Quarantine Teaching 101
Teaching Middle School Students About Sustainability From Afar
This StoryMap provides a collection of resources for an integrated curriculum unit that focuses sustainability. The aim of integrated curriculum is to use two or more subjects to teach . In this case, the two chosen topics are English and Social Studies and the aim is to connect to an overarching theme of sustainability. Many of the resources are online and are meant for middle school aged children. These things can be adopted and used to fit the needs of any particular student or class. The unit is broken up into active learning resources, project ideas, discussion starters, and other bits and pieces educators can use to support their own units.
Starting a conversation
Use a word cloud to introduce new vocab or to connect ideas to a main theme
I am often thinking of ways to introduce topics in a way that connects a student's outside knowledge and curiousities to what I am doing in the classroom. With a unit on Sustainability, I found the following games and other resources to be great conversation starters!
I like this calculator as a conversation starter because kids can really see how the decisions that they and their parents make daily impact the environment. This particular calculator tells when the world's resources would run out if everyone on Earth lived like that person for the year. The farther out in the year your answer is the more sustainable your lifestyle is!
This could lead to a conversation that would discuss easy and simple changes that people can make to their lifestyle more sustainable.
I love this game. The kids would love this game. This is the ideal conversation starter! Ask kids to play the game a few times and have a conversation about the results. I would go more in-depth here but I really don't want to spoil it!
This particular comic would be a great conversation starter to the question, "How do we continue to grow(as a population, nation, world or worlds) sustainably?"
Political Cartoons are also a great way to get kids talking about a topic, especially a controversial topic. Put a particularly interesting one on the board and ask the kids to write about what the cartoonist is trying to say for 5 minutes, then talk about it.
Not only do kids have to think critically, but you can lay the early foundations of using and analyzing different sources in writing.
What happens once the conversation is started?
For me, this depends on your classroom and what subject you teach. This project mainly looks at the idea of a Sustainablility Unit through the lense of a middle school English or Social Studies classroom.
Teaching Sustainability in an English Classroom
One of the reasons I love English is because you can teach ANY subject in an English classroom. There will always be books and articles with the themes and ideas that you want to teach. Teaching kids about sustainability is no different!
Books that can relate to sustainability
A very short list
- The City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau
Publisher’s Summary:
The city of Ember was built as a last refuge for the human race. Two hundred years later, the great lamps that light the city are beginning to flicker. When Lina finds part of an ancient message, she’s sure it holds a secret that will save the city. She and her friend Doon must decipher the message before the lights go out on Ember forever!
The setting of The City of Ember lends itself wonderfully to the conversation of sustainability. Not only could you have a discussion on how a city like Ember could sustain itself, but you can talk about how cities like Ember might pop up if the world dies.
This book is also great because it is one that is already widely taught, so you could adapt already made cirriculm to fit the overall unit of Sustainability.
The "Build Your Own City" assignment below would pair well with this book.
2.My Side of The Mountain by Jean Craighead George
The story told in My Side of the Mountain is the story of Sam Gribley, an unusually intelligent and resourceful 12-year-old-boy who runs away from his family in New York City to the wilderness of the Catskill Mountains. His goal is to survive on his own, and to find the family farm abandoned by his great-grandfather. In the course of his adventures, he learns much about survival in the wild, and also about himself and who he intends to be as he matures.
This book isn't wildly taught in schools to my knowlwedge but it would be a great book to showcase an example of sustainable off-grid living. As a class you could have a discussion about "Mountain Men" or people who live off the land in remote areas of the United States and discuss the type of skills it takes to survive.
An interesting question to ask would be "Is it still a sustainable lifestyle if everyone does it?".
4.Cast Away: Poems for Our Time by Naomi Shihab Nye
Trash poetry. Poetry about Trash. That is what Nye writes about. You couldn't find better poetry to use in a unit about Sustainability!
I am a believer in using all types of literature and media so I love the idea of bringing in poetry to every unit. You can not only talk about what the specific poems mean, but you can assign kids to write their own poetry about trash or sustainability!
Disclaimer: I have not read this, but it makes me really excited even though I am not the biggest fan of poetry.
- 3.The Lorax by Dr. Seuss
When in doubt, go back to the basics. You can't go wrong with Dr. Seuss at any age level.
This book directly and clearly lays out themes of sustainability with business practices and would work great as a conversation starter. It is also a picture book. Pictures are important and can help your visual learners connect and see the ideas that you are teaching.
This is also a great way to satisfy the child within your young adults. Who doesn't love rereading a childhood favorite?
Teaching Sustainability in Social Studies
01 / 07
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Social Studies & Sustainability
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Looking at other cultures
Many things can be learned from looking at other cultures. My studies in Anthropology have taught me that everybody does things differently and doing things different doesn't mean things are done any less effectively. How do other cultures see sustainability?
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Agriculture
By looking at a culture's agricultural system, you can learn about sustainability. What are the farming practices like? How have the adapted to conserve water, especially in drought prone areas like the mid-western United States and parts of Africa?
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Imports and Exports
Is there a focus on green industries? Are there laws in place to make sure these industries are sustainable?
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Look at important turning points in history
The rapid growth of technology and industrialization over the past few centuries is a topic that can definitely be discussed with sustainability.
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Did you know...
Cars were considered to be the "green" option to horses? Cars were thought to be cleaner because there were complaints about all the horse manure.
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Looking at today
Current events is something I find to be under-taught in schools. I always think it is cool to know about what happened yesterday, but I am usually equally or more interested in what is happening right now today.
Projects & Assignments
Lots of these projects and assignments are ideas that can be altered to fit a particular class or standard.
This project can be as big or as small as you want it. By designing their own cities, kids practice thinking critically and put to use some of the information they may have learned in their Social Studies class. This project would also pair really well with reading The City of Ember.
This is a big project but one that the kids could love. Have the kids think up a reasonable project to do then work together and post it on this page. Kids could also research the projects that other people are doing and give a small presentation on them. This could also inspire their own project.
Have the kids create a word cloud about a specific idea or theme then present it to the class. Have the kids explain why they grouped certain things together and how "outside" or unrelated words helped them understand the concept better.
Sustainability has a lot to do with climate change which affects us all. Kids could go more in depth and look at specific places and cultures that are being effected more than others.
