Guns, Germs and Steel

Last week in class, all Gr. 6 Humanities students had the chance to view a portion of the PBS / National Geographic documentary " Guns, Germs and Steel". based on the book by renowned scientist / geographer Dr. Jared Diamond.
PBS describes this documentary as " Peeling back the layers of history, GUNS , GERMS and STEEL exposes the great forces that have shaped human history over the last 10,000 years". In the documentary Dr. Diamond put forward many theories as to why certain civilizations have flourished.
Now is the time for reflection...
Choose 1 of the following prompts and answer in a well structured 3+ paragraph response, plus graphics to support your ideas, along with examples and evidence.

Prompts


1. What role did geographic location and natural resources play in the the development of Malaysia?
OR

Young men from Papua New Guinea

2. Even though Papua New Guinea is located in the same region as Australia and New Zealand, why is it that Australia and New Zealand became technologically advanced and wealthy?


OR

3. Locate a topographical map of the world ( either using Google Earth or an atlas) carefully study the features evident on the map. Then answer "What hypotheses do you have about why most of the wealth in the world is found in the areas north of the Tropic of Cancer (23.5 degrees latitude North of the equator).

Enjoy
Mrs.N

P.S. This blog post is due on Friday, 29th October 2010.




Image Sources:
1. http://www.buyusa.gov/philadelphia/malaysiaconference.html
2. http://www.pbs.org/gunsgermssteel/index.html
3. http://www.fpi.org.nz/what_we_do/projects/papua_new_guinea
4. http://www.mapsorama.com/topographical-map-of-the-world/