A quick way to demand high-level, systemic thinking: Behavior-Over-Time Graphs

Chris Lambert found an excellent way to demand high-level thinking from his students on a recent assignment for his AP European History students.  He had them make a Behavior-Over-Time Graph (or BOTG, as the systems thinking adepts call them) of Napoleon's rise to power and his brutal fall.

In a minute or two, you can create a task that would demand that your students synthesize, evaluate, and articulate information from any discipline -- I'm including some resources that you can download to use immediately.

How Many Slaves Work For You?

"How Many Slaves Work For You?" Slavery Footprint: Made In A Free World. Slavery Footprint, 9 Feb. 2012. Web. 9 Feb. 2012.

Apparently, there are 94 who work for me.

What about you?  What about your students?

Slavery Footprint has created a quick, interactive web survey that walks you through a range of questions (you can give broad, basic answers, or really itemize it -- how many cell phones and skis do you own) and in the end, produces a map for you of where it is likely that someone has performed slave labor in order to manufacture the things that you own.

As we help our students become more globally aware, it's always an interesting start to the conversation to have them think about the impact that their economic choices make on people and communities around the world.

Granted, this site will open up controversy. To what extent do you - and your students - agree with Slavery Footprint's definition of slavery? According to the site's creators, a slave is "anyone who is forced to work without pay, being economically exploited, and is unable to walk away" ("About"). Do you agree with their methodology?

The site links to its blog (Hershey's kiss, anyone?  Or buying gold for a Valentine?) and to ways to take action or become more informed about the problem.

Below are the results for me and my family:

What are they for yours?

What do you think about this kind of an interactive, visual display?