About Me
- Kristin Trammell
- I am a student at UT about to enter my internship year at Anderson County High school. I have a major in Geography with minors in History and Business. In addition to being a student, for the last four years I have worked at Agri Feed Pet Supply as the aquatics manager. I am extremely passionate about education and hard work. My interests include fishing, hiking, cooking, eating , reading, and movies.
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Social Studies Scavenger Hunt
I had so much fun and many laughs with Joey and Tucker on this project. When I read over the different scavenger hunts, I actually thought this one was one of the more challenging hunts. We were told that we did not necessarily have to do the one for our content area, but I was happy with the items on the social studies list because it encompassed all aspects of social studies. This includes Geography, History, Economics, and Political Science.
For any of you who may view this slide show as being random, and not having a theme, let me explain each slide and how it does in fact relate to social studies. The first two slides, "Similarities and Differences", explain in social studies that for all the different cultures, religions, locations, etc., there are across the world, everyone shares similar hopes, dreams, fears, needs, love and hate. The second slide, "Newspaper", is an item that is used in social studies classes everywhere. I am sure we all remember having to review news articles in social studies for current events. "Political Bias" is the next slide, and this is a Political Science term that is discussed in every social studies area whether it is in History when explaining how propaganda played in the selection of our leaders, or in Geography when explaining how cultures like those in South Africa were greatly affected by political leaders controlling their people using political bias. Need I explain the "Globe" slide? "Something created in the last five years" versus something "Forty years plus" has everything to do with History and how objects can sometimes provide drastic effects in cultures. Maybe not the torch bearer, but he is part of the utk history. Market Economies thrive on the "Exchange of Money", this is a major theme when teaching Economics, but is addressed in every area of socail studies as well. Finally, the entire world's history has been a push and pull of "Conflict and Resolution". Does WAR and resulting treaties ring bell?
Hopefully now you may fully understand the nature of our slide show. Again, I was happy with this list because it contained many items that spread across each area of study of social studies. I loved this activity and will definitely use it in my classroom.
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Wow Miss Trammell, you thought much more about our theme than I did. I just followed what the paper said and was happy to say that we produced a digital slide show!
ReplyDeleteGood explanations. I kind of like the broad themes too and how this particular scavenger hunt forces you to find graphic/visual representations of rather broad, abstract topics, i.e. conflict, similarities, differences, old vs. new, and so on.
ReplyDeleteCould you use something like this on the first day of class to give your students a glimpse of what is to come? "This semester we are going to explore many universal themes that affect all cultures and society and we will continually revisit these themes during each unit of study,. . . " something like that?
Personally, I am biased toward thematic curriculum versus sequential/chronological curriculum. In English, we have units of study sometimes grouped around genre, and I really like to bust those up, exploring theme through multiple genre. Probably says more about my personal learning style than it does about what is good versus bad practice in a classroom, but anyway. . . .
Better yet, have the kids generate images that they feel represent the concept -- and require them to justify, explain, and elaborate on their choices in a paragraph -- much as you have done here.
In the end, I think it was really good that your group was challenged during the presentation. It forced you, Tucker, and Joey to really reflect on just what the heck you all were doing out there!