This lesson focuses on the impact of new goods, ideas, and technology on a region. Most students know that many Asian inventions, such as the compass, saddle, and gunpowder, have changed the course of world history. This lesson encourages students to learn about the impact of New World crops and Western technology on Asia, specifically China and Japan. Students will collaborate to research the history and implications of trade and write about and present their findings.

This lesson is one in a series developed in collaboration with The Asia Society, with support from the Freeman Foundation, highlighting the geography and culture of Asia and its people.

Geography, botany, science, math, social studies

Standard 1: "How to use maps and other geographic representations, tools, and technologies to acquire, process, and report information from a spatial perspective"
Standard 2: "How to use mental maps to organize information about people, places, and environments in a spatial context"
Standard 10: "The characteristics, distribution, and complexity of Earth's cultural mosaics"
Standard 12: "The process, patterns, and functions of human settlement"
Standard 16: "The changes that occur in the meaning, use, distribution, and importance of resources"
Standard 17: "How to apply geography to interpret the past"
Standard 18: "How to apply geography to interpret the present and plan for the future"

Four to five hours

• Computer with Internet access

Students will

• describe the key crops and technologies brought from the New World to Asia to determine the time, location, extent, and impact of their introduction into Chinese and Japanese societies;
• describe the history of agricultural and technological trade between Asia and the New World; and
• describe the impact that agricultural and technological trade had on China and Japan.

Open this lesson by asking students to name some crops which are grown in the United States. Then ask students to describe some crops grown in Asia. Ask the students how agricultural trade has impacted both the United States and Asia. Continue the discussion by asking students to consider new technologies and how the trade of technology has impacted the world. Encourage students to think and speculate about the impact that new knowledge (e.g., agricultural and technological) can have on a society in terms of nutrition, public health, population, productivity, work, income, and the way people live their individual and collective lives.

Finally, ask students to consider the impact that recent technologies and innovations have had on their own lives (e.g., photo-capable cell phones, wireless networks, e-mail, instant messaging, text messaging, blogging).

Once students have reflected on their own lives, ask them to consider the lives of Chinese and Japanese who were alive when New World crops (such as maize) and Western technologies were first introduced to their societies. Help students determine when that contact between societies was first made. Then ask students:

• What was life like in the Americas at that time in human history?
• What happened in the world to facilitate the exchange of new knowledge about crops and technology?
• Were there barriers or boundaries that had to be broken or surmounted?
• Who or what organizations were instrumental in delivering new knowledge about crops and technologies to the people of China and Japan?
• Were these new crops and technologies embraced or rejected?
• What impact did they have on the land, economy, population, growth of cities, and the migration or movement of people within and between regions and countries?

After introducing the lesson, assign students to teams of two to three. Assign each team one of four research areas that look at the impact of New World crops or Western technology on either China or Japan (make sure there is an even distribution of teams working on each of the four quadrants: New World crops in China; New World crops in Japan; Western technology in China; Western technology in Japan). Once the teams are assigned a focus area, give them the following tasks:

• Use online resources to learn about the history of your topic.
• Crop teams should identify those crops that were indigenous to China, Japan, and the New World (blueberry, currant, avocado, common bean, cocoa, corn, cotton, sweet potato, red peppers, winter squash, cashew, peanut, pineapple, white potato, pumpkin, rubber, tobacco, vanilla, etc.) Tech teams should develop similar lists of Western technologies that made a significant impact on China and Japan (e.g., bicycle, military, textile, production, internal combustion engine, agricultural technology, etc.)
• Develop a series of guiding questions about the topic to help you in your quest to construct new knowledge and ways of thinking about the flow of information between nations.
• Students investigating crops should research how crops were introduced; adapted to new soils, climates, and farming methods; whether geography played a role in the crop's acceptance and popularity; the extent to which crops spread through China or Japan; how the crops were used; harvest size over time; economic and social status of individual crops; and the impact of these crops on public health, culture, and cuisine.
• Students investigating Western technology should research how technologies were introduced; the impact of these technologies on Chinese and Japanese society; determine how the technologies were produced, distributed, and adapted; where they had the greatest impact; to what extent the technologies are used domestically and exported for international consumption; how Chinese or Japanese innovations have led to new technologies; and the environmental footprint these technologies have left on China and Japan.
• Create an annotated bibliography of your sources and write a brief paper that assesses the impact of New World crops or Western technology on China or Japan. The paper should be supplemented with maps, graphic organizers, and data that illustrate your findings.
• Build a presentation that highlights your findings and the knowledge you have gained from your research and analysis. Each team member should take an active role in presenting the team's findings.

Following the research, paper writing, and presentations, give students an opportunity to reflect and comment on all that they have learned and heard from their classmates. This discussion could address a variety of open-ended questions offered by members of the learning community (teachers/students):

• Has the world been well served by the exchange of agricultural and technical knowledge?
• Does the exchange of knowledge eventually lead to a form of cultural imperialism?
• Will universal access to knowledge eventually lead to the homogenization of the human race?

Assess student understanding by evaluating the research papers and group presentations.

Special needs as well as students with unique skill sets should be encouraged to develop alternative methods of demonstrating their mastery of the topic. Modifications to suggested assessment methods should be anticipated in any group of diverse learners. Individual learning plans should provide guidelines for effective assessment techniques that can be used with individual learners.

In this project students may want to form coalitions between the small teams and develop a Web page that compares and contrasts the use of New World crops or Western technologies in China and Japan. Ambitious students or those with a keen interest in another Asian country may want to initiate their own research on the impact of New World crops or Western technologies on countries other than China and/or Japan.

Asia Society's Ask Asia
National Geographic: MapMachine Student Edition
National Geographic: MapMachine Student Edition—Food and Agriculture: Rice
National Geographic: MapMachine Student Edition—Food and Agriculture: Wheat
National Geographic: MapMachine—Physical Map: Asia
National Geographic: One-Stop Research
National Geographic: Xpeditions Map—Asia