorly explained. This means that instead of remembering every single detail and date, we should instead summarize and focus on the important details. Our class used technology to Establish Historical Significance for Milestone 3, a history test we completed in class. If you’re familiar with how PLP and PBL (Project Based Learning) works, you’re likely aware of how rare official tests are during classes. For this test, we took the knowledge we gained through reading text about the Medieval Age, Renaissance, and Crusades in order to connect one aspect of our worldview to the worldview of those of the past and our own worldview.

In conclusion, there are a number of lessons from the Renaissance and Medieval ages which have and will continue to influence our worldview; or the way we view the world. The lessons we learn from the past impact our worldview in many different ways. Whether it be through our values, beliefs, society, geography, knowledge, economy, or even the way we view time– it is certain that the worldview of those of the past as well as the present are connected through these aspects. The actions of those in the past affect our views and morals. This is what highlights the importance of understanding and learning about the actions of others before us.

After all, if we remained ignorant to the mistakes and actions of those who came before our era, how will we ever learn?