Title:
Discovering South Africa: New Places, New Ideas, New Experiences
Grade Level:
6-8; 9-12
Curriculum Focus:
Social Studies, Science
Video Segments:
- Tracking Elephants (06:33)
- Fighting for Democracy in India, South Africa, & Latin America (02:14)
- The Information Age: Documenting Regime Changes (01:47)
- Sharks: Great Mysteries of the Natural World (01:54)
- Ocean Ecosystems (Integrated Science Simulation)
Program Description:
Southern Africa consists of twenty countries, including Madagascar, Angola, Johannesburg,
Lesotho, Zimbabwe, South Africa, and Zambia. Victoria Falls is a spectacular geographic
feature of Southern Africa, located on the Zambezi River. Many indigenous peoples
populate Southern Africa, speaking Bantu, although other languages are also spoken,
such as English and Portuguese. The area’s natural resources are enormous,
and many Southern Africans make their living through agriculture. However, because
many people of Southern Africa are poor, poaching has become a serious concern because
it affects not only the wildlife ecosystem but also the agriculture.
Some of these video chapters introduce students to the fragile ecosystems in Southern
Africa, including a variety of animals and the area’s ocean and reefs. The
remaining video chapters allow students to understand the political and social upheavals
that have occurred in this area, along with the technology that aided the world
to observe these changes as they were unfolding.
Learning Objectives:
After viewing these videos, students will be able to:
- Discuss idea of human rights and the status of the individual
- Explore the concept of equality and human dignity
- Compare and analyze societal patterns for preserving and transmitting culture while
adapting to environmental or social change
- Explain how language, art, music, belief systems, and other cultural elements can
facilitate global understanding or cause misunderstanding
- Examine, interpret, and analyze physical and cultural patterns and their interactions,
such as land use, settlement patterns, cultural transmission of customs and ideas,
and ecosystem changes
- Understand populations and ecosystems
- Understand diversity and adaptations of organisms
- Describe how technology and science can help maintain ecosystems
Academic Standards:
National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) has developed national standards
to provide guidance for teaching social studies. To view the standards online, go
to http://www.socialstudies.org
- Understand the significance of studying culture and cultural diversity
- Understand global connections and interdependence
- Locate and describe varying landforms and geographic features, such as mountains,
plateaus, islands, rain forests, deserts, and oceans, and explain their relationship
within the ecosystem
- Describe, differentiate, and explain the relationships among various regional and
global patterns of geographic phenomena such as landforms, soils, climate, vegetation,
natural resources, and population
- Illustrate how individual behaviors and decisions connect with global systems
- Examine persistent issues involving the rights, roles, and status of the individual
in relation to the general welfare
- Evaluate the extent to which governments achieve their stated ideals and policies
at home and abroad
- Explain the origins and continuing influence of key ideas of the democratic republican
form of government, such as individual human dignity, liberty, justice, equality,
and the rule of law
National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) has adopted The National Academies
Press national standards to provide guidance for teaching science. To view the standards
online, go to
http://books.nap.edu/openbook.php?isbn=0309053269
- Understand the interdependence of organisms
- Understand the behavior of organisms
- Understand the role of science in personal and social perspectives with regard to
population growth, natural resources, environmental quality, and global challenges
- Understand the role of science and technology