The time immediately after World War II was a time when acts of philanthropy were desperately needed in countries devastated by the war.  This inter-disciplinary unit uses this time period as a historical perspective for the basis of evaluating specific small and large scale philanthropic acts, performed by government, for-profit organizations, nonprofit organizations as well as individuals, related to urban renewal.  The first two lessons focus specifically on Germany, analyzing and comparing the situations in post-WWII United States and Germany and focusing on the Truemmerfrauen or "Rubble Women" who helped in the rebuilding of the city of Berlin .  The third lesson broadens the perspective using the Marshall Plan as a foundation for mathematical data analysis, and the final lesson allows the students to apply these concepts through a specific community service project related to urban renewal.

The Learner Will:

• define common good, philanthropy and government philanthropy
• create a list of what many Americans and the American Government faced following WWII
• create a list of what many Germans and the German government faced following WWII
• create a grid of information to make easy comparisons between the ways that the American people and the American Government helped to provide for the common good post-WWII and the ways that the German people and the German Government used to help improve Germany's conditions post-WWII
• discuss strategies the American people and the American Government used to improve their conditions post-WWII
• construct and share a poster depicting how the American people and the American Government came together to provide for the common good, post WWII.
• identify and explain the philanthropic motivations of the "Rubble Women" and the reasons that so many women of post-WWII Germany became "Rubble Women.
• critically read data from tables, charts or graphs.
• determine, for a data set, measures of central tendency, variability, and correlation. 
• use data to draw and support conclusions.
• make predictions based on data, including interpolations and extrapolations.
• employ mathematical models to make inferences and predictions to answer questions and solve problems.
• know and understand the Marshall Plan -a governmental program designed to provide for the common good post- WWII 
• describe contemporary American programs designed to provide for the common good of all other nations, ie. South Africa, Iraq, Palestine, etc  
• research service possibilities within the community
• develop a plan for a service project
• develop a spreadsheet for a service project's plan and budget
• implement a service project
• reflect upon a service project 

Students will be evaluated on their participation in group discussions, their political poster, their written responses to content and reflection questions, the results of their data analysis and computations, and finally their participation in and reflection on their service experience.

 

This is an interdisciplinary unit that includes math, social studies, and the German language.  Teachers may want to collaborate with other teachers outside of their disciplines to complete the portions that lie outside of their expertise.  For example, a Social Studies class that is doing the unit may want to contract the statistical analysis portion of it to a math class.  At the completion of the unit, the social studies class could then report back to the math class on how they used the information that the math class calculated. Otherwise, this unit is written in such a way as to provide less emphasis on math and the German (Language) should the intent of it's selection be merely to study the aftermath of World War II, as it relates to the United States and other war-torn European nations.