Session 1 (9/23) - Demography & Geography

[Susie Suh]

In terms of the expenditure charts, I think that's a great, introductory way of looking at a society on a practical level. When we study civilizations, we look at what were the available resources and how people adapted to them. We talk about trade and commerce. Ultimately what we spend our money on or the things we barter items for show what our lifestyle is like. After studying a group of people, it would be a cool project to have students emulate these charts and create hypothetical charts of those people. 

[Nayeli Ruiz-Sanchez]

For my classroom I have students read articles in relation to the environment and its resources. This helps with reading comprehension but also allows the students to be aware of data in the world in regards to a highly needed source. Also, I allow students to take survey of how much time they use the water in their house. This information can lead to a math lesson where we graph the data but also can lead to a class discussion on what we can do to conserve water. Students can come up with actions they can do to manage the use of water. Some examples include turning off the water when brushing teeth or showering. Another concept that can be tied in is to recycle so that our oceans wont be polluted affecting our water supply. It is important to begin presenting these questions ot our students to make them aware of how much water is being used and how to manage it. 

 

[Cynthia Jackson]

Personally, I found the mention of Heshen fascinating because in my own education, there were not many times when we learned about the wealth of individuals outside of Europe and the United States. Yes, some time may be spent on describing the culture of, and positive and negative impact of “the wealthy” as a group in other countries, but often individuals, and the things they did with their money, are not mentioned. My students enjoy learning about Mansa Musa, the emperor of the Mali emperor in the 14th century. They remember learning about the richest person in the world at the time and one of the richest people who ever lived. Accounts of his travels help them understand the interconnectedness between Africa, Europe, and Asia and students walk away with a new perspective of Africa- one that is not based on European colonialism. I think teaching Heshen would have a similar impact in my classroom and provide an opportunity for students to calculate who was richer.

[Khrystle San Diego]

I think my students would be most interested in comparing how lives were different from the way things are now. They are still surprised to know about total differences in the way we access media and the fact that our phones can do so many things that we needed multiple devices before. It is important to expose my students to the basic idea of the impacts of the Industrial Revolution. It is also important for them to know that the United States were only formed 244 years ago - making it a very young nation compared to the East Asian countries. When we compare it to China's very lengthy and colorful history, my students will see that China has grown so much over the many years. 

[Cynthia Jackson]

Examining examples of Chinese and Japanese literature side by side would be a cool way to introduce the cultural similarities and differences. Given that A Dream of Red Mansions is a treasured piece of literature, collecting translated excerpts from it would allow me to lead students in analyzing this primary source and practice using literary themes and character’s actions to identify expressed cultural values and beliefs. Similarly, using excerpts from Japanese bunraku would give students an opportunity to identify events in Japanese history and some of Japan’s cultural values and beliefs. Then, students could make arguments about which format- books or plays- would be best to teach cultural values and determine if the author’s drew attention to issues that contributed to their countries decline in economic power and domestic peace.

[Cynthia Jackson]

China and Japan have certainly not been the last countries to limit foreign access within their borders in an effort to avoid negative foregin influences. In fact the 18th and 19th centuries were not the last time that either country isolated themselves. They both did so in the 20th century and China continues to do so today as evidenced by data they release for illnesses and natural disasters, and their practice of creating and using their own social media apps distinct from those used in across countries. Cuba and North Korea, two other communist countries that were/are interested in gaining international power, have also limited foreign influence in the past 70 years. I highlight that all three countries have communist governments because I think that there is a pattern- negative interactions with non-communist countries and/or characteristics of a communist government encourage isolationism in modern times.

[Nayeli Ruiz-Sanchez]

When I think about the term aging society, I begin to think of the elderly which includes my parents era. I had never really thought about how much it can impact families when it comes to surviving and thinking about the future. When the chart titles, "Murder in the Family came out I was a bit surprised and made sure to take note of it. The way that I would present such topic would be to tie it in their readings where we can begin exploring differnt stories depicting different time periods in differnt cultures. We can also compare and contrast the different family structures that students have in the class. In the end we can take a survey of students families age ranges and then we can begin discussing the trends we see. For example, if the chart displays an average of 40 years and up we can begin to think about how this can impact our society if the majority is aging? or what we can do to help this issue not impact our world as much. The topic of robots assissting humans can be brought up as well for further discussion.

[Nayeli Ruiz-Sanchez]

I can use the house expenditure charts with my students so they can apply it to their real lives. By discussing and analyzing these charts the students can begin to think about expenditures in their house. Students can interview their parents to find out about their expenditures. As an extention plan students and parent can design a plan to lower expenditures if needed. By looking at these charts I was able to see that both food and transportation seem to be a common expenditure for all countries, however it was interesting how the U.S. seemed to be the one that spent more on insurance and pension support plans while South Korea had more expenditures on leisure such as hotels/restraunts.

[Jennifer Cutler]

You should check out "Southernization" by Lynda Shaffer. I think WHFUA includes both her article and the "paper trail" activity in Big Era Five. 

[Nayeli Ruiz-Sanchez]

When presented with the chart demonstratin the share of world manufacturing for Japan, The U.S., and China at first I was not surrpised because before the indiustrial revolution China was producing a lot of the items needed. After the industrial revolution there was a drastic decrease in share due to new manufaturing process occuring in Europe and the U.S. With this data presented we can also have the students first identify trends in between time periods and different locations. They can then brainstorm ideas of how a place might be located if suddenly there was more factories up and running. In the end we can then have a discussion about the topic. 

[Verisha Carrillo]

It was very interesting listening to Mr. Dube explain the water battle that India and China still have today. I teach 6^th grade Ancient History so China and India are two of the civilizations that we cover. The beginning of any civilization has almost everything to do with Geography. Where is the civilization going to settle? Having a major water resource was so important for the stability and survival of a new and thriving civilization. And still today, water is so vital to our existence.  Learning that China is in the process of creating a system that would bring water from the south to the north in order to help the water poverty there was great. I can definitely use this new information and compare it to ways ancient civilization create water canals, levees, and dams in order to conserve water. I can have my students answer a question such as; How have such inventions and/or ideas advanced since ancient times? 

[Betsy Telle]

I found learning about Asia's declining fertility very interesting. I have read about this issue in certain European countries, but have not read as much about the issue in Asia. I knew that in Japan that women were delaying marriage and families but had not realized the severity of the issue. China's large population is always spoken of so it was interesting to learn that a declining population is an issue there too. I like how the decrease in birthrate is linked with the need of more technology and automation. The declining and aging population leaves the countries needing more machine assistance.

For my students we cover Evolution. Part of that Unit we discuss population rates and fertiliity rates of animal populations. It would be interesting to have the students also study population trends of the countries of Asia.

[Betsy Telle]

I teach Middle School Science, but feel that Geography is a vital support to Science. I like to focus on Geography as part of our Weekly study of different Organisms. It is important that Students understand the context and environment of organims to really understand the organisms. I don't remember ever learning about Asian geography in school, beyond recognizing the largest countries in the area (not many beyond China and Japan). What little I knew about the geography of the area came from my own traveling and studying as an adult. I also found it incredible to learn that there is current fighting over the China-Indian border in the mountains.

[Verisha Carrillo]

Human population has grown and shaped the world we see today. As previously mentioned, I teach 6^th grade ancient history. The beginning of the very first civilizations. Population was a major concern for these new civilizations. When people stopped hunting and gathering and began to farm instead, that is when the population increased in these civilizations. There was a stable food supply and people did not have to travel much for food anymore. When population increase these civilization became greater by establishing the six aspects of a civilization; geography, religion, achievements, politics, economy, and social structures. A question to ask my students could be: How did we get to be where we are today?  I feel I can also show my students the population of modern China and have them compare it to ancient times. Another good question to asK: Why did people end up settling in these locations?

In addressing an Aging Society to my students, I feel that having them list all the people in their family a good way to start. Their grandparent or great grandparents would be those in this category. I can briefly discuss social security and the challenges that people in this age group are faced with. Many issues such as healthcare and pensions can have a major impact on the government as well.  Pre-Covid I would put students in groups of population age so they could see the impact of population. Now, I’ll have to come up with some virtual way to separate them.

[Julie Wakefield]

Depending on if I am teaching World Geography (9th and 10th) or AP Human Geography (10th) - the introduction is different. 

In the World Geography class, East Asia has it's own unit. The introduction to region is with physical geography of mainland and the islands focus on challenges to living in some extremes and examples of HEI. Later we get into the human geography topics of  population, culture, history, economic development, globalization, popular culture and trends, etc.

In the AP class - East Asia can appear in every unit if I choose to use one of the countries for a case study. I try to emphasize different regions but some topics are clearly more applicable to East Asia. Some possible case studies include: population, migration, culture (religion, language), political geography (East China Sea), agriculture, urban geography and industrial and economic development. All of these are units within the AP Geography course and case studies from East Asia can easily fit in to each one.

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