This is a lesson that can be done in small or large classes. I have done this lesson in the cross-cultural understanding class I have taught the past 2 years. The goal of this lesson is to get students to think about how their standard of living compares to other of people's standard of living and also to teach them vocabulary related to global studies. This is a rough outline of the lesson.
Time: 90 minutes
I Introduction
Today we are going to investigate the different levels of standard of living that we can find on this earth. >
II <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">Excercise 1: How much money do people have?
Using the following map for reference, students fill out the following worksheet (Answers are on the second page). In the worksheet, students guess how much money each region in the earth would have if there were only 100 dollar bills, how many people each region would have if there were only 100 people, the number of dollars per person in each region, and what the area of each region of the world would be if the total area of the earth was 100.
This is based on a lesson from a Japanese Global Education group.
III Exercise 2: What is the standard of living of people on this earth?
Part 1
Students fill out the following worksheet (html version) (pdf version). This worksheet is taken from the popular "If the World were 100 People" book. The work sheet looks something like this:
If the World were 100 PEOPLE:
There would be:
____________ Asians
____________Europeans
____________ from the West Hemisphere
____________Africans
____________ from North America
____________ from South America and the Caribbean ____________Africans
____________from Oceania
___________ non-white*
___________ white*
etc... There are a lot of items.
Depending on how much time you have, students can guess the number for each item or you can have students read the items in groups and confirm that they understand each item (there are some difficult ones). The teacher goes over the meaning or explains difficult words.
Part 2
Students watch a movie called Miniature Earth which presents the "If the World were 100 People" data. It can be viewed freely on the internet or you can download it onto your computer for $5. Students fill out the blanks in the worksheet. Some of the items in the worksheet are not in the movie. You can have students guess these items and then tell them the answers. The answers for the worksheet can be viewed here.
Part 3
For homework students write what about the movie surprised them and how representative their country is to the global village of 100 people.
