Internet-Enriched Lesson on Latin American Economies
Lesson Title: Economies of Latin America
Lesson Overview: Students will research a Latin American country and tell how geography has influenced the way in which Latin Americans make a living. When the project is complete, students will create an infographic to demonstrate their findings.
Curriculum Subjects and Subject Areas: Social Studies and Technology
Estimated Duration: Seven school days of forty minutes each. Four or five for research and three or two for creation of final product.
Grade Level: Fifth grade
Lesson Objectives:
Description of Lesson: You are working for one of the top marketing agencies in the world when you land your biggest client, a Latin American country. Your team is competing with others in your agency for this job. You and your group needs to conduct research about why the economy is failing and how they can turn their profits around. Choose a Latin American country and find out the following:
You are not limited to just these questions. Exhaust your resources and find out as much information as you possibly can. Remember, you can also look at how other nations in the world have gone through this same process. Always look to the best to get the best results!
Step 1 Research:
Use the following websites to gain information: CIA world Fact Book: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/ and Gapminder: www.gapminder.org. Click on the GAPMINDER WORLD tab on the top. To see how to manipulate the program, click on the video icon on the left-hand side bar.
Use your investigative skills we worked on so far this year to find the best information you can.
Step 2 Note-taking:
Once you find the information you want to use, start creating your notes. You can either post them to your shared Google Doc for Group 1, Group 2, or Group 3 or log-in to our class Webspiration site: http://www.webspirationclassroom.com/. If I find anything that I feel is important to this project, I will post it to your Educlipper website at www.educlipper.net.
Step 3 Creation:
Once your information is collected, you can choose from one of two Infographic websites to publish your findings. Use either Easel.ly: www.easel.ly or Infogr.am http://infogr.am/beta/
For both of these websites you will need to create a user account. You can use your school email address to accomplish this task. Follow the directions and let your imagination run! Note: If you choose to use infogr.am you will need to place the embed code on your groups shared Google Doc so that I can later embed it on our class website.
Here is a video on how easel.ly works:
Lesson Overview: Students will research a Latin American country and tell how geography has influenced the way in which Latin Americans make a living. When the project is complete, students will create an infographic to demonstrate their findings.
Curriculum Subjects and Subject Areas: Social Studies and Technology
Estimated Duration: Seven school days of forty minutes each. Four or five for research and three or two for creation of final product.
Grade Level: Fifth grade
Lesson Objectives:
- The student will discover important landforms in Latin America.
- The students will find out how Latin American waterways have influenced the region.
- The student will find out what kinds of climate Latin America has.
- The student will learn what factors influence climate in Latin America.
- The student will understand how climate and vegetation influence the way people live.
- The student will find out what Latin America’s most important Natural Resources are.
- The student will learn why depending on a one-resource economy has been a problem for Latin American nations.
- The student will gain more depth and understanding of the topic using CIA World Factbook, Gapminder.
- The student will learn about how to keep track of websites using Educlipper.
- The student will take notes either using Google Docs, Webspiration or using pen and paper.
- The student will use multimedia to create a stunning and engaging presentation using Stratalogica.
Description of Lesson: You are working for one of the top marketing agencies in the world when you land your biggest client, a Latin American country. Your team is competing with others in your agency for this job. You and your group needs to conduct research about why the economy is failing and how they can turn their profits around. Choose a Latin American country and find out the following:
- What is their economy based on? (Major exports, where do they export, etc)
- What is the GDP of country?
- How has GDP of the country changed over a hundred years?
- What is the GDP per capita?
- Who is their labor force?
- What is the public debt?
- What is the national debt?
- What is the inflation rate?
You are not limited to just these questions. Exhaust your resources and find out as much information as you possibly can. Remember, you can also look at how other nations in the world have gone through this same process. Always look to the best to get the best results!
Step 1 Research:
Use the following websites to gain information: CIA world Fact Book: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/ and Gapminder: www.gapminder.org. Click on the GAPMINDER WORLD tab on the top. To see how to manipulate the program, click on the video icon on the left-hand side bar.
Use your investigative skills we worked on so far this year to find the best information you can.
Step 2 Note-taking:
Once you find the information you want to use, start creating your notes. You can either post them to your shared Google Doc for Group 1, Group 2, or Group 3 or log-in to our class Webspiration site: http://www.webspirationclassroom.com/. If I find anything that I feel is important to this project, I will post it to your Educlipper website at www.educlipper.net.
Step 3 Creation:
Once your information is collected, you can choose from one of two Infographic websites to publish your findings. Use either Easel.ly: www.easel.ly or Infogr.am http://infogr.am/beta/
For both of these websites you will need to create a user account. You can use your school email address to accomplish this task. Follow the directions and let your imagination run! Note: If you choose to use infogr.am you will need to place the embed code on your groups shared Google Doc so that I can later embed it on our class website.
Here is a video on how easel.ly works:
Here are graphics on how easel.ly works:
Here are graphics on how infogr.am works: