While the resources above will give you everything you need and more to teach the Columbian Exchange, here are some extension ideas to boost student engagement with this important topic.

1. If you have the time and are comfortable with the content, set the stage by showing the first minute or so from this Chopped clip. (Potato pancakes, purple kohlrabi, Korean melon, and goat brains anyone??) 2. Explain that students will be given a “basket” from pre-Exchange North America or Europe/Africa/Asia. You can use the infographic from World Zone Café or the article “The Columbian Exchange” (see below) to show students the goods they have access to (note that the Diseases list should certainly be ignored!). Alternatively, you could create separate lists and hand them out in envelopes.

3. Tell students they can use only four ingredients to create a dish. They have to come up with an innovative name, create a recipe describing how the dish would be prepared, and then identify an ingredient that would improve the dish but that would only be available after the Columbian Exchange. 
4. You can offer awards—such as “yummiest” and “grossest”— and students can choose which kind of dish they create. 
5. Debrief by discussing how the Columbian Exchange impacted the kinds of foods students eat today.

Why this deepens learning: “Gamifying” the World Zone Café activity will help bring it alive and make it memorable and engaging. 

Evaluating the pros and cons of interconnection 

Any lesson covering the Columbian Exchange should ask students to evaluate the pros and cons of interconnection. Our existing lessons offer closer activities (Connecting the World and For Better or Worse?) in which students can develop a perspective with short responses. Also, in Big History and World History Origins and 1200, a DBQ writing prompt gives students the opportunity to consider this question in even more depth. Here are two extension activities that will allow students to dig into positives and negatives of interconnection in memorable ways. 

Note: Any discussion weighing the pros and cons of interconnection will naturally involve conversations about the enslavement of Africans and the decimation of Indigenous populations in the Americas. With this in mind, we recommend you review the Teaching Sensitive Topics in Social Studies Guide in advance.

Two-Column Comparison  

1. Students divide a large piece of paper into two halves (this can also be done digitally with applications such as PowerPoint and Google Slides).
2. One side represents thepositives of interconnection, the other represents the negatives.
3. Students add visuals (drawings, images, maps, icons) and short text descriptions to support each side.
4. At the bottom, students add“My Verdict” section that consists of a three- or four-sentence explanation of whether they think the Columbian Exchange was, overall, positive or not.

Four Corners: Was Interconnection Positive or Negative? 

This question naturally lends itself to a powerful debate! If you don’t already have a debate protocol in your classroom, you can easily adapt this debate guidance  from our Climate course . However, for a more active version of the debate, one that requires a little less preparation, try this Four Corners activity. 

1. Have students choose between the following four statements, and then give them a couple of minutes to take notes on why they feel that way:

• Interconnection was extremely negative.
• Interconnection was mostly negative.
• Interconnection was extremely positive.
• Interconnection was mostly positive.

2. Post each statement in a corner of the classroom (or four spots in the room if corners aren’t accessible), and tell students to stand near the statement they chose.
3. Give each group two minutes to discuss the reasons they chose that statement. One spokesperson from each group will then share out the group’s most compelling reasons.
4. Allow students to switch corners/positions after all four groups have been heard.
5. Ask for a couple of volunteers to share their reasoning for staying or moving.
6. As a debrief, students can write a paragraph describing their rationale for the corner/position in which they ended up. 

Why this deepens learning: The active element of this activity brings some much-needed movement to the classroom, and the collaborative element allows students to learn from each other.