An Upper Elementary (5th-8th grade) Standards-Based Unit
Fields of Knowledge Covered:
6.9 Students examine the interrelationships among physical earth processes, ecosystems, and human activities.
7.15ee. Students understand ecological interactions and interdependence between humans and their resource demands on environmental systems.
7.9 Students use statistics; 7.9c gather data from an entire group or from a sample of its members, and identify the usefulness and limitations of each approach; analyze the validity of inferences about a set of data.
1.15 Students use verbal and nonverbal skills to express themselves effectively.
Desired Outcomes:
Students learn:
This SBU was prepared using two curricula: Making Connections, Linking Population and the Environment Elementary Teacher’s Guide available for $15 from the Population Reference Bureau, Inc., 1875 Connecticut Ave., N.W., Suite 520, Washington, DC 20009-5728, 1-800-877-9881 and Counting on People, Elementary Population and Environmental Activities available for $19.95 from Zero Population Growth, 1400 Sixteenth St., N.W., Suite 320, Washington, DC 20036, 1-800-POP-1956. Most lessons are about 45 minutes long. The entire unit will take 3-4 weeks.
Lesson One: Lessons from The Lorax. PRG Lesson 15, p. 64 two days, ZPG Activity 28, p. 98
Using Dr. Seuss’s The Lorax students learn that, quoting the ZPG curriculum, “economic demands can lead to excessive use of natural resources, and population growth can add to environmental stress.”
Lesson Two: “The Need for Trees” PRB Lesson 16, pp. 65-74 two-three days
Students learn about deforestation in Kenya, Nepal, and Brazil; student groups prepare speeches on the use of trees in their group’s country.
Lesson Three: Class discussion one day
How trees are used in the U.S. and how students use wood. Prepare students for homework assignment accounting for their use of wood. See enclosed student worksheet on firewood, furniture, house structure, paper and paper product use, amount of recycling, sources of wood.
Lesson Four: Class discussion of lesson three homework one day
Discussion of local production and consumption: the costs of transportation, obstacles to local production and consumption. Is there a local sawyer, logger, lumber yard manager who could come speak about acquiring wood, costs, local use ? Where do the local wood generating power plants, furniture makers, cabinet makers, lumber yards, and the plywood factory in Whitehall, NY get their wood? Where do local newspapers, magazines, paper companies, Ticonderoga Mills, and Seventh Generation get their paper? How far do they ship their products?
Lesson Five: Class discussion and/or presentation about recycling one day
What happens to recycled paper products? Ask a local solid waste district manager to speak about recycling. What are the benefits of recycling? (The Association of Vermont Recyclers in Montpelier at 229-1833 is another resource for this lesson.) An extension would be to coordinate with art teacher for making paper or making things out of recycled goods. Homework: introduce ZPG’s Energy Miser Activities Chart pp. 93-94
Lesson Six: Global disparities of food, clean drinking water, energy use - PRB’s Lesson Five, pp. 11-18 two-three days
Students compare the lives of of Haitian, Mauritanian, and Nepalese children and use data to create human portraits.
Lesson Seven: A Home Water Audit - ZPG Activity 29, pp. 99-100 one day
This is a homework assignment. Be sure that the class understands the difference in renewable and non-renewable resources. Review the water cycle, if needed, and discuss the lowering of water tables, the use of water in agriculture, and the range of use of water and availability of clean water.
Lesson Eight: Carrying Capacity - ZPG Activity 14. p. 52 one day
This is a fun activity with students playing the role of cougars seeking food. Homework writing exercise -how are we like these cougars; how do we differ in our carrying capacity needs and means to exceed carrying capacity?
Lesson Nine: Introduce culminating assignment: written and oral reports comparing student’s ecological footprints with the ecological footprint of families in other countries. two-three days
By now students should have an appreciation for different lifestyles and different levels of consumption. Set parameters of what you want your students to cover (e.g. energy use, material goods, materials spent rendering health care, transportation costs, money earned/money spent {how does that money reflect the consumption of resources?}, number of children per woman, garbage created, fuel sources, climate differences, housing differences). One procedure could be to have groups of four for each country where one person discusses water use, one energy use, one material goods, one transportation. Revisit the charts and information about other countries. Introduce the Material World books and their facts and charts. Have students pick countries to use in comparison with their own lifestyles and begin research. The written component could be note cards in preparation for oral reports or formal reports.
Lesson Ten: Discuss components of effective presentations. one day
Presentations could include good charts or other clear visuals. Continue to work on project in class. Class time will also be needed for presentations and for discussion of what was effective in the reports. There should also be a final discussion of global disparities and student’s attitudes about the disparities.
ZPG Activity 33, p. 106, Mining for Chocolate, is a fun and illuminating presentation on the costs of resource extraction.
ZPG’s middle school curriculum, People and the Planet: Lessons for a Sustainable Future has a lesson (activity #15) on calculating the use and impact of cars in America and several lessons concerning sustainable development and sustainable communities.
Field trips: Waste water treatment plant; recycling center
Books:
The Lorax by Dr. Seuss
Material World: A Global Family Portrait by Peter Menzel
Women in the Material World by Faith d’Alusio and Peter Menzel
Stuff: The Secret Lives of Everyday Things, John Ryan & Alan Durning, 1997, Seattle: Northwest Environmental Watch.
50 Simple Things Kids Can Do To Save the Earth, John Javna, The Earth Works Group, 1990, Kansas City, MO: Andrews and McMeel.
Our Ecological Footprint, Mathis Wackernagel and William Rees,1996, Philadelphia: New Society Publishers. (for teacher’s use)
Publications:
Population and Sustainable Living Resource Guide available from Vermont Population Alliance
This Standards-Based-Unit was written by Barbara Duncan, Executive Director of Vt Population Alliance (VPA) and member of ZPG’s Population Education Network (PETNet). Ms. Duncan is a Population Mentor for the Sierra Club and is active with the National Audubon Society’s Population and Habitat Program. For more information you can reach VPA at P.O. Box 466, Norwich, VT 05055, 802-649-5168, <bdpop@valley.net>.
VPA is available for school programs and teachers’ workshops. VPA has produced a similar Standards Based Unit on human impact using just Zero Population Growth’s (ZPG) elementary curriculum, Counting on People and another using only Population Reference Bureau’s (PRB) Making Connections.. VPA also has middle school and high school Standards Based Units to accompany PRB’s and ZPG’s middle school and high school curricula.