We've spent several class periods now talking about Jared Diamond's idea that the progress of a people from hunting and gathering societies through the domestication of plants and animals often leads to advanced civilizations with writing and metal tools, etc. Furthermore, that the difference between levels of advancement on different continents among different peoples is more of a function of the geographic "package" they were endowed with from the start than any inherent racial differences in intelligence or ingenuity.
Here's an idea for an extra-credit assignment: Develop your own illustration of one of the things you learned about in the video. It can be a map of a particular continent with certain places mentioned in the film marked on it (like Cortez & Pizzaro's conquest of the Americas), a tree diagram or other visual organizer showing how some continents had more advantages over others, or even a world map showing what ideas learned in one place spread to other cultures nearby.
More credit will be awarded for work that is neatly done, vividly colored and labeled, and gives insightful and interesting information. If you can show that you did a little extra research, (about battles, colonies, colonizers/conquerors,) by citing your sources, I'll give you the maximum allowed [30pts].
You can go to the National Geographic website here, as a place to begin your research.
