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!

May 10 : FROG SONGS: Poetry and Essays, Field Ecology and Entomology – “Learn to use haiku to teach entomology. Learn to use poetry to help students write clearer more exciting essays. This simple set of lesson plans can be used by classroom teachers or informal educators to get students outdoors on a warm spring day to explore the relationships between insects and biodiversity.”

May 16 : Water Stewardship – From Source to Sea – “This presentation will identify elements of water literacy through a stewardship study with grades 4/5 school students. While drawing from a specific school project, it will identify elements that can be transferred to other situations – and higher grade levels. The project involved field learning immersed in local community, making personal connections that lead to community activism.”

May 19 : Do a Little or Do a Lot: Sustainability Education – “After attending this webinar, participants will leave with an understanding of what education for sustainability is and how they can incorporate sustainability into their teaching practices. You/they will learn about free curriculum resources that examine interconnections between economy, environment, and society.”

May 25 : Green Craft-Making – “The why and how of focusing one’s eco-art activities on using natural materials easily found in the outdoors.”

The main section of the site is Gapminder World. The default graph compares life expectancy with GDP, with the dot representing each country sized according to its population, and the dot color representing the geographic region. The power comes from the fact that all of these can be reassigned. There are many, many statistics that can be assigned to the x-axis, the y-axis, dot size and even dot color. It is also possible to view each graph as an animation, seeing how things have changed over time. Play around with it, or check out the tutorial or example graphs.

Another neat resource on the site is the collection of animations illustrating Human Development Trends in 2005. In addition to conveying some interesting information, these animations also would be useful in a unit on understanding graphs. For example, the animation on Differences within Countries illustrates how important information can be lost in averages. For English language learners, a good feature of these animations is that they operate as slideshows, meaning each part can be read at any speed.

Gapminder can be used to quickly create easily comprehensible graphs on a very wide range of issues. Many of the prepared animations would also work well in an ESL / EFL classroom.

I haven’t used any of these materials yet, so to get a better understanding, I took a look at one topic in particular. I chose the 9-12 unit on Microfinance. The lesson plan itself is 37 pages, with detailed descriptions of the standards met, and several page-long readings on women and microfinance. It starts with a set of visual aids, a collection of photos and maps that help introduce the issues.

Next, students watch a short (2 min.) video clip profiling a woman in Aceh, Indonesia who is rebuilding her business after the tsunami. There is also a reading that gives additional information on her story, and discussion prompts are included with the visual aids. Many ideas for extension activities are also given, including reading graphs, understanding laws, and learning about gender inequality in the US.

The second part of the lesson uses a 2 min. interview with a woman from the International Food Policy Research Institute. She discusses how improving the economic status of woman also benefits children. Slides in the visual aids take students through a summarizing activity and a discussion of the U.N.’s Millennium Development Goals. Again, many extension activities are given.

Based on this lesson, I would absolutely look to use these materials in class. They are full of great vocabulary, and engaging activities. And I think the range in grade levels available would make it easy to find something that would work with a class at a variety of English proficiencies.

Via World727

Their website also features past issues of their newsletter, photos and videos, all of which are great ways to introduce a variety of issues. Dancing Rabbit was also featured on an episode of in the first season of 30 Days called “Off the Grid”.

They’re having a fundraising blogathon this Friday and Saturday. $5,000 in matching donations have already been pledged, so please join them on Sustainablog this Friday and Saturday and help raise $10,000 for sustainability education.

This new research-based teacher’s guide helps students develop English language skills through highly engaging real-world investigations of current global issues. Designed for intermediate-level English language learners and striving readers, Making Connections combines language learning with opportunities for students to think critically about sustainable solutions for community development, environmental issues, quality of life, and more. Aligned with education standards, this 352-page guide includes nine chapters with lessons that have been reviewed and field tested by content experts, teachers, and students. Throughout the teacher’s guide, ideas for differentiated instruction make this text applicable for student levels ranging from beginner to advanced.

The table of contents, chapter 1, and chapter 3 are available to download if you’re interested in checking it out.

…here we are, too far into the new century to pretend any longer that a new age of awareness and responsibility will suddenly emerge, unless we can gather the resolve to drag it kicking and screaming from our imaginations and into reality.
…
We have paused in our centuries-long push to produce and consume ever more now, and the most optimistic might say that this is our chance to breathe deeply and consider the sort of future we want for ourselves and for our planet. Will consumption continue to rule the day, or will we find ways to do more good for humanity, with less harm to the Earth? Will we make our recovery merely fast, or can we make it smart as well?

In addition to the essays, there are photo galleries of environmental migration, political migration, urbanization and irrigation.

There is also a really great infographic that illustrates a variety of statistics (population growth, water footprint, meat consumption, etc.) in an accessible way, with further links to infographics about each of the statistics. These are purely environmental in focus, though. For example, the infographic comparing meat types doesn’t mention anything about animal welfare or health, just resource consumption and pollution.

There is also an interactive quiz and links to resources for the various statistics. Finally, you can check out the 2008 version.

Thanks Larry

Another neat feature of the site are the statistics of the month including topics like swine flu deaths, toilet flushes and the price of beer in Zimbabwe.

Thanks Barbara