The one great text I chose is a video from The Miniature Earth Project. It is an updated version of a text originally conducted by Donella Meadows in her “State of the Village Report” published May 24, 1990. Instead of using the earths actual population, Miniature Earth reduces the population of the world to a statistically representative 100 people. By reducing the world’s population to 100 people, it helps conceptualize who the world is made up of and the stark reality of the conditions in which many people live today. I like this video because it could be used in conjunction with a text entitled If the World Were a Villiage: A Book about the World’s People. This text goes into greater detail about than the video; however, both would be great resources to use for a math and or social studies lesson. I introduced both of these texts to a fifth grade student attending Fulmore Middle School. She said she preferred the video because it was “shorter and easier to pay attention to”. She said that the book was interesting, but that there were so many facts that it was hard to remember all of them. I assured her that she didn’t need to remember all of them, but rather she needed to understand what those facts represented and how they contributed to how we see the world. Overall, these two texts are a great way to pair math and social studies together in a way that helps students become conscious about the world around them. Below is the video from The Miniature Earth Project.
Great video resource! This is a powerful additional resource to accompany the book, If the World were a Village. What I like about the book is the relatable comparisons for viewing the world in a context that students can understand (100 people), and students can value the global world they live in, compared to their lives. Even though the video dealt with serious issues of poverty, material wealth, and availability of resources, I liked that the text asked kids to be appreciative of the opportunities they have. Another great text on these same themes is, If American were a Village. It too compares the entire American population to 100 people, and could be a great tool for social studies and math.
This video would definitely help a fifth grader put things in perspective in terms of what groups compose most of the population and how wealth is unbalanced. Creating a mini world of only 100 people helps the student not feel as overwhelmed by large statistics. A follow up activity could be for fifth graders to find information for the county in which attend school in such as what languages, ethnicities, household income, and style of homes are represented.
-Megan
I remember seeing this video while aimlessly surfing the Internet and was certainly impacted on a personal level, but never thought about how this text could be used in the classroom. Thanks for the idea! I love that you mentioned integrating social studies and math because I don’t feel like that happens very frequently.