Can You Stop the Cuban Missile Crisis Problem Solving Activity

Can your students stop the Cuban Missile Crisis? Find out with this collaborative, scenario based activity. Students will be given five authentic scenarios regarding the events of the Cuban Missile Crisis (Castro's Rise, "Flexible Response", Bay of Pigs, Missile Drawdown, and "The Hotline"). Students will choose between three choices to guess which of the solutions the U.S. ACTUALLY pursued during the crisis. After choosing, students will engage in a flexible thinking routine in which they provide advantages and disadvantages of their choice. Lastly, you'll bring it all back together to have students discuss their choices, hypotheses, questions and comments. A Powerpoint with the answers and some background information of how the scenario played out helps students get familiar with some of the major events and themes of the Kennedy Administration.

This activity is sure to get your students talking and speculating about history. I usually use this type of activity to introduce our major eras of history as they create a bit of intrigue and do so in a way that gets students to engage intellectually and emotionally. So many skills come together in this activity and students typically have fun with it.