Coffee…for thoughts (LS-GR-705)
Teaching History to upper secondary students is always challenging, as their interest has to be constantly, stimulated. Coffee, the most popular universal drink, becomes the motive for students to connect the past with the present, understand its complexity, and challenge stereotypes. This LS is such an attempt. Europeana resources are presented with the BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) method in the classroom and students are called to collaborate on research, think critically and conclude.
Aims
In this Learning Scenario students research different kinds of sources (mainly visual and less written) and, working in small groups, they develop the ability to select information, think critically (with the help of teachers’ questions) and come out with conclusions. Connecting the past with the present is a crucial point in history teaching as the past is something very remote and unfamiliar for teenagers, and as a result, they get bored during history lessons.
Using coffee, the most popular drink around the globe that stimulates the body and mind of millions of people every morning, as a point of departure students try to build a sense of the world back in the 1600s and this journey makes them think, as well, for the present world.
Evaluation
The feedback from the students was very warm: they filled in the evaluation form on Fast Poll and none of them (a class of 26 students) find the lesson boring. The use of school tablets made their research intriguing (Bring Your Own Device method) they had no difficulty using them.
The Learning Scenario has many extensions and it can be modified in order to be used in different subjects or for online teaching.
Would you like to know more about this learning scenario? You can download it below:
Did you find this learning scenario interesting? You might also like:
- The power of tea
- Earth Quest-Virtual Global Adventures
- From coffee, tea and tobacco to unesco (Blog article)
Public Domain Mark 1.0: the featured image used to illustrate this article has been found on Europeana and has been provided by the Rijksmuseum.