Mexico City and a Wealth of Curriculum Ideas
Mexico City in many ways represents a microcosm of the world in the resources it offers, including both challenges and possibilities. Our visit to Mexico City revealed to us the immense wealth of opportunities for designing and implementing a high quality, 21st century, project-based curriculum. The following, which we either experienced or were told about during this trip, barely scratch the surface of possibilities.
Curriculum that is rigorous, relevant and real-world can be built from any of the ideas suggested here. From within these themes all subjects can be taught. These themes also offer rich opportunities for students to develop critical multiple literacies and 21st century skills. Here are ideas to bring your curriculum to life!
Curriculum that is rigorous, relevant and real-world can be built from any of the ideas suggested here. From within these themes all subjects can be taught. These themes also offer rich opportunities for students to develop critical multiple literacies and 21st century skills. Here are ideas to bring your curriculum to life!
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Performing Arts Ballet Folklorico de Mexico - The ballet works and musical pieces reflect various regions and folk music genres of Mexico. Many of the ensemble's works reflect the traditions of indigenous Mesoamerican culture. Watch a sampling video here. (The first dance on this sampling video lasts just under 10 minutes, then there are a number of other very different dances - all amazing!) Thrilled with this performance, I began to consider possibilities for the curriculum. A global, collaborative classrooms project came to mind in which students from various cultures, who have their own festivals which include dance, music and costume could learn about each other's cultures - developing global competencies. I thought of the Aviv Festival celebrated by Jewish schools and the Navratri Festival celebrated by Hindu schools - and there are many more! Also see Developing Global Competencies Through the Arts. |
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Mexican Muralism was "the promotion of mural painting, starting in the 1920s, generally with social and political messages as part of efforts to reunify the country under the post Mexican Revolution government. It was headed by “the big three” painters, Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco and David Alfaro Siqueiros. From the 1920s to about the 1970s a large number of murals with nationalistic, social and political messages were created on public buildings, starting a tradition which continues to this day in Mexico and has had impact in other parts of the Americas, including the United States where it served as inspiration for the Chicano art movement." [1]
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Diego Rivera [2] made connections to the relationships among art, nature and technology. Orozco was fond of the theme of human suffering, but less realistic and more fascinated by machines than Rivera. Siqueiros was a Marxist-Leninist in support of Stalin and a member of the Mexican Communist Party who participated in an unsuccessful attempt to assassinate Leon Trotsky in May 1940.
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Architecture
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Speleology – this related topic was inspired by our visit to La Gruta, a short distance from Gate 5 at the Teotihuacan pyramids, a beautiful restaurant deep below the surface - in a cave!
Speleology is the scientific study of caves and other karst features, their make-up, structure, physical properties, history, life forms, and the processes by which they form (speleogenesis) and change over time (speleomorphology). |
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Literature, Theatre and Music – each year in Mexico there are Cervantino Festivals in honor of Miguel Cervantes, the author of El ingenioso hidalgo don Quijote de la Mancha
In one of the images here is the group "Modo Antiquo" performing under the direction of Federico Maria Sardelli during the 41st International Cervantino Festival in Guanajuato, Mexico, Oct. 13, 2013 |
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History
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Environmental Studies for Mexico City and Mexico:
There are seemingly an infinite number of possibilities for real-world project-based learning stemming from environmental issues in Mexico City and Mexico. That said, all of these issues are relevant to students everywhere. From local to global, you and your students can design a high level project that not only serves as a vehicle for learning content standards, but provides opportunities for developing multiple literacies and 21st century skills. And last, but not least, these projects connect the curriculum to the real world. Here are opportunities for students to truly make a difference! Share this list with your students and let them brainstorm other possibilities . . this is, after all, just a small starter list. Now is the time to begin planning that amazing project for the new school year - and it doesn't have to wait for Earth Hour in March or Earth Day in April! |
- Monarch Butterfly - read this recent article in a Mexican newspaper. These insects migrate each year on a route from southern Canada to central Mexico, so students living in this path may be able to not only witness this phenomenon, but can participate in collecting data for scientific studies, and they can do something about restoring the diminishing habitats they need. A growing number of schools have created Butterfly Gardens. See Monarch Watch.
- Air Pollution - Click here to read a recent news article about Mexico City ordering all cars off the road one day/week.
- Waste management - in addition to the piling up of garbage above ground, the burial of waste contributes to serious water and air pollution problems. One of the most beautiful, modern and expensive areas of Mexico City, Santa Fe, is built on what was a city dump. Waste management is a problem worldwide. Students could investigate solutions and then create a plan to present to their city council or state legislature.
- Water Supplies - see Mexico City's water crisis - from source to sewer (November 2015) for an excellent introduction to this issue. Issues related to the lack of water abound worldw ide. One of the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals for 2015-2030 is to "Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all."
- Urban planning - you may be surprised to know that we can learn a great deal about urban planning from the Aztecs! Students may learn about urban planning from ancient times to the 21st century. Also, as you can see from the description of this degree program [4] at Columbia University urban planning actually encompasses many of the other issues listed on this page about Mexico City. Many excellent student projects can come out of a focus on urban planning - and they can be designed for any grade level.
And, expanding to the nation, all of the above plus:
- Deforestation - See this article in the Banderas News (in English) about deforestation in a U.N. World Heritage Site. From there, students can explore deforestation on a global basis.
- The Sea Turtle – the canary in the gold mine of the ocean. [5] Read this recent article in the Mexican Daily News (in English) about the plight of the sea turtle. Here is one of several excellent web sites and programs in Mexico for students' study of the sea turtle and other environmental issues.
- Gulf of Mexico - from the plight of sea turtles to the studies in meteorology (hurricanes), oceanography, the Gulf of Mexico "Dead Zone", to energy, nutrition, economics (from tourism to oil drilling), statistics, geography, coral reefs, shipwrecks, ecosystems, and climatology, and more, there are a multitude of possibilities for curriculum related to this body of water. History, literature, language arts, music, math, sciences, technologies, government, international relations and more can be taught via the study of the Gulf of Mexico!
- Cacao Production in Mexico - Who doesn't like chocolate? Actually, this is a serious issue which encompasses everything from economics to the sciences to issues of social justice, this is a rich topic to investigate. Begin by reading this recent article in the Mexican Daily News (in English).
End notes
[1] From Mexican Muralism on Wikipedia.
[2] Murals of Diego Rivera at Yale.edu
[3] . . . That system needed to be replaced by a modern one in which those who actually worked the land should extract its wealth through their labor. Two great figures, Francisco “Pancho” Villa from the north of Mexico and Emiliano Zapata from the south, led the revolution and remain key cultural and historical symbols in this fight for social reform
[4] Columbia University describes their master's degree program for urban planning as including attention to and knowledge of :
- fundamental economic and political processes that shape the built environment of cities,
- ways in which governments, community-based organizations, private sector actors, and political mobilizations produce and influence these processes, and
- crafting of collective efforts to improve the quality of life of city residents.
[5] According to a senior scientist at the Ocean Conservancy, Dr. J. Nichols, sea turtles today are seen as the “canary in the coal mine” or the “flag species” for the ocean crisis. Every issue related to the ocean in one way or another impact sea turtles, whether it be trash and pollution, over-fishing or coastal destruction (destroying the edge of the ocean and land). All of these impact the sea turtle directly. And the sea turtle has emerged as a powerful symbol of the ocean conservation movement. They are a symbol of the ocean crises as well as a powerful symbol of hope. If the sea turtles make it, we will have solved many issues.
