High School Lesson Plans: Foreign Policy

From the Archives

Posted on August 25, 2006

Previously filed under: North America, Grades 9-12

These resources are appropriate for grades: 9th, 10th, 11th and 12th.

Lesson Plans:

Changing Boundaries in Pre-colonial Asia to the Present

This lesson will provide students with an opportunity to learn about the importance and fluidity of certain types of boundaries from pre-colonial Asia to the present. Students will use a wide variety of maps, satellite photos, and texts (descriptive/historical/political) to understand and visualize the evolution of physical and political boundaries. Students will compare and contrast boundaries from different time periods in order to understand the influence of geology/physical geography and politics/history on the evolution of the nation state and its impact on human society and culture.

Time needed for lesson plan: 2-3 hours

To link to the actual lesson plan, please visit National Geographic.
International Alliances
In this lesson, students will learn the history, mission, function, and geographical range of six international alliances. They will research opposing viewpoints concerning these alliances and consider the reasons why some people want to reform or disband these organizations.

Time needed for lesson plan: 4-5 classes

To link to the actual lesson plan, please visit National Geographic.
Crossing Boundaries: The Environment, Disease and Conflict in Asia
Physical and political boundaries play an important role in the world. They are conventions that have been created, adapted, and/or devised by nature and humans. So too, are a wide variety of other boundaries. These boundaries can act as national and/or international assets, but they can also act as impediments that restrict or prohibit the flow of resources, commerce, or intellectual property, or barriers that isolate people and divide nations. Finally, they can be the source of international compromise, cooperation, or conflict. Many boundaries play an important role in issues pertaining to environmentalism, epidemiology and discord that might range from trade wars to military confrontations. In this lesson, students will learn about boundaries as they apply to matters of pollution, disease and conflict within the continent of Asia, between Asian nations and between Asian nations and members of the international community.

Time needed for lesson plan: 2-3 classes

To link to the actual lesson plan, please visit National Geographic.

Units:

Commanding Heights
This site offers a comprehensive overview of global economic history from the beginning of the First World War through 2002. Along with a six-hour video narrative divided into short chapters, it includes extensive interviews, essays, charts, reports, an interactive atlas of history, and economic data related to the topics of globalization, economic development, and international trade.

The Commanding Heights Storyline provides a complete netcast of the six-hour television program as originally broadcast -- in three two-hour episodes. Each episode is subdivided into chapters listed in the chapter menu, together with links to additional related content on the site. This site is designed for students of economics, modern world history, political science, and international relations at the college and university undergraduate level. It can also be useful in upper-level high school courses associated with the same topics. The site can be used both as a primary teaching "text" to introduce students to important events and ideas related to political economy, and also as a secondary resource to foster critical thinking about economic issues through structured research and comparison of outcomes.

The six-hour video series presents a specific viewpoint on economic affairs (based on the book Commanding Heights: The Battle for the World Economy, by Daniel Yergin and Joseph Stanislaw, 3rd edition, 2002). The information contained within the site is sufficiently comprehensive that it can support a wide range of interpretation and analysis, however.

Time needed for lesson plan: Varies

To link to the actual unit plan, please visit Commanding Heights.

To return to the main Global Envision lesson plan page, please click here.

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Keywords: Foreign Policy, politics, Lesson Plan,

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