Are Memories Like Water?
ARE MEMORIES LIKE WATER?
LESSON PLAN 1
The following lesson plan can be used in isolation, or as part of a prepatory investigation into the history of the Aral Sea, or the history of water, or as it was in this case, part of a broader inquiry-based project into, for exampe, the notion of 'community', hich, in this case was approached through an inquiry into the importance of water in the community, be it the importance and role of water in present day communities, or the importance and role of water in the settlement of communities in the ancient past (at this point it can link up with the Grade 6 unit on The Hiittites and revise the impressive engineering feats which enabled the Hittites to set up their community/civilization in such a remot area).The student responses given below came from Grade 8 students.
OBJECTIVES:
To have students reflect on the nature of memory
To have students inquire into and understand the importance of and history of water
To introduce students to the history of the Aral sea
To use an inquiry into the history of the Aral Sea to help students deepen their understanding of th concepts of 'causality, 'consequence', 'community' (it can be also linked to the concept of 'human rights' in the unit 'The Justice-In-Justice').
O enable students to make connections across disciplines and with other topics they have studied in the path through school.
Time: 40-60 minutes
PART 1 (20 minutes):
(Teacher's notes: Each student has to write down their answer to the following strange-sounding question. Emphasize how free they must feel to say things which might even not quite make sense to them. All responses must be typed up on the whiteboard, or written on to a large communial piece of paper)
INITIAL QUESTION: IN WHAT WAYS ARE MEMORIES LIKE WATER?
“You’ve got tons of memories and there’s tons of water” (EMMA)
“They both flow down, so the water flows down the river and the memories go flowing down and the more memories you get the less you remember something. The first ememories you get are at the top. Then theres another one that piushes it down. And another one that piusheis it down. This ius like water because they are flowing down. And the river flows always down. “ (THOMAS)
“Memories can be related with water because maybe you have some meories of swimming or being on the beach” (PAULA)
“Memories come and go like how water evaporates into the atmosphere and then comes down the drains” (JACK )
“memores are created and they stay in your head. And water creates different structures like caves and rocks that are coimpressed togeyher and they stay there for a long time”. (TREVOR)
“Memories are part ofwho you are. And without memories you would not be who you are today. Water is too. 75% of your body is made up of water.” (EMMA)
“Jellyfishes are made of 90% Water” (THOMAS)
“Some times memories are like ice, you can hold them and then they become like water and they flow through your gineres and you don’t remember them any more, and after they turn bak to ice and yuou can catch them”. (THOMAS)
“The water is like your memoery when it is evaporating it is like oyu are forgetting something and aafter when it condenses it is like you remoind yourself of it” (PAPON)
“ memories I slike water in the human body” (AWATIF)
“In Harry Potter the memories are represented as a watery substance. They pull it out of their heads then they put it into this basin” (EMMA)
PART 2 (15 minutes)
THE MEMORIES IN WATER: THE DISAPPEARING SEA
What do we think we know about the Aral Sea?
“Never heard of it;”
“It is a sea.”
“It is probably attached to a continent.”
“Its not an ocean.”
“It contains water”
“Its made of water.”
“And it probably disappeared, considering the title.”
“Probably because of bombs or money”
What puzzles us about the Aral Sea?
“When did it disappear?”
“Why did it disappear?”
“Did it disappear?”
“How did it ever exist?”
“How did it disappear?”
“Who made it disappear?”
“Where is it?”
“Where was it?”
“For how long did it exist?”
“Did anyone ever see it?”
“Has anyone still alive seen it?”
“Have we got any proof that it existed?”
“Why are we learning about it?”
“How big was it?”
“How important was it?”
RESUME and CONCLUSION (5 minutes)
HOW ARE WE GOING TO EXPLORE THESE QUESTIONS?
See Lesson Plan 2 (a) and 2 (b) for the exploration.
See Lesson Plan 3-4 for the production of a 'Living (Aral Sea Memory) Wall.