Cultural Studies
Cultural Studies
In this WiloStar3D virtual world homeschooling module, we will look at various aspects of culture. What defines a culture? What do students know about their region of the state? How would an outsider view your region? What can regional neighbors learn from each other?
The United States uniquely rich geography, history, and folklife provide several ways not only to approach the study of the US but to integrate this study across disciplines. Folklife, geography, ecology, history, economics, literature, and verbal arts are all entwined in defining "regionality"--what makes a place special. In this WiloStar3D virtual world homeschooling module, we will explore a "sense of place." We will look at cultures through various lenses, or cultural perspectives, listed in the box below. Each lesson in this unit asks students to return to this list and flesh out these perspectives and then a 3D virtual cultural fair is held in Wiloworlds to share different views.
Objectives
- Interpret relationships between events shown on multiple-tier time lines.
- Analyze examples of interactions between cultural groups and explain the factors that contribute to cooperation and conflict.
- Explain how contact between different cultures impacts the diffusion of belief systems, art, science, technology, language and forms of government.
- Explain how the environment influences the way people live in different places and the consequences of modifying the environment.
- Explain reasons that people, products and ideas move from place to place and the effects of that movement on geographic patterns.
- Analyze different perspectives on a topic obtained from a variety of sources.
- Present a position and support it with evidence and citation of sources.
- Work effectively in a virtual group.
