Activity 1--Background Information: 
The first two paragraphs that follow appear on the Introduction page for students. This information should be used at the very beginning of this project.

Imagine this:  You all work for a large American owned company which has historically been successful doing business domestically (in the United States).  Your CEO (Chief Executive Officer) schedules a meeting to meet with a select group of employees to discuss a new business opportunity.  The students in your class represent that entire group of selected employees.  She has named your group the Cultural Advisory Group.  She and her Financial Advisory Group, another employee group, have been researching the possibility of expanding the business into Mexico and they have concluded that this would be an extremely profitable opportunity for the business and that they would like to pursue this opportunity.  There is one hitch however:  for the idea to work, the Financial Advisory Group believes that they must move a group of 30 employees and their families to Mexico for at least five years to get the business up and running and they need help to convince 30 employees (and their families) to make such a move.  Here is where the CEO needs help from Cultural Advisory Group.  She obviously understands the business and financial climate in Mexico, but she knows very little else about Mexico.  She needs to have “life in Mexico” researched and presented to the 30 employees and their families to help to convince them to make the move.  The Financial Advisory Group has decided that one of two locations will work: the city of Puebla in the state of Puebla or the adjoining cities of Ixtapa & Zihuatanejo in the state of Guerrero. They would like input from the Cultural Advisory Group on which city might be the best to live in.

It is important to note that the 30 employees will be asked to live among the Mexican people and will be expected to develop a deep understanding of the Mexican language and culture because they will be working with Mexican people and teaching them about “the business”.

Ask students to pretend they have met an alien and they need to teach the alien about life in the United States.  Ask students to cut out magazine pictures  which can be used to teach about as many aspects of American life as possible. Ask students to cut out no more than two pictures for each aspect they want to tell about.  Encourage them to find as many aspects of American life as possible to share about. Allow 30 minutes of cutting time for this part of the lesson.  At the end of the 30 minutes or at the next lesson time, post at least eight pieces of blank chart paper on the wall at the front of the room.  Ask one student to tape his/her pictures on the charts, keeping them separated into categories.  Ask the rest of the students to tape their pictures on the appropriate chart (A new chart or two may have to be added.)  When finished taping pictures, facilitate group discussion about each chart, identifying an aspect of the culture that is important to teach the alien about.  Ask if there are any aspects that were not represented.
On a separate chart list the aspects of the culture that students were able to identify and define the word culture.  This chart should remain on the wall for the duration of this project.  Use this to transition into the research projects pointing out to the students how many of the following question topics they have identified.
 

Introduction                  Your Tasks                               Research Questions
 
Resources                     Evaluation                                Conclusion

Teacher Page               Teacher Page/Rationale               Teacher Page/Objectives

Teacher Page/Introductory Activities                   Teacher Page/Culminating Activities

Teacher Page/Evaluation Procedures                 Teacher Page/Suggestions for Teacher

Teacher Page/Resources

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