August 7-20, 2014 Current Events Lesson Plan
Current Event: A Man, A Plan, A Canal—100 Years Later
The Panama Canal celebrated its 100th birthday on August 14. France began work on the Panama Canal in the 1880’s. However, they stopped the project after a few years. During construction, they lost nearly 20,000 workers to endemic diseases (diseases common in the area), mostly yellow fever and malaria. When Theodore Roosevelt became president of the United States in 1901, he revived the effort to build a canal across Panama. While taking steps to defeat the endemic diseases, the United States began work on the canal in 1904. The canal was completed in 1914. Worker deaths on the project the second time around were still —6,000 Americans died building the canal—though not as high as the number during French construction.
Objective:
The Panama Canal is a waterway that cuts about 51 miles (82 kilometers) across the Isthmus of Panama and links the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. The canal shortened a ship’s voyage between New York City and San Francisco to less than 5,200 miles (8,370 kilometers). Previously, ships making this trip had to travel around the southern tip of South America—a distance of more than 13,000 miles (20,900 kilometers). A 1903 treaty between the United States and Panama gave the United States the right to build and operate the waterway. The United States also received the right to govern an area of land called the Panama Canal Zone on both sides of the canal. For many years, Panama tried to gain control of the canal and the zone. In 1977, Panama and the United States signed a new treaty. As a result of this treaty, Panama received territorial jurisdiction over the zone in 1979 and took control of the operations of the canal on Dec. 31, 1999. Today, about 15,000 ships pass through the canal each year. The Behind the Headlines news story and related World Book articles explore the Panama Canal and other engineering feats.
Words to know:
Discussion Topics:
1. The Panama Canal is one the greatest engineering achievements in the world. Ask your students what other great engineering feats they can name. (Students might say the Channel Tunnel; the Great Wall of China; the International Space Station; the Pyramids; various skyscrapers.)
2. The Panama Canal was completed in 1914. Ask your students to name some people who were living when the canal was finished. (Students might say Sir Edmund Barton, Alexander Graham Bell, Winston Churchill, Marie Curie, W. E. B. Du Bois, Amelia Earhart, Thomas Edison, Albert Einstein, Sigmund Freud, Mohandas Gandhi, Adolf Hitler, Helen Keller, V. I. Lenin, Thurgood Marshall, Benito Mussolini, Pablo Picasso, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Theodore Roosevelt, Babe Ruth, Joseph Stalin, Woodrow Wilson.)
3. Have your students debate the statement, “With enough support, engineers can conquer any obstacle in the natural world.”
4. Ask your students to use World Book’s Timelines feature to view or add to the History of Transportation timeline. (Students may wish to use World Book’s Transportation article for help.)