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

National Curriculum Standards

National Standards for Social Studies

• Culture: Standard C [High School]: Social studies programs should include experiences that provide for the study of culture and cultural diversity, so that the learner can apply an understanding of culture as an integrated whole that explains the functions and interactions of language, literature, the arts, traditions, beliefs and values, and behavior patterns.
• Culture: Standard E [High School]: Social studies programs should include experiences that provide for the study of culture and cultural diversity, so that the learner can demonstrate the value of cultural diversity, as well as cohesion, within and across groups.
• People, Places, & Environments: Standard H [High School]: Social studies programs should include experiences that provide for the study of people, places, and environments, so that the learner can examine, interpret, and analyze physical and cultural patterns and their interactions, such as land use, settlement patterns, cultural transmission of customs and ideas, and ecosystem changes.

Developed by the National Council for the Social Studies

National Standards for Geography

• Places and Regions: Standard 4: The geographically informed person knows and understands the physical and human characteristics of places.
• Human Systems: Standard 9: The geographically informed person knows and understands the characteristics, distribution, and migration of human populations on Earth's surface.
• Human Systems: Standard 10: The geographically informed person knows and understands the characteristics, distribution, and complexity of Earth's cultural mosaics.

Developed by the National Council for Geographic Education

• CultureGrams World Edition

1. Assign each student two countries to research. The countries may be assigned within a particular region the class is studying, or they may be assigned at random from any part of the globe. For example, the names of different countries could be written on slips of paper placed in a bowl, and each student could determine their assigned countries by drawing two slips of paper.
   
   
2. Using the CultureGrams Distance Calculator, students should determine how far apart their two countries' capitals are. Then have them use the World Time feature to determine how many hours separate the two capitals.
   
   
3. Have the students imagine that the distances in space and time they determined in step 2 no longer exist. They should imagine a hypothetical scenario in which the two countries neighbor each other and plan to merge into a single, unified country.
   
   
4. With this scenario in mind, the students should read the CultureGrams reports for their assigned countries. They should take notes on what characteristics the countries share and how the countries are different.
   
   
5. Using their notes, the students should write an essay analyzing the prospects for the new country. What challenges would the new country face? How would the country benefit?

Have the students read the CultureGrams World Edition report for Germany, paying particular attention to the History, General Attitudes, and Economy sections. As a class, discuss the challenges the former East Germany and West Germany faced when they became a single country in 1990. The two countries shared a language and common history, but reunification still presented major problems. How would these problems be compounded if two countries with different languages and cultures attempted to unify? Did the students address the magnitude of the challenges in their essays?