Exploring the biological impact of the Columbian Exchange with Tyrone Shaw

Hi Tyrone Shaw I love your video!  Is is very engaging with a lot of energy!

I usually start with a ticket in and have the students list what is on the cafeteria lunch menu for yesterday and today, or what they have in their lunch.  We begin a discussion on favorite food and flavors  I then have them read this OER article.

I loved using the World Zone Cafe this year.  In the past I have done a Jamboard activity, but as that function is leaving Google, I went looking for an alternative.  This post was on using the resource.  I definitely can tell which one of my students will be chefs; some of the menus were amazing!

Although this isn't an OER activity, I have tried to remake my Jamboard into a mapping activity. Here are the bare bones. I will be improving on it before I teach the Columbian Exchange in 2024-25.

 Tyrone Shaw , I teach Big History and the Columbian Exchange is part of the unit Expansion and Interconnection. I start this unit introducing the World Zone Game. My students love it, though it took me time to understand how it works. I made some adjustments to the original version but it really helps students process how societies expand and become interconnected and their consequences. 

I am glad that you posted your video because it made me read the article, which is different from the one I use (The Columbian Exchange). This one has no maps though when we debrief the article in class I project the sames maps you shared in this post. Your article presents a couple of advantages: it defines staple crops and cash crops, which will help me explain the concept of arbitrage and the cause of expansion of certain empires. It also includes the concept of environmental disruption in a way that is more detailed (it mentions monoculture, for example).

Like Janet Mann I also assign the World Zone Cafe activity, which is a great success. 

Thanks for sharing your approach, Tyrone! As an information introduction to the Columbian Exchange, I like to have students research the origins of their favorite foods. At first, they'll just try to look up pizza, burgers, chicken tenders, etc. I'll push them to think about the ingredients required to make those foods and ask them to dig a bit deeper. We often find that many of those favorites would not be possible without the Columbian Exchange!

Our Interconnected World is also a great lesson to illustrate those transoceanic connections. I'm curious, do most folks use that lesson as an intro or a wrapup for the topic?

Anne Koschmider I would love to talk to you more about using the Our Connected World lesson.  It seemed daunting, especially give my small classroom size, as well as when reading the instruction, I can't envision it!  Would love to see a video of a teacher doing this lesson so I can figure out how to make it work in my space!

Janet Mann I totally understand! I was honestly very hesitant to try this. The lesson copy seemed daunting and I was just having a hard time picturing it. However, I'm glad I finally took the risk.

I think it's okay to simplify/streamline the instructions to suit your needs. I post the names of continents around the room and show a world map for students to arrange tables accordingly, but don't really sweat it if this isn't perfect because I don't want to devote a lot of instructional time to the setup. I also don't worry too much about different yarn colors.

These are the slides I use. 

I don't have a video, but am happy to answer any questions you have

I used Anne's slides last year and it was awesome.  I laminated all the materials so it should be easy to redo this year.  I do it more at the end.  I think the background knowledge helps increase engagement and understanding.  Also.\, I use clip boards to wrap the threat, which works better for us than balls of thread.  

Tyrone Shaw   I have a similar experience with my students.  They connect a little bit with the Black Death now because of their Covid experiences, but this lesson starts to help them understand themselves.  I have them research a favorite meal and figure out what came from where.  How much time do you spend on this?

Anne Koschmider the slides you posted are a great resource to make this activity easy to implement and fast to execute. What I like the most is the visualization of the multiple connections. After reading the post I am considering incorporating it in Big History Expansion & Interconnection.

Hi Eric Schulz, I do this lesson in one class period (82-minute block). I spend about three days with the Columbian Exchange. The first day is the intro using The Columbian Exchange article, the second day is looking at environmental impacts using the lesson above, and the third day is looking at cultural impacts using the Religious Syncretism in Colonial Mexico City article.