Grades 6–8
Find a wealth of lessons and activities based on Peace Corps stories that will help students understand peoples and cultures the world over.
- "Declaration (of a Kgomotso Girl)"
- Students will read and discuss "Declaration," a poem written by a Peace Corps Volunteer serving in South Africa. Students will focus reading and discussion on issues of gender as they appear in the poem.
- "Oh, Kingdom in the Sky"
- With a decades-long nursing career to her credit, Mary Ann Camp was a hero before she became a Peace Corps Volunteer. Still, while many Americans her age considered retirement, Peace Corps service for Mary Ann meant three tours—in Lesotho, Malawi, and Botswana—tackling health, agriculture, and education problems with her host communities.
- A Fundamental of Culture—Cultural Context
- Students will examine how the unwritten rules of culture depend upon the context in which an event or behavior takes place.
- A Lifetime of Service
- With a decades-long nursing career to her credit, Mary Ann Camp was a hero before she became a Peace Corps Volunteer. Still, while many Americans her age considered retirement, Peace Corps service for Mary Ann meant three tours—in Lesotho, Malawi, and Botswana—tackling health, agriculture, and education problems with her host communities.
- A Single Lucid Moment Lesson
- Students will wrestle with resolving contrasting values between cultures.
- A South African Storm
- The writer confronts issues of racial prejudice that she encounters in South Africa, years after the abolition there of the official policy of apartheid.
- Agroforestry Challenge
- Enhance the experiences from the agroforestry challenge of the Peace Corps Challenge game with additional resources from World Wise Schools.
- All About HIV and AIDS
- Students will investigate what HIV/AIDS is, how it is caused, how it is transmitted, and what its effects are. ("HIV" stands for Human Immunodeficiency Virus. "AIDS" stands for Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome.)
- Americans
- Students will examine what it means to be "American" in the eyes of people from other cultures.
- Barren Fields
- Enhance the experiences from the barren fields challenge of the Peace Corps Challenge game with lesson plans and additional resources from World Wise Schools.
- Beyond Demographics
- Students will learn more about the Dominican Republic through watching and discussing a video about the country and its people.
- Breaching the Gulf Between Cultures
- Students delve further into the dynamics, the challenges, and the rewards of adjusting to a new culture, as illustrated by the author's account of his father's coming to terms with Sri Lankan customs.
- Brief Encounters (Building Bridges)
- Through a simulation game, students will experience what it is like to confront and deal with a culture highly different from their own.
- Building a Model Springbox
- This lesson explores the importance of protecting sources of clean drinking water. Through a narrated slideshow, former Peace Corps volunteer Lauren Fry shares her story about building a springbox to protect a groundwater supply in Cameroon. Students will analyze data that Lauren collected and construct their own working model springboxes.
- Building a Solar Still
- In this lesson, students explore the water cycle and the role it can play in making water drinkable. Through an online video, Peace Corps Volunteers Nicholas Hanson and Brian Newhouse describe how they built a solar still to distill saltwater into drinkable water in Cape Verde. During the first class period, students construct their own model solar stills. In the second class period, they check to see how much pure water their solar stills produced from a supply of saltwater.
- Cape Verde: Paradise Amongst the Clouds
- The Republic of Cape Verde is an island nation located about 300 miles off the western coast of Africa. Cape Verde, where the people speak Portuguese and Creole, has a long and rich history. While the people of Cape Verde enjoy warm temperatures and a beautiful setting, they must also deal with some challenges related to their climate and location. The main challenge is the lack of rainfall and limited fresh water. Students will have the opportunity to explore this country and gain an appreciation for the people who live there.
- Capturing the Reader With Vivid Images
- Students will examine how the author tries to capture the reader's imagination immediately, through imagery--and hold on to it.
- Celebrating Our Connections Through Water
- In this unit, students will reflect on the role of water in ceremonies and celebrations around the world. Peace Corps Volunteer (PCV) vignettes will provide the basis for researching and collecting data to be organized into a class celebrations chart. As a culminating activity, students will wet up learning stations and host a celebration of Water Day, leading younger students on a rotation of the stations
- Chatter
- Students will discover that cultural norms heavily influence how we communicate.
- Coming to Terms With Cultural Differences
- Students will discover that it is possible to be challenged and "culture-shocked" by the norms of one's own culture when returning home from having been away and living in another culture. They will also examine and compare the customs of modern marriages with the customes of traditional, arranged marriages.
- Conducting Interviews in the Community
- Students will conduct individual interviews to find out in depth how people in their own communities provide services to others.
- Confronting Two Challenges—One Physical, One Intellectual
- Students will examine how the author confronted the challenges of a new language and a new culture.
- Cross-Cultural Dialogue Lesson
- Students will strive to view situations from more than their own point of view.
- Culture Is Like an Iceberg
- Students will examine features of culture to determine which are visible and which are invisible, and how the invisible affect the visible.
- Defining Culture
- Students will define culture and examine how it affects them.
- Discovering New Perspectives on Life
- Students examine how the author's worldview expanded by living in another culture.
- Do You Really Know What Wealth Is?
- Students will examine what it means to have wealth—a concept that turns out to be philosophical as well as economic—and examine the importance of music.
- Educating Village Girls
- Enhance the experiences from the educating village girls challenge of the Peace Corps Challenge game with lesson plans and additional resources from World Wise Schools.
- Encountering Very Different Ways of Life
- In a captivating and amusing account, the author shows just how challenging it is for someone to move from a familiar to an unfamiliar culture and then deal with adjusting to the new environment.
- Enough to Make Your Head Spin
- Students will learn to appreciate the value of nonverbal communication, focusing on the shaking or nodding of one's head, and the meanings attached to each activity in Bulgaria and in the United States.
- Everyone Has a Culture—Everyone Is Different
- Students will distinguish between what constitutes culture and what makes up personal individuality.
- Examining What Sharing Really Means
- Students examine the remarkable degree of sharing that the author encounters upon arrival in Africa.
- Features of Culture
- Students will enumerate features of their own culture and evaluate how those features have influenced their lives.
- Fighting Soil Erosion
This lesson is divided into two parts.
The first section is intended for classes that are being introduced to the topic of soil erosion. This section consists of a variety of activities developed by the Chesapeake Bay Foundation and the National Geographic Society. These activities will help develop a foundational understanding of soil erosion.
The second section allows the students to explore the issue of soil erosion in Guinea through a narrated slide show. Steve Jacobson, a former Peace Corps Volunteer, shares his experience and the different strategies Guineans are using to address soil erosion. Watch slide show
- Gallery Walk
- Students reflect on the importance of community service by reading stories about Peace Corps Volunteer experiences. Students then articulate needs within their own communities and participate in a gallery walk to generate ideas about how to address those needs through service.
- Generalizations: How Accurate Are They?
- Students will examine how generalizations can be hurtful and unfair, and they will devise ways to qualify statements so they avoid stereotyping other people.
- Geography, Climate, and Community in the Dominican Republic
- Students will begin to familiarize themselves with the geography and culture of the Dominican Republic.
- Giving Students a Little Latitude
- Students will use a world outline map to locate places using coordinates of latitude and longitude.
- Good News/Bad News/Who Cares?
- Students will practice evaluating facts, bringing to bear their own experience, preferences, and international contexts.
- Half Man, Half Limping Rabbit
- A simple folk tale on the surface, the story told by Nina Porzucki holds deeper meaning that students can probe, ultimately examining the possible advantages of mortality over immortality.
- Harvesting Water from Fog
- The Republic of Cape Verde is an island nation located about 300 miles off the western coast of Africa. Cape Verde, where the people speak Portuguese and Creole, has a long and rich history. While the people of Cape Verde enjoy warm temperatures and a beautiful setting, they must also deal with some challenges related to their climate and location. The main challenge is the lack of rainfall and limited fresh water. Students will become familiar with the technology and benefit of collecting water from fog.
- How Accurate Is It?
- Students will examine how generalizations can easily be invalid, and they will learn how to qualify generalizations to make them accurate.
- How Cultures Differ—Two Different Perspectives on the Same Event
- Students will examine the author's running race from two different cultural perspectives to see just how different the effects of culture can be.
- How a Writer Conveys Descriptions With a Wallop
- Students will identify strategies the author used to vividly convey qualitative and quantitative aspects of life in China, then use those strategies in writing of their own.
- I Had a Hero Lesson
- Students examine what it takes to make a hero.
- Identifying Structured Patterns in Folk Tales
- Students will learn that folk tales follow a pattern, and they will attempt to analyze a story to discover its pattern.
- Identifying and Using Parallelism and Balance in Literature
- Students will examine the story for use of balanced sentences and parallelism—two literary devices—and then practice using those devices in writing of their own.
- Ilunga's Harvest Lesson
- Students examine the culturally based impulse to share with others versus the impulse to watch out for oneself or one's immediate family.
- International Curiosity and National Pride
- Students will look at their own culture and at Bulgarian culture to identify national, local, or ethnic traits, while at the same time attempting not to over-generalize about any particular group of people.
- Interpreting Behavior: Expanding Our Point of View
- Students will be led to grasp the importance of understanding behavior from the perspective of the culture in which that behavior is the norm.
- Introducing Culture
- Students will begin to analyze what it is that constitutes culture.
- Is That a Fact?
- Students will practice distinguishing between facts and opinions, in order to better understand their own observations.
- Ivan the Fool Lesson 1
- Students will read a classic folk tale for comprehension and enjoyment.
- Ivan the Fool Lesson 2
- Students will learn that different cultures respect or fear certain numbers, numbers that can appear in folklore in several ways.
- Ivan the Fool Lesson 3
- Students will learn that a quest is central to many folk stories, and they will write their own, incorporating a quest.
- Just Like the Old Days
- Students will examine and experience roles and customs of rural Mongolians through role-playing, and they will compare unfamiliar roles from Mongolia with everyday roles in the United States.
- Just an Ordinary Day
- Students will weigh the old with the modern in contemporary Romania and examine how culture changes with the introduction of new elements.
- Life in a Hurricane Zone
- Students will learn about the nature of hurricanes and examine in detail the effect of Hurricane Georges upon the Dominican Republic.
- 'Magic' Pablo Lesson
- Students examine what goes into hero worship and establishing unlikely friendships.
- Malaria Challenge
- Enhance the experiences from the barren fields challenge of the Peace Corps Challenge game with additional resources from World Wise Schools.
- Microfinance Challenge
- Enhance the experiences from the microfinance challenge of the Peace Corps Challenge game with additional resources from World Wise Schools.
- Modeling Our Writing After Another Author's Style
- Students will emulate the author's descriptive phrases in their own writing.
- Narrative Cartoons
- Based on essays and photos provided by Peace Corps Volunteers, students will create a narrative cartoon, a set of sequentially placed images that tell a story.
- Narrative Cartoons
- Young people are drawn to reading and drawing comic strips, but many young people define and restrict comic strips to pictorial images of super heroes. This lesson is designed to draw upon the interest that young people have in cartoons, and at the same time introduce students to techniques of creating alternative styles. Based on essays and photos provided by Peace Corps Volunteers, students will create a narrative cartoon, a set of sequentially placed images that tell a story. The narrative comic strip may depict one activity or be a collage of various activities. See samples of the student artwork from this lesson created by students from Roberto Clemente Community Academy in Chicago.
- Nomadic Life Lesson
- Students will examine the imagery in a rich, spare poem about an interlude between two women of different cultures in rural Niger.
- On Being Seen as Different
- Students will discover that while other cultures may seem strange or odd in some ways, their own culture can seem similarly strange or odd to those in other cultures.
- On Sunday There Might Be Americans Lesson
- Students will gain insight into the mindset of a rural boy in Niger, specifically regarding his relations with both indigenous and foreign people in the local market.
- One Step at a Time
- Students will see that it is crucial to understand the perspectives of another culture if one is trying to work within that other culture to effect change.
- Out With the Old, In With the New
- Students learn about China's cultural and economic complexities through a slide show that is written, read, and photographed by a Peace Corps Volunteer.
- Peace Corps Challenge Game—Traditional Greetings
- The world if full of different cultures with different traditions, languages, customs, and greetings. Students will explore several ways in which people around the world greet each other. The following teacher suggestion is designed to enhance the students learning from playing the Peace Corps Challenge on-line game.
- Peace Corps Challenge Game—Soil Runoff
- When the ground is saturated or impermeable to water during heavy rains or snow melt, excess water flows over the surface of the land until it eventually collects in low spots such as ponds, rivers or lakes. This is called runoff. Students will explore several ways in which the lake at Wanzuzu can be protected from further soil run-off and how as a Peace Corps Volunteer they could help their community. The following teacher suggestions are designed to enhance the students learning while focusing on one of the challenges (soil runoff) addressed in the Peace Corps Challenge on-line game.
- Peace Corps Challenge Game—Water Quality
- The water pollution of the lake in the village of Wanzuzu has affected much more than just the lives of the humans in the village. Animals and plants have also been affected. Through letter writing students will have the opportunity to express their feelings by writing as if they were a fish in the lake and also understand that sometimes we all must work together to solve a community problem.
- Peace Corps Challenge Game—Foods from Other Countries
- Not everyone in the world eats at fast food restaurants, or even has the same vegetables as we do in America. When people think of a traditional "American" type of food, they usually say hamburgers and hot dogs. In most countries they have a popular dish. In fact, in the Peace Corps Challenge game they drank root juice and ate fried ants. Students will have the opportunity to learn about some of the traditional dishes from other countries of the world. The following teacher suggestion is designed to enhance the students learning from playing the Peace Corps Challenge on-line game.
- Peace Corps Challenge Game—National Trees
- Trees are found all over the world, in every country. Although trees are common to all parts of the world, there are different trees species found in different places. In America our national tree is the Oak. It is a familiar tree, known for its large size, hard wood, and many uses. Oaks are not found everywhere. Each country has its own climate, soil, and trees that have adapted to living in that particular part of the world. Even in the Peace Corps Challenge there was a drought, lack of firewood, and soil erosion. The Mango tree is also a part of the farmer's garden. Trees are important to not only the villagers in Wanzuzu but also each of us. In this teaching suggestion, students will have the opportunity to explore the national trees of several countries as well as compare them to some of the native trees in their own community.
- Peace Corps Challenge—Solving the Water Quality Issue
- Newspapers are one of the main sources of information about our local and world events. Students will create a Wanzuzu newspaper about the important issues the Wanzuzu people are facing due to their polluted lake.
- Planning a Service Project
- Students will implement what they have learned about serving communities by planning and undertaking a community service project.
- Press Conference on Hurricane Georges
- To reinforce oral communication skills, organize a "press conference" on Hurricane Georges.
- Protecting Philippine Reefs
- As fish populations plummet, a Peace Corps Volunteer works with Filipinos to restore the sea life that the local people depend on for food. Watch slide show
- Recognizing How Another Culture Differs From One's Own
- Students will discover how the concepts of time and punctuality can differ markedly in the United States and another country.
- Reduce, Re-use, Recycle
- The importance of recycling to reduce waste, to employ trash in useful ways, and to save the environment all feature in students' review of this letter from Romania.
- Resolving a Cross-Cultural Misunderstanding
- Students will try to resolve a cross-cultural misunderstanding in a constructive manner.
- Respect for Authority
- Students will examine just how a Peace Corps Volunteer working in a culture steeped in subordination encourages local young people to challenge authority and participate in their governance.
- Sanitation and Disease Challenge
- Enhance the experiences from the sanitation and disease challenge of the Peace Corps Challenge game with lesson plans and additional resources from World Wise Schools.
- Sea Turtle Math
- Students are introduced to a real-world conservation issue through Peace Corps Volunteer Sarah Klain’s slideshow about sea turtle populations in Palau. Given data on the current status of Hawksbill Turtles, students use algebra to complete a mathematical puzzle, in which they predict how much longer Hawksbills will nest in Palau if their current rate of decline continues. Students discuss current conservation efforts in Palau and make recommendations for future strategies.
- Searching for Meanings Beneath the Surface of the Poem
- Students will examine the poem and compare perspectives of the author and the subjects of his poem.
- Seeing Both Sides of an Issue
- Each student will develop arguments on both sides of an issue to see how it feels to understand opposing views.
- Seeing Things From the Someone Else's Point of View
- Students will examine the cultural trait of sharing, trying to view it from the point of view of someone in another culture.
- Seeing the World in New Ways
- Students will probe their own histories to record how they have had to expand their worldviews.
- Serious Doodling
- Students examine cartoons drawn by a Volunteer serving in the country of Jordan.
- Service Projects in the Dominican Republic
- Students will look into how Peace Corps Volunteers have provided community assistance in the Dominican Republic.
- Sleuthing a Writer's Skills
- Students will closely examine the author's lively text to determine how she achieved her many literary effects.
- Soil Runoff Challenge
- Enhance the experiences from the soil runoff challenge of the Peace Corps Challenge game with lesson plans and additional resources from World Wise Schools.
- Soneka's Village
- Students will focus on aspects of the Maasai pastoralist culture and compare it with their own.
- Starting Off the Day (and School Year) in Ukraine
- Students will compare the first day of school in Ukraine with the first day of school in the United States, including the challenges students and teachers both face in each country.
- Taking Action!
- Students will read the story Happy Hearts in Manabí by Peace Corps Volunteer Kristen Mallory. After learning about Kristen's work promoting heart health in Ecuador, students will consider how educating others can be a form of service, prioritize health education issues in their own communities, and create educational materials for a local audience. As an extension of this lesson, students may organize a health education event within their school or local community.
- The Extra Place Lesson
- Students take up the challenge of deciding what to do when confronted by a difficult and awkward situation.
- The Iceberg
- Students will identify features that all cultures share and decide which are visible and which are invisible.
- The Importance of Being Flexible and Open-minded as a Visitor to Another Culture
- Students will identify the advantages of being flexible when visiting or living in a culture different from one's own.
- The Importance of Speaking Another Language
- Students will evaluate how important it can be to speak a language other than their own.
- The Rigors of Learning a New Language
- Students will consider the immensity of the the task the author undertook to learn Chinese.
- The Talking Goat Lesson
- Students will analyze the meanings and patterns of a folk tale.
- The Third Question
- Students will reflect upon the rewards of providing services to others, and whether by giving they might perhaps be gaining at the same time.
- The True Cost of Coffee
- Students will examine the economic, health, and environmental risks of a one-crop economy in the developing world.
- This Is Tanzania
- Students will come away with an introductory knowledge of the volcanic history and wildlife of Tanzania, and of the subsistence agricultural economy with which most Tanzanians live.
- To Your Health
- Students will focus on how storks and other cultural icons, in both Bulgarian and American customs, are believed to encourage and bring good health.
- Tsunami! Examining Earth’s Most Destructive Waves
- Students will investigate just what a tsunami is, what causes it, how fast it travels, what it looks like, and its devastating effects upon landfall.
- Two Very Different Concepts of Time
- Students will delve further into the differences between a time-bound culture and a culture in which time seems almost unimportant.
- Understanding Demographics
- Students will use demographic information to gain an understanding of the Dominican Republic.
- Understanding and Avoiding HIV/AIDS
- Students will investigate what HIV/AIDS is, how it is caused, the effects of the disease, and how to prevent it. ("HIV" stands for Human Immunodeficiency Virus. "AIDS" stands for Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome.)
- Using Effective, Amusing Writing As a Model
- Students will use the author's writing as a model to achieve vivid description and engaging humor in compositions of their own.
- Using Effective, Evocative Writing as a Model
- Students will analzye the author's style to learn techniques for strengthening their own writing.
- Using a Mentor Text to Develop a New Style of Writing
- Students will examine some of the author's writing traits and then make an effort to incorporate his style into their own writing.
- Using an Author's Clever Strategies in One's Own Writing
- Students will examine specific clever strategies of the author and incorporate them in their own writings.
- Waking Up, Stepping Out
- Students will focus on a rich and colorful description of a culture unfamiliar to most of them, and then compare the similarities and differences they find between Nepali culture and their own.
- Water Contamination Challenge
- Enhance the experiences from the water contamination challenge from the Peace Corps Challenge game with lesson plans and additional resources from World Wise Schools.
- Water in Africa
- Water in Africa reflects the deep connection of water to all aspects of life in African countries, a concept Coverdell World Wise Schools has captured in the learning units featured on this site. Ninety Peace Corps Volunteers contributed firsthand accounts and photographs to the lessons and activities you will find.
- What Is Good Use of Time?
- Students delve into questions about how best to use one's time—in one culture or another.
- What Sharing Really Means
- Students will examine closely the meaning of generosity and how sharing can be a cultural trait.
- What's Integrity?
- What constitutes a "good" job? And what defines integrity? Students will explore both questions in relation to Steve Iams's writings about the subjects.
- What's Mongolia Really Like?
- Students will look at rural Mongolian nomadic culture through the eyes of a Peace Corps Volunteer and examine the dynamics of a people in transition.
- When a Country Loses Its Songs
- Students will read a Peace Corps Volunteer’s account of how she helped to restore children’s music to a culture that had almost eradicated it. They will then discuss the meaning of music in their own lives and culture and investigate the importance of music in others’ lives.
- Where I Come From
- Students will examine family traditions as a microcosm of larger cultures.
- Where Life Is Too Short
- Students will come away from this lesson beginning to understand the impact and implications of the HIV/AIDS pandemic in South Africa and beyond.
- Where There's Smoke
- Students examine how people can effectively bring about positive change in another culture, focusing on the introduction of ventilated stoves in Nepali homes.
- Where in the World Is ...?
- Students will move themselves around a "world" map on the classroom floor, using lines of latitude and longitude to locate specific spots.
- Where in the World Is the Dominican Republic?
- Students will examine the effect of one's environment upon how one lives, and they will begin to investigate the geography of the Dominican Republic.
- Who Works for the Common Good in Our Community?
- Students will learn why and in what ways service organizations privide assistance to communities.
- Why Does Service Matter?
- Students will sum up what they have found about why and how other people serve their communities and why service matters.
- Windmills and Blogs: The Impact of Technology in Rural Peru
- This lesson encourages students to explore the role of technology in society, specifically its benefits and consequences. They will do this by reflecting on the role of technology in their own community and by viewing a Peace Corps Volunteer's slide show and discussing the uses of technology—windmills and computers—in a Peruvian village.
- Window Into Another Culture
- Students will examine a real-life confrontation of cultural values through the experience of a Peace Corps Volunteer in Papua New Guinea.
- Working With Environmental Issues
- Students will learn to appreciate the importance of clean water for the maintenance of good health, and how the lack of clean water leads to the spread of disease and parasites in West Africa.
- Working for the Common Good
- Students will examine the concept of the common good and evaluate how it applies to providing assistance in a developing country.
- “Mosetsana”
- Students will read and discuss "Mosetsana," a poem written by a Peace Corps Volunteer serving in South Africa. Students will focus reading and discussion on issues of gender, education, and family as they appear in the poem.