The KeyCode project (2020-1-FR01-KA201-080108) is funded, by the European Commission through the French National Agency for the Erasmus+ Programme, with the aim of addressing the challenges that young students face in consolidating their European identity.

The KeyCode project is funded, by the European Commission through the French National Agency for the Erasmus+ Programme, with the aim of addressing the challenges that young students face in consolidating their European identity.

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Teaching Resources

Chairs


Duration
45 minutes

Age Group
13 - 14
15 - 16

Objectives
Promotion of EU citizenship, EU and democratic values and human rights
Enhancement of empathy outside school (friends, family, strangers
Development of empathic behavior at school

Needed material

Emotional Intelligence Areas
Self-regulation
Empathy
Social skills

Description
The activity gives participants an opportunity to think about inequalities in connection to local and global realities. Activity is experiential and offers participants a way to imagine social and environmental injustice in their own and global communities better.

It shows the events behind the historical development of industrialized countries of global north and offers space for discussion on how this “development” has affected different parts of the world and various communities.

Participants experience and think about the causes of uneven distribution of wealth and goods by illuminating the historical background of industrial or economic "development" of different parts of the world and current social conditions.

It is important for the facilitator to expose uneven distribution of wealth (power etc…) not only in relation to global north and south but also in relation to micro realities of the students (classroom, within the country) to address possible reasons for this inequalies and to reflect on the living conditions of people all over the globe.

Lesson Plan
STEP 1
Pupils are divided into two groups. We put only two or three people in smaller group, and all the rest in a larger one. A smaller group represents the so called
global north and larger global south (teacher of course does not tell this to the students during the activity itself). The task of students is to sit on the chair for the time of the activity. No extra chairs or other seating aids may be used (tables, floors, etc.). Teacher choose or invite one of the students to her as
assistant to help with implementation.

STEP 2
The assistant uses the computer to project/screen the photographs one after the other (Annex). Each time a new photograph is showed assistant moves one chair from the larger group (Global South) to a smaller one (Global North).
The pupils should find a way to keep sited, despite the smaller and smaller
number of chairs. (They should also sit on each other's feet or on each other's laps.)

STEP 3
After each chair movement, the assistant shows the new picture and its description also loudly read. The photos are shown in the following chronological order:

1. Christopher Columbus discovers America.
2. Ferdinand Magellan sails the world.
3. Hernan Cortez conquers the Aztec Empire.
4. Francisco Pizzaro defeats the Incas.
5. An East India Company is established (1600) - the first imperial trade company.
6. The transatlantic slave trade begins.
7. Sugar cane is brought to Cuba.
8. They start growing coffee in Brazil.
9. The first mechanical looms are made.
10. Invention of the steam engine.
11. Diamond mines are discovered in the Republic of South Africa.
12. Invention of the internal engine by combustion.
13. The first plane succeeds to take off.
14. The World Bank is established.
15. The first supertanker sails.
16. The first microchip is made.
17. A ‘green’ revolution is happening in agriculture.
18. The dollar is no longer convertible into gold.
19. World Trade Organization is established.
20. The number of computers exceeds one billion.
21. The number of people exceeds seven billion.

Teacher may adjust the photographs and statements to the number and age of students.

STEP 4
After viewing the pictures and picking up the chairs, the students talk about what they have experienced. Questions in assessment may help the teacher to lead the discussion. Teacher tie the discussion appropriately to the topic that follows.
The focus can be on development, education, resistance, migration, overexploitation of natural resources, etc. During the debate, you can also show the video West was build on racism.

Assessment
To assess the activity in class with students, you shold ask the following question:
- What was going on during the activity?
- What did you see, notice?
- How did you feel in your situation
(address a smaller and larger group dynamics separately)?
- Did you think of any of the events as "Negative"? Which ones? Were they negative for everyone?
- What could be going on in this activity connected with some events in the world, historical movements, etc., can you notice some parallels?
- How you could change the rules of that activity?
- Would the picture of today's world be somewhat different at a different course of history and exploitation of the global south?
- What are your thoughts now after the activity?
- What are your feeling now after the activity?

Links for further information

Download further documentation


TESTING AND ASSESSMENT