Freshmen in Ethnic Studies start the semester-long course by completing a family history project. The research they do ends up as a poster that explores different aspects of their culture.
Teacher Bismah Siddiqi, who also teaches World Geography, has also introduced the project to her World Geography classes. To fit with the class curriculum, the project is completed alongside learning about cultural geography.
“The project started out just for Ethnic Studies, since one big part of the project is to understand where you come from and how that might play a role in your experiences,” Siddiqi said. “I found that World Geography students were requesting to do the project when they saw them in the classroom, so I brought it into World Geography as well.”
Making the family history project involves interviewing an ancestor, writing a paragraph about the culture using quotes from the interview and finding four symbols that represent the different aspects of the culture: language, food, history and clothing.
Siddiqi said the project will start in the next couple of weeks for her second-semester social studies classes. Students are given 1-2 weeks to complete the project, and on the day the assignment is due, all students present their project to the class.
Students also have to bring in a physical cultural item as well, like jewelry or food. Siddiqi recalls that this year, many students got very involved and brought food for the whole class or wore an entire cultural outfit for their presentations.
“I brought my traditional Mexican wear that we wear for parties and a bow that my grandma made for me,” freshman Isadora Rupert said. “It signifies how my culture represents my identity and how I still carry my Mexican culture with me, even though Hispanic culture is a minority at Saratoga.”
This project is important to the social studies classes because a large part of Ethnic Studies revolves around understanding and learning about cultures and their customs while World Geography ties culture to geography and location.
When students interview an ancestor, they choose to recognize someone important to them, representing their values through their culture. This reflects their individuality in a way that is not normally reflected through the classroom setting.
“Our school is really culturally diverse, and this project brings parts of your classmates’ culture that you may have not known previously to light,” freshman Julie Ye said.
