Virtual Visit
Touring Greek temples

• Virtual Visits are live interactive workshops linking your classroom to an expert in one of the British Museum's learning rooms.
• They have been designed to incorporate a broad range of learning techniques.
• Your students will take an active role throughout the Virtual Visit.
• Virtual Visits acknowledge that learning is not only about knowledge and understanding. It encourages students to be inspired and excited to visit museums, to develop their close observation competency, and to enhance their communication skills to express and share their own thoughts.
• This workshop does not involve virtual reality, augmented reality or a virtual tour of the galleries.

• The Virtual Visit begins with an introduction to the British Museum and its collection of eight million objects.
• Students explore the multiple uses of buildings in their towns. They are then asked to articulate their ideas verbally.
• Ancient Greek temples and sanctuaries are identified as the locations for many different worship activities.
• Students respond to a quiz. The quiz will use British Museum objects and aid their understanding of how temples and sanctuaries were used.
• The session is then split into four sections.
• In the first section, students consider the question: Where are Greek temples located?
• Students will study a map displaying the three continents Africa, Asia and Europe. The map shows that Greek temples were located across all of the ancient Greek world, an area far larger than modern Greece. This illustrates the importance of religion to the ancient Greek people.
• Students will consider the different urban and rural locations of Greek temples, aiding their understanding of how they were used.
• In the second section, students consider the question: What do Greek temples look like?
• Students look at the Parthenon and other temples on Athens's Acropolis. Using objects and images, students will explore two important architectural orders used by the ancient Greeks – the Ionic and Doric styles. They will apply their knowledge to identify architectural elements that belong to each order.
• In the third section, students will consider the question: How are Greek temples decorated?
• Storytelling through imagery will be introduced here by looking closely at how an ancient Greek myth is told in the sculpture decorations from the Temple of Apollo Epikourios.
• Students will be asked to closely observe these decorative objects and identify the correct representation for parts of the ancient Greek myth.
• In the fourth section, students will consider the question: How did people worship?
• Ancient Greek sports, drama, parades and sacrifice will be introduced by looking closely at other religious buildings around temples and decorations on Greek vases.
• While exploring the above four questions, students will design their own temple. If they have access to the printed worksheet, they will use this to record decisions about location, which deity it is dedicated to, the design, and the decoration of their temple.

England, The National Curriculum in England, Key stage 2, History

• Ancient Greece – a study of Greek life and achievements and their influence on the Western world.

Northern Ireland, The Northern Ireland Curriculum, Key stage 2, The world around us

• Place
• Change over time

Scotland, Curriculum for Excellence, second level, social studies: people, past events and societies

• I can use primary and secondary sources selectively to research events in the past.
• I can compare and contrast a society in the past with my own and contribute to a discussion of the similarities and differences.
• I can discuss why people and events from a particular time in the past were important, placing them within a historical sequence.

Wales, The National Curriculum for Wales, Key stage 2, History

• Chronological awareness
• Historical knowledge and understanding
• Interpretations of history
• Historical enquiry
• Organisation and communication

Architecture, Athens, Bassai, cities, column, deity, democracy, Doric, frieze, Greece, Ionic, pediment, procession, sacrifice, sanctuary, stadium temple, theatre, the Acropolis, the Parthenon, the temple of Apollo Epikurious, the temple of Athena Nike, worship.

Aphrodite, Apollo, Ares, Artemis, Athena, Demeter, Dionysus, Hephaistos, Hera, Hermes, Poseidon, Zeus.

You can discover more ancient Greece classroom resources, either before or after your Virtual Visit.