Indian American History Part II

This lesson falls under our homeschool curriculum on Asian American History. We recommend that this lesson be taught after the lesson on Indian Americans I.

1. Internet Access – Pull up the following:

   1. Picture of Dr. Sanjay Gupta

   2. Picture of Kalpana Chawla

   3. Picture of Space Shuttle Columbia

1. Teacher: Last time we learned about one of the most successful Asian Americans, the Indian Americans. And there are so many famous Indian Americans living in our society today, like famous actors, congressmen, business people, astronauts, doctors, and scientists, but today, we’re going to learn about a few that I selected.

1. Teacher: Now, the first famous Indian American we’re going to learn about is Dr. Sanjay Gupta. Dr. Gupta is a doctor that operates on the brain. This kind of doctor is called a “neurosurgeon”. Can you say “neurosurgeon”? [Get positive response from Student].

2. Teacher: Good. Dr. Gupta does a lot of things as a doctor. For example, he is a teacher for students who want to become doctors. He also writes many articles for magazines and also wrote a book that helps you look and feel young and healthy. Oh and also, Dr. Sanjay Gupta is on TV and talks about how to keep healthy. Here is a picture of Dr. Sanjay Gupta. [Show Student the picture of Sanjay Gupta].

3. Teacher: Actually, President Barack Obama even considered Dr. Gupta to become the Surgeon General of the United States. Do you know what the “Surgeon General” is? [Get Student’s response].

4. Teacher: The Surgeon General is in charge of the health and safety of all 300 million Americans, kind of like the boss of all doctors in our country. The Surgeon General job is so important that to become one, you need not only the President to pick you, but also need other congressmen to say it is ok for you to become the Surgeon General.

5. Teacher: As Dr. Gupta thought about it, he believed that it was more important to be with his family than become the Surgeon General, and so Dr. Gupta told President Obama that he would not want to become the Surgeon General. However, Dr. Gupta is still one of the most famous and well known doctors in the United States.

6. Teacher: Now, the next person we’re going to learn about is Kalpana Chawla, a U.S. astronaut. Kalpana was actually born in India in a city called Karnal. She attended school in India all the way up to the end of college when she was 20 years old, where she studied things that astronauts study, like the science of flying in space. Then, she moved to Texas in the United States to continue school. In the United States, Kalpana learned how to fly airplanes and worked as a scientist. Here is a picture of Kalpana Chawla. [Show Student picture of Kalpana].

7. Teacher: One day, Kalpana applied to go to astronaut school to become an astronaut and you know what? The country’s astronaut school accepted her. And Kalpana flew not only once, but two times in space on the Space Shuttle. Do you want to see the first space shuttle that Kalpana flew on? [Show Student the picture of Space Shuttle Columbia].

8. Teacher: But here’s the sad part, during Kalpana’s second flight in space, something went wrong with the space shuttle and so Kalpana and her brave crewmates were lost in space. But even after Kalpana died in the space shuttle accident, she was given awards by the United States of the highest honor for astronauts.

9. Teacher: Now, think about just the two people we learned about, one was a doctor and another was an astronaut. Do you think that anyone can just become a doctor or astronaut without any hard work and study? [Engage the Student in conversation but come to the point that hard work and study is required to become a doctor or astronaut].

10. Teacher: And so this is an example of how with hard work and study, Indian Americans are one of the most educated and richest group of people in our country today..