December 22, 2011-January 4, 2012, Current Events Lesson Plan
Current Event:
Samoa recently switched time zones, which caused the small Pacific Island nation to skip Friday, December 30, 2011 as it fast-forwarded from Thursday, December 29 to Saturday, December 31. Samoan officials said the move to the western side of the international date line was made chiefly to link the island nation more closely to Australia, New Zealand, and other major trading partners in the Asia-Pacific region.
Commerce was the chief reason Samoa switched time zones in 1892, moving from west to east of the international date line so it would be on the same side as the United States. Samoa made that change on July 4, marking America’s Independence Day twice in honor of the United States.
Objective:
Time zones affect the time and date of every location in the world. The Behind the Headlines news story and related World Book articles explains the concept of time zones by focusing in on a small island nation that recently decided to make a switch, thus skipping an entire day.
People And Places:
- Asia-Pacific region
- Australia
- New Zealand
- Pacific Islands
- Samoa
- United States
Vocabulary Terms:
- commerce
- international date line
- meridian
- time zone
- trading partners
Discussion Topics:
1. Samoan officials said the time zone change was made chiefly to link the island nation more closely to Australia, New Zealand, and other major trading partners in the Asia-Pacific region. Modern Samoan officials also cited family life as a reason for the latest move, as so many native Samoans live in Australia and New Zealand. Ask your students how they think the time change affected Samoans, both regarding business and family life.
2. Pull out a large map of the country where you reside. Show your students the different time zones in your country and explain how different time zones can create complications for people in your country. Cite examples, including a business in one part of the country that needs to contact another business in another part of the country, for example.
3. Samoa needed to skip Friday, December 30, 2011, in order to make the switch to the new time zone. What do your students think of the fact that an entire day was skipped? Do they believe there will be any immediate issues or concerns regarding this action?
4. No international body is responsible for determining a country’s time zone, so Samoa was free to switch. Should there be one? Why or why not?
5. The international date line is an imaginary line that marks the spot on Earth’s surface where each new calendar day begins. Use World Book’s Timelines feature to help understand and organize the world’s time zones. You could ask your students to create a timeline with 24 events–one from a place that occupies each of the world’s 24 time zones. Or, they could create events based on what they believe people could be doing in each of the different time zones on one day. For example, a person living in Canada may be sleeping while someone living in Australia may be eating lunch.