Hellenistic world · 300-100 BC

Archimedes and the Hellenistic scientists

In the two centuries after Alexander, Greek scientists measured the Earth, proposed that it circles the sun, and built a bronze machine that predicted eclipses. Students meet Archimedes in Syracuse, Aristarchus and Hipparchus, and the Antikythera mechanism found in a shipwreck.

Teach it live New Open on the map
Length
50 minutes
Ages
12–15
On the map
3 steps, 240 BC to 140 BC
Live lesson
7 rounds, 3 on the map
Worksheet
Two A4 pages, with Classroom
You need
A projector; phones for live

Live lesson · new in Classroom

Teach it live. The class answers on their phones.

Put the board on the projector. Students join with a six-digit code, no account needed, and tap the map: where was the frontier, where did the grain come from. Their pins drop in together when you reveal, and the closest student takes the round.

€19 per month: every lesson live, every worksheet, cancel anytime. Rome at its height runs live for free.

A live lesson on the projector: the class's pins on the map around Alexandria, the closest students listed beside it A student's phone: the question and a map to tap
7 rounds
3 places to find on the map, quiz questions, a class vote and a one-line answer.
About 15 minutes
Run it as the map step, or to open the discussion. You move on with the space bar.
A report
Every answer, per student and per round, to read back or print after the lesson.
1

Introduction

5 min

Read aloud

In the two centuries after Alexander, Greek scientists measured the Earth, proposed that it circles the sun, and built a bronze machine that predicted eclipses. Students meet Archimedes in Syracuse, Aristarchus and Hipparchus, and the Antikythera mechanism found in a shipwreck.

By the end of the lesson, students can

  • Name three Hellenistic scientists and one discovery of each (for example Archimedes, Eratosthenes, Aristarchus, Hipparchus).
  • Locate Syracuse, Alexandria, Samos and Rhodes and explain why science happened in these places.
  • Describe the Antikythera mechanism and what it tells us about Greek technology.
2

Explore the map

15 min

Project the map, or let students follow on their own devices. Each step opens the map at the right year and place.

a

240 BC

Science in the capital

Open the map in 240 BC on Alexandria, where the Museum paid scholars to work full time. Euclid wrote his geometry here around 300 BC; Eratosthenes was running the Library; doctors were studying the human body. Turn on Historical Events (Cultural) and find "Euclid Writes the Elements".

Open this view on the map
b

212 BC

Archimedes in Syracuse

Jump to 212 BC and go to Syracuse in Sicily. Find "Archimedes' Discoveries" in Historical Events (Cultural). Archimedes worked out the law of the lever, why things float and a close estimate of pi, and built war machines for the city. He was killed when the Romans took Syracuse this year.

Open this view on the map
c

140 BC

A machine from the sea

Go to 140 BC and find the small island of Antikythera, between Crete and the Peloponnese. In 1901 sponge divers found a shipwreck here with a bronze box of gears, made around 150-100 BC, that modeled the moon, the sun and probably the planets. Where might a ship carrying it have been going?

Open this view on the map
3

Class discussion

15 min

Pick two or three. They run from what happened to why it mattered.

  1. Aristarchus of Samos argued around 270 BC that the Earth goes around the sun. Almost nobody agreed for 1,800 years. Why can a correct idea fail to win?
  2. Archimedes is said to have run naked from the bath shouting "Eureka" after solving a problem about a gold crown. The story is probably invented. Why do we tell stories like this about scientists?
  3. Hipparchus on Rhodes measured the positions of about 850 stars and discovered that the sky slowly shifts over centuries. What do you need to make a discovery that takes longer than a lifetime?
  4. The Antikythera mechanism had at least 30 gears and nothing like it is known for another thousand years. Why might a technology be invented and then lost?
  5. Hellenistic science was paid for by kings who wanted war machines, calendars and prestige. Does it matter why someone pays for knowledge?
4

Game round

10 min

Play one round of Rule History as Hannibal Barca, whose war with Rome led to the siege of Syracuse and the death of Archimedes in 212 BC. Discuss afterwards: the Roman general had ordered Archimedes spared. What is lost when a war kills a scientist?

Open Rule History
5

Worksheet

5 min

This worksheet comes with Classroom

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