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Dr. D. Zizwe Poe teaches Nile Valley Civilization course in the Pyramids of Giza, the Temples of Ramses and at the foot of the Sphinx.
LINCOLN UNIVERSITY, PA — Dr. D. Zizwe Poe, associate professor of History and Political Science is taking measures to add “the fourth dimension” of education to his course curriculum by immerging students into the subject matter.
Under the second phase of his faculty development grant, Nile Valley Civilization Learning Resource Objects, Poe teaches History Topics (His304) as a distance course that focuses on studying the Nile Valley Civilization and its text in Egypt.
August 2010 will mark the third annual offering of this summer learning experience. For the past two years, the Ancient Kemet scholar has taught seven students how to decipher ancient text and examine the text in the environment in which it was constructed.
“Primary source exposure ignites the supportive senses beyond hearing the lecture or viewing the slideshow,” Poe said. It has the potential of transforming abstract storytelling into learner participation. This is the ideal situation that a history teacher wants for his or her student.”
The students that travel to Egypt see the inside of Pyramids and survey a wall relief that contains more than 3,000 year-old ancient Egyptian carvings. They study in the summer heat of the Nile banks and witness the three ecosystems that coexist at the lower reaches of the Nile delta. The students enter churches that were established by the Coptic Christians and visit a revered synagogue giving them a sense of the religious atmosphere of Egypt.
“Dr. Poe pushed me to go on this trip,” Jordan Denson ’09 said. “After taking his courses, he sparked my interest. Once I experienced it, it gave me actual perspective.”
The trip allows students to enter the temple and administrative castle of Hatshepsut, one of ancient Egypt’s most powerful female pharaohs. They peer across the Nile River at the magnificent religious structures of Karnak, the largest temple in the world. Finally, the students are able to watch the moon set over the city of Abu Simbel. The sun rises east over the Nile to light up the face of both Ramses and Nefertari’s temples.
This year, Dr. Poe intends to work with the Mass Communications Center of Excellence at Lincoln University to develop a mini-documentary of the Nile Valley Civilization course (HIS304) utilizing Mass Communications interns and History majors.
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Lincoln University – founded in 1854 as the nation’s first Historically Black University – combines the best elements of a liberal arts and sciences-based undergraduate core curriculum and selected graduate programs to meet the needs of those living in a highly technological and global society. The University enrolls approximately 2,500 undergraduate and graduate students.
Internationally recognized for preparing learners and producing world-class leaders in their fields, Lincoln has created five academic Centers of Excellence-programs of distinctions. They are: Lincoln-Barnes Visual Arts, Grand Research Educational Awareness and Training (GREAT) for Minority Health, Mass Communications, Teacher Education and Urban Pedagogy and Business and Information Technology.