Contributor :
Kelly Morenus
Action Plan
I will ask locals we meet and our tour guide about all of these things and during our tea plantation trip I will explore the history of Sri Lankan tea making and its value to the European markets.
Pre-Departure Preparation
I am a social studies teacher and I hope to incorporate information I learn during the trip into my units on belief systems, Imperialism, and civil conflict. I will prepare lessons on the history and current practice of Buddhism and will use photographs from the trip as “primary source” evidence. I also plan on doing a lesson on Sri Lanka’s role as a British colony during the age of Imperialism, and how its strategic location and resources made it a prime location for imperialist competition among the European colonies. Lastly, I will use information I gather during the trip about the Sri Lankan civil war to incorporate into a lesson on modern civil conflicts. I will compare and contrast the Sri Lankan civil war with other infamous conflicts such as the Hutus vs. Tutsis in Rwanda, the Yugoslav wars and the Nepalese civil war.
Preparation During Travel
Explore Sri Lanka’s history as an imperialist colony, the history of buddhism and background information on the Sri Lankan civil war.