GIS: Policy of Appeasement and German Aggression

Summary

In this lesson, students use ArcView GIS to evaluate the effectiveness of the Policy of Appeasement in regard to German Aggression before World War II.

Materials

• Computer Lab with ArcView GIS
• ArcView Project (appeasement.apr) on lab machines

Intended Learning Outcomes

Understand the Policy of Appeasement.
Describe German Aggression before World War II.
Describe violations to the Treaty of Versailles.
Evaluate the effectiveness of the Policy of Appeasement.
Formulate an alternate policy and predict its consequences.

Instructional Procedures

Preparation: Pass out the the German Aggression Timeline (with excerpts from the Treaty of Versailles) and the Neville Chamberlain on Appeasement primary document. Students should read these as homework the night before you begin.

Introduction: Students should be in the computer lab for the first day of the lesson. Begin the lesson by telling students they will be investigating the events leading up to the beginning of World War II through the use of primary documents and a Geographic Information System. They will be manipulating available maps and data to evaluate the Policy of Appeasement.

Activities: Students start the lesson by working through the Student Procedures. As they progress through their use of ArcView they should be answering the questions they encounter on the student response sheet. They should refer back to the documents they read the night before as necessary.

Extensions

The impact of the war can also be studied using ArcView. Themes are included that depict Allied and Axis participation, population losses by country during the war, and an overlay to compare political boundaries from before the war with current boundaries.

Assessment Plan

Once they finish the GIS investigation, students move on to the Policy of Appeasement assignment which, in conjunction with the decision tree, will lead them through and evaluation of the Policy of Appeasement and the forming of an alternative policy.

Bibliography

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