As an Anthropologist, I try to create activities and projects for students in my college classes that encourage them to learn more about themselves and others.\u00a0 Last semester, I decided to take that a step further by having the students do a Capstone Project that would also serve the community.<\/p>\n

On the first day of class, the students are randomly assorted into groups.\u00a0 The name of each group is that of one of the world’s remaining foraging populations.\u00a0 Their first activity is to learn about the group and share that information with their fellow group members.\u00a0 They will sit with their group members throughout the semester and do activities with their group.<\/p>\n

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The Capstone Project is the final group activity.\u00a0 Each group is assigned a different aspect of a current refugee crisis. Using an anthropological perspective, they must research that crisis.\u00a0 From their research, they create a slide presentation that will be shown to the class during the final exam period.\u00a0 All students evaluate each presentation as part of their final exam grade.<\/p>\n

During the semester break, I select from the information the groups have gathered to create a blog page devoted to that refugee crisis. The page is part of a new blog devoted to Refugee Crises<\/a>.\u00a0 Each semester, students will study a new crisis and new pages will be added to the blog.<\/p>\n

This Capstone Project provides students with a tangible result that helps embed in their memories the most important theme of Anthropology:\u00a0 Build Bridges, Not Walls.<\/p>\n