Reed Students Research Countries Around The World And Present Their Findings

By Susan Coney

Two teachers from Reed Intermediate School — Gina Swanson and Kelly Marcoux — recently worked together by having their students research and report information about different countries from around the world as part of an interdisciplinary lesson incorporating social studies and language arts.

The teachers, who partner together on a daily basis to teach the core subjects of language arts, social studies, science, math, and reading to fifth graders in the green house at Reed, devised an interesting, hands-on approach to help motivate students to learn more than what was available in the textbook.

Fifth grader Abby Hungaski explained that the students were assigned to a small group, limited to three students, and each group was allowed to select a country that it would like to learn more about. As part of the assignment students researched certain areas of interest to them such as holiday traditions, type of housing available, language spoken, foods, housing, imports and exports of the country, and tourist attractions.

Every group had to make a replica of the nation’s flag and construct a map. Each child was required to write an informational essay including one paragraph devoted to the traditions and holiday celebrations of that country.

The students worked diligently for several weeks on the project, which culminated in an exhibition of  displays about the countries at a “Holidays Around the World” open house on Thursday, December 22. The day prior to the open house, students presented their projects in front of classmates to gain practice and build confidence when public speaking.

On the day of the open house the adjoining classrooms were opened up by sliding the removable wall to allow students to set up elaborate displays showing what they had learned about their country. Each group had more than one visual aid for the project. Most students made food for sampling or some type of craft or item found commonly in the country that they studied. Some groups provided examples of the type of music typical of their country as part of their presentation.

Family, friends, and students from other classrooms attended the exhibition. As visitors weaved around the room, students informed them about what they had learned while researching their country. Megan Watts and Chloe Edwards studied Argentina. The girls displayed a conventional cardboard poster and also provided information via a PowerPoint presentation that they designed and presented to each visitor.

After viewing Megan and Chloe’s Argentina presentation, sixth grade student Morgan Vadas said, “I think these projects are great! I would never have been able to do a project like this when I was in fifth grade. These are really neat and look like they were fun to do.”

Mary Vodola, Abby Hungaski, and Sara Principi worked together researching information about Kenya. The girls made Swahili doughnuts for visitors to sample.

“I liked being allowed to work with other people,” said Sara. “It was fun to try to come up with creative ideas to use in our presentation. I learned a lot about Kenya. I learned that it was named after an extinct volcano named Mt Kenya.”

Mary Vodola also enjoyed working with others in small groups and learned a great deal when completing the project. She learned that Lake Victoria, located in Kenya, is the largest lake in Africa. Partner Abby Hungaski said she thought it was interesting that roast goat is a favorite Christmas dish in Kenya.

Teacher Gina Swanson pointed out that the unit of study began with students researching their own heritage.

“The students got to connect with their own heritage, which got their parents involved,” said Ms Swanson. “The parents loved the assignment and the kids were so excited and enthusiastic about doing it.

“One mother called the morning of the open house to say that her daughter couldn’t sleep at all the night before the open house because she was so excited about doing the presentation,” she added.

According to Ms Swanson, this was the second year for this type of hands-on research project when studying other countries and that it has proved to be one of the most successful in terms of overall learning as well as being very popular with the students.