For November’s Secondary Smorgasbord blog hop, we’re focusing on creating a global classroom. I think it’s appropriate for this month, because my particular experience with creating a global classroom also ties into Thanksgiving: being thankful for your health, your family, your friends, and your education.
In an age of information, you would think that students would be more informed about the happenings around the globe; but I’ve found when working with teenagers, it’s also an age of isolation: many (_not_all) are focused on themselves, their circle of friends, their hobbies, and their… well, Facebook accounts. With so much at stake, and so much possibility at their fingertips, I decided to get my students engaged on Change.org. (ages 13+).
The students were not required to sign any petitions, but they could outside of school if they wanted to- and many did! Upperclassmen in my Environmental science class (who was given plenty of advanced notice), would state their case, trying to “sell” the rest of the class an issue found on Change.org. They could make a poster, a PowerPoint, brochures, anything! The rules were simple: they had to be related to the environment, health, or human rights, but could not include politics or religion, and could include a link to Change.org. If the students really wanted to present an issue that was not found on Change.org, they could start their own petition.
One year, had a young lady in 11th grade who took matters into her own hands and went above and beyond our classroom, working hard over the remaining two years of her high school career to save the whales from commercial whaling. I had one young man who started his own school wide petition that would eliminate styrofoam from the school cafeteria, which was widely successful, and lead to the entire district phasing out the use of styrofoam over the course of 2 years. I loved doing this because it gave some students a lot of insights about global problems- some did not know that clean water was ensured for all countries, or vaccinations, or even education! I really think doing this with my class meant that I was opening up their eyes to the world, and making them feel more humbled about their lifestyle.
I’d like to share the documentation that I provided my students for this class project!
For my biology classes, I unfortunately did not have the time to do these types of projects, but particular web quest we did in class was usually an eye opener; I’d get a lot of “that HAS to be wrong!” or “Is that I typo?” and “I don’t believe that.” The web quest was no other than the Human Population and Ecological Footprint Web Quest. This explores the growth of the human population and has a section where it compares the US to other countries as far as production and waste. The students also explore their own ecological footprint.
Stay Science Classy,
Vanessa