- Making Service Count
- Students reflect on the importance of community service by reading stories about Peace Corps Volunteer experiences. Students then articulate needs within their own communities and participate in a gallery walk to generate ideas about how to address those needs through service.
- "Declaration (of a Kgomotso Girl)"
- Students will read and discuss "Declaration," a poem written by a Peace Corps Volunteer serving in South Africa. Students will focus reading and discussion on issues of gender as they appear in the poem.
- "Oh, Kingdom in the Sky"
- With a decades-long nursing career to her credit, Mary Ann Camp was a hero before she became a Peace Corps Volunteer. Still, while many Americans her age considered retirement, Peace Corps service for Mary Ann meant three tours—in Lesotho, Malawi, and Botswana—tackling health, agriculture, and education problems with her host communities.
- A Fundamental of Culture—Cultural Context
- Students will examine how the unwritten rules of culture depend upon the context in which an event or behavior takes place.
- A Lifetime of Service
- With a decades-long nursing career to her credit, Mary Ann Camp was a hero before she became a Peace Corps Volunteer. Still, while many Americans her age considered retirement, Peace Corps service for Mary Ann meant three tours—in Lesotho, Malawi, and Botswana—tackling health, agriculture, and education problems with her host communities.
- A Morning of Weighing Babies
- Students will explore literary characters and their relationships to an author and to each other.
- A Single Lucid Moment Lesson
- Students will wrestle with resolving contrasting values between cultures.
- A South African Storm
- The writer confronts issues of racial prejudice that she encounters in South Africa, years after the abolition there of the official policy of apartheid.
- A Togolese Tale: The Big Fire
- Students will examine the universal nature of folk tales and evaluate the meaning of a tale told in Togo.
- A Year
- Students will closely examine an author's philosophical look at life through superficially mundane, but ultimately meaningful, anecdotes he describes as a teacher in Uzbekistan.
- Addressing Global Food Security
In this WebQuest, students investigate the issue of food security, exploring the components of food availability, food access, and food utilization on local, national, and global levels. Students will also learn about how Peace Corps Volunteers are working with communities to address food security issues. After conducting this initial research, students will organize a food security forum—either inviting expert panelists to participate in an interactive discussion, or taking the roles of expert panelists themselves. Finally, students will reflect on present and future food security challenges and potential solutions.
- Africa Colors a Destiny
- In this lesson, students learn about culture in Chad through the eyes of two Peace Corps Volunteers: Michael Varga, who served in Chad from 1977-1979, and Fan Yang, who served there almost thirty years later, in 2005-2006. Both Volunteers were evacuated due to civil war. Students will watch a slide show and examine primary sources–letters sent home from Michael Varga during his service–to learn about the geography and culture of Chad, as well as how his Peace Corps experience shaped his future. Then students will study photographs and stories from Fan Yang's time in Chad to compare the two Volunteers' experiences.
- Agroforestry Challenge
- As a Peace Corps Volunteer assigned to the village of Wanzuzu, students playing the Peace Corps Challenge game are faced with many challenges they must solve using realistic solutions. In this challenge, players find themselves suddenly seen as tree experts by those in the village. They must move through the village finding community members who give them advice on which tree will be most beneficial. By weighing different opinions and needs, players must recommend to the community elders a tree to plant that meets not only the needs of the community, but also keep the local ecosystem healthy.
- All About HIV and AIDS
- Students will investigate what HIV/AIDS is, how it is caused, how it is transmitted, and what its effects are. ("HIV" stands for Human Immunodeficiency Virus. "AIDS" stands for Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome.)
- Americans
- Students will examine what it means to be "American" in the eyes of people from other cultures.
- Angel
- Students get to meet a victim of the HIV/AIDS pandemic in South Africa and see personally how it affects her, her community, and the author, who meets and befriends her.
- Asha's Village
- Asha, a young girl living in India, takes the reader on a virtual journey through her village. She offers a glimpse into aspects of her culture and daily life while introducing a variety of words in Hindi. By seeing components of a village in India, students can compare and contrast daily life in India with their own. In doing so, they can see that although people may have differences in country of origin, foods, or language, we are more alike than different.
- Barrels and Buckets: Access to Water
- Students increase their understanding of access to water through reading Peace Corps Volunteer stories from Kenya (in east Africa) and Ghana (in west Africa). As part of this lesson, each student will make a book that compares access to water in the United States, Kenya, and Ghana. An overall goal is to develop the students' understanding of the similarities and differences among water use in Kenya, Ghana, and the students' own communities.
- Barren Fields Challenge
As a Peace Corps Volunteer assigned to the village of Wanzuzu, students playing the Peace Corps Challenge game are faced with many challenges they must solve using realistic solutions. In this challenge students are asked to help find the reason many of the fields in the village are barren. Is it because of the ongoing drought? Is it due to the traditional practice of slash and burn farming? By visiting Gunari's farm in Wanzuzu and interviewing members of the community students will be able to form an idea which can be presented to the mayor on what has caused the fields to become barren, and what the villagers can do to help restore them.
- Beauty
- Students will practice evaluating things of importance or beauty from different perspectives.
- Becoming Part of the Community
- Students will examine how individual Peace Corps Volunteers succeeded in adapting to their new cultural environments.
- Beyond Demographics
- Students will learn more about the Dominican Republic through watching and discussing a video about the country and its people.
- Breaching the Gulf Between Cultures
- Students delve further into the dynamics, the challenges, and the rewards of adjusting to a new culture, as illustrated by the author's account of his father's coming to terms with Sri Lankan customs.
- Brief Encounters (Building Bridges)
- Through a simulation game, students will experience what it is like to confront and deal with a culture highly different from their own.
- Brief Encounters (Looking at Ourselves and Others)
- Through a simulation game, students will experience what it is like to confront and deal with a culture highly different from their own.
- Bringing Water to a Village in Lesotho
- In this lesson, students will learn about the role of water in ceremonies and celebrations around the world, as well as about the role water plays in the daily lives of those living in Lesotho.
- Building Bridges for Young Learners—Community
- The following lesson engages young children in ideas and concepts surrounding community with an exploration of the varied factors that influence how people live, the roles of adults and children, and the interaction of people who live and work within a community.
- Building Bridges for Young Learners—Culture
- This culminating lesson engages young children in exploring the macro concept of culture, including identifying visible and invisible features of culture, how interaction with the environment and others shapes one's culture, and how culture is shared and transformed over time.
- Building Bridges for Young Learners—Family
- The following lesson engages young children in exploring the concept of family with emphasis on how families around the world share more commonalities than differences.
- Building Bridges for Young Learners—School
- The following lesson engages young children in exploring the concept of school and education with an exploration of the varied factors that influence children's access to formal schooling, the subjects taught and learned, and children's role in their classroom.
- Building Bridges for Young Learners—Self
- Students will examine themselves relative to their characteristics, abilities, and feelings. By making connections to children in another part of the world, they will discover that people are more alike than different.
- Building a Model Springbox
- Inspired by the slide show "Water Source Protection," featuring Peace Corps Volunteer Lauren Fry, students will take the role of environmental engineers. They will use simple materials to construct small-scale springboxes and make recommendations for improving their functionality.
- Building a Solar Still
- In this lesson, students explore the water cycle and the role it can play in making water drinkable. Through an online video, Peace Corps Volunteers Nicholas Hanson and Brian Newhouse describe how they built a solar still to distill saltwater into drinkable water in Cape Verde. During the first class period, students construct their own model solar stills. In the second class period, they check to see how much pure water their solar stills produced from a supply of saltwater.
- Capturing the Reader With Vivid Images
- Students will examine how the author tries to capture the reader's imagination immediately, through imagery--and hold on to it.
- Celebrating Our Connections Through Water
- In this unit, students will reflect on the role of water in ceremonies and celebrations around the world. Peace Corps Volunteer (PCV) vignettes will provide the basis for researching and collecting data to be organized into a class celebrations chart. As a culminating activity, students will set up learning stations and host a celebration of Water Day, leading younger students on a rotation of the stations
- Chatter
- Students will discover that cultural norms heavily influence how we communicate.
- China by the Numbers
ESOL language proficiency level: advanced
In reference to China's burgeoning population, Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Matthew Scranton ponders the question, "Can you conceive of 1.3 billion anything? In this lesson, students will learn about place value, exponents and how there's a number amount for everything.
- Clean Water and
Quality of Life - This lesson explores the importance of protecting sources of clean drinking water. Through a narrated slide show, Peace Corps volunteer Lauren Fry shares her story about building a springbox to protect a groundwater supply in Cameroon. Students will synthesize information from the slide show, examine additional photographs depicting water access issues in Africa, and discuss the connection between clean water and quality of life. After discussing Lauren's story, choose from the suggested math and science activities to extend students' learning.
- Coming to Terms With Cultural Differences
- Students will discover that it is possible to be challenged and "culture-shocked" by the norms of one's own culture when returning home from having been away and living in another culture. They will also examine and compare the customs of modern marriages with the customes of traditional, arranged marriages.
- Communities Around the World
- Where we live helps shape who we are. By examining the concept of community and its importance in our lives, students will gain an appreciation for their own community while gaining respect for communities that may be very different than their own. They will also explore their role within the community around them.
- Community Health Data Analysis
- Students will view the slide show "Water Source Protection", featuring Peace Corps Volunteer Lauren Fry. They will then examine the community health data she collected and explore the question: Do the data provide evidence that the springbox may have helped to improve the community's health?
- Conducting Interviews in the Community
- Students will conduct individual interviews to find out in depth how people in their own communities provide services to others.
- Confronting Two Challenges—One Physical, One Intellectual
- Students will examine how the author confronted the challenges of a new language and a new culture.
- Cross-Cultural Dialogue Lesson
- Students will strive to view situations from more than their own point of view.
- Crossing Cultural Barriers with Visual Arts
Students will examine several examples of visual arts and interpret the messages they convey. They will discuss how and why the use of visual arts can be used as a means of educating those of diverse cultures. Students will view the slideshow Life is Wonderful and ascertain why the mural project highlighted was an appropriate method to use in educating the community about HIV/AIDS prevention. Finally, students will create a visual art piece around the message of HIV/AIDS prevention for their peers.
- Cuisine and Etiquette
- Students will examine mealtime etiquette in different countries and make inferences about other cultures from the rules governing table manners.
- Culture Is Like an Iceberg
- Students will examine features of culture to determine which are visible and which are invisible, and how the invisible affect the visible.
- Cultures Around the World
- Our own culture is all around us and has helped to shape who we are, what we enjoy, and our social norms. Our encounters with those of a different culture are excellent opportunities to celebrate our diversity while appreciating our own culture. Students will compare and contrast cultures of the world celebrating their differences and similarities.
- Day-to-Day Life in a Small African Village
- Students will learn about and experience just a bit of what it's like living in a village in Tanzania—from language to geography to health and hygiene issues.
- Defining Culture
- Students will define culture and examine how it affects them.
- Discovering New Perspectives on Life
- Students examine how the author's worldview expanded by living in another culture.
- Discussion Questions for Amber Bechtel’s Essay on AIDS in South Africa
- How can traditional healers help alleviate South Africa’s HIV/AIDS crisis? Peace Corps Volunteer Amber Bechtel takes a look at traditional medicine’s role alongside new treatments for HIV/AIDS.
- Do You Really Know What Wealth Is?
- Students will examine what it means to have wealth—a concept that turns out to be philosophical as well as economic—and examine the importance of music.
- Educating Village Girls Challenge
- As a Peace Corps Volunteer assigned to the village of Wanzuzu, students playing the Peace Corps Challenge game are faced with many challenges they must solve using realistic solutions. In this challenge players are faced with a village that has many important members of the community with the attitude that educating girls is not a priority. The mayor himself states "I don't see this as a problem". A solution to this challenge must be found by interviewing several community members, weighing their input, and finding a solution that benefits everyone.
- Encountering Very Different Ways of Life
- In a captivating and amusing account, the author shows just how challenging it is for someone to move from a familiar to an unfamiliar culture and then deal with adjusting to the new environment.
- Enough to Make Your Head Spin
- Students will learn to appreciate the value of nonverbal communication, focusing on the shaking or nodding of one's head, and the meanings attached to each activity in Bulgaria and in the United States.
- Ensuring Access to Quality Education
In this WebQuest, students will investigate the connections between education access and a variety of key global issues. Looking at school enrollment rates and trends around the world, they will analyze recent progress in the movement to provide universal primary education, as well as identify the existing challenges. Specifically, they will focus on the connections between literacy and poverty both in the United States and around the world. After exploring examples of the ways people are working to improve learning opportunities locally and globally, students will write reflective essays articulating their own views on the value of education and how the world can better achieve the goal of learning for all.
- Everyone Has a Culture—Everyone Is Different
- Students will distinguish between what constitutes culture and what makes up personal individuality.
- Examining What Sharing Really Means
- Students examine the remarkable degree of sharing that the author encounters upon arrival in Africa.
- Explore More About Bottle Construction
- Many Peace Corps Volunteers collaborate with their host communities to make the best use of locally available materials. Explore the stories from Peace Corps Volunteers who served in Guatemala and collaborated with community members on bottle construction projects. Then extend students' learning from these stories using the accompanying teaching suggestions.
- Families Around the World
- The concept of family and it importance in our lives is something that is shared by people of every culture. By looking more closely at photos and simple text describing the roles we each play in our families, students will gain an understanding of the similarities shared by families around the world.
- Fate vs. Mind: A Macedonian Folk Tale
- Students will find and appreciate that folk tales, a stylized genre of literature, tell more than stories; they convey morals or lessons. Looking into various aspects of this folk tale, students will also weigh the strengths of fate and consciousness, Folk tales can also be told in a stylized manner, as this one is.
- Features of Culture
- Students will enumerate features of their own culture and evaluate how those features have influenced their lives.
- Fighting Soil Erosion
This lesson is divided into two parts.
The first section is intended for classes that are being introduced to the topic of soil erosion. This section consists of a variety of activities developed by the Chesapeake Bay Foundation and the National Geographic Society. These activities will help develop a foundational understanding of soil erosion.
The second section allows the students to explore the issue of soil erosion in Guinea through a narrated slide show. Steve Jacobson, a former Peace Corps Volunteer, shares his experience and the different strategies Guineans are using to address soil erosion. Watch slide show
- First Impressions
- Students will experience the risks of making assumptions from first impressions.
- Fog's Bounty
- In this lesson, students travel to the island nation of Cape Verde where they are introduced to Peace Corps Volunteer Nathan Lee and his work of harvesting water from fog. Students will learn how fog is produced, why it is a viable source of fresh water, and how it is harvested.
- Food Culture Photo Essays
- After viewing a slide show from a Peace Corps Volunteer in China, students will use Peace Corps' Mandarin Chinese language lessons to develop their own food culture photo essay.
- Generalizations: How Accurate Are They?
- Students will examine how generalizations can be hurtful and unfair, and they will devise ways to qualify statements so they avoid stereotyping other people.
- Geography, Climate, and Community in the Dominican Republic
- Students will begin to familiarize themselves with the geography and culture of the Dominican Republic.
- Giving Students a Little Latitude
- Students will use a world outline map to locate places using coordinates of latitude and longitude.
- Good News/Bad News/Who Cares?
- Students will practice evaluating facts, bringing to bear their own experience, preferences, and international contexts.
- Half Man, Half Limping Rabbit
- A simple folk tale on the surface, the story told by Nina Porzucki holds deeper meaning that students can probe, ultimately examining the possible advantages of mortality over immortality.
- Healthy Girls, Healthy Villages
- This lesson explores the importance of educating girls in developing countries, as well as some of the factors that traditionally limit girls’ access to education. Through a narrated slide show, returned Peace Corps Volunteer Vivian Nguyen explains the challenges facing girls in Niger, and how a program called Camp GLOW (Girls Leading Our World) helps provide education and life skills to prepare girls for a healthier future. Students will investigate the problems of poverty, nutrition, and health that disproportionately affect women and girls in developing countries. They will then create educational skits or games to be included in the Camp GLOW program.
- How Accurate Is It?
- Students will examine how generalizations can easily be invalid, and they will learn how to qualify generalizations to make them accurate.
- How Cultures Differ—Two Different Perspectives on the Same Event
- Students will examine the author's running race from two different cultural perspectives to see just how different the effects of culture can be.
- How a Writer Conveys Descriptions With a Wallop
- Students will identify strategies the author used to vividly convey qualitative and quantitative aspects of life in China, then use those strategies in writing of their own.
- Hurricane
- Students will learn about the nature of hurricanes: climate conditions, geographic factors and effects on human systems. With repetitive readings of the story, students will also gain reading fluency, use of context clues and practice flow of supporting details. The effect of Hurricane Georges upon the Dominican Republic will be examined.
- I Had a Hero Lesson
- Students examine what it takes to make a hero.
- Identifying Structured Patterns in Folk Tales
- Students will learn that folk tales follow a pattern, and they will attempt to analyze a story to discover its pattern.
- Identifying and Using Parallelism and Balance in Literature
- Students will examine the story for use of balanced sentences and parallelism—two literary devices—and then practice using those devices in writing of their own.
- Ilunga's Harvest Lesson
- Students examine the culturally based impulse to share with others versus the impulse to watch out for oneself or one's immediate family.
- Improving Access to Clean Water and Basic Sanitation
In this WebQuest, students explore the global issue of access to clean water and basic sanitation. They will begin by considering freshwater as a shared and finite global resource. They will then analyze trends in water and sanitation access around the world. Students will consider the relationships between water and sanitation and other global issues such as poverty, health, food security, and gender equality. They will review examples of Peace Corps Volunteer projects addressing water and sanitation issues in communities around the world. Finally, they will plan a World Water Day event in their own community to raise awareness about water and sanitation as a global concern.
- Improving Nutrition for All
In this WebQuest, students focus on nutrition - including undernutrition and overweight and obesity - as critical issues in the field of global health. Students consider the causes and effects of key nutritional problems and analyze their global impacts. They will also consider solutions to nutrition issues facing both the U.S. and the world at large. Finally, students will select a nutritional issue currently in the news. After finding several news articles addressing the issue, students will compose a letter to the editor that integrates information they have collected and articulates their opinion on how the problem should be addressed.
- International Curiosity and National Pride
- Students will look at their own culture and at Bulgarian culture to identify national, local, or ethnic traits, while at the same time attempting not to over-generalize about any particular group of people.
- Interpreting Behavior: Expanding Our Point of View
- Students will be led to grasp the importance of understanding behavior from the perspective of the culture in which that behavior is the norm.
- Introducing Culture
- Students will begin to analyze what it is that constitutes culture.
- Investigating Disease Prevention
These teaching suggestions are designed to support interdisciplinary exploration of the issue of food security. They may be used on their own or to extend students' learning from the WebQuest: Global Issues: Preventing Disease
- Investigating Education
These teaching suggestions are designed to support interdisciplinary exploration of the issue of food security. They may be used on their own or to extend students' learning from the WebQuest: Ensuring Access to Quality Education.
- Investigating Environmental Sustainability
These teaching suggestions are designed to support interdisciplinary exploration of domestic and global environmental issues. They may be used on their own or to extend students’ learning from the WebQuest Promoting Environmental Sustainability.
- Investigating Food Security
- These teaching suggestions are designed to support interdisciplinary exploration of the issue of food security. They may be used on their own or to extend students' learning from the WebQuest Addressing Global Food Security.
- Investigating Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment
These teaching suggestions are designed to support interdisciplinary exploration of domestic and global gender equality. They may be used on their own or to extend students’ learning from the WebQuest Reducing the Global Gender Gap.
- Investigating HIV/AIDS
These teaching suggestions are designed to support interdisciplinary exploration of the issue of HIV/AIDS. They may be used on their own or to extend students' learning from the WebQuest Reversing the Spread of HIV/AIDS.
- Investigating Nutrition
These teaching suggestions are designed to support interdisciplinary exploration of the issue of food security. They may be used on their own or to extend students' learning from the WebQuest Improving Nutrition for All.
- Investigating Poverty
- These teaching suggestions are a component of Coverdell World Wise Schools’ Global Issues module and designed to support interdisciplinary exploration of the issue of poverty.
- Investigating Water and Sanitation
These teaching suggestions are designed to support interdisciplinary exploration of global water and sanitation issues. They may be used on their own or to extend students’ learning from the WebQuest Improving Access to Water and Sanitation.
- Is That a Fact?
- Students will practice distinguishing between facts and opinions, in order to better understand their own observations.
- Ivan the Fool Lesson 1
- Students will read a classic folk tale for comprehension and enjoyment.
- Ivan the Fool Lesson 2
- Students will learn that different cultures respect or fear certain numbers, numbers that can appear in folklore in several ways.
- Ivan the Fool Lesson 3
- Students will learn that a quest is central to many folk stories, and they will write their own, incorporating a quest.
- Just Like the Old Days
- Students will examine and experience roles and customs of rural Mongolians through role-playing, and they will compare unfamiliar roles from Mongolia with everyday roles in the United States.
- Just an Ordinary Day
- Students will weigh the old with the modern in contemporary Romania and examine how culture changes with the introduction of new elements.
- Life in a Hurricane Zone
- Students will learn about the nature of hurricanes and examine in detail the effect of Hurricane Georges upon the Dominican Republic.
- Linking Geography and Food
- Students will explore the ways that physical and human geography can contribute to the food culture of another world region.
- Living by the Book
- Reading for pleasure or cultural sensitivity? Guide your students through the cultural complexities of life on a Fijian island.
- Looking Back
- Students will weigh the advantages and disadvantages of a state-controlled social system and look into the strains that occur in the transition of a state-controlled system to a democracy, such as that occurring in Macedonia.
- 'Magic' Pablo Lesson
- Students examine what goes into hero worship and establishing unlikely friendships.
- Malaria Challenge
- As a Peace Corps Volunteer assigned to the village of Wanzuzu, students playing the Peace Corps Challenge game are faced with many challenges they must solve using realistic solutions. In this challenge students are just beginning their second year of Peace Corps service in Wanzuzu. Currently, the village is facing many struggles including a long rainy season—which has many negative effects such as soggy fields and a high number of malaria cases. By visiting the clinic and speaking with the doctor and other community members, students learn the causes of malaria and find ways to minimize and control the malaria outbreak.
- Microfinance Challenge
- As a Peace Corps Volunteer assigned to the village of Wanzuzu, students playing the Peace Corps Challenge game are faced with many challenges they must solve using realistic solutions. In this challenge, players learn that the Ministry of Finance is offering a new microfinance program that will offer a small business loan to one lucky villager. The player must visit the marketplace and interview community members and ultimately help decide which project should get the loan.
- Modeling Our Writing After Another Author's Style
- Students will emulate the author's descriptive phrases in their own writing.
- Narrative Cartoons
- Based on essays and photos provided by Peace Corps Volunteers, students will create a narrative cartoon, a set of sequentially placed images that tell a story.
- Narrative Cartoons
- Young people are drawn to reading and drawing comic strips, but many young people define and restrict comic strips to pictorial images of super heroes. This lesson is designed to draw upon the interest that young people have in cartoons, and at the same time introduce students to techniques of creating alternative styles. Based on essays and photos provided by Peace Corps Volunteers, students will create a narrative cartoon, a set of sequentially placed images that tell a story. The narrative comic strip may depict one activity or be a collage of various activities. See samples of the student artwork from this lesson created by students from Roberto Clemente Community Academy in Chicago.
- Nomadic Life Lesson
- Students will examine the imagery in a rich, spare poem about an interlude between two women of different cultures in rural Niger.
- On Being Seen as Different
- Students will discover that while other cultures may seem strange or odd in some ways, their own culture can seem similarly strange or odd to those in other cultures.
- On Sunday There Might Be Americans Lesson
- Students will gain insight into the mindset of a rural boy in Niger, specifically regarding his relations with both indigenous and foreign people in the local market.
- One Step at a Time
- Students will see that it is crucial to understand the perspectives of another culture if one is trying to work within that other culture to effect change.
- Opposites
- Students will see how personal tastes and experiences—in addition to culture—influence our perspectives.
- Out With the Old, In With the New
- Students learn about China's cultural and economic complexities through a slide show that is written, read, and photographed by a Peace Corps Volunteer.
- Overseas Phone Call from Bolivia
- For many ESOL students, deciphering and extracting information without visual cues is a challenging task. With this directed listening activity, students will use "previewing" strategies to better comprehend and learn about the experience of Peace Corps Volunteer Joe Stevens: his likes, dislikes, types of animals in Bolivia, food and sports. Students will also be able to locate Bolivia on a map and use a topographical map and clues to estimate Joe's location in the country.
- Overseas Phone Call from Costa Rica
- For many ESOL students, deciphering and extracting information without visual cues is a challenging task. With this directed listening activity, students will use "previewing" strategies to better comprehend and learn about the experience of a Peace Corps Volunteer: likes, dislikes, types of animals, festivals, language, food and sports may be discussed. Students will also be able to locate the country on a map.
- Overseas Phone Call from Morocco
- For many ESOL students, deciphering and extracting information without visual cues is a challenging task. With this directed listening activity, students will use "previewing" strategies to better comprehend and learn about the experience of Peace Corps Volunteer Jessica and the country of Morocco: types of animals, a typical school day, types of work and holidays. Students will also compare and contrast Morocco with the United States and locate Morocco and two major cities on a map.
- Overseas Phone Call from Turkmenistan
- For many ESOL students, deciphering and extracting information without visual cues is a challenging task. With this directed listening activity, students will use "previewing" strategies to better comprehend and learn about the experience of a Peace Corps Volunteer: likes, dislikes, types of animals, festivals, language, food and sports may be discussed. Students will also be able to locate the country on a map.
- Peace Corps Challenge Game—Traditional Greetings
- The world if full of different cultures with different traditions, languages, customs, and greetings. Students will explore several ways in which people around the world greet each other. The following teacher suggestion is designed to enhance the students learning from playing the Peace Corps Challenge on-line game.
- Peace Corps Challenge Game
- Playing the Peace Corps Challenge game highlights challenges faced across the globe, and opens a window to the world to help students learn about working effectively with cultural differences. Appreciating perspectives, using critical thinking, and becoming skillful collaborators are key 21st century skills to be gained by simulating the role of a Peace Corps Volunteer and engaging with the Peace Corps Challenge game. For each challenge, teachers will find lesson plans and students will have an opportunity to engage in web-based research to empower them with content knowledge to be able to make thoughtful decisions while playing the game.
- Peace Corps Challenge Game—Water Quality
- The water pollution of the lake in the village of Wanzuzu has affected much more than just the lives of the humans in the village. Animals and plants have also been affected. Through letter writing students will have the opportunity to express their feelings by writing as if they were a fish in the lake and also understand that sometimes we all must work together to solve a community problem.
- Peace Corps Challenge Game—Soil Runoff
- When the ground is saturated or impermeable to water during heavy rains or snow melt, excess water flows over the surface of the land until it eventually collects in low spots such as ponds, rivers or lakes. This is called runoff. Students will explore several ways in which the lake at Wanzuzu can be protected from further soil run-off and how as a Peace Corps Volunteer they could help their community. The following teacher suggestions are designed to enhance the students learning while focusing on one of the challenges (soil runoff) addressed in the Peace Corps Challenge on-line game.
- Peace Corps Challenge Game—Foods from Other Countries
- Not everyone in the world eats at fast food restaurants, or even has the same vegetables as we do in America. When people think of a traditional "American" type of food, they usually say hamburgers and hot dogs. In most countries they have a popular dish. In fact, in the Peace Corps Challenge game they drank root juice and ate fried ants. Students will have the opportunity to learn about some of the traditional dishes from other countries of the world. The following teacher suggestion is designed to enhance the students learning from playing the Peace Corps Challenge on-line game.
- Peace Corps Challenge Game—National Trees
- Trees are found all over the world, in every country. Although trees are common to all parts of the world, there are different trees species found in different places. In this teaching suggestion, students will have the opportunity to explore the national trees of several countries as well as compare them to some of the native trees in their own community.
- Peace Corps Challenge—Solving the Water Quality Issue
- Newspapers are one of the main sources of information about our local and world events. Students will create a Wanzuzu newspaper about the important issues the Wanzuzu people are facing due to their polluted lake.
- Perspectives on Paraguay
- Students examine cultural differences between Paraguay and the United States.
- Picture Perfect
- Students will use literature to explore cultural norms in another country and compare them with their own experiences.
- Planning a Service Project
- Students will implement what they have learned about serving communities by planning and undertaking a community service project.
- Playing in Lesotho
- Children everywhere play. American students will have the opportunity to see how resourceful children are in the country of Lesotho when it comes to finding things to play with. Imagination can transform a simple item into the best toy ever.
- Population and Agriculture
- Students will use information from Peace Corps Volunteer Amy Throndsen's slide show about her experience in China, as a springboard for investigating numerical relationships between population and agriculture.
- Press Conference on Hurricane Georges
- To reinforce oral communication skills, organize a "press conference" on Hurricane Georges.
- Preventing Communicable and Noncommunicable Diseases
In this WebQuest, students investigate the global challenge of disease prevention – including both communicable (infectious) and noncommunicable (chronic) diseases. Students will identify the distinguishing features of communicable and noncommunicable diseases, and give examples of diseases in each category. They will investigate the domestic and global impacts of disease, and learn about some of the strategies that Peace Corps Volunteers are using to help reduce the risk of communicable and noncommunicable diseases in their host communities. Finally, each student will select a disease to research in depth. Using what they've learned, students will create realistic fiction journals from the perspective of a person who has experienced the disease they researched.
- Promoting Environmental Sustainability
In this WebQuest, students will research a variety of global environmental concerns. For several issues – including species conservation and climate change – they will investigate the local relevance of the problem and review an example of how a community in another part of the world worked to address the issue. Students will then view a slide show demonstrating how youth in Costa Rica conducted community surveys to identify, analyze, and address issues of local concern. Similarly, students will conduct research on environmental issues in their own communities, and develop fact sheets and suggested actions for addressing local environmental priorities.
- Protecting Philippine Reefs
- As fish populations plummet, Peace Corps Volunteer Tommy Schultz works with Filipinos to restore the sea life that the local people depend on for food. After watching the slide show, Protecting Philippine Reefs, students will recognize how intertwined human existence is with the health of ecosystems, identifying positive and negative impacts that people can have on their local environment.
- Quak-wah-tania and Her Sisters
ESOL language proficiency levels: beginner, intermediate
Students will appreciate folk tales as a universal genre with similar elements and life lesson to be learned, no matter the culture or country of origin. They will also practice reading fluency by starting with increased background knowledge and repetitive readings in interactive formats.
- Recognizing How Another Culture Differs From One's Own
- Students will discover how the concepts of time and punctuality can differ markedly in the United States and another country.
- Reduce, Re-use, Recycle
- The importance of recycling to reduce waste, to employ trash in useful ways, and to save the environment all feature in students' review of this letter from Romania.
- Reducing the Global Gender Gap
In this WebQuest, students will investigate gender equality and its relationship to critical global issues. They will be introduced to key issues in gender equality and women's empowerment, and will examine the global situation regarding equal rights for men and women. They will also review statistics on gender discrepancies in the United States and posit explanations for the persistent gender gap in key areas. Students will evaluate examples of initiatives led by Peace Corps Volunteers to empower women and promote gender equality in countries around the world. Finally, students will research the gender gap in a country of their choice and participate in a collaborative world forum to identify key global priorities for achieving gender equality.
- Reef Results, Problem-Solving and Solutions
- As fish populations plummet, Peace Corps Volunteer Tommy Schultz works with Filipinos to restore the sea life that the local people depend on for food. After watching the slide show, Protecting Philippine Reefs, students will recognize how intertwined human existence is with the health of ecosystems, identifying positive and negative impacts that people can have on their local environment. They will also practice reading fluency and new vocabulary in sentence construction and writing.
- Resolving a Cross-Cultural Misunderstanding
- Students will try to resolve a cross-cultural misunderstanding in a constructive manner.
- Respect for Authority
- Students will examine just how a Peace Corps Volunteer working in a culture steeped in subordination encourages local young people to challenge authority and participate in their governance.
- Reversing the Spread of HIV/AIDS
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In this WebQuest, students investigate the issue of HIV/AIDS, including common misconceptions about the disease, its impact in the United States and the world, and what Peace Corps Volunteers are doing to support communities dealing with HIV/AIDS issues. Students then consider the needs of their own communities and develop a message that will help educate people about HIV/AIDS and an effective strategy for sharing that message. After discussing their ideas, students work together to select one approach to pursue as a collaborative service-learning activity.
- Rising Out of Poverty
- This interactive WebQuest is a component of Coverdell World Wise Schools' Global Issues module. Students focus on poverty as a critical global issue and explore the development of income-generating activities as an avenue for alleviating poverty at the community level. Students take the role of a Peace Corps Volunteer serving in a community with a high poverty rate and few economic opportunities. After analyzing data on domestic and international poverty, the effects of poverty on individuals and communities, and approaches to rising out of poverty through economic development, students present an idea for a culturally-appropriate product or service to generate income for their host community.
- Sanitation and Disease Challenge
- As a Peace Corps Volunteer assigned to the village of Wanzuzu, students playing the Peace Corps Challenge game are faced with many challenges they must solve using realistic solutions. In this challenge, students are asked by the Mayor to help find the source that is causing many in the village to become ill. By visiting the farm and interviewing members of Gunari's family and other community members, students learn of many unsanitary practices and possible causes for so many becoming ill. They suggest causes for the illness, as well as possible solutions the community could adopt to help make everyone in the village healthy.
- Schools Around the World
- As each of us goes to school, it quickly becomes one of the most important parts of our lives. Although schools are found in every corner of the world, they can be quite different. Learning about schools and schooling around the world can help students understand not only the importance of education, but also how children of every culture have many of the same needs.
- Sea Turtle Math
- Students are introduced to a real-world conservation issue through Peace Corps Volunteer Sarah Klain's slideshow about sea turtle populations in Palau. Given data on the current status of Hawksbill Turtles, students use algebra to complete a mathematical puzzle, in which they predict how much longer Hawksbills will nest in Palau if their current rate of decline continues. Students discuss current conservation efforts in Palau and make recommendations for future strategies.
- Searching for Meanings Beneath the Surface of the Poem
- Students will examine the poem and compare perspectives of the author and the subjects of his poem.
- Seeing Both Sides of an Issue
- Each student will develop arguments on both sides of an issue to see how it feels to understand opposing views.
- Seeing Things From the Someone Else's Point of View
- Students will examine the cultural trait of sharing, trying to view it from the point of view of someone in another culture.
- Seeing the World in New Ways
- Students will probe their own histories to record how they have had to expand their worldviews.
- Serious Doodling
- Students examine cartoons drawn by a Volunteer serving in the country of Jordan.
- Service Learning
- Ideas for using Coverdell World Wise Schools resources to enhance the pre-service, service, and post-service stages of the service learning process.
- Service Projects in the Dominican Republic
- Students will look into how Peace Corps Volunteers have provided community assistance in the Dominican Republic.
- Sleuthing a Writer's Skills
- Students will closely examine the author's lively text to determine how she achieved her many literary effects.
- Soil Runoff Challenge
- As a Peace Corps Volunteer assigned to the village of Wanzuzu, students playing the Peace Corps Challenge game are faced with many challenges they must solve using realistic solutions. In this challenge, students awaken to find that the lake—which is the main water source for the village—is brown, with the fish in it—dying—and the surface is covered with algae. There is also a very strong odor. By gathering information from people in the village and weighing the choices available students will present the option they feel will benefit the villagers the most, and help overcome this challenge and save the lake.
- Solar Power in Local and Global Communities
Students will investigate renewable energy, with a focus on using solar energy to produce electricity. After learning about how solar energy is produced, students will consider its environmental and economic benefits. Students will be introduced to Peace Corps Volunteer Katie DeWitt, who worked with her community in Costa Rica to implement a solar energy project. Using examples from Katie’s slide show, Sustained by the Sun, students will describe approaches that made the project successful. They will then compare the Costa Rican project to a solar energy initiative in their own community or state.
- Soneka's Village
- Students will focus on aspects of the Maasai pastoralist culture and compare it with their own.
- Splish-Splash: Daily Use of Water
- This lesson facilitates the students’ understanding of access to water through reading stories from Peace Corps Volunteers who served in Kenya (east Africa region) and Ghana (west Africa region). As part of this lesson, each student will make a book that compares access to water in the United States, Kenya, and Ghana. An overall goal is to develop the students’ understanding of the similarities and differences between water use by people in Kenya and Ghana and their own communities.
- Starting Off the Day (and School Year) in Ukraine
- Students will compare the first day of school in Ukraine with the first day of school in the United States, including the challenges students and teachers both face in each country.
- Starting Your Own Small Business
- Students learn about a small poultry business project that Peace Corps Volunteer Brian Lewandowski began with youth in the Caribbean nation of St. Vincent. After viewing the slideshow Raising Chickens, Empowering Youth, students engage in a math investigation in which they plan their own fictional poultry businesses.
- Taking Action!
- Students will read the story Happy Hearts in Manabí by Peace Corps Volunteer Kristen Mallory. After learning about Kristen's work promoting heart health in Ecuador, students will consider how educating others can be a form of service, prioritize health education issues in their own communities, and create educational materials for a local audience. As an extension of this lesson, students may organize a health education event within their school or local community.
- Terrace Agriculture and Soil Erosion
- By viewing slide shows from Peace Corps Volunteers who served in China and Africa, students will explore the practice of terrace agriculture around the world and its effectiveness in maximizing space while minimizing soil erosion.
- The Blind Men and the Elephant
- Students will examine the importance of perspective in how people perceive things.
- The Death of Old Woman Kelema
- Students will investigate methods for using imagery in literature to convey the sights and sounds of another culture. Students will compare elements of another culture to their own.
- The Extra Place Lesson
- Students take up the challenge of deciding what to do when confronted by a difficult and awkward situation.
- The Flow of Women’s Work
- Water provides an excellent lens for studying gender roles. In this lesson, students compare the division of labor in water-related work in rural Lesotho with their own households. By doing this, they will gain an understanding of the multiple factors that influence how gender roles are established in different societies. This lesson culminates with students writing letters in the voice of visitors to the United States from Lesotho.
- The Iceberg
- Students will identify features that all cultures share and decide which are visible and which are invisible.
- The Importance of Being Flexible and Open-minded as a Visitor to Another Culture
- Students will identify the advantages of being flexible when visiting or living in a culture different from one's own.
- The Importance of Speaking Another Language
- Students will evaluate how important it can be to speak a language other than their own.
- The Multicultural Person
- Students will learn that they belong to many groups, depending on the criteria they choose to determine the groupings.
- The Rigors of Learning a New Language
- Students will consider the immensity of the the task the author undertook to learn Chinese.
- The Talking Goat Lesson
- Students will analyze the meanings and patterns of a folk tale.
- The Third Question
- Students will reflect upon the rewards of providing services to others, and whether by giving they might perhaps be gaining at the same time.
- The True Cost of Coffee
- Students will examine the economic, health, and environmental risks of a one-crop economy in the developing world.
- This Is Tanzania
- Students will come away with an introductory knowledge of the volcanic history and wildlife of Tanzania, and of the subsistence agricultural economy with which most Tanzanians live.
- To Your Health
- Students will focus on how storks and other cultural icons, in both Bulgarian and American customs, are believed to encourage and bring good health.
- Tsunami! Examining Earth’s Most Destructive Waves
- Students will investigate just what a tsunami is, what causes it, how fast it travels, what it looks like, and its devastating effects upon landfall.
- Two Very Different Concepts of Time
- Students will delve further into the differences between a time-bound culture and a culture in which time seems almost unimportant.
- Under the Tongan Sun
- Enjoy a day in the life of a Peace Corps Volunteer living in Tonga.
- Understanding Demographics
- Students will use demographic information to gain an understanding of the Dominican Republic.
- Understanding and Avoiding HIV/AIDS
- Students will investigate what HIV/AIDS is, how it is caused, the effects of the disease, and how to prevent it. ("HIV" stands for Human Immunodeficiency Virus. "AIDS" stands for Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome.)
- Using Communication Technology to Address Global Problems
In this lesson, students will consider the role that information and communication technology play in helping to address global problems. Students will begin by considering sources of information in their own lives. Next, they will listen to the podcast Texting Across the Desert. In the podcast, Peace Corps Volunteer Rashid Khan describes how he set up a text messaging hotline in Namibia to communicate critical information about HIV/AIDS. After reflecting on the initiative, students will consider other health, social, or environmental problems that could be alleviated through improved access to information. Students will then generate ideas for using technology to increase public knowledge around a problem of their choice.
- Using Effective, Amusing Writing As a Model
- Students will use the author's writing as a model to achieve vivid description and engaging humor in compositions of their own.
- Using Effective, Evocative Writing as a Model
- Students will analzye the author's style to learn techniques for strengthening their own writing.
- Using a Mentor Text to Develop a New Style of Writing
- Students will examine some of the author's writing traits and then make an effort to incorporate his style into their own writing.
- Using an Author's Clever Strategies in One's Own Writing
- Students will examine specific clever strategies of the author and incorporate them in their own writings.
- Visual Messages: Creating a Photomontage
- How do we best communicate a rich and complex visual world when it is captured on a two-dimensional surface? In this lesson, students will manipulate photographs by cutting, reassembling, and adding two-dimensional materials, such as text, maps, charts, documents, notes, and drawings.
- Waking Up, Stepping Out
- Students will focus on a rich and colorful description of a culture unfamiliar to most of them, and then compare the similarities and differences they find between Nepali culture and their own.
- Wall of Water: Tsunami!
- Students will learn what a tsunami is, what causes it, how fast it travels, what it looks like, its devastating effects upon landfall, where it occurs and why it occurs in certain geographic regions. The effect of a 2004 tsunami on the island nation of Sri Lanka will be closely examined.
- Water Availability and Usage
- Students will view the slide show "Water Source Protection" featuring Peace Corps Volunteer Lauren Fry. They will then explore the numerical relationships between water supply (gallons of water filtered per day) and demand (gallons of water needed by the community).
- Water Contamination Challenge
- As a Peace Corps Volunteer assigned to the village of Wanzuzu, students playing the Peace Corps Challenge game are faced with many challenges they must solve using realistic solutions. In this challenge, students are asked by the Mayor to help figure out why the water in the village is contaminated. This contamination has caused many in the village to become seriously ill. Students will find Dika who will help them solve this challenge and try to restore the village to good health.
- Water Uses and Children’s Lives in East Africa
- This lesson uses students’ interactions with water to help them compare their lives with those of children in Kenya or Tanzania. It looks at ways that access to water helps define children’s roles in the family, and how this relates to culture. Students write essays and draw pictures to demonstrate their understanding of the concepts.
- Water in Africa
- Water in Africa reflects the deep connection of water to all aspects of life in African countries, a concept Coverdell World Wise Schools has captured in the learning units featured on this site. Ninety Peace Corps Volunteers contributed firsthand accounts and photographs to the lessons and activities you will find.
- Water: A Source of Life and Culture
- Students will use primary and secondary sources to research water as a feature of culture. Using text and photos from Peace Corps Volunteers serving in various African countries, students will uncover the role water plays in shaping daily life. Students will analyze the material and create symbols that summarize their findings. Symbols will be collected and arranged to make a contemporary work of art.
- Water: Narrative vs. Expository Texts
- Many students, especially students with limited English language skills, have difficulties determining the difference between narrative and expository texts. This unit will use vignettes written by Peace Corps Volunteers serving in Lesotho and Madagascar to compare these types of texts. As final products, students will write both a narrative essay and an expository essay. This unit was piloted with high school second language learners.
- Weather and Water in Ghana
- This lesson uses the dramatic contrast between the rainy and dry seasons in west Africa to help students learn about weather. Students will define weather, examine its features, define their area's weather, and apply this knowledge to their study of the ways weather affects people and the environment.
- WebQuest: The Growing Challenge in Senegal
- In this science-based WebQuest, students explore the issue of soil fertility and its impact on agriculture. Working in teams, students take the role of Senegalese farming families who must design an optimal rotation for their crops in declining soil conditions. After viewing the video "The Growing Challenge in Senegal," students conduct guided web-based research on soil fertility and agriculture. Students use the information they have collected to design a strategic 3-year plan for planting their fields.
- WebQuest: Eradicating Guinea Worm Disease in Ghana
- Students engage in a WebQuest, gathering information about the causes and effects of Guinea worm disease, a waterborne illness affecting several countries in Africa. A central source of information is a podcast featuring Peace Corps Volunteer Peter DiCampo, who served as a Health, Water, and Sanitation Volunteer in Ghana. Students take the roles of Peace Corps Volunteers, applying their knowledge of the Guinea worm life cycle to create a plan for eradicating the disease. They create public service announcements (PSAs) for radio broadcast to communicate their plans. Finally, students evaluate their solutions and compare them to actual strategies that have proven effective in combating the disease.
- WebQuest: The Malaria Challenge
- In this interactive WebQuest, students explore the global issue of malaria and take the role of a Peace Corps Volunteer working to prevent the spread of the disease. Students analyze data and use their knowledge of life cycles to consider prevention strategies. Next, they play The Peace Corps Challenge game, proposing solutions to a malaria outbreak in the virtual village of Wanzuzu. Finally, students learn about a real-world example of a malaria prevention initiative in Senegal, and reflect on the global significance of effective prevention strategies.
- WebQuest: Water, Sanitation & Health
- Students will use Water in Africa resources, and additional internet resources, to complete a WebQuest about water issues in Africa. The WebQuest incorporates skills in geography, analysis, and information literacy. Students will begin with the story of a Peace Corps Volunteer in Cameroon to examine a water problem and solution in one community, and then will use other Peace Corps stories and internet resources to conduct research. Students will learn about reasons why some areas have limited access to clean water, the effect this has on communities, and some strategies for addressing these problems. They will work in teams to complete the WebQuest, research a particular country, and prepare for a World Water Summit meeting to address water problems in Africa.
- What Can Food Tell Us About a Place?
- Cuisine, agricultural practices, markets, and mealtime traditions can reveal a great deal about people and place. As they experience life in another country, Peace Corps Volunteers' daily experiences with food can provide important insights to the culture and history of the communities in which they live and serve.
- What Is Good Use of Time?
- Students delve into questions about how best to use one's time—in one culture or another.
- What Sharing Really Means
- Students will examine closely the meaning of generosity and how sharing can be a cultural trait.
- What's Integrity?
- What constitutes a "good" job? And what defines integrity? Students will explore both questions in relation to Steve Iams's writings about the subjects.
- What's Mongolia Really Like?
- Students will look at rural Mongolian nomadic culture through the eyes of a Peace Corps Volunteer and examine the dynamics of a people in transition.
- When a Country Loses Its Songs
- Students will read a Peace Corps Volunteer’s account of how she helped to restore children’s music to a culture that had almost eradicated it. They will then discuss the meaning of music in their own lives and culture and investigate the importance of music in others’ lives.
- Where I Come From
- Students will examine family traditions as a microcosm of larger cultures.
- Where Life Is Too Short
- Students will come away from this lesson beginning to understand the impact and implications of the HIV/AIDS pandemic in South Africa and beyond.
- Where There's Smoke
- Students examine how people can effectively bring about positive change in another culture, focusing on the introduction of ventilated stoves in Nepali homes.
- Where in the World Is ...?
- Students will move themselves around a "world" map on the classroom floor, using lines of latitude and longitude to locate specific spots.
- Where in the World Is the Dominican Republic?
- Students will examine the effect of one's environment upon how one lives, and they will begin to investigate the geography of the Dominican Republic.
- Who Are You?
- Each of us has unique characteristics that make us not only look different from one another, but also act differently. These characteristics include our likes and dislikes, as well as our talents and abilities. These characteristics can help children understand that we each have worth and are a vital part of our world. Students will also see that although we are different, there are also many things that make us similar.
- Who Works for the Common Good in Our Community?
- Students will learn why and in what ways service organizations privide assistance to communities.
- Why Does Service Matter?
- Students will sum up what they have found about why and how other people serve their communities and why service matters.
- Windmills and Blogs: The Impact of Technology in Rural Peru
- Students will view a Peace Corps Volunteer's slide show and discuss the uses of two technologies—windmills and computers—in a Peruvian village. This lesson encourages students to explore the role of technology in society and reflect on the role of technology in their own community.
- Window Into Another Culture
- Students will examine a real-life confrontation of cultural values through the experience of a Peace Corps Volunteer in Papua New Guinea.
- Working With Environmental Issues
- Students will learn to appreciate the importance of clean water for the maintenance of good health, and how the lack of clean water leads to the spread of disease and parasites in West Africa.
- Working for the Common Good
- Students will examine the concept of the common good and evaluate how it applies to providing assistance in a developing country.
- You Can Dream; Stories of Moroccan Women Who Do
This lesson is designed to support exploration of the issue of gender equality and traditional gender roles. By viewing the introductory slideshow and using class discussion questions which accompany the 25 minute video “ You Can Dream; Stories of Moroccan Women Who Do ,” students travel to the fascinating country of Morocco and learn first-hand how several Moroccan women are transforming not only their own lives, but their entire community by becoming role models and ensuring equal opportunities are available for all. By engaging students in the discussion questions, students are given the opportunity to share their own thoughts on this global issue and offer personal insight into how the experiences highlighted in the film can be used to overcome gender inequality worldwide.
- “Mosetsana”
- Students will read and discuss "Mosetsana," a poem written by a Peace Corps Volunteer serving in South Africa. Students will focus reading and discussion on issues of gender, education, and family as they appear in the poem.