Worksheet to accompany the Remembrance Day Materials at / 1

Remembrance Day

Current Conflicts

Introduction

• Remembrance Day commemorates not just past wars, but also current ones too.

• In this activity you will research a current conflict, produce a one-slide summary using a PowerPoint template, and then compare it to others in order to reflect on the most common causes of warfare.

Discussion Point:“Until you find something you are willing to die for, your life is not really worth living” (Martin Luther King Jr.). What did he mean? Do you agree? Under what circumstances, if any, would you be prepared to go to war?

Task 1: Brainstorm

• As a class, conduct a brainstorm of all the wars that you have heard of (Vietnam War, World War One, etc….)

• Go back through each one, and see if you can identify (a) Which countries were involved and (b) What they were fighting for.

Task 2: Research

• Each student will choose a current, ongoing military conflict from the list available at the following Wikipedia page: You could also refer to

• Researchthis conflict to completethe Powerpoint slide template.

Follow-up Activities

1. Classroom Display

• Print your completed work off in colour.

• Use the complete class set as the basis for a classroom display. They could be arranged around a world map with a key identifying the location of each memorial.

Display around a world map

2. Classroom discussion

• Share your findings with the rest of the class, focusing particularly on the causes of the conflict. What appear to be the most frequent causes?

• Decide as a class upon the three most frequent causes of wars.

• Use these three causes as the basis of a Venn diagram outlining the most frequent causes of wars. Each cause is represented by one circle. Place different wars in appropriate parts of the Venn diagram.

Causes of War