 |
||
 |
 |
Support
MPT  Tell
a friend about this page |
|
||||||
|
 |
|
|
|
Search more than 3,000 free lessons and activities on PBS TeacherSource! Type in a keyword or words, then click go. |
1. How Great is the Great Wall?
Grade Level: 2-5
Subjects: Math, Geography
In this activity the children will learn about the The Great Wall of China, focusing on measurement of its length, while gaining an appreciation for other types of wonders in the world.
Open this lesson with photos of various wonders of the world (natural, ancient, and modern). Put together a collection which includes popular buildings and places that some of the children may recognize. An attention-getter collection may include the Roman Coliseum, the Leaning Tower of Pisa, the Empire State Building, Mount Fuji, Niagara Falls, the Grand Canyon, and the Statue of Liberty. Use the following Web sites: http://central.k12.ca.us/akers/great_wall.html and http://library.thinkquest.org/J002388/.
Show photos of the Great Wall and ask if anyone recognizes the pictures. Ask them why such a wall would have been built and for what purpose. Explain to students that the Great Wall is more than 2,000 years old and was built to keep out invading armies.
Ask students what kind of construction equipment we would use today to build a wall that is very long and very tall. Explain to students that the Great Wall is so remarkable because the ancient Chinese people didn't have this equipment, and had to build the wall by hand, using very primitive tools.
Engage students in an activity to demonstrate how long the Great Wall is. Go outside and try to build a circle of children holding hands (stretched) around the playground. If this is impossible, estimate how many people it would take to do something like this. Then figure out how many children holding outstretched hands it would take to cover approximately one mile. Take this number of people and multiply it by 1,800 miles, the distance of the wall as measured by NASA. If length is difficult for them to grasp, discuss the height of the wall, 25 feet. Have the children use legos, painted milk cartons, wooden blocks, or even shoe boxes to reconstruct their version of The Great Wall.
Online Resources
PBS Mathline: Great Wall of China Puzzle
Discovery: Secrets of the Great Wall
ThinkQuest Junior: Seven Wonders of the World
Print Resources
Inside China by Franklin Watts
2. China's Second Great Wall
Grade Level: 9-12
Subjects: Geography, Ecology, Debate, Critical Thinking
Throughout history China has been both blessed and plagued by her great rivers. The rivers carry extremely fertile soil to the North China Plain, one of the world's five great plains in Earth's middle latitudes. This fertility allows excellent food production and, in some places like the delta of the great Chang (Yangtze) River (third longest in the world), it is even possible to double crop production. However, because of the geography of the river and the amount of silt it carries, severe flooding has always been a great problem.
The Chang River has its source high on the Tibetan Plateau and flows through great mountains before reaching the plain. In many places the river is squeezed into narrow gorges resulting in very fast currents. Those spots are perfect places to site hydroelectric dams. Consequently, the possibility exits, at least theoretically, of producing huge amounts of clean energy and of controlling the damaging floods. China has embarked on just such an endeavor with plans to build dams across three of the gorges. They are scheduled to be finished in 2004. However, disruption of the dams to the environment and to the people who live in these areas is enormous. Not surprisingly, there is great controversy about the building and funding of the dams.
Divide the class into two groups to research and debate the building of the dams. One group should be in favor, the other against completing the work. The sources below will be a good start, but the students will find countless sites discussing the pros and cons of the dams. Set aside a couple of days for students to make arguments in class and then try to reach some majority on the feasibility of the project. As an extension, students may also research similar hydroelectric projects in the United States.
Online Resources
PBS: Great Wall Across the Yangtze
PBS Online NewsHour: Three Gorges Dam
CNN: China's Three Gorges Dam
American University: Three Gorges Dam
Embassy of the People's Republic of China: Three Gorges Dam Project
China Online: Three Gorges Dam Project
NOVA: China Bridge
Travel with a NOVA-assembled crew of scholars and timber framers to design and build a Chinese bridge known only from an ancient painting.
The American Experience: Nixon's China Game
In February 1972, after a quarter-century of mutual antagonism between the United States and China, President Richard Nixon traveled to Beijing for an historic encounter with Chairman Mao Tse-tung. The climax of a secret White House initiative headed by Henry Kissinger, the diplomatic breakthrough shocked both America's allies and its enemies.
Frontline: Dreams of Tibet
This site explores key questions for China and Tibet: To be Chinese or to be Tibetan? To acquiesce in China's sovereignty over Tibet, or to resist? Can Tibet be modernized without sacrificing its culture?
Six Billion and Beyond: China
This site explores population growth in China and its cultural, economic, and environmental effects.
Journey to Planet Earth: Shanghai, China
Shanghai is poised to recapture its role as the commercial capital of Asia. Already housing a population of 16 million, the city is attempting to rebuild its infrastructure as it faces increasing problems with pollution, water supply and waste treatment. Journey to Planet Earth looks at Shanghai's efforts to deal with the environmental issues facing a city that has chosen industrial growth over agricultural production.
Journey to Planet Earth: Yangtze River Delta, China
Intensive cultivation of the fertile Yangtze River Delta has brought abundance to the nearby city of Shanghai, but China's rapid industrial development is engulfing the countryside at an alarming rate. The country's farmers face the problem of producing more and more food on a dwindling supply of land, and pollution becomes a growing threat as they rely more heavily on the use of chemical fertilizers.
NOVA: Mysterious Mummies of China
Preserved in peat bogs, frozen in ice, embalmed on the banks of the Nile -- find out how mummies across the ages came to be preserved.Frontline: China in the Red
"China in the Red" follows ten Chinese citizens caught up in the social and economic transformation, and through their stories reveals a nation in flux and a people struggling to survive in a world they never dreamed would exist.
Precious Children
60 U.S. teachers make a 10-day visit to China to examine early childhood education in this nation of 1.2 billion people.
Frontline: Dangerous Straits
As much as trade or the need for cooperation in the fight against terrorism, it is the flashpoint issue of Taiwan -- the capitalist and now democratic island that China has been trying to reclaim for five decades -- that remains the greatest source of tension between the world's most powerful country and its most populous one.
PBS KIDS: Sagwa, the Chinese Siamese Cat
Learn about the Chinese calendar, Chinese writing, and more on this interactive kids site.
Great Wall Across the Yangtze
When finished, the Three Gorges Dam will produce the energy of 15 nuclear power plants and tame some of the river's deadliest floods. To China's leaders, the dam is the greatest engineering feat since the construction of the Great Wall, but to critics worldwide, it is a social and environmental disaster.
March 2003: China
