CultureGrams & World Conflicts Today
Standards-Aligned Insight into Daily Life & Global Conflicts

National Curriculum Standards

National Standards for Social Studies
Power, Authority, & Governance

• Standard A [High School]: Social Studies programs should include experiences that provide for the study of how people create and change structures of power, authority, and governance, so that the learner can examine persistent issues involving the rights, roles, and status of the individual (or individual nation) in relation to the general welfare.
• Standard C [High School]: Social Studies programs should include experiences that provide for the study of how people create and change structures of power, authority, and governance, so that the learner can analyze and explain ideas and mechanisms to meet needs and wants of citizens, regulate territory, manage conflict, establish order and security, and balance competing conceptions of a just society.
• Standard F [High School]: Social Studies programs should include experiences that provide for the study of how people create and change structures of power, authority, and governance, so that the learner can analyze and evaluate conditions, actions, and motivations that contribute to conflict and cooperation within and among nations.

Developed by the National Council for the Social Studies

National Standards for Geography
Human Systems

• Standard 11: The geographically-informed person knows and understands the patterns and networks of economic interdependence on Earth's surface.
• Standard 13: The geographically-informed person knows and understands how forces of cooperation and conflict among people influence the division and control of Earth's surface.

Developed by the National Council for Geographic Education

• CultureGrams World Edition
• United Nations Website
• News articles on controversies surrounding the Olympic Games

1. Introduce students to the history and functions of the United Nations. You may want to access information from the United Nations website. As a class, discuss the role of the United Nations in conflict resolution. What forums are available to address disputes between nations?
   
   
2. Ask students to research the motivations behind countries' decisions to boycott Olympic Games (e.g., the 1980 and 1984 Games). Have the students each bring in at least one news article about a controversy surrounding the 2008 Games in Beijing (e.g., Tibetan independence and the violence in Darfur). Comprehensive information on Darfur is available in World Conflicts Today. Discuss why a country might choose to boycott a future Games or use the Olympics to highlight political issues.
   
   
3. Assign each student a different country to represent in a mock U.N. Security Council. Students should read the CultureGrams report of the country they represent so that they can support their country's interests in a debate.
   
   
4. Pick a topic to be debated at the Security Council meeting, such as Tibetan autonomy or how to end the conflict in Darfur. Have students representing the member countries debate the different sides of the issue. After all the presentations have been given, have the students vote on the topics. They should be able to explain the rationale for their decisions to the class.