Introduction

The Smithsonian Institution is having a contest to design a new exhibit on Ghana for their Children's Museum. Its Cultures of the World exhibit has been featuring different countries. Since this contest is for elementary students, our class has decided to research Ghana's culture and submit a plan for the exhibit. The winners' names will be on a plaque at the Ghana exhibit when it opens. The winners will also be the special guests at a reception to meet the director of the museum and the ambassador from Ghana.
 

The Task

The rules for the contest require the following topics to be represented in the exhibit: arts and crafts, clothing, celebrations, daily life, foods, geography, history, language, and music. Many people visiting the museum might not be familiar with Ghana. This exhibit will give them an opportunity to experience its culture. Some visitors may not even know that Ghana is in Africa!

Sound like a lot of work? Don't worry, you will be working in teams. Each team will research one of the nine topics. We really want to win that contest, so it will require teamwork to come up with a plan that will dazzle the judges. With everyone's best effort, we should have a good chance!
 

The Process

1. You will be assigned to a team of 3 students.
2. Each team will research one of the nine topics.
3. Each team will create one HyperStudio card.
4. Each team will give a presentation.

Your team is counting on you to help gather information, create a HyperStudio card, and give a presentation on your topic to the other teams. Your contribution is important!

You can research your topic by following the Web links under the Resources section on this page. Books, encyclopedias, and brochures are other sources of information. Be sure to show where you got the information in your notes. You will need to cite your sources.

As you gather information, your team should begin to identify interesting things you are learning about your topic. What have you discovered that you would like to share? Discuss this with your team and decide what object or picture could represent your topic in the exhibit. How does this reflect Ghana's culture? Team members can divide the responsibility by taking different roles: researcher, graphics manager, and computer engineer.

Each team will make one HyperStudio card. This card should have a graphic of what you plan to display with a description so that visitors will understand its role in Ghana's culture. Since popular museums like the Smithsonian can be very crowded, it is important to keep your description short and to the point. Check your grammar and spelling.

When people leave the exhibit, you want them to feel like they just traveled to Ghana. This will be your chance to share what you learn about Ghana's culture with lots of other children - and adults, too.

Before we send the HyperStudio cards to the judges, each team will make a presentation to the class. If your ideas aren't clear to the other teams, this will give each team a chance to make corrections before the judges see them. We want our plan to be as polished as possible.

A TV will be connected to a computer so that the entire class can see your team's HyperStudio card. One team member could be the presenter, one the computer engineer, and one the recorder for suggestions made by other teams.

When giving your presentation, be sure to:

• face your audience
• speak clearly
• speak loud enough to be heard by everyone

After each team has made any corrections necessary, the cards from each team will be compiled into a slideshow and sent to the judges. This will demonstrate what our class has planned for the Ghana exhibit. Good luck!

Resources

  Getting started:

• Virtual tour - follow the Sample Tour link
• Facts and figures - capital, population, size, languages

• Handicrafts - pottery, stool carving, baskets, beads, and coffins - yes, coffins
• Bangle making - description and photographs of the steps for making bangles
• House painting - scroll down until you see the Traditional African Housepainting tour and follow the link to see pictures of these interesting houses (the click for photos link shows more photographs)

• Events - Aboakyer, or Deer Hunt Festival, held in May to Revolution Day in December
• Festivals - a list of festivals celebrated throughout the year
• Harvest festival - listen to sounds at the Homoso harvest festival
• Kobine Festival - a harvest festival and homecoming held in Lawra each October

  Clothing:

• Clothes - photographs of people wearing clothing that would be seen in northern villages
• Adinkra - history and symbols of this hand-printed cloth
• Kente cloth - weaving Kente cloth
• Kente cloth - the history and significance of Kente cloth

• Village life - 7-year-old Anusibuno describes his life in Zuo, a northern village
• Family compound - Navrongo compounds can house several families

  Foods:

• Food - recipes for popular dishes, chocolate lovers should follow the cocoa link
• Ghana Cafe - menu and photographs of food served at a restaurant in Washington, D.C.
• Ghanaian dishes - recipes from "The Art of West African Cooking" plus lots of interesting information about the preparation and food used in West African cooking

  Geography:

• Maps
• Africa
• Political - Can you find Ghana? Ghana is located in western Africa . Its neighbors are Cote d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast), Burkina Faso, and Togo.
• Population - persons per square mile
• Vegetation - plant life
• Ghana
• Physical - rivers, lakes, parks
• Political - regions, capitals, cities
• Overview - geographic features and neighboring countries
• Environment - brief description of regions and environmental problems
• Rain forest - plants, animals, conservation
• Weather - check the weather forecast for Accra, the capital of Ghana

• Summary - from the Ashanti empire to the current president
• More detail - from coastal settlements dating 40,000 years ago, to British rule, to independence in 1957

• Akan - hear your name (based on the day of the week you were born) in the Akan language
• Dagaare language lessons - learn Dagaare, the major language of northwestern Ghana
• Language diversity - more than 100 languages are spoken in Ghana

  Music:

• Overview - traditional to highlife music
• Singing and drumming - listen to music recorded in Navrongo and Lawra, both villages in northern Ghana

  Print Materials

• Brochures from the Ghana Embassy
• Angelou, Maya. Kofi and His Magic. New York: Clarkson Potter, 1996.
• Brace, Steve. Ghana. Economically Developing Countries. New York: Thompson Learning, 1995.
• Chocolate, Debbi. Kente Colors. New York: Walker, 1996.
• Cook, Deanna. The Kids' Multicultural Cookbook: Food & Fun Around the World. Kids Can! Charlotte, VT: Williamson, 1995.
• Haskins, James. African Beginnings. New York: Lothrop, Lee & Shepard, 1998.
• Hintz, Martin. Ghana. Enchantment of the World. Chicago: Childrens, 1989.
• Hetfield, Jamie. The Asante of West Africa. Celebrating the Peoples and Civilizations of Africa. New York: Rosen, 1996.
• Mann, Kenny. Ghana, Mali, Songhay: the Western Sudan. African Kingdoms of the Past. Parsippany, NJ: Dillon, 1996.
• Mitchell, Rhonda. The Talking Cloth. New York: Orchard, 1997

Evaluation

You will be graded individually with a rubric. Use the rubric as a guide while you work on your project.
 

Conclusion

Just think how much you have learned about Ghana's culture! How does its culture compare with our country, or other countries you have studied? Are there similarities? What influence has the environment had on the development of culture in these countries? How would your life be different if you were living in Ghana?

Working on this WebQuest should have helped you to gain an appreciation for another culture and for the work involved in creating a museum exhibit. Some student who completes this WebQuest might become the director of a famous museum one day!

To learn more about Ghana and its people, explore the following links:

• On the Line - This is a millennium project linking people in eight meridian-line countries (Ghana is one) through communication, visits, and celebrations. The purpose is "to raise public awareness and understanding of the interdependence of people all over the world."

 

 

• Navrongo and Lawra HomePage - The authors of this site served as U.S. Peace Corps Volunteers in Ghana for three years. Visit their Web site to experience life in the northern villages of Navrongo and Lawra.

Send comments to Sally Ladd
    Last updated 8/20/99