Create a Khmer Empire fieldwork guide

Task brief: 

You are part of a planning team preparing Year 8 students from St John’s Grammar for a field trip to the Khmer temples in Cambodia.

The guide must show your understanding, not just information.

Your task is to design a Thinking Guide to encourage students to do the following:

1. Understand the Khmer Empire.

2. Document historical evidence at the site.

3. Think about the impact of tourism on historical places.

Part A: Understanding the Khmer empire

1. Use an annotated map to explain the location, extent and period of the Khmer Empire.

2. annotate a social structure pyramid to describe Khmer society

3. Use quotes from Zhou Daguan. The Chinese traveller who visited the Khmer empire to describe daily life in the Khmer empire.

4. Use images of the friezes from the Angkor temples to describe the religion of the Khmer empire.

5. Explain the achievements of the Khmer empire in water management using maps and satellite images.

Part B: Student fieldwork thinking activities

Design three (3) activities for students to complete on their Angkor fieldwork.

Think: How are you going to use these activities to help students learn about the information in Part A?

1. A sketch and annotate task

2. A reflection on the impact of tourism using examples from the Angkor site.

3. Your own idea

Each activity must explain:

• What students need to do

• What historical thinking skill the task develops (e.g. evidence, understanding, historical knowledge)

Part C: Historical Judgment. (100 words)

What is one idea about the Khmer Empire that students often misunderstand, and how does your guide challenge that misunderstanding?

Include the following:

• Evidence for your judgement.

• An explanation of the possible reason for the misunderstanding.

• How your guide will help students better understand the Khmer empire.

•