Asia: Tradition and Culture: Teacher’s Guide
Grade Level: 6-8
Curriculum Focus: Geography
Lesson Duration: Three class periods
Program Description
From Japan’s ancient ceremonies to Australia’s unique history, students will be fascinated by the
heritages represented. This colorful presentation encourages understanding and appreciation of
cultures and traditions worldwide. This program includes one feature segment and three short
segments.
Onscreen Questions
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How is modern Japanese culture different from that of the 14th century?
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What role did the Samurai play in Japan’s culture?
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What do festivals say about a culture?
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How does climate affect the way people live?
Lesson Plan
Student Objectives
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Review facts about Sky City in Tokyo.
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Discuss challenges of designing and building Sky City.
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Take an interactive journey of Sky City at Discovery.com to learn about architectural and
engineering solutions.
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Write an essay about the advantages and drawbacks of living in Sky City.
Materials
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Asia: Tradition and Culture video and VCR, or DVD and DVD player
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Paper, Pen or Pencil
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Computer with Internet access
Asia: Tradition and Culture: Teacher’s Guide
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Procedures
1. After viewing the program, discuss what students learned about Sky City. Ask them these
questions: What is Sky City, and why is it considered a city? (It is a proposed vertical city that
would be located in an enormous skyscraper. Within its walls, about 35,000 people would live,
work, shop, and go to school.) Where is it being planned? (Tokyo) Why is Tokyo a good place
for this type of venture? (Tokyo is so overcrowded that people spend many hours a day
commuting to work.)
2. Remind students that Sky City would top 3,000 feet and would weigh 6 million tons. Ask them
to name some challenges of designing and building a skyscraper nearly two-thirds of a mile
high. Answers might include the following:
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Finding and clearing the space to build it
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Creating the materials to build columns for such an enormous structure
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Strong winds and typhoons
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Frequent, powerful earthquakes
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Building on loose, sandy soil
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Creating transportation to and around the skyscraper
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Supporting the tremendous weight of the building
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Preparing for fires
3. Tell students to choose a partner. Explain that they are going to take an interactive journey to
learn about solutions architects and engineers have developed in response to Sky City’s
challenges. Visit this Web site for the interactive feature:
http://dsc.discovery.com/convergence/engineering/skycity/interactive/interactive.html?
4. Distribute the following questions (without answers) to each pair. Ask students to use what
they learned in the video and the interactive feature to answer the questions. One student
should answer the first question and the partner should answer the second question.
•
Describe the natural environments in Sky City. (Each plateau would have a park
with trees, grass, and a pond.)
•
How is Sky City designed to handle a fire? (Open construction would allow smoke
to escape, and firefighters would use specially equipped helicopters.)
5. When students have completed their research, give partners time to share what they learned
with each other. Discuss the questions as a class, asking each pair to answer one or two.
6. Assign students a brief essay as a homework assignment. How long would they like to visit or
live in a structure like Sky City? What would be exciting or convenient about this type of living?
What would they miss about the way they live now?
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Asia: Tradition and Culture: Teacher’s Guide
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Assessment
Use the following three-point rubric to evaluate students’ work during this lesson.
•
3 points: Students were active in class discussion; showed a strong understanding of the
challenges in designing and building Sky City; thoroughly answered the assigned questions;
provided complete, detailed answers to the class; wrote a thoughtful essay with several
details about living in Sky City.
•
2 points: Students participated in class discussions; showed satisfactory understanding of
the challenges in designing and building Sky City; adequately answered the assigned
questions; provided satisfactory answers to the class; wrote a complete essay with some
details about living in Sky City.
•
1 point: Students participated minimally in class discussions; showed minimal
understanding of the challenges in designing and building Sky City; gave incomplete
answers to the assigned questions; did not provide answers to the class; wrote an
incomplete essay with few or no details about living in Sky City.
Vocabulary
damper
Definition: A device that controls the excessive sway of a building
Context: Massive dampers would help diminish the sway of Sky City.
heliport
Definition: An airport for helicopters
Context: The central control area linking the main towers of Sky City could hold a heliport for
people traveling to and from the city.
monorail
Definition: A transportation system in which cars travel on a single beam
Context: A monorail would spiral around each plateau of Sky City.
plateau
Definition: A hill or structure with a flat top
Context: Sky City would be made of 14 plateaus.
typhoon
Definition: A tropical storm with violent winds that occurs in the Pacific and Indian oceans
Context: Sky City would be designed to withstand the strong winds of Pacific typhoons.
Published by Discovery Education. © 2005. All rights reserved.
Asia: Tradition and Culture: Teacher’s Guide
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Academic Standards
National Academy of Sciences
The National Science Education Standards provide guidelines for teaching science as well as a
coherent vision of what it means to be scientifically literate for students in grades K-12. To view the
standards, visit http://books.nap.edu.
This lesson plan addresses the following science standards:
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Science and Technology: Abilities of technological design
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Science in Personal and Social Perspectives: Science and technology in society
Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning (McREL)
McREL’s Content Knowledge: A Compendium of Standards and Benchmarks for K-12 Education
addresses 14 content areas. To view the standards and benchmarks, visit http://www.mcrel.org/.
This lesson plan addresses the following national standards:
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Science—Life Sciences: Understands biological evolution and the diversity of life
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Language Arts—Viewing: Uses viewing skills and strategies to understand and interpret
visual media; Writing: Uses the general skills and strategies of the writing process
Support Materials
Develop custom worksheets, educational puzzles, online quizzes, and more with the free teaching tools
offered on the Discoveryschool.com Web site. Create and print support materials, or save them to a
Custom Classroom account for future use. To learn more, visit
•
http://school.discovery.com/teachingtools/teachingtools.html
DVD Content
This program is available in an interactive DVD format. The following information and activities are
specific to the DVD version.
How To Use the DVD
The DVD starting screen has the following options:
Play Video—This plays the video from start to finish. There are no programmed stops, except by
using a remote control. With a computer, depending on the particular software player, a pause
button is included with the other video controls.
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Asia: Tradition and Culture: Teacher’s Guide
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Video Index—Here the video is divided into four parts (see below), indicated by video thumbnail
icons. Watching all parts in sequence is similar to watching the video from start to finish. Brief
descriptions and total running times are noted for each part. To play a particular segment, press
Enter on the remote for TV playback; on a computer, click once to highlight a thumbnail and read
the accompanying text description and click again to start the video.
Curriculum Units—These are specially edited video segments pulled from different sections of the
video (see below). These nonlinear segments align with key ideas in the unit of instruction. They
include onscreen pre- and post-viewing questions, reproduced below in this Teacher’s Guide. Total
running times for these segments are noted. To play a particular segment, press Enter on the TV
remote or click once on the Curriculum Unit title on a computer.
Standards Link—Selecting this option displays a single screen that lists the national academic
standards the video addresses.
Teacher Resources—This screen gives the technical support number and Web site address.
Video Index
I. City in the Sky (37 min.)
What will cities of the future look like? Building designers in Japan think they know! Take a tour of
Sky City, a futuristic vertical urban landscape.
II. Ancient Warriors (5 min.)
Journey to ancient Japan to explore the traditions of the Japanese warrior class, the Samurai.
III. Insects: Master Adapters (3 min.)
Thailand is a country of many religions, and many celebrations. Take a trip to Thailand to learn
about the colorful holiday celebrations and customs of this festive country.
IV. The Wild Side of Dogs (36 min.)
The smallest continent on the planet, Australia is rich with many different climates and geographic
features. Come explore the diverse regions of the land down under.
Curriculum Units
1. Homestead of the Future
Pre-viewing question
Q: If you could design a skyscraper, what would it look like?
A: Answers will vary.
Post-viewing question
Q: Would you live in Sky City?
A: Answers will vary.
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Asia: Tradition and Culture: Teacher’s Guide
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2. Land Crunch in Tokyo
Pre-viewing question
Q: What happens when a city grows too large?
A: Answers will vary.
Post-viewing question
Q: How do you think officials convinced residents to move to Roppongi Towers?
A: Answers will vary.
3. Working With Nature
Pre-viewing question
Q: What kinds of buildings hold up best in earthquake-prone areas?
A: Answers will vary.
Post-viewing question
Q: How do builders typically stabilize high-rise buildings in earthquake-prone areas?
A: Builders dig down through the loose top layers of soil and set the foundation into the bedrock
below. However, this isn’t an option in Tokyo because the bedrock is too far down.
4. Foundations and Megacolumns
Pre-viewing question
Q: How would you secure a 3,300-foot-tall building against strong winds and earthquakes?
A: Answers will vary.
Post-viewing question
Q: What is one proposal for stabilizing Sky City’s foundation?
A: One proposal calls for drilling thousands of small, shallow tubes and filling them with concrete.
Called friction piles, these tubes would grip the earth tightly, and the downward pressure from Sky
City’s own weight would anchor the building to the ground.
5. The Future of Construction
Pre-viewing question
Q: What would your concerns be if you were building the world’s tallest and heaviest skyscraper?
A: Answers will vary.
Post-viewing question
Q: What is the Big Canopy, and what does it mean for Sky City?
A: This self-rising, all-weather roof would allow the mega-columns to be built on-site, under the
roof’s protection. Because the columns are so large, there is no way for them to be built elsewhere
and transported to the site.
6. Plateaus, Floors, and Ceilings
Pre-viewing question
Q: Would you live on the top floor of a 3,300-foot skyscraper?
A: Answers will vary.
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Asia: Tradition and Culture: Teacher’s Guide
Post-viewing question
Q: Do you think massive trusses will provide enough structural support for Sky City?
A: Answers will vary.
7. Swaying in the Wind
Pre-viewing question
Q: What do you think is the greatest natural threat to a skyscraper?
A: Answers will vary.
Post-viewing question
Q: How would Sky City’s damper help control building sway?
A: The damper counterbalances the sway caused by high winds. When sensors detect sway, a
computer directs two powerful hydraulic pistons to shift the damper in the opposite direction,
bringing the building to a gentle halt.
8. Life in a Modern City
Pre-viewing question
Q: What are some challenges of life in a modern city?
A: Answers will vary.
Post-viewing question
Q: Do you think traffic congestion will be a problem in Sky City?
A: Answers will vary.
9. Disaster Scenarios
Pre-viewing question
Q: Why is fire such an enormous danger to a skyscraper?
A: Answers will vary.
Post-viewing question
Q: Do you think Sky City is an accurate representation of cities in the future?
A: Answers will vary.
10. The Samurai
Pre-viewing question
Q: What skills or personality traits are most admired in our society?
A: Answers will vary.
Post-viewing question
Q: Why were the Samurai so revered?
A: The Samurai—charged with the important task of protecting emperors and their empires from
invaders—held an important and highly honored position in ancient Japanese society.
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Asia: Tradition and Culture: Teacher’s Guide
11. Thai Festivals
Pre-viewing question
Q: What are some traditions in your family or religion?
A: Answers will vary.
Post-viewing question
Q: How do Thai New Year celebrations differ from New Year celebrations in the United States?
A: Answers will vary.
12. The Land Down Under
Pre-viewing question
Q: What are some similarities and differences between Australia and the United States?
A: Answers will vary.
Post-viewing question
Q: Which region of Australia would you most like to visit and why?
A: Answers will vary.
Published by Discovery Education. © 2005. All rights reserved.
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