Amazon Interdisciplinary Field School

Triangle Activity

Summary:
Students visit a special (preferably outdoors) place, reflect on their life journey, write down what has allowed them to be where they are now, and then imagine a future destination.

Objective:
This activity aims to encourage students to reflect on the connection between:

1. their life trajectory
2. the place they are currently at
3. a place they plan to go to or visit in the future.

Developed in the context of a pre-departure session of KPU’s ARTS/DESN 3000: Amazon Interdisciplinary Field School, this activity was inspired by Wright Mill’s concept of sociological imagination, which is the capacity to connect one’s personal biography with the broader sociocultural context in which they are. By the end of the activity, it is expected that students will develop a better understanding of their choices and way of life in relation to the places they have spent time at since they were born and the place(s) they will spend time at in the future.

Description:

• Take your students to a special place (e.g., landmarks, parks, rivers, lakes, trails, etc.). In ARTS/DESN 3000, for example, students were taken to Deas Island Regional Park. If taking students to an outdoors place is not possible, you can also do the activity in your classroom.
• Show them the directions of North, South, East, and West.
• Ask them to direct their bodies to the direction of the place where they were born and imagine a line between the place where they are at the time of the activity and the place where they were born.
• Ask them to remember the most important facts that allowed them to be where they are now and write them down. As they do that, they will be “describing” and reflecting on the “line” they imagined. You can prepare specific questions depending on your goals with the activity.
• Give them 10-20 minutes to do so.
• After they have reflected on their life trajectory until that point in time, you will invite students to imagine another line: between the place where they are and the place they will visit (or do an exchange, move to, or whatever the situation is), thus forming an imaginary triangle. In ARTS/DESN 3000, for example, the destination was the Colombian Amazon.
• Ask students to write down the reasons why they are going to that specific destination and identify the elements of their life trajectory that gave them the possibility to go to that destination and that led them to choose to do so.
• You can also take the opportunity to ask them other questions related to what they need to do/know to get to their destination (e.g., safety issues, knowledge of the place, its history and culture, logistics, etc.).
• Give them another 5-10 minutes (or the time you see fit) to do so.
• The activity ends with students sharing the main points of their reflection on the triangle they have imagined.