Sustainability
Planting Seeds for the Future
The environment and the economy are really both two sides of the same coin. If we cannot sustain the environment, we cannot sustain ourselves.
-Wangari Maathai
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I'm a description. Click to edit me
What we are doing to the forests of the world is but a mirror reflection of what we are doing to ourselves and to one another.
- Mahatma Ghandhi
The purpose of this lesson is to introduce a curriculum intended to teach students about sustainability and further focus on the impact of consumer choices. Students will draw on open discussion, videos, articles, and physical products to grasp an understanding of their impact on other people, animals, and the planet as a consumer. As the lesson comes to an end, students will demonstrate their understanding by writing down 3 things they found out, two things they found interesting, and one question they still have. If time permits, the teacher can hold a class debate.
The purpose of this lesson is to teach students that people’s individual food choices affect others’ ability to survive and thrive. Students will utilize photographs, videos, books, and article excerpts at various stations in the classroom to understand that many migrant workers are treated inhumanely on farms. Upon completion, students will write letter, as a migrant worker, to a family member back home regarding their working conditions, pay, morale, and feelings about their job and situation. If time allows, students can also play the part of a grocery store owner, farm owner, or migrant worker and act various scenarios out.
This lesson introduces the ways in which humans’ manipulation of the environment impacts the survival of plants and animals and well as their own. Resources such as Wangari’s Trees of Peace by Jeanette Winter and an NC State video “Going Native” provide information about deforestation and habitat loss in our local area and what measures we can take to counteract it. Student will also participate in a research project, in which they will explore the causes and effects of deforestation. By the lesson’s end, students will be able to recognize native species and exotic species of plants in their local area and express their understanding of deforestation globally and locally to a friend or family member about the importance of building a sustainable environment.
The purpose of this lesson is to prompt students to take a step forward and become solutionaries by exploring and researching individuals who have created products intended to promote sustainability. Following their exploration and research, students will be invited to collaborate with their peers, select a topic of great interest, and develop a sustainable product. The students will be encouraged to share their creations with their class, school, and community. Ideally, the students realize their voices can be used as powerful agents of change.