Instructions for Completing the East Asian Geography Component

1. Complete Lesson One: Japan’s Demographic Challenges and Human Capital Issues (all readings, one required question, and one optional question)
2. Choose between EITHER Lesson Two OR Lesson Three (all readings, one required question, and one optional question).

Your answers to both questions should range from 250 to 500 words (about two, double-spaced pages in 12-point font). The 250 to 500 word guideline is the total for both essays. Please submit your answers to me as an email attachment. Please enterThree Gorges Project in the subject line of your e-mail.

The third lesson has one overarching aim—to examine the positive and negative impacts of China’s Three Gorges Dam.

China has had one of the fastest rates of economic growth during the past few decades, in many years exceeding 10-12% per year. This remarkable growth has led to great advances in the standards of living for many Chinese, moving tens of millions from poverty into the middle class. This meteoric economic rise, accordingly, has created huge demands for electrical power and also, increased trade between China and the rest of the world. The Yangtze River, on which the dam is built, is critical to China’s development.

Please look at the following maps and readings, which are easily accessed on the Internet:

Readings and Images

• Read Great Wall Across the Yangtze, as it provides a good background on the Yangtze River, the Three Gorges Dam, and the myriad controversies.
• Also, read Concerns Rise with Water of Three Gorges Dam, regarding the concerns about the Three Gorges project:
• Finally, please examine this map of China and the project.

Questions

After examining the above readings and/or Web sites, answer the first question and one of the final two questions

1. (required) In what ways have these readings increased your understanding of the Three Gorges Dam, its goals, and its potential positive/negative impacts for China?
2. (optional) How can you share these materials with your students and how can these materials be integrated into your lesson plans?
3. (optional) If you are not able to use these materials in your own class, how might you share it with other teachers in your school?

When addressing the above questions for this lesson, please consider the following questions:

• What was the original goal of the Three Gorges Dam project?
• Beyond the original goal, what are the other potential benefits?
• Much of China’s economic growth has been located along its coast. The Three Gorges Dam can potentially open the city of Chongqing to oceangoing ships. How could this project benefit China’s interior?
• What are the potential drawbacks to the Three Gorges project? Explain their impacts on the landscape.
• China demand for electrical power has increased steadily during the past few decades. Many observers from the West have criticized the dam’s construction. With regard to power generation, what other alternatives would China have? Would these have potential environmental impacts?