Overview

The Social Studies lessons for Unit 3 covered culture and how it can be shared. We decided to develop a month-long project that would correlate with the lessons from our textbooks in order for students to see examples of different cultures as they learned about what culture was. 

Objectives 

Research

Although 2nd grade is a young age to start research, we wanted the students to get their feet wet and understand how information can be gathered using different resources. 

Exposure

Students at this age do not have a lot of information about the outside world. They focus on their immediate surroundings and what directly affects them. The project provided a means for students to get a snapshot of something bigger than themselves and exposed them to cultures around the world. 

Connection

By collecting information about other cultures, we hoped for students to develop a deeper understanding of their own culture through comparison and reflection. 

Process

We took an unorthodox approach to studying culture by having students research aspects of culture and not just the culture of one country. This way students were exposed to a wide range of cultures from many different countries. 

Students were expected to do individual reports on 6 aspects of culture. 

1. Tradition

2. Clothing

3. Language

4. Musical Instruments

5. Food

6. Holiday 

Students were encouraged to find cultures from different countries and to research only what they truly found to be fascinating. The six aspects would later become the six sides of the cube that would be the culmination of the project. The cube is a collection of cultures they found interesting and were eager to learn about. 

Outcome

We found that students were surprised by the information they gathered and were excited to share their findings. They were better able to understand that there is much more to learn about outside of Korea and were more inclined to want to try new things. Students eventually came to the understanding that different does not necessarily mean wrong, and that there were benefits of learning about other cultures.