Putting It All Together The following activities will help
students learn more about how technology has affected warfare
and how wars are memorialized. Activity 1: Victory or Defeat?
One student of the Battle of Midway attributed the American
victory to intelligence, strategy, tactics, and luck.1 Have
students review the information contained in this lesson and
then hold a classroom discussion to decide which of these
elements made the greatest contribution to the victory. Activity
2: Technology and Warfare Technological changes in weapons seem
to be a race between offense, the ability to hurt the enemy, and
defense, the ability to protect yourself. Have students work in
groups of four or five to review the following list of
technological developments that have affected warfare. Can they
identify any patterns in these groupings? Ask them to consider
questions such as: How have the weapons of war changed over
time? How have "battlefields" changed over time in terms of
scale? How has the physical relationship b