Recommended for use with The Passing of a Century Website
The excellent and informative history site on the 20th century that features 100 years of Events and Trends, Discovery and Milestones, People and Society with educational interactive bits (covers: politics, media, war, transport, science, leaders, art, environment and more)
Classroom Guide
-- Ideas to try out
Here is a sampling of lesson ideas and activities which have been developed for easy implementation alongside this interactive web resource. Feel free to submit your own lesson plans or simply modifications/improvements of our exisiting lesson plans.
1.Try picking an old-looking building or structure near where you live and try to find out more about its history. You’d be surprised how many of them were makeshift bomb-shelters, depression-era soup kitchens, or just homes. Write up what you’ve found out and be surprised. Then submit your reports with photos or drawings here to show others what you’ve done.
2.Collect stories from your relatives and neighbours concerning historical events. Have an Uncle who lost a fortune on Black Monday? Or a neighbour who flew fighters during the War? How about a grandfather who was on a plane which was highjacked? You yourself experienced a great earthquake? Write them all down and submit them here to share theses precious oral histories with others.
3.Pick something you like a lot, like baseball or cartoons and then try to trace a bit of its history by asking someone who would know or going to the library or surfing the web. When was it invented? When did it become popular? What recent scandals/triumphs/victories/disasters were related to it? Make a little poster or create your own webpage with the information and pictures you’ve found. Then, when you’re done, submit it here to let other people admire it as well.
4.Choose an event or trend you feel strongly about, like the Minamata Disaster or ecology and then write a poem or song about it. Or you could create a drawing or a symbol related to the event or trend you’ve selected. After you’re done, share your creation with other students all over the world by submitting it to our Visitors’ Gallery.
5.Do a little write-up on someone in the 20th century you really admire or write about an event or trend you think should be included in our chronicle. When you’re done, submit your work here to put it up on our site.
Other Activities include trying to figure out if something should have been done, such as the dropping of the nuclear bomb on civilian Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Students should read the article Atomic Bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, 1945
Although the bombings on Hiroshima and Nagasaki took place more than half a decade ago, it is still a major concern and issue. All history students are likely to go through at least one lesson on this world-shaking event, and they should be given the chance to discuss and debate over whether it was right to do so/ it was the correct course of action to take. Of course, there is no clear answer, it is really up to you to weigh the pros and cons, and think about what decision you would have made: whether to drop the bomb or not. In the above article, both side of the argument are presented to help you better evaluate the issue through some reading and reasoning. Find more about the development of the atomic/ nuclear bomb under Twentieth Century Milestones: Science & Discovery.
This classroom guide was authored by Jason, Sizwe and Janine, please write to us via e-mail at Yeos@letterbox.com if you have any suggestions, comments or require additional information. Do let us know how we are doing by leaving a note in our Guestbook. Now, get on with it, and visit The Passing of a Century!