Message from mmac

[Anonymous]

ANCIENT CHINA: THE ROOTS OF AGRICULTURE is a film created by The History Channel as part of the Where Did It Come From? series. I showed this film to my sixth grade students when learning about Ancient China. This film can be purchased from TheHistoryChannel.com as a DVD entitled Where Did It Come From?: Ancient China: Agriculture for $24.95. The film is 50 minutes long.

This is a great film to show students about the ingenuity of the ancient Chinese civilization who faced problems of maintaining a stable food supply that would need to a feed a large population of people. This film traces the origins of modern agricultural technology that was influenced by many ancient Chinese inventions such as the wheelbarrow, the hoe, cast iron plow, seed drill, and chain pump. Host Michael Cuillen travels back to 22 centuries back in time and reveals how Chinese farmers increase productivity and made numerous contributions to modern agriculture as well.

What was great about this film was that students got to see the ancient farming inventions created by the Chinese in the past and the modern farming equipment that was influenced by the Chinese. There was also a segment that recreated some of the early Chinese inventions such as the seed drill and the chain pump that pumps water uphill.

After watching the video, my students were really impressed with the ingenuity of the Chinese and can connect modern agriculture to Chinese history.