Curriculum Downloads
Social Studies Activities
- Food and Culture [Word download]
In this activity, students will explore the cultural importance of food to our own personal identity. Students will also focus on West African geography and culture and how West African slaves influenced regional cooking in the United States. (PHOTO: women preparing fufu)
- West African Ethnic Groups (Web Quest) [Word download]
Students research West African ethnic groups by using a variety of different source materials, including a web quest. Students will explore the culture and daily life of West African people and conclude by creating a museum exhibit featuring “artifacts,” such as jewelry, baskets or pottery, weapons, clothing, or replicas of the houses, which depict daily life in their group of interest. A collaborating teacher, John DePasquale, has created a student interface for the web quest available at: http://mrdepasqualefda.googlepages.com/
- Atlantic Migration of African Food [Word dowload]
This activity focuses on the African influences of food in the Southern United States. It utilizes that article African Crops and Slave Cuisine and has students focus on Slave Diet in order to assess the culture of food and its preparation.
- Wikibook
West African Agriculture and Environments Students in this activity research West African agricultural techniques, West African environments, and the migration of knowledge and skills to Colonial America via the institution of slavery on rice plantations in South Carolina. This lesson integrates well with the science lesson on West African Environments and West African Ethnic Tribes. A Wikibook will allow the class to “publish” there findings and using this technology allows future classes to add material to the book.
- The Migration of Knowledge and Skills; Carolina Gold
This lesson plan is designed for the seventh grade and focuses on Colonial America, South Carolina, and the rice variety “Carolina Gold.” The rice-growing and culinary knowledge of African enslaved peoples forced to migrate to the American Colonies became essential to the success of the first American export crop: rice.
- Video Pen Pals
Groups of students in Legone, Ghana and in Harlem, NY have become “video” pen pals. Through digital videos, students have been asking and answering questions about their lives, their culture, their food, and their families.
Science Activities
- Intro Activity—What do you eat?
Teacher version [Word download]
Student version [Word download]
A short introductory activity helps students move from foods that they eat to the plants that created them.
- What does rice need to grow?
Teacher version [Word download]
Student version [Word download]
This inquiry-based activity helps students to design an experiment to explore what plants—rice plants, in particular—need to grow. It works well as part of Module 1 or as an introduction to plant biology. (PHOTO: green rice USDA photo)
- West African Environments (pair with 4.1.1.2 Ethnic Groups for Module 1 4.1)
Teacher Version [Word download]
Student Version [Word download]
Students will learn about four West African environments. Then they will utilize their knowledge in order to shape the environment—as West African people have—for growing rice. The success of their earth-shaping techniques will be tested by whether or not rice will grow in their modified environments.
- Genetic Diversity Activities
Teacher Version [Word download]
Student Version [Word download]
This broad group of activities explores the differences between genotype and phenotype using rice as a model. Students will investigate the anatomy of a rice plant, and survey and taste various types of genetically diverse rice. Seventh grade classes may also utilize activities featuring the wild “red husk” gene in a Punnett square or create a dichotomous key in order to classify diverse rice varieties. (PHOTO: 3 rice varieties on a blue background)