American Experience

Geography

Activity 1
Read about President Kennedy’s foreign policy. During Kennedy’s presidency, critical developments in the Cold War took place in various locations around the world. Divide the class into six groups and assign each one of the following locations: Berlin, Vienna, Laos, South Vietnam, Cuba (1961), Cuba (1962). Each group should prepare a five-minute presentation for the class explaining what event took place in its location (the group should identify the location for the class on a world map), the importance of the event for world peace at the time, and the group’s judgment of how well Kennedy handled the situation.

Activity 2
Have students count off from 1 to 43, each number corresponding to one of the nation’s 43 presidents — George Washington is number 1, John Adams is number 2, and so on. (Some students will have more than one number.) Have each student find the home state of the president corresponding to his or her number(s) and write the president’s name, years in office, and home town on a stickie. Going in chronological order, students should post the stickies on the appropriate state. When they are finished, discuss: which states “gave birth to” the most presidents? What factors might explain this? How many presidents has your state produced? What factors might explain this?