Cambridge Lower Secondary Global Perspectives
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elizdissa95Cambridge Lower Secondary Global Perspectives
Uploaded by
elizdissa95Cambr idge Lower Secondary
Complete
Karem Roitman
Rory Blackstock
Nazim Qureshi
Vijay Shetty
Oxford excellence for Cambridge Lower Secondary
Cambridge Lower Secondary
Complete
Global Perspectives
Karem Roitman
Rory Blackstock
Nazim Qureshi
Vijay Shetty
Oxford excellence for Cambridge Lower Secondary
“Do not be lazy, let us fight for this Rwanda”, adapted from a
translation of radio RTLM’s transcripts of 15 May 1994, for the
United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda,
Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies,
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Contents
Welcome to Global Perspectives 4
Year 7
Challenge 1 What makes us human? 16
Challenge 2 Diplomacy and national traditions 32
Challenge 3 Globalization 46
Challenge 4 Education 68
Challenge 5 Seeking refuge 84
Challenge 6 Employment 100
End of Year 7 116
Citing sources 118
Year 8
Challenge 1 Water crisis 122
Challenge 2 Migration 136
Challenge 3 Beliefs about food 150
Challenge 4 Looking at the future 164
Challenge 5 Trade and aid 178
Challenge 6 Sustainability 192
Challenge 7 Making a dierence 206
End of Year 8 216
Year 9
Challenge 1 Disease and health 220
Challenge 2 Conflict resolution 234
Challenge 3 Sports for all 248
Challenge 4 Languages 262
Challenge 5 Writing your report 278
Reflection 292
Economic appendix 294
Writing appendix 296
MLA guide 298
Index 301
3
Welcome to Global
Perspectives
Introduction
Global Perspectives is a course like no other. In this course, you will
acquire the tools you need to explore what you are interested in. You
will be taught how to carefully judge what you hear from the media,
politicians, and groups who want to convince you or sell you things.
Through this course you will grow as a critical thinker, as a creative
investigator, and as a powerful communicator. This course is not
about memorizing content – although you will encounter fascinating
facts and information that you are likely to remember – this course is
about learning, practising, and improving the skills needed to collect,
analyse, and use information in the most powerful way.
Purpose of this book
This book has been designed to help you to develop specific key skills:
Research Evaluation Collaboration
Analysis Reflection Communication
You will learn about each of these skills as you explore a variety of fun
‘Challenges’
. This book will provide you with a multitude of exercises
that will help you to understand and work on each skill. You can also
use these exercises with other topics that interest you.
As you work through the exercises in this book, you will learn
how to undertake research, how to analyse and evaluate research
findings, how to work with others to find and present solutions
to problems, and how to reflect on your learning and work.
Most importantly, you will learn to see topics from a variety of
perspectives. Thus, you will learn about how your personal interests
aect, and are aected by, local, national, and even global issues.
You will also practise seeing issues from the perspective of other
people, making you aware of the many sides of any problem.
4
Structure of the book
Years
This book is divided into Years 7, 8, and 9. As you move through the
years, activities will become more challenging and you will work more
independently. This will help you prepare to undertake your own
research project in Year 9. We start Year 7 with a special discussion on
perspectives, which we will be using throughout the book.
Challenges
Each year covers multiple ‘Challenges’. Each challenge will help you to
explore one of the topics in the Global Perspectives curriculum, such as
education, food and agriculture or Globalization, through fun exercises.
Key skills
The exercises in each challenge will help you to develop the key skills
mentioned on the previous page. The skill being covered will be clearly
stated at the top of each section. The learning objectives of each
chapter will be discussed in the introduction of each challenge and
listed in the Table of Contents on pages 2–3.
Extension activities
At the end of each challenge, we will provide a series of extension
options that allow you to take your research further and/or to link it
with other areas of your studies, including maths, literature, history,
geography, arts, sciences, and philosophy.
You can use this book:
• linearly – by working through all the challenges
systematically to develop and sharpen your critical
thinking and research skills
• by skill – by choosing areas that sharpen a
particular skill
• by topic – by choosing challenges that you find
particularly interesting.
Whichever you decide, we are sure that you will enjoy
the journey and grow as a global thinker and researcher.
Welcome to Global Perspectives!
5
The six key skills
As you work through this book you will be seeing these characters to
remind you of what skill you are working on:
Research
Hello! You can call me curious. Or creative! I am always asking
questions! I will try to inspire you to follow your creativity to new
research areas. I will teach you to ask questions, to find information,
and I will give you tools to keep track of what you find.
Analysis
I am Professor Analysis. Getting information is good, but it is only once
you analyse the information that you can do something with it! I will guide
you to interpret data, synthesize arguments, find evidence, and understand
causes and consequences. As we understand, interpret and use data, we
will come up with solutions for problems posed in the challenges.
Evaluation
I am here to help make sure that your data is good! I will help you
to check your sources for biases and reliability – that is, whether the
information they provide is accurate or whether it presents a one-sided
perspective. I will also be looking at how arguments are developed –
that is, whether they are logical and built upon verifiable evidence.
Communication
Call me Chatterbox. I like to talk, and write, and sing, and make videos –
and so much more! I am here to help you share your findings with
dierent audiences so that others can understand your reasoning and
be convinced by your arguments.
Collaboration
I am a people-person. I will help you find ways to work constructively
with your peers.
Reflection
I am the deep one in the group. I like to sit back and think about what
we have done, what we have learnt, what we might be missing, and
how it has aected us. Learning is about you as a person. I am here to
help you become a reflective, deep learner.
6
Perspectives
Wait! There are six skills, but I am also very important. I am here to help
you see the topics and ideas we speak about from dierent points of
view. In particular, I want you to see how issues that aect an individual
person (personal) might also aect your neighbourhood or city (local),
your country (national), or the world (global).
In each challenge in this book you will encounter several of these
characters. As you explore fascinating topics you will have the
opportunity to research, analyse, evaluate, reflect, collaborate, and
communicate in a great many ways. You will have exercises to practise
with, group activities and games to enjoy, and opportunities to put your
research into action. Remember, you can always take these skills, and
the exercises we propose, and use them to research your own interests.
Make Global Perspectives yours!
Topics
The exercises this book presents will teach you skills you can use
to research and understand any topic. Make the book yours! Take
the research exercises in the topic of Employment (Challenge 6),
for example, and use them to research pollution. Exercises are
interchangeable between topics. To help you use the exercises in this
book for any topic, we have included a table that lists all the exercises
by the skills they focus on at the end of the book.
Challenges and issues
Within each challenge presented in Global Perspectives there are
various issues you can decide to focus on. An issue is a particular
problem within a larger topic. For example, when looking at the topic of
environmental change, one issue to look at is plastic pollution, another
is greenhouse gases. When looking at the topic of work, one issue is
fair pay, another is unemployment. As you research dierent issues we
encourage you to think critically about what has caused these problems
and think about some possible solutions.
7
Perspectives: Global,
National, Local and Personal
Anything you can think of – from your shoes to the weather, from
your favourite sports team to international peace negotiations –
can be looked at from various perspectives:
• global
• national
• local
• personal.
You can start any research
or investigation from any of
these perspectives.
You can think of these perspectives as the ‘distance’ you see a
topic from. Let’s think of one topic – sport – and ‘see’ it from each
perspective.
From a global perspective, you are looking at a topic as though
you are sitting in the International Space Station, looking down at
Earth and realizing how everything is interconnected – we are all
part of one big globe.
8
At this level, you might notice global or international leagues for
a sport. Some enquiry questions at this perspective, or level of
analysis, might include:
• Who are the greatest players in the world?
• Who are the greatest players in history?
• What are the international rules for the sport?
• How do sports promote global unity?
From a national perspective, you are focused closer in, at the level
of a country. You are thinking in terms of state power, national
boundaries, national laws.
At this level, you might think about your country’s sports leagues,
the main players your country has, the most famous player in your
country’s history. You might enquire:
• How are sports funded in your country and who benefits from
dierent sport activities?
• What is the most popular sport in your country?
• Who are your country’s main rivals in dierent sports?
9
From a local perspective, you are looking at sports at the level of
your local community.
At this level, you might think about your local – school or
neighbourhood – sports team.
• Who runs it?
• Is it linked with other groups like religions or ethnicities?
• How is it funded?
• How do local leagues aect their communities?
From a personal perspective, your focus is even narrower. Here, you
are thinking about individuals. Thinking about sport at this level
you might be thinking about the biography of a particular player.
Or you might be thinking about what sport you play.
• Why do you like a particular sport?
• What do you need to be a better sportsperson?
• How has sport aected your life?
10
Using perspectives to understand an issue
If you want to understand the impact of any decision you make, or the
many sides of a problem you are interested in, then it is worth thinking
through each perspective. Let’s take an example: the impact of buying a
packet of ready-cut fruits in the supermarket – conveniently packaged
in plastic to keep them fresh.
Looking at each perspective will give us dierent insights that help us
answer the question, ‘What is the impact of buying pre-packaged fruit?’.
Personal: You might find pre-packaged fruit convenient to take with
you to school. Or you might wonder why pre-cut fruit is needed at all.
If you are disabled and struggle to cut fruit, you might find these the
only way to eat certain fruits.
Local: If the fruit is from your city, local farmers might benefit when
these packages are bought. However, if it is not from your city, then by
buying it you are perhaps buying less from local farmers, who might
then become poorer. The packet of fruit will also aect your local
environment when thrown away – how much trash can your city cope
with before it runs out of space? If you throw it on the ground – not
that you should! – you will add to the pollution of your hometown and
the plastic might end up in a local river, hurting fish and local birds.
National: Looking at this from a national perspective, you might
consider whether the fruit is grown in your country. If you are buying
it from another country (importing it), you are paying to bring it into
your country. You might also consider the impact on the culture: if
you are bringing in exotic fruits, your population is getting used to
food that is not native to you, that is not seasonal.
Global: The pollution from the cars and/or planes transporting
the fruit does not stay within your country: it contributes to global
environmental changes. The rubbish that ends up in rivers and lakes
enters the local ecosystem. However, this ecosystem is connected to
the global environment. The plastic you threw away in, say, São Paulo,
might end up in the stomach of a dolphin in Florida.
It is important to understand that perspectives overlap and interact.
What aects you as a person will also aect your community, your
country, and even the world. In the same way, a global problem – such
as global warming – is not just global, it aects you as a person, and
what you do as an individual will aect the world. You can analyse
each perspective separately, but you need to remember that they are
interconnected and overlap
11
Why do we need
multiple perspectives?
There is an old saying, “Don’t miss the forest for the trees.” This
means you should not miss the big picture by focusing only on the
details. In truth, it would also not be a good idea to miss the details
by only looking at the big picture!
By considering personal, local, national, and global perspectives,
you can see the forest and the trees.
If you stand very close to a tree, you
can study the texture and colour of
the bark, smell it, feel its shade.
But you cannot see the shape of the tree until you stand a bit
further back. Then you can see how tall the tree is, how far it
spreads, whether its top branches are dierent, whether it
bears fruit.
You have to stand even further back to realize that the tree is in a
large forest, and to understand the nature of the forest.
If you always look at a forest from a distance, you will never learn
about the individual trees. If you only look at one tree, you will not
understand how it connects to others, how ecosystems form and
work. You need to look very closely and you need to look from afar.
Personal, local, national, global – they are pieces of a complex
puzzle. You need all of them to understand the full picture.
12
Each perspective is complex. Don’t think that a local perspective
is less complicated than a global perspective, or vice versa. Each
perspective is simply dierent and can, therefore, show you
dierent aspects of an issue. Moreover, you often need to see
dierent sides of a problem to try to find a solution. Being able to
change your perspective is a very powerful tool. You can use this
tool whether you work in politics, in business, in sports – or even
just to understand tensions and changes among your friends.
1 Using perspectives
Read this short story, then try to see what dierent perspectives are included
in it. Think about how these dierent perspectives give you a more complete
understanding of what is causing the problem.
state of the
blamed the
racing event. He
lost his school’s
sad. He had
Tim was
all over the
weeds sprouting
were holes and
to train: there
where he had
path
But she was
was also upset.
fix it? His mom
the school
Why couldn’t
place.
so the
money to schools,
year they gave less
Every
at the government.
angry
aord to maintain
less could they
aord books, much
could barely
schools
news. The price
to the
listening
sister meanwhile was
grounds. Tim’s
the sport
meant more
again. This
good, had dropped
main export
oil, their country’s
of
spend more
he should
he thought
blamed himself;
all. Tim’s dad
poverty for
he had to
to help. And
working to be able
just too busy
Tim but was
time with
to pay the bills.
to be able
work long shifts
Discuss:
• Who uses a local perspective? • Who uses a personal perspective?
• Who uses a national perspective? • Can you see how these are
interconnected?
• Who uses a global perspective?
Challenge:
If you wanted to fix Tim’s problem what solution would you come
up with if you only spoke to Tim? If you only spoke to his mother? If
you only spoke to his father? Does coming up with a good solution
require you to look at a problem through multiple perspectives? Why
or why not?
13
2 Perspectives on your identity
Multiple perspectives can also be used to help you understand
who you are.
Try to answer each of these questions with a partner. Take turns
asking and answering the questions:
1. Imagine that a Martian asks you who you are. What would
you answer?
2. Imagine that you are in an airport and meet someone from
another country. They ask you who you are. What would
you reply?
3. Imagine your partner is the cousin of a school friend. They
ask you who you are. What would you answer?
As you think through your answers it is very likely you did
not answer the same thing for every question in Exercise2.
You are always you, but who you are, how you think,
and how you present your identity, is aected by the
perspective you are using.
When you use a global perspective, you might mention
you are from Earth! When you meet someone from
another country, you are likely to mention your nationality,
and maybe your city. When you meet someone who knows
your friends and local area, you might mention your family,
your neighbourhood, your sport team and other local
information. All of these are components of your identity.
All of them are you. All of them are true. But dierent
components are more relevant, or more important, in
dierent contexts, in dierent perspectives.
14
3 Perspectives to understand others
You can also use dierent perspectives to understand others, including
your classmates. When you wonder why a person acts as they do, try
to understand their personal background, their local background, their
national background. Each of these might give you insights into what they
believe and why they act as they do. Try the following questions to practise
understanding others from dierent perspectives.
1. Look up the biography of a famous politician, celebrity,
or sportsperson. Try to understand who they are from a global,
a national, and a personal perspective.
2. Interview someone you know – it could be a friend or a family
member. Try to see them from a dierent perspective. Try to learn
something new about them.
3. Look up the story of Martin Luther King. How do you think his skin
colour aected his choices? What about his religion? How do you
think his nationality aected his life?
4 Discussing perspectives
Use the following questions to hold a discussion as a class or in
small groups. See if you can come up with other questions about
perspectives.
1. Which perspective do you think is easiest for you to use?
2. Do you usually think of problems in a global, national, or
personal perspective?
3. Do you think politicians should think about problems using
one perspective more than the others? Why or why not?
5 Thinking further about your identity
Draw yourself! Make a self-portrait of yourself where you write
in all the dierent parts of your identity. Use Exercise 2 to think
about the many parts that make up who you are. Here are a few
ideas to get you started. Think about what you look like, the
music you listen to, the communities you belong to, the beliefs
you hold. You could use magazines to find pictures or words that
represent you and add them to your portrait.
15
Year 7
Challenge
Challenge
What
What makes
makes us
us human?
human?
1.1 Humanity
Think about the following questions. You can try to answer them individually
or discuss them with others in your class.
1. Do you think humans are the most important creatures on Earth? Why or
why not?
2. If we could plug all your memories and feelings into a computer, would
that computer be human?
3. If we can add robotic components to humans – link their brains to a
computer, change their bones for titanium rods, make them able to hold
their breath under water for hours – would they still be human?
... hmmm
that’s not in
my dictionary.
What
What does
are
”human” mean?
you?
Is it a food?’
Well , I
am a
human .
16
Challenge overview
Imagine you are walking down the road when, suddenly, a bright
green light blinds you. You cover your eyes until the light disappears.
Slowly you open your eyes and before you is a strange creature. It
has no eyes, but you are sure it can see you. It has no mouth, but you
hear its voice. It is not solid, but you can feel it moving. It is an alien.
The alien is a Year 7 student from the planet Glomatron. It is
researching dierent life forms. You can sense it is looking at you
with curiosity. It wants to understand you.
You point at yourself and say, “Human!”. The alien keeps looking at
you quizzically. It takes out an intergalactic dictionary and is busy
for a few minutes. Then somehow it communicates into your brain
the following information: ‘HUMAN. Interesting word, but it is not
in my dictionary. Tell me more. “HUMAN”. Human edible? Human
dangerous? Should I destroy human?’
This is your first challenge. We need to come up with an explanation
of what a ‘human’ is for the alien. Where will you start?
What skills will you develop?
In this challenge you will work on developing Analysis 2: Checking the evidence
the following skills:
➜ You will look at how evidence is used to
support an argument.
Research 1: Getting started
Communication: Debating the answer
➜ You will look at strategies to approach a
new topic. You will learn the power of ‘free
➜ You will work with a group to argue for
thinking’ and thinking of opposites.
a position in a debate. You will work on
presenting your argument clearly, and on
Research 2: Choosing a research question
judging others’ arguments carefully.
➜ You will look at how to create good
Taking it further
questions to lead your research.
➜ This section will give you a lot of ideas to
Collaboration: Working as a team
take your learning further, connecting it
➜ You will look at how to work well as a with other subjects and expanding your
team. understanding.
Analysis 1: Recognizing arguments
➜ You will work at recognizing arguments
used to support a position.
17
Research
Getting star ted
Free thinking
One of the most powerful tools when you are starting a new
piece of research is free thinking It can feel scary to start to think
and research something new, but letting your mind think freely can
help you realize that you already have some ideas, some interests,
and some questions to follow!
In this challenge, as you start thinking about what makes us humans
and how to explain what humans are, you could start by writing
everything that comes to your mind when you think about humans
The important thing here is to let your mind come up with ideas
freely, think of it like a storm! Let everything that comes to your
mind come! Don’t try to filter ideas or use only ‘good ones’.
While thinking freely, just let your brain explore and don’t judge
yourself – everything that comes gets written down. You might
be surprised with what comes to your mind. You might also be
surprised by the connections you can make with this ‘rain’ later.
So don’t stop the storm!
1.2a Free thinking
Take out a piece of paper and write everything that comes to
your mind as you answer the question: What is a human?
1.2b Group discussion
Try thinking freely as a group. The same rule applies – encourage
everyone to say anything that comes to their mind, as silly as it might
seem. Write it all out, no judgements, no criticism. You might be
surprised. An idea or word that seems completely unrelated to the topic
might lead to interesting questions, insights, and paths of discovery.
18
Year 7 Challenge 1
Thinking about opposites
Sometimes we get stuck and need other ways to answer
a question. A trick is to ask the opposite. For example,
rather than thinking about what makes us human, try
thinking about what makes non-humans
Do not breathe
G reen Thing s are not
human
Thing s made of
plastic are not
Creatures
NON-
human
born from egg s
HUMANS
Blue
are not humans
thing s are
Many leg s!
not humans
Remember Expanding your free
The point of these exercises is to start thinking
thinking about a new topic creatively.
You can draw or paint in your notes. There
• Perhaps this is a new area you is no reason to use only words!
have never thought about, so you
You can write/draw each idea on a sticky
are not sure where to start. Free
note and later move the notes around to
thinking can give you some ideas
organize them.
to follow.
You can use dierent colours to organize
• Perhaps this is an area you have
your ideas. For example:
thought about a lot and cannot
imagine how to create a new, fun • Blue for logical ideas
project from it. Free thinking can
• Green for emotional ideas
help you come up with new angles
• Red for strange ideas
on an idea.
• Purple for ideas you feel uncertain about
• Maybe you feel a bit overwhelmed
Once you have spent some time letting
by the topic. Free thinking can help
your mind ‘rain ideas’, take a step back and
you get all your ideas, questions,
see what you have found. Look at what
and even worries out there.
you have written. Do any patterns jump
out? Does anything now seem missing? Is
anything particularly interesting to you?
?
19
Research
Choosing a
research question
We now move to a critical part of any research: asking questions
Once we have spent some time thinking about our topic, it is time to
choose a question to research. For example, what questions should
you research to explain to an alien what humans are?
Good research questions
Some questions are better for research than others. Some
questions will lead you away from the topic you are interested
in. Other questions are so large you will find yourself lost in too
many answers, too much information, too many possible paths.
Good research questions are focused, clear, and unbiased.
Poor research questions usually fall within one of these
categories:
• Too broad. Questions in this category are so big you will feel a
bit overwhelmed and find that you have too many options.
• Too narrow. These are questions that do not answer the
whole topic you are interested in. They might be answered by
a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’, giving you very little, or no new, insight.
• Irrelevant. These are questions that are not about your
present topic. They will take your research in the wrong
direction.
• Biased or leading. These are questions that force you toward
a specific answer, rather than helping you see an issue from
many dierent points of view.
• Unrealistic. These are questions we simply cannot answer
with the information available to us.
20
Year 7 Challenge 1
1.3 Good questions
Look through the questions below. Using the categories on the
previous page decide whether each question is a good or a poor
research question and why. Discuss your decisions with your peers.
1. What are humans?
2. Why do humans like sugar?
3. Do all humans wear black shoes?
4. What makes humans dierent from other animals?
5. How are humans dierent from machines?
6. Why do humans exist?
7. How do humans floss their teeth?
8. Do humans live in a galaxy?
9. Is it important for humans to be vegetarians?
Bullseye 1.4 Research aim
When thinking about research
Look at the list of questions below and
questions, it sometimes helps to think
choose which ones do not focus on
of a bullseye.
the aim of your research.
The bullseye is the topic you want
➜ Why do humans have hair?
to learn about. The further you get
➜ Are humans the only creatures able
from the bullseye, the further you
to think?
are getting from the purpose of
your research. Whenever you are
➜ Do all humans like football?
doing research and start coming up
with questions, it is a good idea to
ask yourself, ‘Am I getting closer or
further from the bullseye?’
To get a good question you need
to remember what you are trying
to find out. That is the aim of your
research. That is the bullseye.
In this challenge, you are trying to
explain to an alien what makes us
human. You are trying to find out
what makes humans, well, humans.
?
21
Collaboration
Working as a team
In Global Perspectives you will be working in teams to
research local, national, and global issues, to think about
possible solutions for these issues, and to present your
arguments and evidence in a logical and interesting way.
Here are some areas you want to think about when working
in groups:
➜ You will need to think about how to divide your work to
ensure that everyone is involved and feels appreciated.
➜ You will need to ensure you can communicate within your
group. It is important to be able to give each other honest
feedback, but feedback can always be given in a kind and
thoughtful way.
➜ Conflict can happen! Find ways to decrease tensions.
Perhaps take some time to calm down, and try to discuss the
disagreements without taking personal oence. Sometimes,
it can be helpful to get an outsider’s perspective. You can ask
your teacher to mediate if you cannot find a solution.
1.5 Working as a team
Cooking together
One way to think about what you need to work as a group successfully
is to think of your team as if you were making a recipe together. Imagine
your challenge is to make a cake together. What would you need to do to
successfully make a cake as a team? Look at the list below and discuss with
your team what you need to do and in what order.
➜ Discuss what your favourite food is
➜ Get upset if someone does not like the same flavour as you do
➜ Find a recipe for the cake
➜ Notice the steps in the recipe and assign each dierent step to a team
member
22
Year 7 Challenge 1
➜ Make sure each team member knows what to do in the kitchen
➜ Taste the cake
➜ Look at how much time you have and how long you need to bake the cake
➜ Find the ingredients and an oven
➜ Take a nap
➜ Create a checklist
➜ Check that you did not miss any steps
➜ Make sure none of the ingredients are spoiled
➜ Make the cake look nice on a plate
➜ Anything else?
Note: making a cake with your team is a lot like working on a Global
Perspectives Challenge together. You need to:
Find a recipe ➞ Find a research question
Find ingredients ➞ Find good resources
Break the recipe into parts ➞ Break your research project into parts
Assign dierent parts of the of the recipe to dierent team members ➞ Assign
parts of the project to dierent team members
Make sure all parts of the recipe are completed ➞ Make sure all parts of your
project are completed
Can you think of other parts of making a cake which are like working on a
Global Perspectives Challenge?
Working as a team is a skill we can all learn and improve on.
When you start to work with a new team it can be a good idea
to try to make something together, just for fun, to understand a
bit about how each person works. Once your team understands
how each member works, you can find a way to collaborate
eectively. Ideally, teams should be stronger than the sum of
their parts!
To build your dynamics as a team, try one of the following:
1. Build some origami. Take turns to be the person who folds
the paper, the person who reads the instructions, and the
person who checks diagrams.
2. Make a sandwich! Take the cake example to real life and try
to make a simple plate of food. Notice how dierent people
work and then share something tasty together.
23
Analysis
Recognizing arguments
A possible research question to follow is: dierent from or the same as, other animals.
The question is also not too narrow: we cannot
How are humans dierent from other animals?
answer it with a simple yes or no.
Note how this is a clear, focused, non-leading
Now we need to find sources to help us
question. The question is easy to understand
answer this question. When we find a source,
and it has a specific focus (humans and other
we need to recognize what it is arguing, and
animals). It is not a leading question: it does
what evidence it is using to make its argument.
not tell us that humans are better or worse,
1.6 Finding arguments
Read the excerpt below. With a group of peers discuss: what is it arguing? List
the reasons it uses to support its argument,
“Humans and animals both eat, sleep, think, and communicate. We are also
similar in a lot of the ways our bodies work. But we also have a lot of dierences.
Some people think that the main dierences between humans [and] other animal
species is our ability of complex reasoning, our use of complex language, our ability
to solve dicult problems, and introspection (this means describing your own
thoughts and feelings). Others also feel that the ability for creativity or the feeling
of joy or sorrow is uniquely human. Humans have a highly developed brain that
allows us to do many of these things. But are these things uniquely human?
A baboon is given a mirror test.
24
Year 7 Challenge 1
Gunnison’s prairie dogs seem to have a fairly complex
language – rather than just sounding a basic alarm
call, researchers have found that their alarm calls can
describe specific predator speed, colour, shape, and size.
Caledonian crows can solve
problems and build tools
and can solve multiple-step
puzzles that require a plan.
it
And animals do appear to feel joy and sorrow. There
are videos out there showing a raven using a piece
of plastic to sled down part of a snowy roof. They are
enjoying sledding and having fun, perhaps feeling joy.
And we continue to learn of more and more species
that show sorrow, especially at the loss of members of
their family or other loved ones.
So maybe there isn’t that much that makes us uniquely human. Maybe we
need to pay more attention to what animals are doing and try to view the
world through their eyes. And, perhaps our ability to consider animals’ feelings
and hope for the well-being of these other amazing creatures is our best, and
most uniquely human ability.
Adapted from: https://askabiologist.asu.edu/questions/human-animal-dierences
1.7 Reading comprehension
Group activity
Are humans the only animals able to problem solve?
With a team create a collage
Are humans the only creative animals?
that shows what makes us
humans. Be as creative as
Are humans the only introspective animals?
you can!
Discuss with your peers.
25
Analysis
Checking the evidence
Evidence is facts or data that support an answer.
As you answer a question, you will need to provide evidence
to prove that your answer is valid.
Evidence detectives
When thinking about evidence, you can think
of yourself as a detective. When trying to solve
a case, detectives need to look carefully and
You analyse this evidence to reach a conclusion.
Warning
Detectives can be thrown o the right path by
false evidence. A smart thief, for example, could
leave someone else’s shoes at the scene of the
crime to throw police o! Be a smart evidence
detective: make sure to check everything
carefully and don’t fall for false evidence!
1.8 Detective of the future
Imagine yourself as a detective in the year 3020. You are sent to
another planet to look for evidence of life. What might be evidence of:
• simple life forms
• creative life forms
• life forms that lived in communities?
26
Year 7 Challenge 1
1.9 Evidence from articles
Go back to the article on animals and humans used in the previous section.
Try to complete the table below using evidence provided in the article. Read
the article to find facts that prove the author’s argument. One has been done
as an example.
Question: Are humans dierent from other animals?
Argument: Humans and other animals are not so dierent.
Reason Evidence
Other animals are also creative.
Other animals also experience emotions.
Other animals also use complex Gunnison’s prairie dogs can describe
language. a predator’s speed, colour, shape,
and size
(fill in other arguments here)
(fill in other arguments here)
(fill in other arguments here)
1.10 Analysing a text
Read the blog below and try to answer the questions with a partner.
1. What is the blog’s main argument?
2. What evidence does the blog use to support its argument?
Tab title here
www.website/name/here
B LO G S T U F F C O N TA C T A B O U T S E A R C H
H U M A N S A R E S M A R T E R
T H A N C O M P U T E R S .
Although computers have beaten humans We could also mention emotional
at complex strategy games like chess, we intelligence, this is the intelligence to
cannot forget that humans came up with understand how you and others feel, and
not have emotional intelligence because
Computers can process information much
solve a really complicated maths problem Ultimately the greatest argument for
humans being smarter than computers is
27
Communication
Debating the answer
Remember the alien we started this challenge with? He is not convinced
that there are many dierences between humans and other animals on
this planet. You invite him to a debate on the topic.
Divide your class into two groups. One side is going to represent the
view of the alien: that there is nothing that makes humans unique
from other animals on Earth. The other side will argue that humans are
dierent from any other animal on Earth.
You can either take some time to look for evidence or you can do a
speed debate, where each group only gets 30 minutes in the library to
prepare their position.
Whichever option you decide, think of a strategy to ensure everyone’s
time is used eectively. How can you split the work to make sure you
get as much useful information as possible? Perhaps you can send
dierent people in your group to look at dierent
sources. Perhaps one of you can take notes and
another check the information gathered. Perhaps one
of you will be the presenter putting together what
others found.
To prepare for the debate remember to:
➜ create a list of reasons or points that support
your side
➜ try to find evidence that supports your reasons
➜ try to present your position in a persuasive manner.
Use evidence to convince others of your position.
Remember: the fate of humanity is in your hands!
To present a strong case you need to make your argument
clear, support it with clear reasons, and support your reasons
with evidence. Argument Reasons Evidence is a
winning combination.
28
Year 7 Challenge 1
1.11 Conducting the debate
Each side gets 20 minutes to present their position.
After both sides have presented, each side gets another 10 minutes to answer
any questions. The winner of the debate will be chosen by judges.
It is important that debates are respectful. Each group should listen politely
while the other speaks. Even if you disagree with what is being said, it is
important to give others the opportunity to state their argument uninterrupted.
Points could be deducted from groups that interrupt.
Try to convince others with good evidence, not with rude words or shocking
statements. If you hurt other people’s feelings, they are less likely to want to
listen to you!
1.12 Judging the debate
Select who will judge your debate: your teacher, a group of students, or
someone else. Judges will give points based on the following criteria:
➜ 1 point per reason supporting an argument
➜ 2 points per piece of evidence
1.13 Reflection
After all challenges have been completed, it is important to take some time to
think about what you have learnt, what you have done, what went well, and
what could have gone better. To help you reflect, take some time to write out
your answers to these questions.
1. When the debate is finished, write a quick note about which side you think
won and why. Was there particularly good evidence presented? Did you
find one side easier to understand?
2. How do you think you could help your team improve in future debates?
3. What was the hardest thing about working in a group? Can you think of
ways to make it easier next time?
29
Taking it fur ther
What makes us human, and how humans
Computers
are dierent from other animals, are fun
areas to think about and research. Here are • What makes humans dierent from
some suggestions to take your learning computers, other than the fact that
further: humans die?
• Research Sophia, a humanoid robot
Law
who was granted citizenship by Saudi
• Look at animal rights.
Arabia. Do you think giving Sophia
citizenship blurs the line between
• If humans and animals are not that
humans and robots?
dierent, then why don’t animals have
the same rights as humans?
Coding
• Do dierent countries grant dierent
• Imagine you were coding a robot. Your
rights to animals?
challenge is to make it as human as
• Should all animals have equal rights? possible so that no one can tell it is
Should slugs and lions, for example, a robot. What behaviours would you
be given the same rights? What should code into the robot to make it as human
rights be based on? as possible? Once you write this out,
find out what the Turing test is. Do you
Philosophy
think your robot would pass the test?
• Some people have argued that animals
feel as much as humans do, and
therefore should be respected like
humans. Do you think the capacity to
feel pain is a good basis on which to
give rights?
30
Year 7 Challenge 1
Biology Literature
• What makes our bodies human? • Imagine you are in the year 35000.
Humans have long since ceased to exist
• Who are our nearest ancestors?
and have evolved into a new species.
• Which animals are most similar to us? Describe the new species and why it
evolved as it did. Does it have eyes? Is it
Religion
more or less intelligent than humans?
• What are some religious arguments that
separate humans from other beings?
• Consider interviewing one or more
religious leaders to ask them for their
views on what makes humans unique.
What did you learn?
When you complete this challenge, take a moment to reflect over what you have
learnt with the table below:
Skill I get it! I am starting to get it! I need to review this.
Research: I understand
how to and why we
use ‘free thinking’.
Research: I know what
makes a good research
question.
Analysis: I can
recognize a source’s
main argument.
Analysis: I can recognize
evidence used to
support an argument.
Collaboration: I can
work with others to
present an argument.
Collaboration: I
understand that
working with a team
includes sharing tasks
and planning.
Analysis: I understand
what evidence is.
31
Year 7
Challenge
Challenge
Diplomacy
Diplomacy and
and
national
national traditions
traditions
2.1 Traditions
1. Do you think all cultural traditions are good?
2. What is the most extraordinary cultural tradition you
have heard about?
3. What should we do if two cultural traditions clash?
4. Do you think traditions unite us, or separate us?
32
Challenge overview
Imagine you are sent as Ambassador for your it to create a presentation to address this
country to a distant land called Dragunste. misconception.
You are the first Ambassador ever to be invited
As you work through this challenge you will
into this country. It is in your hands to create
need to think about where to find information
a positive relationship between the two
about your national traditions. You will
countries. You want to create understanding and
need to think about how to present your
appreciation. Your job might prevent future wars.
information. You will also need to think about
People in Dragunste have only heard of your how to understand traditions that might be
country through some biased and limited very dierent from yours and how others
media. They have been told your country might perceive your traditions. Using multiple
has some ‘strange’ customs. Your first job perspectives will be key.
What skills will you develop?
Reflection: Curious customs Analysis: Organizing your notes
➜ You will start by thinking critically about ➜ You will learn strategies to take useful
traditions, practising using multiple notes.
perspectives to understand your world.
Communication: Sharing your findings
Research 1: Asking questions
➜ You will create a presentation of your
➜ You will continue to work on developing research.
good research questions.
Taking it further
Research 2: Finding information
➜ This section will give you ideas to take
➜ You will think about what sources you can your learning further, connecting it
use and why you need to keep track of with other subjects and expanding your
these sources. understanding.
33
Curious customs
We will start this challenge by trying to see traditions
from dierent perspectives. It is always a good idea
to start your exploration of new topics by trying to
understand these from dierent perspectives. Dierent
perspectives let you might reveal challenges and also
opportunities for improvement!
2.2 Thinking about traditions
1. Get together with some friends and discuss some national traditions you
think are curious. You might need to do some research to find out what
traditions are practiced in your country.
For an extra challenge can you try to find information about your local
traditions in: a blog, a podcast, a government website, and a newspaper?
Warning
Some traditions you might see as curious might seem normal or
beautiful and important to other students. As you start this discussion
it is important to be respectful. Avoid mocking, criticizing, or putting
down any tradition. Try to think about how your peers who practise
these traditions might feel.
2. Make a list of traditions to research further.
3. Try to think about the traditions on your list from the perspective of those
who practise them. Do they think these traditions are curious? Are there any
traditions on the list that you practise? Why do you think others might find
your traditions unusual? How does that make you feel?
Look at the comic on the right to try and understand that what seems
‘obvious’ to you might seem dierent to somebody else. It takes eort to
try to see things from the perspective of others. Think back to Exercise 1 on
page 13 to help you.
34
Year 7 Challenge 2
The world is full of dierent cultures, each with their own unique
traditions. Being aware of this diversity is a critical part of developing
an informed and thoughtful global perspective. Here are some
interesting traditions you might not have heard about.
2.3 Finding information
Research one of these traditions and present your findings to a class partner.
1. ‘Milk teeth’ – What did your family do when your deciduous (also known
as baby teeth or first teeth) fell out? In some cultures, people put baby
teeth under a pillow and tell the children a magical creature will give them
money for each tooth once they fall asleep on top of it. In other cultures,
milk teeth are thrown on the roof of a house to bring wellbeing to the
whole household. Elsewhere people wear their children’s teeth as jewellery.
2. New Year – How does your country celebrate a new year? In some
countries people throw fireworks into the sky to mark the beginning of a
new year. In some cultures, people wear fancy dresses or a particular colour
of clothes (often yellow or red). These are thought to bring wealth, love, or
wellbeing into the new year. In Ecuador, a glass of water is thrown out of the
front door, to symbolize throwing out tears and sadness from the past year.
3. Local heroes – Most cultures have days when they remember and
celebrate a local hero or artist. They might retell the story of their life. They
might put up pictures. They might recite poetry. Who does your country
celebrate and why?
It’s definitely
It’s a 9!
a 6.
35
Research
Asking questions
Once you have created a list of traditions you are interested
in, it is time to research!
Go back through the list of customs you have created. It is
now time to choose one or two to look into.
Now you need to think about what you want to learn
about these traditions. What information do you
need? What questions do you need to answer? This takes
you back to what you learnt in Challenge 1 about asking
questions. We need good questions to answer.
2.4 Starting with questions
Write down some of the questions you want
to answer about the traditions you will be
What’s New
Hello. Um...
Year like here?
researching.
Why do we need
good questions?
Good questions should lead you to
interesting, useful information. Bad
questions will lead you to limited or
biased information. Take the following
example: Imagine you go to your
country’s Ministry of Culture to learn how
your country celebrates the New Year.
What might happen if you turn up at the
2.5 Better questions
Ministry like the cartoon on the right:
Discuss with a partner what kind of
information this student might get. Are
there other questions the student could
ask to get more, and better, information?
36
Year 7 Challenge 2
Good questions check list
When you create questions to find out about any issue, you want to make
sure these questions are clear, focused, and unbiased. Use the following notes
to assess whether your questions are good research questions:
➜ CLEAR: Can your question be easily understood? Is it confusing? Is your
question actually multiple questions at once? Note the dierence between:
✓ Could you tell me how our country celebrates New Year?
✗ Is there new year in our country?
➜ FOCUSED: If your question is vague, you will find vague information. The
more precise your question is, the more relevant information you will find.
Note the dierence between:
✓ What New Year traditions are unique to our country?
✗ Our country celebrates New Year like others?
➜ UNBIASED: Avoid questions that force a particular answer or allow you
to consider only one side of an argument. A question that tells you that
something is good or bad before you carry out research is a biased or
leading question. Note the dierence between:
✓ How do country A and country B celebrate New Year?
✗ How does country A celebrate New Year better than silly Country B?
2.6 More questions!
Learning to ask good questions takes practice! WHEN does Adamu dancing take place?
Try to come up with good questions that use WHO participates in Adamu dancing?
each of the five Ws and the H: WHY do people participate in Adamu dancing?
HOW does someone become an Adamu dancer?
WHAT WHO
WHERE WHY Main question and smaller questions
WHEN HOW
When you research a topic you are likely
Example: to have one main question. To answer this
question, however, you might need to ask, and
Have you heard of Adamu dancing?
answer, other smaller questions.
This is a dance practiced by the Maasai
Your main question might be:
in Kenya and Tanzania. To find out about
it, you might want to ask questions such as: Is it appropriate that Adamu dancing be
funded by a national government?
WHAT is Adamu dancing?
WHERE does Adamu dancing take place? To answer this question, however, you will
WHERE did Adamu dancing originate? need smaller questions such as the W and H
WHEN was Adamu dancing created? questions listed above.
37
Research
Finding information
Finding and tracking information
Where can you look for information on cultural traditions?
Once you have research questions, you will need to
find sources with the information you need to answer these
questions. It is time to start thinking about where to look for
information and how to keep track of the information you find.
For advice on citing sources, please see page 118.
2.7 Sources of information
With a group of friends, write down all the sources you can think of to find information
about a country’s traditions. Create your own list before looking at the suggestions below.
Note that you can come up with other sources not listed here.
Possible sources:
➜ Books ➜ People who participate in the traditions
➜ Newspaper and magazine articles ➜ A country’s embassy
➜ Encyclopedias ➜ Government websites
➜ Tourism and culture blogs
2.8 Discussion: using sources
Dierent sources contain dierent information and need to be used
dierently. How would you present questions to dierent sources?
Would you ask a person in the same way you would ask a search engine?
Would you change the phrasing of your question if you are interviewing
people from dierent cultures?
Would you ask a question in the same way to your classmate as to a
government ocial?
38
Year 7 Challenge 2
2.9 Taking notes
Taking notes
What is the goal of taking notes? To help you store and Try your hand at note taking with
easily retrieve relevant information to support your the article below. In your notebook
argument. To help you keep track of your ideas. To help write down what you find most
you find sources you need to review again. Taking good important about the article.
notes is all about making your work easier!
The word Nowruz means ‘new day’ This symbolizes a fresh start and the
and is the Persian, or Iranian, spring washing away of the bad things from
celebration of the beginning of a new the previous year.
year. The spring equinox (when night
On the last Wednesday before Nowruz,
and day are equal length) marks the
bonfires are lit, and people jump over
beginning of Nowruz, usually around
the flames. The flames burn away
20th March. It has been celebrated for
sickness and bad luck and give warmth
over 3,000 years in Iran, Kazakhstan,
and energy for the coming year.
Azerbaijan, Afghanistan, Albania and
other countries in South and Central Just before Nowruz, the whole family
Asia. It is a public holiday with up to 13 comes together around a specially-
days’ holiday from school. decorated table on which are arranged
seven special items starting with the
Whole families prepare for Nowruz
‘s’ sound in the Farsi language (e.g. sir
by cleaning the whole house and
(garlic) and seeb (apple). This is the
garden and by wearing new clothes.
haft-seen, which means ‘seven Ss’.
2.10 Taking notes as part of a team
Taking good notes is particularly important was about, who wrote it, and what evidence
when you are working as a team. Try the the article gives.
following:
The third person tries to find the original
Work as a team of three. Start with three or article.
four articles your teacher has chosen. One of
The success of this exercise depends on the
you reads one of the articles and takes notes.
clarity of the notes taken. When you work as a
The second person reads the notes and team others will need to use your notes. Make
then tells the third person what the article sure your notes can help your team succeed!
39
Analysis
Organizing your notes
When looking through a lot of information one can feel a bit lost.
What do you write down? Where? A good organization strategy
can help you break down what you need to write down and
where. The four-column system is one strategy. Divide your paper
into four columns. On the left, write down the question you are
trying to answer. In the second column, write down information
that answers the question. In the third column, write the source
the information came from. In the last column write your
reflections: what do you think of this information? Do you have
new questions? Are there areas you need to double-check?
2.11 Practicing taking notes
Use the four-column method to take notes on some of the
sources you have found about your country’s traditions.
Other strategies to help your note taking:
➜ Write the source you are using at the top of each page –
this will make it easy to reference sources later, or to go
back to a source if you need to. If you are using an online
source, make sure to write down the URL address and
when you used it.
➜ Back up your notes. There is nothing worse than losing all
the work you have done. Make sure to keep your notes in a
safe place, and if you are using a computer back up all your
information at least once a day. You can, for example, email
it to yourself every night.
40
Year 7 Challenge 2
➜ Write the questions you are trying to answer at the top
of your notes. This will help keep your notes focused on
your research topic. Alternatively, write your questions on
a sticky note and have it in front of you at all times so you
remember what you are looking for.
➜ Use colour! Colour can help you dierentiate various
topics, new sources, ideas to follow up, or new questions
that you come up with. Colour can be a great tool to help
you organize your notes.
➜ Come up with your own shorthand – this will make note
taking faster. Rather than writing traditions, for example,
use ’TD’. Rather than example, use ‘ex.’
➜ Use diagrams! You can use arrows to note how ideas
relate to each other; circles to note ideas that answer the
same question, etc.
➜ Come up with an organization system for your notes. This
can be your own unique system, or you could use the one
suggested above. The most important thing is that the
system you use works for you.
Warning
There are some things you do not want to do when taking notes.
➜ Do not write down everything you read. This is transcribing, not taking notes!
Look for main ideas and for the facts that help answer your questions.
➜ Do not worry about complete sentences. Notes are just for you to
remember ideas and facts, not complete pieces of writing.
➜ Do not lose track of where you found information. You do not want to end
up having to find a source again to check facts or to be able to cite it in
your research. Keep careful notes of what you find, where you found it, and
when you found it.
➜ Do not be messy! Your notes should help you find information quickly, not
cause confusion.
2.12 Notes for your other classes
Use the suggestions (and warnings!) given in this section
to take notes for one of your other classes.
41
Communication
Sharing your f indings
By this point you should have chosen an interesting tradition
to research, created some clear questions you want to answer
about this tradition, found some useful sources, and taken
good notes from these.
Now we need to return to why we are doing this. What is the
aim of your research? What was the challenge? It is always
important to remember why you are researching something, as
that will aect what and how you research.
Remember, you are an ambassador for your country. You want
to explain your tradition to others who have never heard about
it. You want to help others understand your tradition – where
and when it happens, and why and how it takes place. In short,
the aim of your research is to inform others, to communicate
with them, to help them understand.
Thinking about perspectives might help here. Your
tradition might seem normal to you because it is yours,
but think about how someone far away might see it.
Try to see your tradition from their perspective. Think about
what someone from a distant country might find unusual or
surprising about your tradition. If your tradition is one that
is practised in multiple countries, such as Nowruz discussed
in Exercise 2.9, you might want to take a global perspective
showing how this tradition has links that go beyond the
borders of one country.
2.13 Seeing from multiple perspectives
Think about, or discuss, how your tradition would be perceived from
dierent perspectives. You could think about people from other
countries, people who practise other religions, people who speak
other languages.
42
Year 7 Challenge 2
2.14 Creating a presentation
With the information you have collected, create a PowerPoint presentation
about your country’s tradition.
To help prepare your presentation, complete the information below using the
notes you have taken:
Tradition being researched (What is the tradition?)
Describe the tradition:
Where is this tradition practised?
When is this tradition practised?
Who practises this tradition?
Why is this tradition practised?
As you create your presentation think about:
➜ how to introduce your tradition to get someone’s attention
➜ what information they will need to understand your tradition
➜ in what order you should present the information so it makes sense to others
➜ what kind of language you should use – formal, friendly, technical.
2.15 Peer review Reflection
After reading your classmate’s presentation,
When you have finished Exercise 2.14,
think again about yours. Take a few minutes to
consider trading presentations with a peer
think through these questions.
in your class. Watch, listen to, or read each
other’s presentation and then discuss these
• Is there anything you could have improved?
questions:
• Were your notes helpful in writing out your
• Did your peer’s presentation make the
presentation? Could they have been more
tradition clear to you?
helpful if you had written things down
dierently?
• Was the presentation interesting?
• Has working on this challenge helped you
• Was the presentation organized in a
to see traditions from dierent perspectives?
way that made it easy to follow?
Can you try to see your own traditions as
• Did the presentation leave you with
someone from a dierent culture might see
any questions?
them?
43
Taking it fur ther
Learning about traditions is a great way
Marketing
to learn about dierent societies, their
• Imagine you were hired to run a
history, their culture, their geography and
publicity campaign to get more
more! Here are some suggestions to take
visitors to your country. You want to
your learning further:
highlight local traditions as a reason
to visit. Create a one-minute video
ICT
or a poster promoting a tradition to
• Convert your report into a video
possible tourists.
presentation. How can you use video
to better explain the tradition you are
Art
discussing?
• Art is often part of traditions –
whether this is visual art (painting,
Anthropology
sculpture, drawings) or performances
• Could you visit a place where the
(dancing, singing). Why not try to
tradition you researched is practised
research more about particular art
and get some video footage or
forms in tradition. Or you could try
interviews? Please note the need to
to replicate some art. Look at the
be safe while doing this – make sure
decorations made for the Hana
you discuss with your teacher first
Matsuri festival in Japan or the
and go with an adult. You also need to
Panagbenga festival in the Philippines.
ask permission before you record or
interview anyone.
Sociology and politics
• Some traditions are controversial.
History
Why? Can you find any traditions that
• You could look at how traditions in
have been started as a way to give a
your country have changed through
particular group power over others?
history. Were some traditions
introduced from other cultures?
Philosophy
When? How?
• Ponder these questions: do traditions
connect us to each other? Can traditions
Education
separate us?
• Do you think you learn enough about
traditions in your country? What
traditions do you think you should
learn about and why?
44
Year 7 Challenge 2
Literature Religious Studies
• Read a novel that describes a local • Investigate and discuss whether
tradition (real or fictional). Does it and how local traditions are linked
describe it in a good light? to religious beliefs. You might find
• Write a story based on a tradition you that some traditions were originally
have recently learnt about. religious but are no longer so – how
did that change happen?
What did you learn?
When you complete this challenge, take a moment to reflect over what you have learnt
with the table below:
Skill I get it! I am starting to get it! I need to review this.
Perspectives: I can
try to understand an
issue, for example
local traditions, from
dierent points of view.
Research: I know
multiple sources I can
turn to in search of
information.
Analysis: I have learnt
some strategies for
taking good notes and
keeping track of my
sources.
Analysis: I can use
my notes to create
a presentation
explaining what
I researched.
Communication:
I can present an
idea in a way others
understand and enjoy.
45
Year 7
Challenge
Challenge
Globalization
Globalization
3.1 Get thinking: Globalization
1. How important is it to have access to things that come from
distant countries?
2. Could we survive if we permanently stopped all travel and
all trade?
3. Can ideas that come from other countries change your
country’s culture and identity?
46
Challenge overview
In this challenge, you will be learning about You will complete the challenge by working
globalization. You will research arguments with a team to create a poster where you
for and against globalization. You will analyse express your own views on globalization.
graphs and data on globalization and evaluate
various claims.
What skills will you develop?
Analysis 1: What is globalization? Perspectives and interviews
➜ You will learn how to dissect complex ➜ In this section, you will explore how
concepts or problems, or how to break perspectives are interconnected and learn
them into small pieces, to help you about interviews and ethics.
research and understand them.
Communication: Creating a poster
Analysis 2: Opposite sides
➜ To complete this challenge, make a
➜ You will learn to think about the two sides poster where you share your views on
of an argument. You will also start to look globalization.
at how a large topic can be narrowed into a
Taking it further
smaller, and more researchable, issue.
➜ This section will give you a lot of ideas to
Analysis 3: Analysing graphs
take your learning further, connecting it
➜ You will look at multiple graphs on with other subjects and expanding your
globalization to enable you to work on understanding.
interpreting, using, and making graphs.
Research: Surveys
➜ In this section, you will learn about primary
and secondary data and lea
a survey.
47
Analysis
What is globalization?
3.2 Explain in your own words
Can you explain globalization in your own words? Try to explain globalization
to a partner. With your partner, try to come up with a formal definition.
Don’t worry about being perfect, we are working on clarifying our thoughts.
Explaining things in your own words is a great exercise to help you check your
understanding and clarify your ideas.
Now, compare your definition to the one below. How is it dierent? Which
definition do you think is better, and why?
Definition: Globalization refers to the many ways in which our world is
increasingly interlinked. Globalization refers to how ideas, people, and
things travel around the world more, and faster, than they did in the past.
3.3 Use your knowledge
After thinking about and discussing the definition of globalization, try to
explain how Christmas lights or McDonald’s restaurants are examples of
globalization. Can you think of other examples of globalization?
Whatever your topic, it is always a helpful exercise to try
to explain what you are learning in your own words. It is a
good way to make sure you understand new ideas and can
communicate them clearly.
48
Year 7 Challenge 3
to think about how distant goods,
ideas, and people have aected you.
can aect goods, ideas, and people
that are far away. These links between
you and the world at large can be
the questions in Exercises 3.4 and 3.5.
3.4 Analysis: Global connections
➜ What ideas around you have originated from other parts of the world?
➜ What items that you use have come from other countries?
➜ Do you know anyone who has travelled around the world?
➜ Who in your class owns something that comes from farthest away?
➜ Who in your class owns something that was made in your neighbourhood?
3.5 Analysis: Local connections
To realize how connected we are it is sometimes useful to turn the questions
discussed so far on their head! Rather than thinking about what things, ideas,
or people are connected to distant lands, think of things, ideas, or people that
are not.
➜ Can you or your classmates think of any idea or object that has no part or
influence from another part of the world?
Group Activity
In teams, compete against the rest of the class to see which which team can
find the most things that have come from other countries in 10 minutes.
Can you find one object from every continent?
49
3.6 Speed discussion
Speed is part of the definition of globalization. The definition on the previous
page notes that people, ideas, and things travel more and faster now.
➜ What has allowed people, ideas, and things to travel faster?
➜ Why does speed matter?
What you are doing in this section is analysing the definition of globalization
by looking at and discussing its parts or components. You have thought about
how things/people/ideas travel, and you have thought about why and how
they travel faster. Looking at the parts of an idea or topic is a powerful strategy
to help you understand complicated concepts or problems.
What does it mean ‘to analyse’ something? To analyse means to take
something apart, look at its parts, and see how they fit together. To understand
why something happens, and why it matters, we have to start by analysing
it. We gather sources that explain parts of the issue to us. Then we use these
sources to help us understand the dierent parts of the issue.
Analysing is like taking a machine apart, learning about its pieces, and putting
it back together with a clear understanding of what each piece does. It is hard
work, but it is very rewarding!
Once we analyse a problem (once we understand its causes and
consequences), we can suggest ways to solve the problem. Realistic, good
solutions can only be developed from a thorough understanding of an issue.
To analyse or to understand something complicated, start
by taking apart its components and thinking about each
part separately.
Looking more closely at time
Time plays an interesting part in globalization. Some argue that the biggest
marker of globalization is how much faster things happen!
Let’s play fact search! Try to fill in the blank spaces in Exercise 3.7 with facts,
and keep in mind how and where you found these facts.
50
Year 7 Challenge 3
3.7 Fact finding
1. During the Age of Exploration, it took to get information
between Europe and the Americas and to get goods between Europe and
the Americas.
2. It now takes to get information between Europe and the
Americas and to get goods between Europe and the Americas.
3. How have the costs of travel between continents changed over the last
several decades?
4. Do diseases spread faster now than in the past? Why?
5. Challenge question: How has a faster flow of information aected
diplomacy?
Where did you find the information you used to answer Exercise 3.7?
Go back to your sources and copy a sentence from the pages where you
found your data. If you are struggling, you might not have kept very good
records of the sources you used. Remember, keeping track of your sources
is a key research skill – and it will make your work much easier!
51
Analysis
Opposite sides
Why is globalization controversial?
Globalization is controversial. This means it has strong supporters and
strong opponents. There are strong arguments in favour of, and against,
globalization. To understand controversial topics like globalization, you
need to research arguments on both sides.
To decide what you believe, you will need to research the consequences or
eects of globalization, and evaluate if there are more positives or negatives.
However, globalization is a large topic. Asking if ‘globalization is good or
bad’, is too broad. We need to better focus our questions, as discussed
in Challenge 1. To research globalization, we need to concentrate on a
small part of it. We can look, for example, at how globalization aects the
environment, or culture, or the economy.
Concentrating on specific areas can help us as we look for sources. It also
makes the research process feel less overwhelming. A smaller focus can also
help us come up with better research questions.
3.8 Narrowing your focus
Come up with some research questions about globalization looking at these
four areas:
Environment Shopping Health Education
Here are two possible research questions. Do you think these are good
research questions? Why or why not?
• How does globalization aect water pollution?
• Can globalization help us improve education?
52
Year 7 Challenge 3
Arguments for and against
What arguments support the view that globalization is harmful? What
arguments support the view that globalization is beneficial?
Let’s spend some time thinking about the positives and negatives of globalization.
This is a good exercise for any controversial topic. It is always productive to spend
some time trying to think about why others hold the position they do.
3.9 Opposing arguments
With a team, come up with some arguments in favour of and against
globalization. Make a list for each side.
Extra challenge:
Use the lists you have made to copy and complete a table like the
one below, noting what perspective each argument is from.
Perspective In favour of globalization Against globalization
Personal/Local
National
Global
Read the arguments below and add them to your lists (or to the
table above).
* Globalization decreases poverty as people can move to find jobs.
* Globalization means job losses as jobs go to cheaper countries.
* Globalization allows us to access anything we want,
improving our lifestyle.
* Globalization has increased endless consumption.
* Globalization is good for large businesses.
From topic to area to issue to question
All Global Perspective topics are large. To help us research them, we can look at
a specific area within a topic (such as the political or economic area), and then
research issues or problems in that area. Here are two examples:
* Transport → Environment → How can we make transport more
environmentally friendly?
* Education → Economy → Should countries spend more money on education?
53
Analysis
Analysing graphs
Graphs are a powerful tool to summarize and show data. One graph can
replace several hundred words! Learning to interpret and make graphs is,
therefore, a powerful skill.
Graphs and numerical data
When using graphs remember these points:
➜ Start by looking at the title of a graph: it should give you a clear
guide as to what the graph is about.
➜ Look at the overall graph – does it have a clear shape? A pattern?
Get a sense of what it is trying to tell you before you look at
its details.
➜ Look carefully at the labels in the graph. These will give you
important information about the scale of the graph. Are you
looking at information over days, decades, millennia? Are you
looking at information about a few people, or millions?
➜ Check to see if the graph has a legend or key. This should give you
more details about what you are looking at – does a particular
colour represent something?
➜ Check the source of the graph.
Learning to read graphs and infographics will help you to
research any topic. Spend some time finding graphs in a
newspaper and use the steps above to help you understand them.
54
Year 7 Challenge 3
3.10 Reading graphs
Below are a series of graphs with information related to globalization. With a
partner, take turns explaining what the graphs show.
Content languages used for websites
Russian
English 51.3%
6.8%
German Japanese Spanish French
5.6% 5.5% 5.1% 4.1%
Portuguese 2.6%
Italian 2.4% Chinese 2.1% Polish 1.7%
Source: http://blog.dynamiclanguage.com/language-in-numbers-the-most-captivating-statistics
Endangered languages
Overview of vitality of the world’s languages
4%
10%
Safe or data-deficient
9%
Vulnerable
Definitely endangered
57%
Severely endangered
11%
Critically endangered
Extinct since 1950
10%
Source: UNESCO 2011
55
The most popular languages being learnt on Duolingo
Source: Duolingo
The (Not So) World Wide Web
Estimated number of internet users per 100 people in 2018
Source: www.statista.com/chart/3512/internet-adoption-in-2015/
Some of these graphs are more dicult to interpret than
others. Do not worry if you don’t understand them at first;
you might need your teacher to help you.
56
Year 7 Challenge 3
3.11 Understanding graphs
To check your understanding, see if you can answer the questions below:
1. What is the most common language on the Internet?
2. What areas of the world have the most and the least access to the Internet?
3. What percentage of languages have become extinct since 1950?
3.12 Using graphs
The information provided in the graphs opposite can be used to argue in
support of, or against, globalization. Find a graph that supports each of the
claims below and explain how the graphs provide evidence.
1. Globalization is helping us all become connected through English as a
common language.
2. Globalization is damaging local cultures and local languages.
3.13 Making graphs
Try your hand at creating graphs.
• Make a list of all your classmates’ month of birth and make this into a graph.
• Find out where various things around your classroom come from (your
pencils, your pens, your backpack, your desks, your computers). Make a
graph to show this data.
Challenge:
Can graphs and numerical data be misrepresented? You can
look at data on climate change and see how it is interpreted
by those who disagree with the idea of humans causing
climate change.
57
Research
Surveys
A possible argument in favour of globalization is that
globalization makes us better o by bringing us inspiring
ideas from all over the world. How can you investigate
whether international ideas have travelled to where you live?
Group Activity
Before reading further, discuss with your group how you would
research this question. Where would you look for information?
What information would you look for?
countries, where can you find relevant
Choosing a question
information? Take a class vote on which of
To investigate whether foreign ideas have
the following sources would be best.
come to your community, you need a more
1. Look for this information in a book.
focused research question. You could look
at one of the following questions:
2. Enquire in a government oce.
1. Do people in your community recognize
3. Interview your neighbours.
art or music from other countries?
4. Conduct a survey.
2. Do people in your community recognize
You have probably decided against options
international brands?
1 and 2. These options will present you
3. Do people in your community recognize
with secondary data, that is data someone
politicians from other countries?
else has collected. Options 3 and 4 require
Choose your sources you to go out and collect the data – this
is primary data. As you are trying to learn
Once you have chosen a question to
about what your neighbours recognize,
research, you need to decide what sources
it is unlikely that you will find this
to use.
information in already existing
If you want to look at whether people sources. You will need to collect
in your area recognize art from other primary data.
58
Year 7 Challenge 3
Stop
Getting data: surveys
Can you explain the
Surveys allow you to obtain information from a large
dierence between
number of people. In a survey, each person is asked the
primary and
same questions. These questions are often used to collect
secondary data?
quantitative data – that is, figures – such as ‘how many of
these pictures do you recognize?’ or ‘how often do you
listen to music in a foreign language?’. Survey questions
should be short, clear, and generally quick to answer.
Name (Optional): ____________________________
Age Gender:
1. Do you like music?
Yes No
2. How often do you listen to music from other countries?
a. Once a day c. Once a month
b. Once a week d. Never
Think carefully about the answer! Leading questions try to
questions you put in a survey! persuade respondents to give a specific
answer. You also shouldn’t give them
Make sure you are not using ‘leading
confusing questions or questions that
questions’. That is, make sure you are
have more than one possible answer.
not telling people how they should
3.14 Research: Bad questions
Read through this set of bad survey questions. Come up
with a reason why each of them is poor.
1. Do you recognize the incredibly famous painting on the right?
2. When you look at the Mona Lisa, does she look familiar?
3. Do you recognize this piece of music and do you like it?
4. Can you see this famous piece of art from another country?
59
3.15 Research: Create a survey
Create a survey to collect information on whether your local community
(family, friends, neighbours) recognizes international brands/arts/politicians,
and how well they know these.
• Think carefully about your questions.
• You might want to discuss your questions with a group of friends to check
for clarity and quality.
• Think about how you will get the survey out. Are you going to print it, email
it, post it?
• Collect at least five responses to your survey.
• Challenge question: Do you think five responses are enough to draw
conclusions about your local community? Why or why not?
3.16 From data to graphs
Can you present survey data in graphs? Try it with the data presented below.
Number of respondents: 27 Do you know who won the Nobel Prize
Number of men: 12 for Literature last year?
Number of women: 15
Yes: 6
Ages of respondents: No: 20
Maybe: 1
10–15: 10 20–25: 4
15–20: 8 25–35: 5 Do you read books in other languages?
How often do you read books by Yes: 6
foreign authors? No: 21
Once a year: 1 Often: 20 Challenge: Do you think the questions
Twice a year: 3 Never: 3 in this survey were good? Why, or
why not?
3.17 Using surveys to predict the future
The information we gather from surveys might give us some insights into
what could happen in the future. Think about what predictions these survey
responses might help us make:
• A survey found that 90% of respondents understand that the use of plastic
is a global problem.
• A survey found that four out of every five shoppers bought imported fruit.
60
Year 7 Challenge 3
Do you
think climate
5 years ago Present
change is a
major global
concer n?
Not really
Yes!
3.18 Practise Remember, the purpose of surveys is to
survey questions help us understand the experiences and
views of others. Our questions need
Can you come up with two questions you could
to be clear, specific, and non-leading.
ask in a survey about each of these topics?
A good survey can give us useful
information. A poorly designed survey
1. The impact of foreign fashion
can confuse respondents and give us
2. Local businesses and globalization
wrong information.
3.19 Poorly designed surveys
Why might these questions give us wrong information?
1. Do you not think that not changing global climate is wrong?
2. Does globalization concern you or aect you more than in the past?
3. Have you ever heard music that was not from another country?
3.20 Newspaper/magazine surveys
Newspapers and magazines often present surveys about what is happening in
your country or what is popular in a certain community. Find a survey to bring
to class and discuss what you found with your classmates.
61
Perspectives
and interviews
Globalization demonstrates how the personal, the local, and
the global are linked. For example, globalization includes
the movement of people around the world. Most of us have
family members or friends who have migrated. Have you ever
thought about why they migrated? There might have been
a personal reason – such as migrating to be with a loved
one. But there can also be larger global forces, such as jobs
opening up in a new country when oil was found. Perhaps
your friends had to leave when a change in the global
economy meant unemployment for their family. Perhaps a
national reason, such as a civil war, led them to migrate. A
combination of personal, national, and global reasons might
have aected why your family or friends moved. In turn,
their individual movement contributed to bringing ideas,
traditions, and objects from one culture to another.
To find out why your friend or family moved, it is unlikely that
you can use secondary data. You will have to use primary
data. That is, you will have to collect the information yourself.
An interview would be a good tool to use in this instance. An
interview is a qualitative method of research. This means it is
not a method to gather numerical data, but rather a method
to gather detailed information to understand a person’s
opinions, reasons, and motivations.
Ethics of research
When conducting any research, ethics should always be a
primary concern. Before interviewing anyone, or collecting
survey data, you must make sure to obtain the consent of
those you are researching.
62
Year 7 Challenge 3
To consent, people have to understand what you are doing, why
you are doing it, and how you will use any data you collect. They
also need to feel free to refuse to answer any question, to stop at
any time, and to request that you erase any information you have
on them.
Interviewees can change their mind in the middle of an interview
and ask you to stop. They can ask you to delete or give them any
information you gathered on them. You must also seek not to
hurt anyone you are interviewing. This means avoiding questions
that might cause harm or pain. This also means being careful
about collecting information that might be used against the
interests of interviewees.
3.21 Consent
As a class, discuss:
1. why consent is necessary
2. how you can ensure you have the consent of all participants
3. cases where gaining consent might be particularly dicult.
3.22 Preparing an interview
Imagine you are going to interview a classmate about how global changes
have aected their education.
How can you ensure you have their consent? What questions would you ask?
Would you create questions that break the topic into smaller issues?
Write down some of your questions. As always, check the quality of your
questions. Are they clear, focused and not leading?
3.23 Practising interviewing
In groups of three, practise conducting an interview on whether globalization
is good or bad. (Careful: Is this topic too large? Should you ask about more
focused issues?). One of you will be the interviewer, one of you will take notes,
and one of you will answer the questions. Remember to practise gaining
consent before any interview takes place. Work on taking good notes during
the interview so you can go back and review the information you have been
given. You could also choose to record the interview and listen to it later.
63
Communication
Creating a poster
Working through this challenge, you have learnt a lot about
globalization. Now you need to share what you have learnt via a poster.
In other words, your aim is to share your views on globalization, and
you will be doing this through a poster (your outcome). To arrive at your
outcome, you will have researched globalization, analysed what you
found, and evaluated these findings to reach your conclusion.
3.24 Make a poster
Work with your team to create a poster that answers the question:
Is globalization good or bad?
A few things to keep in mind when you create a poster:
• Make sure you explain complex words to your audience. You may need to
explain what globalization is, for example.
• Acknowledge arguments that disagree with your position – and answer them.
• Graphs are powerful ways to convey information. Try to use them.
• Think about your audience. Make sure they can read your poster easily.
Try to make your poster clear and interesting.
Collaboration
When working with a partner you will need to decide how to divide the
work. You will also need to decide on a system to review each other’s
work for completeness and quality.
As you do this, you want to make sure both you and your partner
feel involved and appreciated. Think of ways to express kindness and
gratitude to your partner as you work. Also think about kind ways to
bring up any criticisms. If you are struggling, remember you can always
seek the guidance of your teacher. Try to address any tensions quickly,
rather than letting them become large obstacles to your work.
64
Year 7 Challenge 3
Humour can be a powerful tool when working with others. Try
to find things you can laugh about to decrease tensions. Take
your work seriously, but don’t take yourself too seriously!
3.25 Asking for feedback
Once you have completed your poster, hold a poster showcase, where people
can walk around and read each other’s posters. This is a good opportunity to
learn from your friends’ insights and to receive some useful feedback about
your poster.
Create a short survey for people to fill out when they read your poster. You can
include the questions below. What other questions would you like to ask?
be grateful for
poster! We would
reading our
Thanks for
in the future.
b etter posters
can make even
so we
feedback
please tell us:
Could you
our poster was:
did you think
➜ How clear
clear, unclear
very clear,
our poster was:
did you think
visually interesting
➜ How
use some spark!
could
interesting,
arguments convincing?
you nd our
➜ Did
have included
think we should
else you
Is there anything
➜
in the poster?
Think back to your opinion of globalization when we started this
chapter. Has it changed?
What was the most surprising thing you learnt about globalization?
How inter-connected are you to international ideas, things, or people?
Do you find this surprising?
65
Taking it fur ther
Exploring globalization can help you see from before. You might be limited by
how the personal, the national, and the language, or you might try to use an
global are interconnected! Here are some internet translator to read something in
suggestions to take your learning further: its original language!
Time Science
• Time is an important part of • Look further into the spread of
globalization – how quickly people, epidemics. How has globalization
ideas, and things move. Time can be aected the spread of disease?
explored from multiple perspectives.
Politics and science
Look at how our perception of time
changes with movement – if you are
• Did the coronavirus pandemic stop or
really interested in physics, this could
derail globalization?
take you to the theory of relativity and
how time and space are linked! Look
Economics
at how time changes when astronauts
• Pick a consumer good (we suggest
travel. If you are interested in the social
fireworks or computers) and trace its
sciences, why not look at how politics
production process. See how many
has been moving faster and faster as
countries are involved in the process. If
technology advances. How have the
relevant, see how many languages its
Internet and communication platforms
instructions are translated into.
like Twitter aected how politics takes
place around the world?
Geography
Communication
• Look into how geographic features have
aided, or stopped, the travel of goods,
• Why not make this challenge part of the
people, and ideas around the world.
globalization of education? Try to get in
You could choose to concentrate on
touch with students from another part
only one particular geographic feature
of the world to exchange perspectives
– such as rivers. Alternatively, you could
on globalization, or to share an
look at a particular area in the world
interesting part of your culture.
– such as South Pacific Islands or the
Mediterranean – and investigate how its
Literature
geography shaped its history.
• Challenge yourself to read a book from
a distant culture you have not read
66
Year 7 Challenge 3
What did you learn?
When you complete this challenge, take a moment to reflect over what you have
learnt with the table below.
Skill I get it! I am starting to get it! I need to review this.
Analysis: I understand
how to analyse a
complex concept by
looking at its parts.
Analysis: I can
interpret and use
graphs to support
arguments.
Research: I understand
the dierence
between primary and
secondary data.
Research: I am
beginning to
understand the ethics
of research.
Research: I am
beginning to
understand how to
build a survey.
Research: I am
beginning to
understand how to
write an interview.
Analysis: I understand
that an issue can have
arguments supporting
both sides.
Communication: I can
create an interesting
poster where my
arguments are clearly
presented.
67
Year 7
Challenge
Challenge
Education
Education
4.1 Education
• What would you change about your current education?
• Do you think education should be optional or mandatory?
• Should all education be free?
Imagine the Earth is sending a mission
out into space. We are starting a new
human colony on planet Kepler-452b.
You have been selected to design the
education system in this new colony.
You are in charge of designing the
perfect education.
But what would a perfect education
look like? Would you let each family
choose what their children learn?
Would you make sure everyone learnt
maths? Would you make it mandatory
to read certain books? You have all
power. Choose wisely!
Stop
Spend some time jotting down what you think you need to know in order to
design a perfect education system. Write down some quick notes of where
you might find this information. You could also write some ideas you already
have about what a perfect education would be like. Try to be creative and think
outside the box.
68
Cambridge Lower Secondary
Complete
Global Perspectives
Written by a truly international team of Global
Perspectives educators and experts, this course
Cambridge Lower Secondary
develops the skills of research, analysis, evaluation,
Complete
reection, collaboration and communication. Through Global Perspectives
Karem Roitman
Rory Blackstock
Nazim Qureshi
the course, students will grow as critical thinkers, Vijay Shetty
creative investigators and powerful communicators.
Divided into Years 7, 8 and 9, this book has the
following features:
• Challenges – Each year is made up of multiple
T E AC H E R’ S GUIDE
Oxford excellence for Cambridge Lower Secondary
challenges and every one helps students explore
a series of relevant topics
ISBN: 9781382008761
• Exercises – Clearly signposted, each exercise helps
students develop the key skills required
• Extension activities – At the end of each challenge,
there is the opportunity for students to take their
research further and link it with other subjects
Empowering ever y learner to succeed and progress
Full coverage of the three -year programme
Reviewed by subjec t specialists
Stretching ex tension ac tivities
Embedded critical thinking skills
Progression to the next educational stage
eBook
Available
How to get in touch:
ISBN 978-1-382-00874-7
web www.oxfordsecondary.co.uk
email [email protected]
