In this blog post, I will be reflecting on National Geographic’s site Out of Eden and how it can be used in the classroom.

click here to visit the site for yourself!

Background

Before I go into the highlights of this site and how it can be used in the classroom, I want to introduce you to the owner of the website and why it was made.

Paul Salopek is a writer and journalist from the United States of America. He is a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner and has reported for many organizations and now works for National Geographic. Paul decided to embark on a decade long experiment to retrace the migration path of our ancestors. This journey will take him an estimated seven years beginning in Ethiopia and ending at the bottom of South America.

Watch this video below to see Paul Salopek himself explain why he is embarking on this adventure!

Paul began his journey in 2013 and estimates that he will be finished in 2020.

Highlights

In Paul Salopek’s trek, he records his experiences on the Out of Eden National Geographic website. Paul uploads consistent blog posts detailing his encounters with different towns, people, and cultures. Some of my favorite features of his site include milestones, walking tours, and the articles.

Milestones

Around every hundred miles, Paul Salopek stops to record different parts of his surroundings which he calls milestones. These milestone links contain seven tabs: introduction, panorama, map, earth and sky, encounters, glances, and comments. The introduction to the milestone titles the area that he will be revealing gives the number of days that it has been since he began his journey, the number of miles he was walked, and the elevation of his location in feet. Following the introduction is the panorama photo. This tool allows the reader to take a view of Paul’s surroundings as if they were there themselves, giving them the ability to look all around. The map tab provides a topographical map that pinpoints Paul’s location during this milestone. Earth and sky is also a new tab in which Paul takes a photo of the ground beneath his feet and the sky above him. In the encounters tab, Paul introduces one person at this milestone asking them “Who are you?”, “Where do you come from?”, And “Where are you going?”. This feature is probably one of my favorites within the Milestone section of this website as you are able to meet different people from across the globe. It gives life to the pictures and articles of the towns and cultures that Paul is experiencing on his trek. In the glances section, Paul provides a quick video of whatever is around him at that time. Finally, in the milestone section, there is a section for comments allowing readers to reflect and discuss things they found interesting from Paul’s journey.

Here is a link to one of Paul’s milestones

Walking Tours

Another great piece of this website is the walking tour that Paul provides. These tours begin with a brief introduction of the location of the trip as well as the distance and amount of time it took to take a walk. Then, as the reader scrolls down, they are able to see pictures, mini-articles, and videos of Pauls walk on the left side of the screen and on the right they can view the location of the walk on a satellite map. This is an excellent feature as it allows the reader to feel as though they are walking alongside Paul, seeing the things he is seeing and meeting the people he encounters.

Here is a link to a walking tour of Baku, Azerbaijan

Articles

Paul writes such detailed articles about his journeys across the globe. In them, he will describe his visual surroundings as well as the people he meets. Through his words, Paul is able to provide vivid images of what he is experiencing and allows the reader to immerse themselves into another culture and livelihood from across the globe. In his articles, Paul uses a lot of vocabulary from the area he is writing about such as the names of plants and animals from this region, of buildings, and of traditions from the area. These vocabulary words are sometimes difficult to understand for a high school level reader, so it provides an opportunity for readers to research definitions and expand their own vocabulary.

Here is a link to one of Paul’s articles

How Can I Implement This In My Classroom?

Through this website so beautifully crafted by Paul Salopek, teachers can educate their students on global awareness, different cultures, writing styles, practice reading different writing styles, and learn how to research using a reliable source. National Geographic’s website provides an excellent space for students to do research on cultures across the globe. One great way to utilize this website is for a unit on culture. First, the teacher could introduce the culture, and it’s meaning to the students. The teacher would want to build the students’ background knowledge on their own culture and how it affects the things they do, people they interact with, the food they eat, and so much more. Then, the teacher could introduce the students to Paul’s site and his mission. The teacher could then give the students the freedom to explore the site on their own. After a few days of introducing culture and this site, the teacher could then ask the students to find one culture they found most interesting on the site and research it. The site will provide the students with most of the information they need between the milestones, articles, walking tours, and other links Paul has provided. The teacher should encourage the students to dig deep in the website for information but allow them to do further research using other appropriate sources of information. The students should then take all the information they found and prepare a presentation about the culture they have chosen. This is just one example of a project that can be done to engage the student’s global awareness through Paul Salopek’s site.

 

What do you think of Paul’s journey? How could you implement this in your classroom? Comment down below your thoughts!