CNN Student News - Gas, Cars, and Peanuts

This morning's episode of CNN Student News has a couple of stories that students could find relevant to their lives and enjoy a lively discussion about. The lead story is about US actions in Libya and how those actions could affect gas prices in the US. The closing story this morning is about a Florida school's handling of peanut allergies. The school has put some policies in place that have parents and students complaining that the policies infringe on the freedom of other students. Watch the story in the video below or read the transcript here.

Infographic - Statistics About Japan

The damage from the earthquake and tsunami in Japan on March 11 is astounding. Although it will be a long time before a final statistical analysis of the damage will be available, Digital Surgeons has created an infographic of the statistics that are currently (as of March 22) available. The infographic is large so I dropped it into Zoom.it to make it fit on this page and to enable you to zoom in on specific parts of it.

Applications for Education

You could certainly find these statistics online in various places, but this infographic makes it possible to find them all at a glance. A printed version of the infographic could be a nice classroom reference poster.

H/T to Cool Infographics.

CNN Student News Is All About Japan

Today's episode of CNN Student News, which I had my students watch this morning, is all about the earthquake and tsunami in Japan. The ten minute episode provides a jargon-free explanation of the cause of the tsunami, the effects of the earthquake and tsunami, and the concerns regarding Japan's nuclear energy facilities. If you're in need of some viewing and discussion questions to use with the video, CNN Student News offers those here.
Watch the video below.

Nagasaki Archive - Preserving History of Atomic Bomb Survivors

The Nagasaki Archive is a project designed to preserve the history and stories of survivors of the August 9, 1945 atomic bombing of Nagasaki, Japan. The Nagasaki Archive places the images of survivors and their stories on a Google Earth map. Some of the stories are only available in Japanese while others are available in English. The map also contains images of the destruction caused by the atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki. The Nagasaki Archive uses the Google Earth plug-in.








Applications for Education
The Nagasaki Archive could be a great way for history teachers to have students explore and learn about the effect the US bombing of Japan. The Nagasaki Archive is an excellent example of using Google Earth to record local history and to tell a story. You could use the same concept to have students record and preserve the local history of their communities.

Here are some related items that may be of interest to you:
10 Resources for Teaching and Learning About WWII
National Atlas Map Maker
Atlas of World War II

Visualizing Cultures

Visualizing Cultures is an interesting project created and developed at MIT. Visualizing Cultures consists of thirteen visual narratives accompanied by essays. The project combines visual narratives and essays to tell the history of Japan since the arrival of Commodore Perry or as MIT describes it, the history of Japan in the modern world. The essays can be read on the website or downloaded as PDF's for printing. Each visual narrative consists of several sections, each section consists of ten to fifteen images with captions. In some ways Visualizing Cultures could be described as an academic picture book.

Applications for Education
Visualizing Cultures could be used at a wide range of grade levels. The essays could be used in a high school history class and the visual narratives could be used in a middle school or possibly elementary school class. Visualizing Cultures provides model for students to use as they create visual narratives of their own.

According to the website, Visualizing Cultures has plans to add visual narratives about China.

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