World+History+Institute,+July+2011


 * Event Title:** World History Institute
 * Date:** July 10-15, 2011
 * Location:** Gettysburg College
 * Name(s) of Attendees:** Gregory Cooper, Rene Gonzalez

Description of Workshops, Classes, Institutes, Etc.:
Greg Cooper: Offered each year with a different theme and focus, this year's Institute was entitled "Greening in World History" and explored how to approach topics in global history through an environmental lens. (Though the Civil War was not the subject of the workshop, we started off the week with an incredible evening tour of the Gettysburg battlefield, as well!) Each morning was spent in an interactive seminar with a scholar in the field of world and environmental history, with talks entitled "The Fossil Fuel Watershed and the Fate of a Very Small Planet," "American Consumption, Green Thought and the Global Implications of Humans' High Energy Existence," and "Africa: 3000 Years of Environmental and Social Connections within the Continent," in addition to workshops led by Gettysburg faculty on disease in global history and topics in Asian studies. In the afternoons, Institute participants explored and shared global history resources for both students and faculty. Finally, as part of a culminating assignment, I worked with Rene Gonzalez to develop a lesson plan, adaptable to multiple age and content levels, that challenges students to think about how humans rely upon, interact with, and impact their environment.

How I Hope to Apply What I Learned At Ransom, and/or, What My Colleagues Might Try at Ransom:
Greg Cooper: This Institute helped me to expand my content knowledge and to think about how to introduce and present to my students issues concerning the environment and environmental history, as well as the interaction between humans and their environment (and how that interaction has played into different eras throughout global history). The Institute presented a variety of different materials and perspectives, and helped demonstrate how themes in history (whether global, U.S., etc.) can be viewed through a variety of different lenses. For example, one session focused on the role of disease in global history, and how humans' interaction with disease at different points in time, and in different environments, reveals a great deal about those societies. There was also a significant focus on the modern impact of the global energy crisis, and the industrial world's dependence on oil. These and other such perspectives are ways of enhancing any history/social science class.

Finally, through my interactions with other high school teachers I was able to share teaching strategies and resources, and to brainstorm how I might explore U.S. History from a more global perspective. Rene Gonzalez and I also attempted to present our group project using a dynamic presentation software called Prezi, that could be a great new option for student class presentations. (See below for a link to our very rudimentary attempt.)

Rene Gonzalez: I left the conference with a ton of excellent material and great new ideas that I now have to figure out how to incorporate into my classes. The materials include many lesson plans ranging from the spread of food crops in Africa during the first millennium C.E., to DBQs on global migration during the 18th and 19th centuries. And though I’m very grateful for the resources, I found the amount of paper each of these “green” speakers handing out, a little ironic.

Regarding the lectures, they were quite thorough and definitely enriched my knowledge of World History. One of the more memorable lectures was Crude Reality: American Consumption, by Dr. Brian Black, Penn State. Dr Black's presentation had 3 main components and began with an examination of environmental thought in American History, and how man has impacted the environment. The second and third components dealt with America’s culture of consumption and the transition to new sources of energy and the eventual end of oil. He concluded his lecture with a clip from the documentary, CRUDE, which follows a $27 billion ongoing class action lawsuit against Chevron for a case known as the “Amazon Chernobyl”. The clip is powerful and moving, and will be shown in all of my classes.

After leaving WHI, I’m adding a component to my lessons so the class can really examine mankind’s use of technology in reshaping his surroundings, and uncover the short and long-term consequences. I’m also very excited to introduce Prezi (cool new web-based presentation software) to my students. The brief presentation Greg Cooper and I put together revealed its vast potential. 

Important Links, Resources, or Contacts:
Greg Cooper: We received many handouts with a large variety of resources, links, etc., on topics spanning both environmental and global history, and I will attempt to digitize these at some point. In addition, here is a link to our Prezi presentation: http://prezi.com/vixevsrvgiwm/whi-presentation-greg-cooper-rene-gonzalez/

I strongly recommend this Institute for both teachers of global history and any social science (or other) teacher who wants to consider ways to bring a more global focus to the classroom. Workshop themes differ from year-to-year, but it is definitely worth checking out the Web site to see the offerings for coming years: http://www.gettysburg.edu/whi/