Buddhism, the British in India and Gandhi

This week we have been discussing the origins of Buddhism and the teachings of Siddartha Gatama. We watched part of a documentary on Buddhism that I highly recommend, if you are interested in the topic. PBS Documentary on Buddhism

The students will also be learning about British Imperialism and colonial India. We will watch a scene from the movie Gandhi (1982) and touch (briefly) on Gandhi's influence in India and throughout the world. While it is lengthy, it does a wonderful job of depicting the circumstances in India and the origins of non-violent protest. If you (or your child) have not seen it, it would be a great way to spend an evening as a family.

India

We will spend the rest of this week on key physical features of India. The students will work with a partner to "investigate" an assigned feature. In addition to finding the location, students will research industries/jobs associated with the feature, main population centers, natural resources, and problems associated with the features. Each pair of students will create a poster to present the information.  Then students will use the posters to record information about all of the features on a graphic organizer.

India Resources

The movie Gandhi (1982) is excellent and available on Netflix.

http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/gandhi/

This PBS website includes information about culture, history and religion of India and includes a timeline and photographs.

http://www.pbs.org/thestoryofindia/resources/websites/

BBC website profile of India.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-12557384

This website provides the history of the partition of India including an annotated timeline.

http://english.emory.edu/Bahri/Part.html

This is the website of an Indian scholar that includes information about the culture and history of India as well as his blog.

http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/southasia/

This website has a map of a virtual Indian village that you can roam.

http://virtualvillage.wesleyan.edu

 

 

 

 

Colonialism and Africa

The students have finished working on their projects and are going to learn about colonialism and Africa. Today, we discussed the concept of colonialism and the reasons that European countries established colonies in Africa. The students will also learn how the colonial boundaries that were established in the "Scramble for Africa" led to conflicts.

I am attaching a link to an article on "Conflict Minerals" that demonstrates how the history of colonialism impacts the DRC today.
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2013/10/conflict-minerals/gettleman-text

News on Kenya

Many of the students have commented on news of the attack on the mall in Kenya.

http://theweek.com/article/index/250012/kenya-mall-siege-did-al-shabab-just-shoot-itself-in-the-foot#