If I were planning a unit on one of the issues covered by this website, I would definitely check out the links they suggest.

I think this game is an engaging way for students to learn about many of the issues that poor families struggle with. I would certainly consider using it in a unit on poverty and wealth. It doesn’t take very long, and could serve either as an introductory or review activity. It also touches on a number of other issues, including education, health and nutrition.

The RSA Animate series of video clips is an interesting way to present some very sophisticated ideas to learners. The visual nature of the lectures helps comprehension and helps hold student interest. The lecture above looks at how recent developments in cognitive science change our understanding of human nature. Other lectures deal with concepts like charity, choice, and education, just to name a few. In addition to the various content areas that these lectures could be used in, they would be a great addition to activities working on lecture listening and note taking.

Unfortunately, I didn’t find the RSA website so easy to navigate. For example, I couldn’t find a page that indexed all of the animated lectures. That said, there are many articles and other materials on the website that would be interesting to use in class, so poking around a bit is not a bad thing. If you’re looking for a shortcut, though, here is a search that highlights the RSA Animate lectures. Another approach is to browse through their YouTube channel, which includes many non-animated lectures as well.

They have lots of materials for download and I haven’t looked at all of them yet, but one in particular caught my eye. It’s called Food Production: Fact or Fib. The stated objective of this lesson is to clear up misconceptions, focusing especially on making sure students understand the difference between fertilizer and pesticide. The unstated objective, though, is clearly to make sure that students understand how necessary both of these types of chemicals are, while completely omitting any mention of harmful side-effects.

The main activity asks students to determine whether statements are facts or fibs. Here are some samples:

8. If your family pet were infested with disease-causing insects you would take them to a veterinarian to get treatment.

18. Antibiotics prevent diseases in humans, animals and plants just as vaccines do.

19. Controlling insects is one way to prevent diseases in humans, animals and plants.

And here’s the bonus question:

A doctor would prevent many diseases in a patient by making sure he/she got vaccinations. A Veterinarian would make sure every dog and cat received a rabies vaccination to keep them and their owners safe from rabies. How would a farmer protect his or her crops or animals from diseases or pests? Give more than one example.

Drawing an equivalency between how an industrial farmer feels about his or her crops and how a person feels about their pet is disingenuous. These facts are chosen to steer students into favoring the pro-chemical methods of industrial agriculture. There is literally no mention of no mention of harmful side effects, either in terms of human health or the environment. There is no mention of eutrophic deadzones or of the illnesses suffered by farm workers. There is no mention of organic farming. And there is no mention of the necessity of insects or how pesticides kill them all indiscriminately (not just the “disease-causing” ones).

Obviously, I am not recommending these materials, but I do think they could be useful an in activity that engages true critical thinking. Having students compare these materials with material that gave a truer picture of the pros and cons of fertilizers and pesticides would be interesting. I’m going to contact some local groups and ask if they have any materials like that, and if you know of any, please share them in the comments below.

It’s a real shame that, as we cut educational funding, it is increasingly likely that overworked and underpaid teachers will turn to ready-made materials produced by special interest groups.

In addition to the lesson plans, DGPE offers links to a lot of educational resources on the environment, human rights, development and peace and justice. Many of the resources are reviewed but, strangely, they continue to be listed even if they are reviewed as “Not Useful”. See the review of EECOM (the fourth environmental resource) as an example.

The DGPE website also has information on seminars and courses, which might be of interest if you’re in the Ottawa area.

If one of the lesson plans catches your eye, please let us know in the comments!

The first is The Economics of Happiness.

This documentary links a number of global issues (climate change, terrorism, etc.) with personal issues (depression, loneliness, etc.). I haven’t seen the whole thing, but the trailer brings up a lot of great stuff: true cost economics, the wastefulness of our “efficiency” of scale, and the importance of local communities. For more information, there is a recent review in Yes Magazine.

The other movie (thanks Khalid) is I AM.

It’s directed by the director of The Nutty Professor and Ace Ventura and the trailer is a little melodramatic, but the premise is interesting. He went to a wide variety of people (including personal favorites like Howard Zinn and Noam Chomsky) and asked them two questions:

1. What’s wrong with the world?
2. What can we do about it?

The ultimate conclusion seems to be that we are all very interconnected, and that we find happiness and health through taking care of each other. I think both of these movies (or at least clips from them) would work well in a unit on happiness and global issues.

Personally, I feel like this would be a great addition to a global issues-themed class, as our attitude is fundamental to how we respond to the world. I’m very interested in creating some happiness materials myself, and I’d like to offer it as a content elective in the future. I suspect that administrative responsibilities may keep me out of the classroom until next spring, though, so we’ll see.

In the meantime, I’m starting to collect happiness resources. For starters, there was a recent issue of Yes Magazine devoted to sustainable happiness. There are lots of articles, along with some visual aids.

There’s also a great list from Larry Ferlazzo that includes a bunch of infographics, along with articles like this one in The Atlantic on happiness and money.

If you know of any happiness materials, please feel free to share them in the comments. I’ll do likewise, as I find them.

A recent analysis of the health savings resulting from the bicycle infrastructure in Portland, Ore, came up with stunning results. If the city builds out only the infrastructure it currently plans, the researcher found, it will break even by 2015. By 2030, Portland will have saved $800 million — partly in fuel costs but primarily in health care and the value of reduced mortality. For every $1 we spend, $5 is saved.

It’s interesting to me how frequently right actions have this kind of synergy. Biking is not only cheaper than driving a car, it’s better for your health and better for the environment — just like drinking water, eating plants, and shopping less. This would be a great addition to a unit on health as it might introduce an angle that students have not thought of. To deepen the critical thinking aspect, you could ask them to talk or write about why these types of positive behaviors are not more encouraged by the media or made more convenient by the government.

Thanks Jane

Thanks Larry

The Choices Program has just published a free lesson on the Gulf oil spill based on political cartoons. I love using political cartoons with students, as they are often very efficient ways to understand complex issues. The lesson includes a handout on analyzing political cartoons, a slideshow of the eight cartoons, and links to a variety of informative resources about the spill from a range of sources: PBS, Al Jazeera, the BBC, the Wall Street Journal, etc.

I think this is a great way to make this issue accessible to ESL learners at a variety of levels. I also think that the critical media literacy skills addressed in the handout on analyzing cartoons could be used with cartoons on any issue.

Via World727