The+Mexican+War

=**The Mexican War**=

How Could War Look Different?
=PART ONE: WHAT DOES WAR LOOK LIKE?=

A Story Based On What Happened

 * Section One**


 * Each student will choose a role that they will play in their country. The role can be either a real person of historical consequence or a “mash-up” of personalities that reflect the feeling of the time.


 * Students should assume their roles throughout the length of Part One: What Does War Look Like?


 * Section Two**

Tipping Point Event/Battle Strategy

 * __//**Initiating event**//__ of war is discussed

Each Wiki should try to

1. Objectively state what triggered the war and

2. Subjectively interpret how the event which triggered the war was conceived and received by their native country

Questions answered should include the following:


 * How is the news of the war shaped by the media?
 * How is the news of the war shaped by the government?
 * How is the news of the war shaped by the war hawks?
 * How is the news of the war shaped by the peace doves?

===I-Movie War Propaganda films can be created by the students to promote their country’s cause in the war. Videos should be no more than five minutes in length.===


 * Section Three**

The War Begins

 * ==Powerpoints/Prezi presentations are made with regard to the make-up of each army==
 * What are their numbers?
 * What is their experience?
 * What is their age?
 * What is the capacity of the various divisions of their armed forces?
 * How did technological innovation influence the course of the fighting at the beginning, middle and end of the war?


 * ==Troops placement shown on Google Maps==


 * ==Troop movement shown on Google Earth 5.0 narrated tour-each side gives their own account==


 * Depending on the size/length of the war this can be broken down into parts: battles or theatres or by year or the whole war can be rolled into one long narrative.


 * ==Each side has a minimum of three “blog talk radio programs” each lasting a minimum of 15 minutes where “guests” are interviewed attempting to prevent some sense of historical reality as well as maintaining a sense of artistic license.==


 * ==Correspondents begin to blog their story back home with pictures and opinion==


 * ==Artists can depict different scenes of battle as well as emotional abstractions that the war itself inspires.==


 * ==Privates in the army/navy begin to send messages back up daily via Twitter==


 * ==Kinesthetic learners can increase their regiment during PE and during before and after school hours, following a reasonable, but more rigorous physical fitness schedule than they are used to during that stretch of the project.==


 * ==Musicians and singers can compose songs and record them via Garage Band or some other audio recording equipment which demonstrates their country’s perspective on the war.==


 * Section Four**
 * The War Ends
 * What was the settlement?
 * What was gained/lost by each side?
 * What were the social, political, economic and militaristic lessons learned from the war and the effects on each country?

A Story Based on What Could Happen Section One What does peace look like?

 * What type of a culture is needed to prevent or resolve some of the conflicts inherent in this war?
 * What stakeholders need to have more say in making political, economic, military and social decisions and which stakeholder’s need to have less of a say?
 * Is there any way that the Tipping Point incident for this war could have been avoided?
 * Could there have been plans in place to counteract the negative effect of what happened and squelch the flames of war.
 * If it seems that war was justifies, what would the world look like if this war had never taken place?
 * Could there have been any positive outcomes to either prevent a military attack or combat the flames of tension with another approach that might have had impact.


 * Section Two**
 * Was there bias that shaped the interpretation of the inciting incident?
 * How was the bias brought about?
 * By political leaders?
 * By religious intolerance?
 * Through racism, sexism, ethnic hatreds?
 * What type of education of “other” is needed to prevent a incident from becoming “inciting” and leading to war.
 * What other options are there if a country or an individual has been attacked through military violence?
 * Is there a strategy that can successfully and non-violently combat those forces and be victorious?
 * Could economic, social and media pressures have been enough?
 * Could a defensive war of attrition be waged without firing a shot?


 * Section Three**
 * Re-Wage this war using a different strategy and document that strategy through all of the previous methods utilized in Part One: Section Three.
 * Explore different military strategies
 * Explore different educational strategies
 * Explore non-violent strategies
 * Use Google Maps and Google Earth to wage a war of peace
 * Total the amount of money that was spent on the military and reconstruction costs of the war.
 * Put together a plan for both pre, during and post war that would invest the military’s money into peace strategies.
 * invest that in a pro-active peaceful strategy to defeat your enemy.
 * What can you come up with? How creative can you be?
 * Outline your pro-peace plans
 * Explore spiritual solutions
 * Explore non-violent, educational solutions
 * Explore tactics used effectively by Ghandi and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
 * Research and outline proven strategies for peace that have worked in the past.

==* The timeline for this project is flexible, as are the number of sections to be completed by each class. One section from Part I & Part II is idea**l***==
 * Section Four**
 * An I-Movie Documentary/Review of what students learned over the coarse of this project. The movies will take the audience briefly through What Does War Look Like? and investigate what the students produced in What Could War Look Like?