Create An Island Culture
http://edweb.sdsu.edu/courses/edtec596/Project1/Island.html
Unit Authors
This unit was developed by Liz Laughlin and Lenora Smith and delivered to 7th/8th graders at O'Farrell Community School in several forms over the last three years.
Content Areas
The Island project is deeply rooted in the Humanities classes. In the past it has not focused on Science, Computers and Math as much as it will this year. This year we are planning to include a great deal of Science. (They will even be introducing the start of the project in their classes.)
Organizing Theme
Theme: "How do we know? Learning (about cultures) by Looking at Evidence?" The idea of designing and experiencing a culture. The students created an island somewhere on Earth. They had to research to find their island's climate, resources, animals, vegetation, etc. (They do this by looking at areas that are close to their island.)
Implementation
The project is used by several of the families in the school. The project itself only involves one family. It takes about 4-6 weeks to complete the project and they will be working on it in all their classes. It is an interdisciplinary unit. (Students will learn something in science and take that information and apply it to what they have learned in humanities, etc.) The teachers coordinate what will be taught and when so they can all move at the same pace.
Outline of Activities
Students worked on this project simultaneously in each of their classes. They will be determining some characteristics of their islands by researching other islands in the area.
The first week of the project students:
- Choose a location for their island
- Find the latitude and longitude
- Determine the area and perimeter
- Make a scale drawing of the island
- Determine physical features of the island
- Create a relief map of the island
- Determine climate
- Prepare bar or line graphs describing the annual temperature and rainfall
- Determine physical characteristics of the people, appropriate to the location
- Determine population density and genetics
- Research natural resources and food sources available
- graphically display cultural groups and percentages
- Study volcanoes and how they create islands
The second week of the project students:
- Create a time line of historic events for the island
- Create a flag/logo
- Create a national anthem
- Write an original myth explaining a natural phenomena from the island
- Start deciding on elements of the culture, such as: Traditions-holidays, transportation, clothing, language, music, religion/beliefs, food/diet, shelter, style, entertainment, dances, art, defense, jobs, money/trading, government, laws and consequences for breaking the laws, technologies, education, customs/rituals, hygiene, medicine, sports and recreation.
The Third week of the project students:
- Continue work on the specific elements of their society listed above
The fourth week of the project students:
- Create a scale model of a typical village on their island.
- Start to work on the final project
The fifth week of the project students:
- Students finish the final project. This project is a travel brochure, magazine or newspaper that describes the unique elements of their island that they have established since week number two. It should show how the cultures demonstrate these elements as they live and work and play together.
The sixth week of the project students:
- Students will present and exhibit their projects
Student Products
They had various packets in their different classes that included research work. These packets were graded in that individual class. The final product of the unit was a magazine, newspaper or travel brochure that included all their research. They also had several maps, a flag/logo, a national anthem, a model of a village, etc.
Thinking Skills Engaged
This unit encouraged critical thinking, problem solving, research, creativity and organization.
Lessons Learned
They felt this unit was very successful. They have had a few years to refine the project and make it what they want. They plan to implement it again this year with a few changes. This year there will be a lot more science involved. The islands are going to be formed by volcanic activity so the students will be researching volcanoes and learning how to deal with active volcanoes on their islands. They will also go more in-depth about genetics.
This description was written by Cheryl Jones. Last updated on March 6, 1996.
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