Teacher’s Questions for Mummy Share their Secrets

SCIENCE

Before reading:

1. Have you ever seen a mummy? Describe what one looks like.
2. Explain the difference between a mummy and a skeleton

During reading:

1. Name two cultures that mummified their dead. Name one culture that mummifies their dead still today.
2. Describe the kinds of environments that can preserve, or mummify, a body naturally.
3. Describe some of the things that Ron Beckett saw inside the mummy Moimango while using an endoscope.
4. How does a CT scanner “see” inside a mummy or its coffin?
5. What kind of disease did scientists find evidence of in some of the Egyptian mummies placed in a CT scanner? Why did this finding surprise scientists?
6. What was Ötzi’s last meal? Describe how scientists figured this out

After reading:

1. How do you think scientists studied ancient mummies before technologies such as CT scans and endoscopes were available?

SOCIAL STUDIES

1. Are ancient mummies valuable to humans today? Explain your answer.