Immersion Week

A week long interdisciplinary immersion unit that

  1. teaches about the culture using cultural universals (i.e., food, transportation, religion, etc.)
  2. uses all subject areas offered at the School (i.e., language arts, social studies, math, science, reading)
  3. explores the similarities and differences between cultures
  4. requires students to conduct research and use critical thinking skills to relate the parts of the country to its whole.

The interdisciplinary unit is rich in imaginative and fun learning activities, including creating Chinese New Year’s auspicious couplets with calligraphy, bargaining at a mock Chinese market, assembling a wall-sized puzzle of the Chinese provinces (with their culture and geographical characteristics specified), visiting a Chinese Tea Room, and planning a Chinese garden.

Essential Questions:

  • What is a culture (defined as the whole unit)?
  • What are the parts of a culture?
  • How are these parts defined for the chosen culture of study?
  • How do the parts of any unit relate the whole?
  • How do pieces of knowledge influence our perception of a whole unit (defined in this unit as a culture)?

Goals:

  • For students to gain a solid understanding of the relationship between a whole unit and it’s parts.
  • For students to have a working understanding of the Chinese culture and its importance in our global society.
  • For students to gain further development in the areas of problem-solving, cooperative grouping and discussion.

Objectives:
Through observation, experimentation, exploration and study, students will:

  1. Discover a deeper knowledge of culture and the cultural universals.
  2. Define the cultural universals for China.
  3. Understand the parts of any unit as it relates to its whole.
  4. Understand the relationship between “states” and “provinces”.
  5. Learn the relationship between natural resources and economy.
  6. Have a solid understanding of how to write a report.
  7. Have a solid understanding of the geography of China.
  8. Have a solid understanding of perimeter, area, and currency.
  9. Understand that there are similarities and differences between cultures.
  10. Be introduced to the power of knowledge and its influence upon our perceptions.

Skills:

  • Compare and contrast
  • Research and report writing
  • Map skills
  • Computer literacy
  • Parts to the Whole
  • Presentation Skills
  • Place Value with money
  • Multiplication as repeated addition
  • Problem Solving

Curriculum:

  • Social Studies:
    • Cultural universals, map skills (area, population, natural resources, geographical features, weather, scale, population density), cause and effect.
  • Math:
    • Economy (bartering = operations), exchanging of currency, perimeter, area, symmetry, scale, measurement.
  • Language Arts:
    • Research (book, internet, computer CD’s, direct instruction), report writing, presentation skills, bibliography
  • Technology: Word, SJEDS Blog and CD of trip, Google Earth, Internet
  • Vocabulary: Symbols and patterns used in speech and writing
  • Art: Collage, visual placement

Culminating Project:

  1. Curricular - Puzzle of Chinese Provinces (mural-size):
    1. Chinese provinces cut out onto cardboard for students to create collages on (puzzle piece), then paste onto the map on the last day.
    2. When all pieces or provinces are on, you will have a complete map of China with defined cultural universals and geographical features.
  2. Cultural Experience - China ALIVE:
    1. Students rotated through four stations:
      1. Chinese Museum = viewed Chinese Artifacts and mural
      2. Chinese Tea Room = learned the traditions of drinking tea in China, learned about the Lantern Festival, and tasted Chinese dishes with chopsticks.
      3. Chinese Market = students shopped at an authentic (as authentic as we could make it) Chinese Market. Students had fake Yuan and had to bargain for the Chinese items they wanted.