Hi! We’re learning about the medieval times in class. For innovation day we’re making working drawbridges and castles but right know I’m gonna talk about the middle ages:
In the medieval times, the people there didn’t even know they were in any middle ages, they thought they were modern like you and well everybody. Many towns in the middle east with a castle were guarded by the castle. Plenty of castles were built on high ground with good views of the surrounding countryside. Earlier castles were built with a lot of wood while later castles were built with stone.
One of the first major event that helped change the west of Europe happened when the powerful Roman empire had gotten too big for only one emperor to rule, broke into eastern and western parts of the Roman empire.
There were different classes in the middle ages. Royalty had the most power and were the highest class. Nobles were also rich and powerful. The middle class people were merchants and craftsman. Freemen and serfs were the lowest class.
The serfs did not learn how to read and write, they worked on the farm all day. If the crops didn’t grow or illness struck the serfs would take the blame and the people would struggle to live. The lord didn’t always come in times of hardship to help his serfs. Even if there wasn’t a lot of food, it was illegal to hunt in the lords forests. Even so, some people hunted anyway because they were starving. What they did was called poaching. If serfs were caught poaching they would be severely punished. Even young serf boys needed to work.
Knights were soldiers who fought on their horses and sometimes on foot. Whoever wanted to be a knight would need to be able to afford armor and horses. You would also need to find someone who wants to train you. It was very expensive to become a knight so knights were usually sons of rich, influential people. Being a knight was a way to get money. If you were in a successful wars or battles you could get some money or land. Sometimes kings would reward knights with a title. If you had a title that normally meant you were an influential member of society.
Merchants and craftsmen were middle class. The streets were they sold things were often muddy and crowded. Towns grew when the middle class would create a successful business. Some merchants became rich and influential people. Merchants weren’t the only ones who thrived in the middle ages, skilled craftsmen also did. Skilled craftsmen and merchants were both important. They sold and made their stuff in towns were they worked and lived in. They normally paid the lord with money or goods.
.The Black death was another huge force that had an impact on the western Europe society during the middle ages .The Black death was a terrible disease that was spread by rats with infected fleas on them. The black death was also called plague. This horrible plague appeared first in 500s and the second part in the 1300s. The Black death probably slayed a third of the people of western Europe.
A drawbridge is kind of like a door because they can close and open it but the main reason drawbridges were built is to block out enemies. Drawbridges were usually surrounded by a moat. The drawbridge would be lifted or lowered by ropes or chains. Medieval drawbridges were normally made of wood. Medieval drawbridges were normally built for castles with moats.
Hypothesis:
Procedure:
In the video I mentioned a bit about what I used to build stuff but know I’m gonna give you a more detailed explanation about the materials I used to build stuff:
The drawbridge is made of cardboard with to strings hot glued on. The castle is made of a big cardboard box I found. I cut the top of the castle to make it a bit more like a castle. The gear/pully system is made with a few pulleys and gears from the scientists in school thing, the longer bar were the pulleys are on are these skewers/sticks from Ms. M’s cart, the small one with the gears is also made with the same thing except I cut it a bit. The kings seat is painted cardboard and I added some red felt. The table I made is made of the same materials of the seat but the plates are white felt and the bread on it is painted white felt.
Final result:
Now I’m gonna give you a written form of the video:
This is my castle it has some decorations but first I’m going to show you how it works. You basically turn a gear to make the drawbridge move. The gear moves another smaller gear which moves the drawbridge. If I let go or turn the gear in some way, it will go down. This is a table with forks, plates, spoons and bread. There is also a throne/seat for the king and another chair. This is the lords chamber with a potted plant and the lords bed. I painted the castle grey with bricks. I think maybe if I started a bit earlier the bricks would have been better. So this is my final result hope you liked it.
Conclusion:
My castle works now but when I tried the strategy from the hypothesis it only went up not down that’s why I changed the pulleys and gear system. At first I planned to do what I showed in my hypothesis but as I mentioned that didn’t work. I made plenty of changes from what I planned such as using 2 strings instead of 1, adding the pulleys from the scientists in school, etc… The strategy I have now works. I made it because all the other strategy’s I did didn’t work.
Self – Reflection:
If I could change something it would be the brick. I would either delete them or make them better. They weren’t very good because I started doing them on the last 5 minutes without knowing it’s the last 5 minutes of building and painting. I would also try to paint the floor and make it look nice. If I had much more time I would take time to add medieval stuff inside and I would experiment with paint more to make exactly the way I would like it but the paint was good. Animal lover and Bunny forever helped me paint a bit.