Project Type
School Project
Award Project Round
1
Deadline Date

TCLP Arabic teacher Manal El Gamal worked with mentor teacher Claudine Clark to organize a field trip to the Milwaukee Public Museum in order to provide an authentic cultural experience for the facilitated language students at Madison East High School. In April, 45 students attended the exhibit on Egyptian Mummies, explored actual Egyptian artifacts, viewed educational films on ancient Egypt, and had lunch at an authentic Middle Eastern restaurant. To further expand on their learning experience, students prepared Arabic vocabulary and dialogues around the cultural topics of mummies and ordering in a restaurant, and then practiced these skills during the field trip. Upon their return, the Arabic students chose one aspect of the trip to explore more deeply in a project. This experience impacted the students greatly. The Arabic students were able to learn more through the hands on experiences and also teach other students. The non-Arabic students were excited to learn some of the language and culture that they had not been exposed to. All students broadened their understanding of the Egyptian culture. The trip highlighted the Arabic class and increased the visibility of the program in the school. The information gathered through the trip and projects will give future FLS teachers more materials and knowledge to teach these concepts again. The restaurant portion of the project was exceptional as the restaurant owner, originally from Egypt, gave a short presentation about the food and cuisine of Egypt.