I used the Out of Eden National Geographic tool to travel around the world with the help of Paul Salopek. I enjoyed seeing all of the different places and experiencing real life locations with this interactive virtual tool. For this project, I chose to explore an island in Cyprus, a valley in Northern Pakistan, and a town in China.

I learned that Cyprus is one of the oldest islands inhabited by humans on the planet. It has a rich history that is reflected in both the manmade structures and the natural landscapes shown in the article about this particular leg of the journey. I enjoyed reading the detailed, vivid descriptions as well as seeing all of the beautiful locations captured by the photographer. All of the material presented about Cyprus makes me want to learn more about the place on my own.

The second location I visited was Northern Pakistan. The chapter focused on the nomadic miners who pan for gold on the banks of Karakoram. I read about the Sonewal people, who spend their days searching the river for precious flecks of gold. The pictures and paragraphs of information about the miners lives are thought provoking and make me wonder what my life would have been like if I had been born to a different family in a different place.

The final location I read about was Yusan, China. I was particularly interested in this location because I’m adopted from China and I always enjoy learning about my home country whenever I can. I loved seeing all of the beautiful pictures and reading the history of this specific location in China. The landscapes and videos look like they could all be still life paintings and the videos of city life remind of the trips I take to Manhattan every few months.

I would love to show these pictures and videos in my future classroom and explore the art from all of the different places I saw in the Out of Eden project. It would be interesting to assign the Out of Eden project as class reading and then have all of the students tell the class about their favorite places the next day. I think it would be a great way to show the kids about different ways of life around the world.

Start your own journey here: https://www.nationalgeographic.org/projects/out-of-eden-walk/#section-1