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Great Sites for Teaching About ... China
Each week, the Education World Great Sites for Teaching About ... page highlights Web sites to help educators work timely themes into their lessons. May is Asian Pacific American Heritage Month; this week's sites are among the best on the Web for studying China.
- Aloha Abacus Museum
http://www.alohama.com/abmuseum/index.shtml
This site makes great connections between math and social studies, with lots of background information and pictures to enhance the study of the ancient calculating machine. Though the site has some marketing information for the parent company of the museum, it's easy enough to work around. The real story here is the Virtual Classroom section that offers a study of fingering calculation and abacus calculation. The lessons provide lots of good basic instruction that will integrate well with math, technology and simple machines units!
- China Today
http://www.chinatoday.com/
Presented by the InfoPacific Development (IPD) Canada and the Kompass (China) Information Service, this site is full of current information on the People's Republic of China, including the arts, culture, politics and diplomacy, business and technology, sports and entertainment, and much, much more. The maps and graphics on the site are well designed. Students can use the site for basic research, and you may want to assign older students to a critical reading of the site and have them compare it with our western style of presenting information to the public.
- Chinese Pronunciation Guide
http://icg.harvard.edu/~pinyin/
Ready to take your China study to the next level? This site uses RealPlayer technology to let you see and hear the correct pronunciation of school-related Chinese Mandarin vocabulary. And this is not for the faint of heart! Lessons involve intonation, initial and final sounds, and classroom expressions students will love to master! You can even install a special Pinyin font on your computer so students can practice their use of the language.
- Discovering China
http://zone.cps.k12.il.us/Showcase/Student_Projects/China/china.html
The Chicago Public Schools presents this first grade-level site on Chinese traditions and culture. Activities include counting in Chinese, building kites, exploring a silkworm farm, surveying the Great Wall, learning about Chinese food, and more. A link to Amazing Chinese Accomplishments includes information about paper making, gunpowder, printing, the compass, and the Great Wall. The Student Artifacts section takes students on a virtual scavenger hunt as a culminating event for visiting this site. It's a wonderful opportunity for primary students to learn more about the rich history of the East!
- Discovering China: The Middle Kingdom
http://library.thinkquest.org/26469/
This ThinkQuest site explores China's history, noteworthy people, cities, and cultural revolution of the last 50 years. The Interactive section provides multiple choice quizzes and online polls that cover such timely questions as "Do you think China has problems with human rights?" and "Do you think China and Taiwan will be united in the near future?" The section also has a message board for interaction with others and a dozen short RealPlayer movies that provide glimpses of daily life in China. This is great material for high school students studying current affairs in the Far East.
- Great Wall Across the Yangtze
http://www.pbs.org/greatwall/
PBS presents this companion Web site to its television special on this storied river and the dam China is building across it. The Three Gorges Dam will produce as much electrical energy as a dozen nuclear reactors, but the consequences it will have on the environment and the indigenous peoples of the region make it highly controversial. This well-balanced examination of the issue allows students to look at contemporary China, its geography and its institutions. The Talkback section allows for the posting of selected reactions to the site and the controversial dam, and the collection of related online resources is quite extensive and worthwhile. Great Wall Across the Yangtze is great for a country study or an ecology debate!
- Korea and China
http://tqjunior.thinkquest.org/5110/
This ThinkQuest Junior entry helps students develop a beginning appreciation of the differences between two very distinct Asian cultures. Though it is not graphically sophisticated, the site got much attention for its content aimed at elementary children. Users will see comparisons of history, food, language, art, literature -- even shopping! Children will especially enjoy the sections Language and Art. The activities on this site are a nice extension for a classroom study of these two great nations.
- Shanghai After Dark
http://www.shanghaiafterdark.com/lights/
Here's a great example of how Web technology can help bring a classroom study to life! Launching this Web site opens a second window with a full-screen panoramic shot of the Shanghai skyline at night. Use your mouse to manipulate the panning shot; roll the mouse over a building and (in some cases) open another window with a closer look at the architecture in question. The control buttons in the lower left-hand corner are another way of manipulating the skyline to explore Shanghai.
- Secrets of the Great Wall
http://www.discovery.com/stories/history/greatwall/greatwall.html
Discovery.com presents this fascinating look at China's Great Wall from an engineering and cultural point of view. The site provides information about each dynasty's construction of a part of the wall, begun in 221 B.C. by the Qin dynasty. Visitors will also read what each dynasty contributed to the world and what was happening in other parts of the world during that period. Also included on the site are IPIX panoramic views of the wall, radar images taken from space, and a great collection of fun facts in the Random Factoid Generator.
- Yu Yuan: The Garden of Peace and Comfort
http://www.yuyuangarden.com/yy/
Developed in the tradition of the Ming dynasty, this garden in old Shanghai is more than 400 years old. Though it had fallen into disrepair by the middle of the last century, the garden was restored in the 1950s by the Shanghai government. The park has more than 40 buildings, ancient trees, ponds, bridges, and sculptures. Visitors can take a virtual tour of the gardens through three different panoramic shots, including the Huijing Tower.
Article by Walter McKenzie
Education World®
Copyright © 2001 Education World
05/08/2001
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