Novel representations and diverse perspectives can reveal new insights into complex systems, and can support rich understandings of the world. In this activity, students will identify and analyze the choices artists and scientists make when creating representations of living or non-living natural objects. This process will help students recognize the potential and place for their own articulation of how the world works. After drawing from nature, students will reflect on the process of representing information, then compare their drawings with that of a 16th-century artist. Students will consider what is included and what is excluded, and hypothesize about larger contexts and systems.

This curriculum unit will examine the lens Hollywood uses to depict the continent of Africa from both the 20th and 21st century. From the viewing of early films such as Tarzan (1918), Trader Horn (1931) and King Solomon’s Mines (1950) to more recent films such as Tears of the Sun (2003), Last King of Scotland (2006), Blood Diamond (2006), Beasts of No Nation (2015), Queen of Katwe (2016) and Black Panther (2018) teachers will guide students as they examine the conceptualization of Africa offered by Hollywood. Students will understand how film is a powerful medium that has the ability to influence society on a local as well as global scale. How significant is Hollywood in helping to shape people’s viewpoint of African people and culture? What is the impact of perceptions imposed by Hollywood films with African settings on global audiences? How did the 2018 Marvel Black Panther (a film which profoundly contradicts the common portrait of Hollywood’s Africa) become such a blockbuster success throughout the world? How has African cinema countered the typical categories of war, corruption, white heroism and chronic poverty? In what ways can film create or disrupt a social/cultural trend? The discourse following these key questions will encourage the analytical and critical thinking needed to write letters to director/character, film reviews, critiques and re-write/direct/film scenes from popular Hollywood films with African themes. The intention of this unit is to eliminate the harmful misconceptions of the African continent as students begin their journey of discovering the humanity of a people that have been inaccurately and historically represented. This curriculum unit was designed after participating in the TIP seminar; History of Hollywood led by University of Pennsylvania Professor of Cinema Studies, Peter Decherney. This seminar was a thorough resource providing the significant background information of Hollywood’s transformations from its inception to the present.

Through this lesson, students will be able to identify how the formal elements of various documents produce representations of the Caribbean as a complex and layered space impacted by slavery, industry, agriculture, and colonial and touristic desire. They will be able to describe the differences between textual and visual representations of landscape and articulate how form impacts content. Building on an understanding of the multiplicity of ways the same space can be represented, they will also be able to critically interrogate the rhetoric of representative media.

There are two units in this curriculum packet to give a full comprehensive introduction into film techniques and gender and race representation in film. The first unit focuses on film techniques such as camera angles, sound, lighting, characterization and mise-en-scene. This is to give the students the appropriate subject knowledge and language to discuss and analyze film. The second part of the curriculum requires students to use their acquired knowledge of film to critically analyze how directors use film techniques to represent gender and race in film and how these representations can perpetuate stereotypes.

These instructional resources provide context and content in support of the Humanities in Class Webinar titled "How Islam is Portrayed in Comics".

In this lesson, students will explore descriptions of points along the Silk Road and connect them with representations of non-European textiles and architecture found in European art. Taking the travel narratives of Marco Polo as foundational texts, this lesson asks students to identify statements of value associated with various trade goods discussed in the travel narrative and to consider what preconceptions Marco Polo seems to have brought to his encounters with various peoples. The lesson consists of a short introductory discussion to set historical bearings, a group conversation and close reading of one section of The Travels of Marco Polo, and small group analysis of another extract from Marco Polo followed by a brief concluding discussion.

"I cannot remember who first introduced me to the work of Roald Dahl, but it is his books that sparked a lifelong love of reading for me. I grew up as the only girl between two brothers and our house was peppered with sports equipment; our calendar was controlled by games, practices, and tournaments. We all played sports, and I was frequently the only girl on the boys’ baseball teams, in the age division, and for a long time, in the league. Off the field, I loved school, reading, and arts & crafts. So, at times, I felt a little different or out of place. Like most kids, I often wondered how to act or how to be." This Humanities Moment was collected as part of the 2021 Graduate Student Summer Residency Program.

This lesson supplements the curriculum of Core Knowledge Language Arts Domain 2 Unit Listening and Learning: Early Asian Civilizations. Domain 11 Listening and Learning: Immigration explores the push and pull factors for people from diverse cultures to migrate to the United States. The unit provides an introduction to the Southeast Asia using Modern Vietnam as the focal point. The lesson provides an integrated social studies and reading unit to front-load background knowledge for second graders to better access middle-school social studies non-fiction content. This unit explores how place can form a person's culture and identity. This lesson will provide an enrichment lesson connecting the two units. The students will learn about Ancient Vietnam and Modern Day Vietnam.

My humanities moment is a novel that changed my life and informed my path as an educator and researcher. But before I expound upon it, I need to tell you my story.

"The sixth grade stands out for me as one of those important milestones in life. As an adult, I have numerous precise moments of recollection where a memory is so vivid it feels as if I can recall every word and emotion. Our school was a small neighborhood Catholic school with a tragic past. In the late 1950s, the school burned down, and ninety-five people lost their lives." This Humanities Moment was collected as part of the 2021 Graduate Student Summer Residency Program.