Thailand's Golden Age - Teacher Information

TEACHER INFORMATION

Thailand's Golden Age: Life at ancient Sukhothai

Students investigate significant aspects of life in Thailand's past by assuming the roles of historians, working together to interpret evidence and draw conclusions. The evidence-rich approach of the unit can be adapted to historical studies of numerous societies.

Strands and Outcomes

Student Activities

An Image of Sukhothai
Teacher Notes |Student Worksheet
Elephants in Thailand
Teacher Notes |Student Worksheet

Key Studies of Society and Environment Strands

Time, continuity and change
Place and space
Culture

Outcomes

By the end of this unit, students will be better able to:

use supporting evidence to argue a case
describe some aspects of life in ancient Sukhothai, specifically in terms of beliefs, defence, governance, work, trade and use of water
explain how beliefs and practices influenced the way Sukhothai people interacted with each other, the environment, other people and other places
explain factors that affected resource use, development and ownership at Sukhothai

Teaching Suggestions

Here are some additional activities for teachers to consider using in this unit. In all cases where reference is made to a website teachers should decide whether to download the material and duplicate it for students, or whether to allow students to access the websites themselves.

An Image of Sukhothai

At some stage of their study of this unit students could be referred to some of the many sites that show images of Sukhothai. This should occur after students have developed their own hypotheses, as the sites usually provide captions or commentary which could influence the students' ideas.

Thestudent worksheet has links to a number of websites (listed below) with information about the history and religion of Sukhothai and images of wats and other remains. The accompanying questions help students to focus on issues that could provide the basis for further study.

Divide the class into groups to search specific websites from the list. Students should be encouraged to question the validity of information presented on the Internet. They should record the URL, information about the website and who produced it.

Websites

A range of web pages can be accessed by visiting the Mahidol University website and browsing through the contents or searching for 'Sukhothai' on the website's search engine.
http://www.mahidol.ac.th/thailand/thailand.html

Frommer's provides an introduction to the various structures of wats.
http://www.frommers.com/destinations/thailand/0245020062.html

There is also a description of the Sukhothai period at the Amazing Thai Adventures website.
http://www.amazingthaiadventures.com/sukhothai(h).htm.

More information on Sukhothai can be found at:
http://www.usmta.com/history-2.htm

There are numerous images of Sukhothai at the following website.
http://www.synaptic.bc.ca/gallery/sukothai.htm
(Note: These images may be slow to download.)

There is a website showcasing the recreated Thai historic theme park, the Muang Boran (Ancient City).
http://www.ancientcity.com/muangboran/index.htm

Elephants in Thailand

Elephants have been an important resource for Thai people throughout their history. Today the status of elephants in Thailand is considerably different to their status in the past. The accompanying student worksheet allows student to investigate the plight of elephants and their changing role in Thai society.

There are many websites that describe the status of elephants in Thailand today.

Students could be asked to look at one of these sites and to complete a report on the status of elephants in Thailand today. These reports can then be compared in a discussion of the differing points of view and types of information given in the websites.

Websites

Reports are accessible at the following websites:

http://www.thaifocus.com/elephant/ (see the articles listed under 'Elephant details' in the menu on the left)

http://www.panda.org/downloads/species/Asian_elephant_factsheet.pdf is a factsheet on Asian elephants (requires Acrobat® Reader®)

http://www.panda.org/about_wwf/what_we_do/species/our_solutions/endangered_species/elephants/asian_elephants/index.cfm has a special report on Asian elephants.

Additional websites can be found by using Internet search engines. For a list of search engines go to the Search Engine Guide at:http://www.searchengineguide.com/searchengines.html

Curriculum Corporation and the University of Melbourne

The URL for this page is: http://www.asiaeducation.edu.au/thailand/sukhinfo.htm