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Electronic Hieroglyphics
St. Luke’s 9th history students recently juxtaposed the ancient and modern worlds when they headed to St. Luke’s new designLab to create their own Egyptian hieroglyphics. Upper School history teacher Abby Abbott shared details about the project.
This tech-forward project was an interactive way for students to explore writing as one aspect of daily Egyptian life. The ancient Greeks gave this particular brand of communicating its name—"hiero" meaning "holy" and "glyphic" meaning "writing.” Students are endlessly fascinated by the artistry and symbolism behind these deeply religious markings.
The students worked in groups stenciling hieroglyphics with conductive paint and then creating an open circuit with copper tape. The copper tape was then attached to one of the circuit board's eleven audio sensors. While some students stenciled and engineered, other students researched the hieroglyph, selected music for their project, and recorded an audio track explaining the history, purpose, and symbolism behind that particular hieroglyphic.
When completed, once the student's hieroglyph was touched, it would close the circuit and trigger the audio track with the students' recording. The interplay of ancient and modern, STEM and humanities, and the secular and sacred made for great discussion fodder as students worked. Should emojis be considered hieroglyphics? Are hieroglyphics more versatile than our Latin-based alphabet? Should hieroglyphics be considered art? These are just a few of the questions generated by our students in the latest history and designLab initiative.
View some of the project’s process in the Electronic Hieroglyphics photo gallery.
St. Luke’s School is a secular (non-religious), private school in New Canaan, CT for grades 5 through 12 serving over 35 towns in Connecticut and New York. Our exceptional academics and diverse co-educational community foster students’ intellectual and ethical development and prepare them for top colleges. St. Luke’s Center for Leadership builds the commitment to serve and the confidence to lead.
