Over the past several election cycles, I’ve become convinced that the only issue that truly matters is getting the money out of politics. Until we do that, no meaningful change is possible. Lawrence Lessig’s recent TED talk expresses this problem in clear and engaging terms. This talk would be difficult for most students, but it […]
Entries Tagged as 'statistics'
We the People, and the Republic we must Reclaim
April 24th, 2013 · No Comments
Tags: blog · finance · global issues activities · listening · politics · statistics · video
Imagine All the Water
July 13th, 2012 · No Comments
Imagine All the Water offers a bunch of information on indirect water use. In other words, it addresses the issue of how much water is consumed in producing various foods and industrial products. The site features many short readings and a short video. The readings are fairly dry, but the video is funny, and the […]
Tags: blog · global issues activities · reading · statistics · the environment · vegetarian / vegan · video · visual prompts · water
Slavery Footprint
November 9th, 2011 · 2 Comments
Slavery Footprint is a visually engaging survey that roughly determines how many slaves were involved in producing the goods we consume. It’s similar to carbon footprint calculators in terms of the questions it asks, asking about your home, electronics, diet, clothing and so on. On several of the questions, it allows you to really delve […]
Tags: blog · child labor · consumerism · fair trade · global issues activities · human rights · poverty & wealth · reading · statistics · visual prompts
Youth Xchange: Training Kit on Responsible Consumption
October 24th, 2011 · No Comments
Youth Xchange is produced by UNEP and UNESCO, and it has links to loads of educational resources aimed at young people. Topics include the environment, consumption, body image, nutrition, and much, much more. I haven’t nearly explored it all, but there is a lot of good stuff here. It is mostly profiles of people and […]
Tags: blog · climate change · consumerism · cultural issues · food and hunger · global issues resources · health · k-12 · poverty & wealth · statistics
Business Insider: A Ton of Charts and Graphs on Wealth Inequality
October 20th, 2011 · 1 Comment
Business Insider has a page that features a ton of different charts and graphs on wealth inequality. It would work great in conjunction with an activity on Occupy Wall Street. The graphs start off showing how unemployment is at an all-time high (since 1940), then they look at CEO pay and corporate profits. The graph […]
Tags: blog · consumerism · finance · financial crisis (2008) · global issues activities · poverty & wealth · statistics · visual prompts
Spent
September 27th, 2011 · 1 Comment
Spent is an educational game that attempts to give users the experience of living on the edge of poverty. You make a series of choices, trying to keep your head above water financially. It is text-based, providing lots of reading opportunities with plenty of life-skills-related vocabulary. I particularly like how they demonstrate that financial pressures […]
Tags: blog · consumerism · financial crisis (2008) · food and hunger · global issues activities · health · poverty & wealth · reading · statistics · teaching with games · video games
Center for the Advancement of Steady State Economy
September 7th, 2011 · No Comments
One of the fundamental problems with capitalism as it is currently practiced in many countries around the world is that it relies on continual growth. Obviously, this is not sustainable. The Center for the Advancement of Steady State Economy (CASSE) is an organization that seeks to explore the true costs of growth-based economics, as well […]
Tags: audio · blog · climate change · consumerism · fair trade · finance · global issues resources · politics · poverty & wealth · reading · slideshow · statistics · the environment · video · visual prompts
Pedaling away from the health care crisis
March 31st, 2011 · 2 Comments
A friend just sent me this article in Grist about how cycling can help in America’s health care crisis. One paragraph in particular caught my attention: 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 […]
Tags: blog · climate change · global issues activities · health · reading · statistics · the environment
It’s the Inequality, Stupid
February 28th, 2011 · 3 Comments
Mother Jones has put together a collection of 11 great infographics that look at the distribution of wealth in American from a number of different angles. I particularly like the one headed “Out of Balance” (included here) that compares perceptions, reality and preference. It is really incredible, with the concentration of wealth and power in […]
Tags: blog · finance · infographics · politics · poverty & wealth · statistics · visual prompts
Buy, Use, Toss – Free 10 Lesson Unit from Facing the Future
September 2nd, 2010 · 1 Comment
Facing the Future is offering Buy, Use, Toss, a 10 lesson unit on consumption, for free download. It looks very good, and features some old favorites like The Story of Stuff and Chris Jordan. It’s aimed at grades 9-12, and seems like it would be perfect for adult ESL learners. The lessons ask students to […]
Tags: blog · consumerism · fair trade · global issues activities · k-12 · lesson plans · pictures · poverty & wealth · reading · statistics · the environment · video · visual prompts