Out of Africa - Study Guide
Curriculum Connection
- Develop skills in locating and gathering information
- Foster communication and teamwork
- Learn to be creative in a structured environment
- Recognize aboriginal knowledge as an alternative source of understanding the environment
- Research the impact of people on government and environment
- Critical analysis
Activities
- Brian Keating’s, Things that Fly By in the Night (pp. 18-21) and Saving Ghana’s Hippos (pp. 42-45) in Going Wild touch on modern conservation methods and their successes.
Divide the class into two groups. Have one group read the story on Ghana’s hippo sanctuary and the other group read about the Iwokrama preserve in Guyana. Using Keating’s stories as a basis, have students research the conservation methods used in the two sanctuaries (start with the following websites: www.iwokrama.org and www.nri.org/MakingEndsMeet/ghana.htm - Have each group give a brief presentation on the conservation methods used by the two preserves. Students may talk about the following concepts: holistic methods, taking local human populations into account, eco-tourism, the use of Aboriginal knowledge, human impacts on the environment.
- In a group discussion have all students compare Iwokrama to Wechiau in terms of their organization. Iwokrama was instituted by the government of Guyana; Wechiau was organized by the Wechiau people.
- Select a series of fiction and non-fiction books that are environment/conservation focused and have students review the book.
- Have the class read Graeme Base’s Animalia. Explain the concept of a W poem that includes five W's:
Line 1: Who (the subject) i.e. Xavier
Line 2: What (what happened) Played his xylophone
Line 3: Where (where did it happen) In the examining room
Line 4: When (when did it happen) In his spare time
Line 5: Why (why did it happen) While waiting for X-Rays
Have students create an alphabet book by writing a W poem for each letter of the alphabet (using dictionary, thesaurus, etc.) then create collages/illustrations for each poem. This can be a class project; each student picks a letter of the alphabet from a hat and the class creates one book.
