Go Green!
(Go white!)
(I just had to do that, I'm an MSU Spartan after all...)
Hey everyone! As the days are getting shorter and colder, I
keep thinking back to my ISE 301 days from last fall. For those of you who have
taken it, you’re probably thinking of the same memory I am – the Water Project!
For me, I hadn’t even considered how much water waste I create every day, which
makes it even more important for us teachers to inform our students about it! To
help you out in the future, found a quick mini lesson we can use to introduce
students to an environmental awareness unit:
Materials:
- Clean,
empty, one-quart milk cartons
- New
toothbrushes
- Toothpaste
Procedure:
- Brush
your teeth with the water running. At the same time, have another person
fill the containers with the running water until you finish brushing.
- Record
how many quart containers are filled. Then use that information to figure
out how much water your family uses to brush their teeth.
- Multiply
the number of family members by the number of times each person brushes
his or her teeth per day.
- Then
multiply the result by the total number of quarts of water you collected
during one brushing. That's how many quarts of water your family can save
by not running the water when they brush!
Of course, students could argue that they turn the water off
when brushing their teeth, but this activity can be applied to so many other
activities! What about when showering, or washing dishes, or using the toilet –
things where water waste can’t be avoided? Overall, this is a good, quick
introduction to a unit, and it can be completed right in the school’s bathroom.
Thinking back to ISE 301, I remember it was heavily focused
on environmental awareness and teaching our students to decrease waste. It’s
important that we consistently remind our student to be aware of how their
actions affect the environment, both directly and indirectly. However, I am a
bit intimidated by the task of creating original lessons for an entire unit
which are interactive, informational, engaging, involve critical thinking, and
meet the standards! Thankfully, I found this resource which outlines lessons
that teachers can use for an entire environmental awareness unit, even listing
all of the standards that it meets. You can check out the entire PDF for the
whole unit, but here’s one lesson from it that I liked because it’s applied
across all subjects:
At this point in the
unit, students are split into teams to create a newsletter or blog for the
community describing an action people can take to help the local environment.
In math class:
- Continue to graph patterns of local weather and their effects on local animal habitats.
- Continue to sort, count, chart, and graph the recyclables brought in each day.
- Document sunflower growth.
- Document “Our Neighborhood Habitat,” walking around the community and listing animals, plants, weather, and pollution that students see.
In social studies class:
- Student teams focus on doing something beneficial for the environment, such as picking up litter or planting a tree.
- Create a playlist of actions that students are taking to help the environment and upload the playlist to their blogs.
In ELA class:
- Come together as a class and post students’ findings from math onto their blog/newsletter.
- I suggest using this class to help students write about their findings, allowing them to discuss what they’re learning about environmental awareness and how they will organize it for the blog/newsletter.
This PDF has a lot of resources that teachers can use for
their classrooms, but you can always add in your own creativity! The main focus
is that we help our students grow into critical thinkers and active members of
their community, especially when it comes to environmental awareness. I hope
you found these lessons useful, and I’d love to hear your own suggestions/ideas!
See ya!
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