Social Studies Toolbox

In our unit on the Vietnam War, I wanted students to understand more than just the political timeline. I wanted them to see how geography—region, place, movement—shaped the war in real and lasting ways. So we tried something new: a museum exhibit project organized around the Five Themes of Geography. Students worked indepentendly or with a partner, researching and designing exhibits that connected the war to at least three of the five themes of Geography: Location, Place, Human-Environment Interaction, Movement, and Region. Each project needed to include one artifact or display per theme, plus a short written explanation for each artifact. Some chose slide decks, others used poster board or dioramas. One student built a diorama with a LEGO helicopter hovering over a dense jungle scene, with tiny soldiers navigating the terrain below—an attempt to show how U.S. military strategy was shaped by Vietnam’s landscape. But what stood out most wasn’t the creativity—it was the thinking behin...