Overview
With the growing body of knowledge supporting the reality of global warming [1], it is more important than ever for citizens to be aware of and understand their responsibility as stewards of their home planet. I don't think there is a grade level that is too young to begin learning about our fragile Earth, and fifth grade is certainly not too young for them to think about their roles in the different communities they live in. Up until now, their experience has taught them to look little beyond their school, neighborhood, and home for their circle of influence — i.e., what influences them and where they may have some influence over others.
Many of my students have parents who came from Mexico — legally and illegally, and their view of the world is focused on just getting by. About 70% of the families in our school area are Hispanic. There are a few Native Americans and Asians (about one to four percent) and about 80% of the students are on free or reduced-cost lunch. Even those parents who were born here have relatives and friends who are concerned enough about their "social" security and legal status to distract, if not impact, their own lives. The kids who grow up in this kind of environment do not grow up with the world's stage being discussed at the dinner table. In a nutshell, my students do not normally have a global perspective included in their world view. Of course, this is not unique to New Mexico. There are communities across the nation where parents from low socio-economic backgrounds are less informed than their children's teachers. Part of our responsibility in teaching and preparing them is to teach them social responsibility. Ironically, and perhaps luckily, these students often spend more time with me than they do with their parents.
One of the themes that I regularly include across the curriculum is "responsibility and citizenship." Each year, our students learn about their community — starting with their home and family and expanding that community each year to include their classroom, their school, their neighborhood, their town, and so on up to their place in the global community. In the fifth grade, we are at the stage where they are finding their place in the greater, global community. They are discovering how they fit in and what is included in their responsibilities regarding learning and citizenship. One of these responsibilities concerns our planet's atmosphere and global warming.
Citizens should do whatever they can to improve the status of their world, including identifying the resources available to them to do so. In New Mexico, this includes abundant sunshine and wind. It is often cited that New Mexico enjoys, on average, 300 sunny days per year [2]. There are no equivalent "charming" statistics concerning the wind. Suffice to say there is quite a bit of wind too — particularly in the eastern part of the state and on the prairies near my school.
It is my intention to help my students learn how using wind energy will help improve conditions around the world. Wind power is known to emit no carbon emissions other than in the production of wind turbines and that even if we cannot "see" the savings by watching, we "know" it is happening (by reading statistics and studies) and we can feel satisfaction for doing our part [3]. In addition, I hope that other teachers and school leaders will be inspired to good environmental behaviors by seeing how our small group of young citizens has made a difference. If they want to copy our project using this curriculum unit, they can adapt it to suit the age of their students and the natural renewable resources common to their area. If they merely use our spirit and have their own plan, I am equally pleased. In any case, I hope this effort will energize some one or some group to make a difference.
As I suggested, this unit can be taught in any grade. Since I am teaching intermediate elementary, I will address these grades (fourth, fifth, sixth) in particular. In the younger grades, the lessons can be adjusted to include community building (social studies), simple machines (science), counting (math), and writing (language arts). In intermediate grades, the social studies lessons include government, civic responsibility, economics, history and culture. In science, students will learn, among other things, about energy and energy transference, generators, building materials and design, global warming, the carbon cycle, and weather [appendix A]. Math standards will be included in many of the lessons including measuring, ratios, and arithmetic. In language arts, the students will be reading newspapers, journals, and text books and they will be keeping written journals as well as writing reports, arguments, and letters. The activities noted below touch on some of the standards and benchmarks addressed by this unit. More detail and extension is included in the activities described later in this unit. Whatever the age of the students, the goal for this unit is to offer knowledge and illustrate one instrument of change that can be replicated, simulated, customized, or personalized.
Taken in its current form, the unit's activities are written to address students living in northern New Mexico — referencing our natural renewable resources, our economy, and our culture. Most of our families are poor — within one or two generations of settling in this country. Our school is a charter school and has about twice the state average of special education students. That said, this unit can be adjusted to fit many different communities.
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