What is a good lesson plan to teach 8th grade students about the Columbian Exhange?

Answer 1

Wikipedia has some interesting information about the Columbian Exchange.

As for teaching it I think that I might start out with a brainstorming. Have kids tell you some things that are grown in the US. You could start the list with Florida oranges and then have them take it from there.

After the brainstorming give them some notes about how the exchange started and why there are different foods now in these regions. Most kids know about the potato famine. I did not know that potatoes are not even indigenous to that area. Everyone thinks that tomatoes have always been in Italy. I think that the kids would find this to be interesting.

You can give them some question sheets to help them to organize the information.

At the end they can have their own Columbian Exchange. Allow them to each make a dish that contains an ingredient that you have reviewed. One kid could even bring orange juice so that there are drinks. In order to try something different they must make an exchange. You can have kids make things in groups of 3 so that you do not have too many things and when 1 is off making a trade someone else can man the post.

I do a market day with my language kids and they always have fun with it. The key in my course is they have to speak the foreign language.

Answer 2

Talk about all the millions of Natives we accidentally killed by being the harbingers of measles, smallpox, and influenza LOL