Human ecology

Cavemen to Kings: Full Episode | The Greeks

Icon:

Learn about the dawning of the first great European civilization: the ancient Greeks. Learn about the dawn of the Stone Age and powerful myths the Greeks used to explain their place in the world. Then follow along to learn about the ancient Greek seafarers of the Bronze Age, the Minoans and Mycenae who lived on Crete and beyond. Finally, discover their downfall, as the first age of the Greeks descended into darkness.

Education in Fiji

Icon:

Several students on the 2010 trip to Fiji wanted to focus on the children of Fiji. Undergraduate Anna McCown’s individual project was a study of education in Fiji. Anna noted cultural differences in the interactions between teachers and students. The primary focus of her project was the loss of indigenous knowledge due to the influences of western colonialism and the development of the educational system and curriculum in Fiji. Undergraduate Lindsay Whiteaker studied the Fijian child’s perspective, how they live, their ideas about food and social relationships. She gave children drawing assignments, and then interviewed them after completion of their drawings. Her group project was a study of Fijian music. Undergraduate Helena Corzan’s individual project was to discover cultural differences by asking children to take photographs of things they thought were beautiful, things they thought were ugly, as well as their friends, family, and their home. Her findings are surprising.

Overview of the Fiji Expedition

Icon:

The National Science Foundation developed an REU (Research Experiences for Undergraduates) grant to create opportunities for students from diverse backgrounds to participate in "hands-on" scientific research. University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) anthropologist, Dr. Sharyn Jones, was program leader for a two-year grant that provided funds for 18 students to participate in a summer field school based in Fiji. Nine students participated in an archaeology program in the summer of 2009. In 2010, a different group of nine students participated in a cultural anthropology and ethnohistory program.

Dr. Loretta Cormier, associate professor of anthropology at UAB, gives a detailed overview of the 2010 Fiji Expedition. This overview, coming from a cultural anthropologist's prospective, is especially insightful. Visit the UAB in Fiji website for the "Virtual Field Trip."

Fijian Folkways

Icon:

Folkways are considered any informal mores that are followed through imitation and mild social pressure but not strictly enforced or put into law. Dr. Sharyn Jones discusses some Fijian folkways as she narrates a video tour of the town of Liku, a town of about 60 people. It is the most traditional village on the island of Nayau.

Sapelo Island Culture

Icon:

This video segment from Egg: the arts show presents the Gullah/Geechee community of Sapelo Island, a barrier island located off the coast of Georgia. The original Gullah/Geechee people were enslaved there but when slavery was abolished, the island was abandoned to the former slaves. Sapelo Island's valuable land is now threatened as it is the only Gullah/Geechee community to successfully resist real estate development. Each year, in order to preserve and educate people outside Sapelo, island residents hold a festival bringing people to the island to teach them about Gullah/Geechee life and culture.

Lesson 4: Homestead Act Signed: The Challenges of the Plains

Icon:

The Plains were hard to live on. Many of the newcomers were used to living in villages and then walking or riding out to their fields to farm, but the Homestead Act required claimers to live on and farm the land in 160-acre plots. Loneliness was a fact of life. Settlers also had to contend, both physically and psychologically, with what to them was a wilderness. Each geographic area presented its own challenges, and the settlers learned to adapt to the environment.

Barrio de Paz | Global Oneness Project

Icon:

Students watch a short film, Barrio de Paz by Emmanuel Vaughan-Lee, which tells the story of peace worker Nelsa Libertad Curbelo and the city's gang youth, who have left behind a life of crime to come together and provide services to their struggling community. Loved like a mother, Nelsa has helped the gangs channel their need for unity, structure, and love into the power to participate in society.

In this lesson, students explore how respect, trust, and love can transform youth violence. Through classroom discussion, students examine reasons why young people join gangs and ways those instincts can become the foundation for creative participation in society. Reflective writing prompts are also included for students to demonstrate their understanding of the story.

Desert Razors ATVs | Outdoor Nevada

Icon:

In this episode host John Burke takes a high-speed tour on an ATV.

Designing and Engineering the Colosseum | Time Scanners: Colosseum: Chapter 2

Icon:

To learn more about the engineering design of Rome's Colosseum, the team travels to the city of Pozzuoli in this segment from Time Scanners. Pozzuoli's smaller, yet beautifully preserved amphitheatre is extremely similar to the Colosseum's design. The team explores the hypogeum, an area beneath the fighting arena from where the Romans staged the gladiators and wild animals before the fights.

Theodore Roosevelt and the Western Experience

Icon:

Theodore Roosevelt and the Western Experience examines the 26th president of the United States. TR or Teddy as he has come to be known, balanced his identity of an intellectual from the East with the frontiersman of the West. His love of nature as a boy carried on throughout his life, influencing policy decisions as president that we still see today.

Human ecology

Pages