pdf, 1.26 MB
pdf, 1.26 MB
Few teaching units can effectively capture the breadth of human history since the dawn of farming to the present day, but Jared Diamond's breathtaking series, Guns, Germs and Steel does so with aplomb.

High school students being what they are, however, they may not fully appreciate Diamond's fascinating episodes for their own sake. That's where these worksheets come in. They will help hold students accountable for paying close attention to the videos so that much more content is learned and absorbed. This bundle contains video worksheets for episodes 1 and 2 of Jared Diamond's 3-part series. (There is no worksheet provided for episode 3 simply because, after having used this series with World History and Economics classes for several years, I have concluded that the third episode is the weakest. The most important content is well-covered in the first two episodes, which is what my classes focus on every year.)

ABOUT GUNS, GERMS and STEEL

This series is *perfect* for World History courses and fits in well when studying the ancient world and again when looking at the age of European imperialism. Basically, the series is an exploration of one of the key questions about the modern world: why are wealth and power distributed so unequally? Why are some continents so rich while others seem to be so poor?

Because this is the major focus of the series, it is also ideal for Economics classes.

During the Age of Imperialism, a number of explanations were floated to explain these discrepancies. By and large, they were based on racism. Diamond debunks these skillfully, presenting the idea that won him a Pulitzer Prize: the physical geography of the earth has had a controlling influence on the development of key technological breakthroughs that gave some areas a head start over others. It all starts with farming, and with the fact that not all world areas started off with the same wealth of animals that were capable of being domesticated. The shape of the continents has actually been a key historical force, according to Diamond; those with a long east-west axis enjoyed a great advantage over those with a north-south orientation. From these factors, much of the modern world has sprung.

WHEN TO USE THE VIDEOS AND WORKSHEETS

Guns, Germs and Steel fits into the curriculum at a number of key places -- it truly is a very versatile video to add to your teaching library. You could show episodes when the class reaches any of the following moments in history:

* Neolithic revolution
* Fertile Crescent
* Age of Exploration
* Age of Imperialism
* Spanish Conquest of South America
* Age of New Imperialism

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