Eat and meet at the coffeehouse of the world

Students sat in circles and nibbled on crumpets and sipped tea and coffee as they discussed global issues, primary source documents and poetry. Soft music played in the background.

This year government and history teacher Christine Scott and English teacher Rebecca Gerik joined together their 5^th hour AP Literature class and 5^th hour AP World History class for finals.

For finals, Gerik’s and Scott’s students were assigned to create a coffee house of the world. Students were assigned to find and completely understand either a primary source document or a poem from another country. The students then attended a coffee and tea party and participated in intelligent group discussions about topics from around the world.

“It’s not your traditional final,” said Gerik’s student Andrew Dougherty, “And I actually enjoy it a lot more.”

“This assignment was created to help students understand the purpose of globalization,” said Scott.

“I love being completely involved in class projects,” said Scott’s student Christen Chester.

In the project students were assigned to understand a country using all five senses. For example one group listened to German music, smelled flowers from Italy, ate bread from Egypt, felt beautiful garments from Spain and looked at pictures of Romania.

Gerik and Scott thought the entire project was a success and are hoping to do the project again in future years.