Past, Present & Future: A Belize Timeline

By Marianne Lynch, Vanier College

At a Glance

Discipline

  • Interdisciplinary

Instructional Level

  • College & CEGEP

Course

  • Universal Complementary - Topic: History of Belize (603 B-block course)

Tasks in Workflow

Social Plane(s)

  • Individual
  • Group
  • Whole Class

Type of Tasks

  • Collecting & seeking information
  • Discussing
  • Solving problems

Technical Details

Class size

  • Small (20-49)

Time

  • Single class period (< 90 mins)

Inclusivity & Accessibility

  • Diversity of engagement

Instructional Purpose

  • Application & knowledge building

Overview

In this activity, students collaborate in small groups to create a timeline of key historical events of a country that they will shortly travel to as part of this International Complementary course.

The activity provides students an important opportunity to work together and get to know one another, significant since they will shortly spend 12 days in each other’s constant company. It also allows them to consolidate their understanding of the course readings up to that point.

In small teams, students are given a timeline with 30 squares identified by a year; a small number are already filled in and students have 20 ‘events’ to place in the correct square.

This takes place in class, very early in the semester (week 3).

Instructional Objectives

Students will:

  • Explore contemporary issues linked to the country or region that is the focus of an international study experience.
  • Identify significant events from their readings and locate these in a historical sequence.
  • Build groupwork and collaboration skills.

Workflow & Materials

Workflow

Activity Workflow

View on CourseFlow
Document

Timeline Activity Template

Marianne Lynch

Contributor's Notes

Benefits
Challenges
Tips
Benefits
  • Enables students to review and contextualize readings, especially since the reading load is heavy in the first few weeks.
  • Group work is significant at this point for socialization since students are in a wide variety of different programs (so do not know each other already) and yet will be together for an intensive international study experience.
  • The activity breaks up a long class session (either 2 hours or 3 hours) and gets students moving and talking to one another.
  • This activity can have significant payoff during the international trip, as students are more aware of the country’s history; their interactions with guides and locals are deeper and more authentic.
Challenges
  • The major challenge is whether students have done the reading ahead of time. The activity is set up so that it works for the student who read closely and yet also for the student who read quickly, since they can look back over the readings as they do the activity.
  • The low-tech, small-scale dimensions of the papers and grid can be awkward in class, but are meant to mimic the low-tech experience when we are travelling together.
Tips
  • Keep groups small: 3-5 is ideal.
  • There will be bits of paper floating around. Go with it! The activity is low tech on purpose, since activities on the trip will also necessarily be low tech.
  • If this activity is to be used in another context, i.e., course with no travel element, then it could also be done digitally or with more ‘permanence’ of the artefact (i.e., poster board and glue).

Applied Strategies

Problem-Based Learning

Teamwork and collaboration