[Jenn Brandenburg]

I think that with my students, they are well aware that their generation will not have the same opportunities as generations before them. My freshman may not yet understand geriatic programs but know that these programs need to be paid for by younger generations.

 

I use population pyramids to demonstrate the different stages of population growth (Stages 1-5) with a variety of countries to compare to the United States. Italy and Japan are excellent examples of the "egg shaped" Stage Five with a larger older population to younger population. As a class, I have students highlight the age groups where people are actively working and then compare to the two dependents groups (childhood [ages 1 to 16] and the elderly [ages 67 to 100]). 

 

By examining the graph, I ask them if this country will continue to be sustainable for its dependents' populations. Students who have grandparents in nursing homes or elderly relatives requiring medical care typically make the connections between cost and dependents. If your district/campus has the Geography Alive Population Pyramids lesson, I highly recommend it for comparisons, discussions and the readings provide an overview the issues governments and families have to make with aging populations!

[Jenn Brandenburg]

We are so excited for you to be a part of this course! We'll get to know each other in the upcoming weeks, but please post a brief self-introduction here. Your fellow participants are from all over the United States (a few are even international), so it would be great to learn about your experiences. Here are a few topics to help get you started: 

1) The basics - name, what/where you teach, favorite part about teaching, etc.

Hi! My name is Jenn Brandenburg and I moved in July from urban Texas to rural Oregon so I am experiencing a lot of various culture shocks. I have taught for a total of twelve years but now is my first year in Oregon. I used to teach AP World History, AP European History and World Geography. Here in Oregon I am teaching (and feel like a first year teacher again!) World Studies and AP US History. My favorite part of teaching is making connections with students that the world is to explore. 

2) Experience with East Asia - what made you interested in this course? Favorite food/travel experiences in the region. 

 

I have never traveled here but have ties due to my parents being stationed in South Korea. My mother was fluent in Korean and practiced Theravada (Chen) Buddhism after service. I grew up in rural east Texas where we were one of the few people who were able to use chopsticks! I want to visit Seoul where my parents once lived. 

3) What do you hope to learn from the course? 

 

I attended the TCU course before COVID and loved getting resources and discussions with my professor and peers. Dr Carrie at TCU explained a lot of media misconceptions regarding China such as the Belt Road and expansion in SE Asia. I want to further my comprehension regarding contemporary China (aside from the current pandemic). I also need resources for my APUSH course from East Asian perspectives. 

[Jenn Brandenburg]

What is the structure of the populations in each country or region? What are some geographical and environmental realities that pose challenges or offer advantages? Are you already teaching about these things in your classes? How do you work such topics into discussions? Please do some brainstorming on how such matters might be included in the courses you teach? How do population matters, land forms and water access and environmental considerations affect lives today and over the course of the past two centuries?

 

This is my first fall in Oregon as I moved from Texas to Oregon this summer due to my husband relocating because of the pandemic. I taught at a campus of 4000 students in an area that was extremly diverse. Now, I am in a rural school with a much smaller population and very little diversity.  The region I once taught in had to deal with enormous population growth and urban sprawl (North Texas) and the issues of housing, infrastructure and taxes in our communities. My new campus in rural Oregon is experiencing climate change issues of wildfires and drought. I would like to see how China and other countries are handling both of these types of crises: urban expansion at the expense of the planet. 

In Texas, I taught World Geography, AP European History and AP World History for nine years. I loved being able to have students engage in other cultures. Here in Oregon I am currently teaching freshmen World Studies and 10-12th grade AP US History. I am hoping to pull in more non-European and non-American perspectives into both courses. The Henshen documents above would have been such a help with teaching AP World History last year! However, I will be teaching Industrial Revolutions and Imperialism beginning next week in my World Studies classes and I want students to notice and comprehend the perspectives of Europeans in East Asia. This will also be a useful tool for my APUSH class when we discuss American spheres of influence and the economic shifts within China's economy due to reforms which allowed the US to "carve" exclusive trading zones. 

In regards to water, I attended a Fulbright-Hayes study abroad to the Kingdom of Jordan five years ago and water scarcity is the prime concern for the country. Water is unsafe to drink and most water resources are used for exporting of agriculture (coriander) at the expense of the rural populations. It is already a problem in the Levant but water scarcity is a concern here in the US. This winter, my former state of Texas had the infamous power grid failure due to the February ice storms. As temperatures continued to fall, usage went up leading to state-mandated outages across the entire state. The result was frozen pipes in many communities and including mine leaving to vast water shortages for weeks in some of the highest population regions in the nation. Right now there are parts of Lousiana still without clean water due to Hurricane Ida. We are seeing this phenomenon in microcosms in real time! 

 

Resource Scarcity:

The diversion of the rivers was fascinating as a means to solve the issues of China in the north. The levees in China are larger than those in the American South yet still have the same issues of maintaining them and the uneven terrain regarding the opposite side of the river. As the nation becomes more populous and industrial, will the maintance be able to keep up with the growth? The issues in Louisiana is rural infrastructure and I cannot help but compare the two. 

 

In regards to using these concepts further in the classroom, I will tie it back to the "water scarcity" my Oregonian students think is a severe problem due to the pandemic: the water fountains closed. My students lament that they have no access to water because of district precautions to prevent the spread of the virus and are encouraged to bring full water bottles to school or a free bottle from the cafeteria. In order to expand on these concepts, I need to start small. I like the graph comparing American water access to East Asia. I did not know this because I have more experience with the water issues in the Middle East. I want my students to understand they have so, so much more access to safe drinking water than the majority of the world's population. Closed water fountains are not the end all be all! 

 

It will be interesting to see as China expands if it will develop technologies similar to the Israelis with desalinization. 

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