TITLE:  DEVELOPED or UNDERDEVELOPED?

AUTHOR:   Betsy Mahoney;  Moorcroft Elementary,
           Moorcroft, WY

GRADE LEVEL/SUBJECT:  Grades 5 - 12

OVERVIEW:  For many years there has been controversy about
what it means for a nation to be "developed" or
"underdeveloped", "third world", "haves" and "have-nots".
This activity is designed to help students be aware of the
controversy and to examine the meaning of development to a
nation and to man.

PURPOSE:  The purpose of this activity, used during a study
of world cultures and the connections between all people, is
to help students understand world issues and trends, value
diversity (in their classroom as well as among all people),
and increase awareness of their planet.

OBJECTIVE(s):
  Students will -
  1. identify and discuss the factors that make a country
     a developed or developing country.
  2. examine their own definitions of \\\{developed and
     underdeveloped.
  3. create a product (scrapbooks, collages, poems,
     essays, etc.) that depicts their view of \\\
     {developed or underdeveloped.

RESOURCES/MATERIALS:
Teacher Resources - slide projector and slides (I used some
of my own and borrowed many.  Try for a wide variety and
some surprises.For example, I used an elaborately decorated
cathedral on a Montana Indian reservation, Nazi
concentration camps, a Paris street scene, the Acropolis, a
shanty in Appalachia, and a woman chasing a pig with a broom
in a Swiss village, as well as others.)

Student Materials-  pencils and paper, lots of magazine
pictures, art materials, etc., for products.

ACTIVITIES AND PROCEDURES:
1.   Without prior discussion, show the students a series of
     slides featuring people and places from countries
     around the world.  For each slide, students are to
     independently write in what country the picture was
     taken, and does the picture depict a developed or an
     underdeveloped situation.
2.   Refuse to discuss or define "developed" or
     "underdeveloped" while showing the slides the first
     time.
3.   Show the slides a second time, this time discussing
     each one and listening to the students' responses and
     interaction.
4.   Encourage students during the discussion to consider
     fuller ways of seeing the world.
5.   In some way, discuss the definitions of "developed" and
     "underdeveloped".
     I use brainstorming with the whole group and
     encourage the use of the thesaurus.
6.   Work on individual or group products depicting the
     student's definitions.

TYING IT ALL TOGETHER:
1.   Share the completed products with the class and perhaps
     the entire student body.  Consider submitting some of
     the written work for publication.
2.   As a follow-up activity, invite international students
     to visit the class.
3.   Students will have begun to examine their own
     assumptions and are now aware that development and
     underdevelopment could encompass factors other than
     industrialization and technology.