Senior Time Capsule

A Language Arts Lesson for the 7th Grade.

 Introduction

Many of us have wonderful memories of our lives and we all

have an idea of what our future will look like. No matter

how old we are we all have goals for our future and an idea

of our legacy (how others will remember us). In this lesson

you and your teammate will be constructing a time

capsule. A time capsule is a container that holds objects to

represent a certain time period or era. Your team will be

responsible for creating a

time capsule that will be

opened after you graduate

from high school.

How will you remember, and be

remembered?
 The Task
Your team will be responsible for producing
the following products.
• Information that represents you, your community
and your world.
• A time capsule that can survive underground for at
least 5 years.
• You will organize all your ideas and information to
formulate and create items that are representative
of you, your community and your world.

You will be using the Internet to gain global perspective

and find information outside your community that
represents your world at large. Your use of the Internet
will be focused to finding relevant information on current
events, entertainment, society, culture and various other
aspects of life that reflect local, national, and
international culture.

The Process
These are the steps you must take in order to complete
the goals of your project.

This project will be broken up into 2 separate parts. In

part 1 you will be collecting and organizing all the
information that will go into your time capsule. In part
2 your team will actually construct the time capsule
that will be opened at the time of your high school
graduation. I have provided a CHECKLIST to insure that
you have completed each part of the project.
 Part 1
Answer the following questions with a partner
Use a separate sheet of paper to record your answers!

Topic- ENTERTAINMENT

 Who won the World Series this year?

 Who won the Super Bowl this year?
 What was the top grossing movie of this year?
 What were the best selling fiction and non-fiction
books this year?

Use the following links to help find your answers for this
topic.
http://www.yahoo.com/
http://www.eonline.com/
http://imdb.com/
http://www.sportingnews.com/

Topic- POLITICS

 Who are the current Presidents of the United States

and the Dominican Republic this year?
 Name the senators from your city.
 Is the United States in a state of war with any other
country this year? If so which country?
 Who is the major for your city this year?

Use the following links to help find your

answers for this topic.

http://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/
http://www.congress.org/congressorg/home/
 http://www.senado.gov.do/senadores.html

Topic-CURRENT EVENTS

 List at least 3 major events that have changed your

community. Example: Immokalee won the state
football championship.
 List at least 3 major events that have changed your
country. Example: The war on terrorism.
 List at least 3 major events that have changed your
world. Example: The AIDS epidemic in Africa.

Use the following links to help find your answers for this
topic.

http://www.nytimes.com/

http://www.washingtonpost.com/

http://www.naplesnews.com/

The London Times

http://www.onlinenewspapers.com/

Topic-FUN FACTS

 Find what the price was for the following 5 items in

the year 2009. List the price and the website where
you found the information.

1. A gallon of milk
2. A pair of jeans
3. A gallon of gas
4. A Big Mac from McDonalds
5. A loaf of bread
  Find the exchange rate between dollars, Dominican
pesos, euros.
 Find the 10 richest people in the world.
 Explain what the Newberry Medal is and which books
have received this prestigious honor in the last 5
years? HINT- Some of these books should be very
familiar.
 Find out what the average income is for a high
school dropout.
 Find out what the average income is for a high
school graduate.
 Find out what the average income is for a college
graduate.
 Choose your favorite athlete and tell me where they
were born and how did they achieve their goals.
 Go to realtor.com and find your dream home. List 3
things you MUST do in order to live in your home of
choice.
 Go to http://www.howstuffworks.com/index.htm and
pick one thing and tell me what you learned about
how it works.
 Go to http://www.endangeredspecie.com/ and define
what endangered specie is and list 10 endangered
animals and 10 endangered plants in the Dominican
Republic.

Use the following links to help find your answers for this
topic.

Forbes: www.forbes.com

Newberry Award Winners: www.ala.org

Google: www.google.com
 Answer the following questions individually.
Use a separate sheet of paper to record your answers!

1. Find 5 things that you think will be more valuable in 5

years. You must support your reasoning as to why you
think it will be more valuable.

2. List 3 goals that you would like to accomplish in the

next 5 years.

3. Write a 2-page letter to yourself that will be read 5

years from now. Your paper should focus on goals for
the future and how you hope to succeed. Your paper
also needs to contain a daily diary or what a typical day
is like for you. The framing idea for your paper should
be “Where are you now and where do you think you will
be in 5 years?”

4. The final part of this assignment will be to RE-SEAL the

time capsule after you graduate from high school for a
much longer period of time (to be determined at the
time we open the time capsule). You will be writing a
letter at that time to put in the time capsule for future
generations to view and examine.

*Special Note- I am fully aware

that I will be unable to give you a grade
in five years on whether you write a
brief journal to future generations;
however I am hoping that you will all be
motivated to share aspects of your life with those to come.
Remember the main idea of this project, “How will I remember
and be remembered?” I encourage you all to keep that in mind
five years from now so that you will be remembered 100 years
from now.
 Last but not Least
1. Collect actual items that you want to place in
your time capsule.

2. Your items MUST represent your community, your

country and your world.

3. Your time capsule must contain at least one

picture of yourself.

4. Your time capsule must contain at least 5 of the

following items!

 Diaries
 Games/video games
 Fads (pokemon, hi5, fairly
oddparents, spongebob,
bob the builder, etc.)
 Music (CDs)
 Clothing
 Friendship bracelets
 Collectibles (stamps,
coins, baseball cards,
comic books, etc.)
 Drawings
 Maps
 Newspapers
 Stories or legends
 Videos (CDs, DVDs, etc.)
 Part 2
This is the part of the project where you will be creating
the actual time capsule to store your information and
materials.

Ideas to get you started!

 You may want to use the following materials for a time

capsule: Coffee Can, a metal lock box, a heavy-duty
Rubbermaid box.
 Think of ways to seal your time capsule to keep it dry.
 Think of a safe and secure way to seal your time capsule
to keep insects and soil from eroding the contents of
your time capsule.

Your time capsule MUST meet the following list of

criteria!

 Your capsule must be constructed to withstand nearly

any weather occurrence over the next five years.
 You may not place any perishable items (food, animals,
etc.) in your capsule
 Your capsule MUST be environmentally safe which means
you may not place chemicals of any type in your
capsule.

Be as creative as possible!

You may paint your capsule or decorate it in any fashion

you want. You may also use any combination of materials
to create your capsule. Try to think of things that will
endure weather and time well, for example: metal is much
better than paper and try to think of a way to seal your
capsule to keep it safe and dry!
 Checklist
After completing each task

place a check next to each task in the blank column and .

Tasks that need to be finished
Teacher’s
Signature / Date TASK
accomplished
Finish all the group questions under Part 1
of the “Process” page.
Topics: Entertainment / Politics

Topic: Current Events

Topic: Fun Facts

Finish the individual activities under Part 1

of the “Process” page.
Activity 1: More valuable things

Activities 2-3: Goals / Letter

After finishing both individual and group

questions please collect materials that will
be placed in your capsule using directions
on Part 1 of the “Process” page.

Using Part 2 of the “Process” page as a

guideline to create your time capsule.
Prepare to present your time capsule to
your fellow classmates.

Student’s Name: