Teacher's Guide for FACES ^® Bahamas Issue

ornithologists * lamellae * archipelago * cay * Lucayans * Taino * Arawak * prohibition * Puritans * bootlegging * jitney * shipwrecking * pharmaceuticals * reverberate * Goombay * Bantu * soca * reggae * calypso * Caribs * Junkanoo * strident * plunder * waylay * piracy * privateering * sloop * blockade * connotation * coral polyp * zooxanthellae * algae * photosynthesis * symbiotic * conquistadors * ambergis * conch * marinated * sauteed * grouper * jacks * grants * margot * Johnnycakes * soursop * Belongers * patois * wake * dirges * Guanahani * hamaca

Have students explore the first encounter between Christopher Columbus and the Taino from both perspectives. This encounter and its aftermath profoundly changed life for the Taino and opened the New World to Europe. You may wish to divide the class and have half the students explore the European perspective and the other half, that of the Taino people. For a more intensive project, you may wish to have students explore both perspectives.

You may wish to have students present what they have found by one of the following projects:

• Have students write an essay or story about the encounter from the perspective of one of the Europeans or one of the Taino. What was their life like prior to the encounter? What did they want and / or expect from the encounter? How did the encounter change their life and the lives of their people?
• Have a group of students write a play about the encounter. You may wish to group students who studied both perspectives together in order to have them work through their understandings of those perspectives to present a more balanced viewpoint. Alternately, groups of students who have studied one perspective will tend to present that perspective in their play.
• Have a group of students act out "The Men From Heaven: A Play About the Meeting of Two Cultures" by Pat Betteley on pages 40 - 43. You may wish to have students discuss what each of the characters in the play believes about themselves and their companions, and the strangers who they are encountering for the first time.

Resources you and your students may find helpful include:

Jane Yolen, Encounter. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1992.

A fictionalized account of the Taino and their encounter with Columbus as seen through the eyes of a young Taino boy.

Columbus, Christopher. I, Columbus. New York: Walker and Co., 1990.

The voyages of Christopher Columbus as told through excerpts from his journals in this book designed for fourth to sixth graders.

Jacobs, Francine. The Tainos: The People Who Welcomed Columbus. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1992.

An account of the Taino and the effect of Columbus' visit.

Jones, Mary Ellen. Christopher Columbus and His Legacy: Opposing Viewpoints. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 1992.

Designed for older students, this book seeks to present balanced, opposing viewpoints about Columbus, ranging from contemporary to modern day.

Columbus, Christopher. The Voyages of Christopher Columbus: Columbus' Own Journal of Discovery. Restored and translated by John Cummins. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1992.

A translation of Columbus' journal with material explaining the European viewpoint. For mature students and adults.

Cobblestone Publishing. The Columbian Encounter (The Legacy of Columbus; Ancient Mexico; First Americans, First Encounters; The Cultures of Pre-Columbian American).

A group of resources designed to explore the effect of Columbus and his encounter.

Have students learn more about the Golden Age of Pirates by finding out more about one of the following pirates:

• Edward D. Teach (Blackbeard)
• Charles Vane
• "Calico Jack" Rackham
• Mary Read
• Henry Morgan
• William Kidd
• Anne Bonney

You may wish to have students present what they find in one of the following ways:

• Have student present a living biography by having them develop a monologue in which the pirate tells others about him / herself.
• Create a poster about the pirate's life and activities.

You may wish to have students answer the following questions during the course of their research:

• What is the nationality of your pirate?
• What are the dates of your pirate's birth and death?
• What are two or three of the major events of his or her life?
• How or why did your pirate take up piracy?
• How did your pirate end his or her life?
• What do you think of your pirate? Would you like to have him or her as a friend? Would you like to have served on a ship with him or her? Would he or she make a good role model?

Resources you and your students might find useful include:

• Pirates of the Bahamas web site available online at www.interknowledge.com/bahamas/pirates02.htm
• Pirates of the Caribbean web site available online at http://ecani.com/pirates/
• Pirates! Fact - Well Known Pirates web site available online at www.piratesinfo.com/fact/famous.html
• Lincoln, Margarette. The Pirate's Handbook. New York: Cobblehill Books, 1995.
• Roberts, Nancy. Blackbeard and Other Pirates of the Atlantic Coast. Winston-Salem, North Carolina: John F. Blair, 1993.
• "Pirates," COBBLESTONE ^® Magazine, Vol.14, No. 6, June, 1993.

Customs and manners differ throughout the world. Have students fill in the following chart to help focus on behavior acceptable in different cultures. If you have studied other cultures, you may wish to extend the chart to include them.

	The Bahamas	Where You Live
Preferred name of area
Greeting
Preferred thank you
Personal questions
Teasing
Means of disagreement
Direct eye contact
Availability for photos
Posture
Walking style
Timeliness

Encourage your students to learn more about coral reefs. The Smithsonian Institue offers a comparison of the coral reefs of the Bahamas with the rocky shore of Maine in Art to Zoo. This resource is available online at http://educate.si.edu/resources/lessons/art-to-zoo/contrast/cover_fr.html and may be downloaded in Adobe Acrobat format. The site also offers a link to Adobe Acrobat Reader for MacOS and Windows.

Tour a coral reef. You and your students will find a photographic tour of a Micronesian atoll online at www.cyberlearn.com/zones.htm.

Send students on a coral reef scavenger hunt. You may wish to have the students work in pairs or as members of teams. Here are the questions they are seeking to answer:

• What is coral?
• What is a coral polyp?
• How do coral eat?
• What are zooxanthellae?
• What is symbiosis?
• How do corals reproduce?
• How is a coral reef constructed?
• How long does it take for coral to grow?
• How do corals get their shape?
• Where do corals live?
• What are the different types of reefs?
• Why are mangroves, beaches, and seagrasses important for coral reefs?

The answers to these questions are available in a number of resources, such as these:

• Pringle, Laurence P. Coral Reefs: Earth's Undersea Treasures. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1995.
• Sayre, April Pulley. Coral Reef. New York: Twenty-First Century Books, 1996.
• Segaloff, Nat. A Reef Comes to Life: Creating an Undersea Exhibit. New York: F. Watts, 1991. This book describes the construction of a coral reef environment in a museum exhibit.
• Cerullo, Mary M. Coral Reef: A City that Never Sleeps. New York: Cobblehill Books, 1996.
• Wu, Norbert. A City Under the Sea: Life in a Coral Reef. New York: Atheneum, 1996.
• "Coral Reefs: Magnificent Creations of Nature" available online at www.coralreefalliance.org/aboutcoralreefs/

Have students create an aquatic ecosystem in a jar.
Students will need:

• A glass jar with a tight-fitting lid. Canning jars work well as do large applesauce jars. It may be necessary to soak the jars to remove their labels. Sticky residue can be removed with Goo Gone.
• Gravel or rock
• Pond water
• Tap water
• Pond snails (may be purchased at an aquarium store)
• Aquatic plants such as duckweed or elodea (from aquarium store or pond)
• Duct tape

Procedure:

• Label jars with student's name and the date.
• Add 1 to 2 inches of gravel or rock to the bottom of jars.
• Fill jars halfway with tap water that has been at room temperature for 24 hours.
• Add 200 ml (a little less than ¼ cup) of pond water to each jar.
• Add aquatic plants, anchoring them in the gravel.
• Add one or two pond snails.
• Add more tap water if necessary, to bring the water level to within an inch of the top.
• Tightly seal the jar. Duct tape the lid closed.
• You may wish to prepare a microscope slide of the pond water to view microscopic living things of the ecosystem.
• Keep the jar in bright, but not direct, sunlight.

Questions you may wish to have students answer after they have observed their ecosystem for several days:

• Identify the living and nonliving components of your ecosystem.
• What are the effects of temperature, light, and moisture on the organisms in your ecosystem?
• How would you set up an experiment to look at the effect of certain pesticides or fertilizers on your ecosystem?
• What is photosynthesis? How do we see it at work in the ecosystem?

Have students learn more about threats to coral reefs. Information is available online at www.reefrelief.org/coral_reef_index.html and in the books listed above. You may wish to have them display this information in a poster or by creating a diarama.

Home

Back

Print

Updated: 9/2/10 11:17 am
Log In