Barbara Roether
Cultivating Curriculum
@ ideasforclass
RECENT PROJECTS
Project | 01
Sacred Stories/ The Kosala Four
In Bali, Indonesia we learned the local art of wayang (shadow puppetry) to explore collaborative story telling in a production based on the Ramayana. The tale of Rama leads into the study of Hinduism, which leads to the exploration of the spread of successive religions: Hindu, Buddhist, Muslim, into the region. Students finally traveled to Borobudur, Java, to explore the Buddhist stories carved in stone relief along the ancient monument. Connections to storytelling, dramatic performance, visual art, studies in colonialism, and world religions were all integrated into the project.
Project | 02
Economics | Konbini Kulture in Tokyo
Konbini or convenience stores are a ubiquitous feature of life in Tokyo. This project explores
how tens of thousands of individually prepared meals, snacks, and sundries, appear on the shelves, each day? Where does all of this come from? Where does the waste go? What is the ecological price of convenience? How do we measure value? Strands of economics, food distribution, sustainability, & capitalism are explored. In the speed of modern culture, what is gained and what is lost?
Project | 03
History | From Apricots to Apples
Seventy Five years ago the land now known as Silicon Valley was covered in Apricot Orchards. In this unit for a school in Santa Clara county, students followed the evolution of the landscape and it's industries from an agricultural center to the world headquarters of Apple and the information age. How do places change over time and why? Strands included planting an orchard, for which we received a grant, farmwork, learning coding, projects at the Computer History Museum, and the Tech Museum in San Jose. More details are included in an overview.