Strategies
- We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them. ~Albert Einstein
Al Gore, you totally rock! But I'm sorry your global warming film bores my students to tears when I show it in my Earth and Environmental Science class. I'm hoping Melissa Etheridge recorded her song for your film before she watched it, because I'm not sure if she intended to make a pun with her title!
I Need to Wake Up, is Melissa's Academy Award-winning song written for Al's 2006 documentary film, An Inconvenient Truth: A Global Warning. Bring Me Some Water, Just Stand Up, and Cry Baby are just a few more featured singles sung by Melissa; I'm wondering if she titled them after watching his film…ok, I'll stop. The film was incredibly informational, but I asked myself several times, why am I showing this, why haven't I pressed 'stop' yet? The only time my students were wide-eyed with interest was when Al climbed on that scaffold-looking contraption that raised him high in the air in the hopes that he would wobble off, plunge 30 feet down, and face-plant onto the stage. It occurred to me at that instant, these kids want more than just charts and facts up on a screen; they want to be entertained while their supposed to be learning. Knowing that Al Gore, literally, has all the resources and scientists in the world, it didn't matter how well his information was researched and organized and planned, it still wasn't enough to motivate my students. At the end, they were uninterested in Al, and, moreover, still uninterested in the environment.
Upon accepting her prestigious Academy Award, Melissa Etheridge stated, "Mostly I have to thank Al Gore, for inspiring us, for inspiring me, showing that caring about the Earth is not Republican or Democratic; it's not red or blue, it's all green." Just as Al influenced Melissa, I want to influence my students' way of thinking. I want to peak their interest in the environment and I want them to discover their role in it. They should WANT to 'think green' which, to me, means to carry out daily routines with minimal environmental and resource impact, and with the highest degree of sustainability.
How can I accomplish such a feat? My idea involves changing the way my students think. Not an easy task. My students have procured poor habits with regards to reducing, reusing and recycling materials, most likely since they were born. The habits one has today are, to a great degree, influenced by the environment that one immerses oneself in. According to Tristin Loo, "a habit can be uprooted by steadily and persistently working against it. Just as performing a task again and again creates a habit, performing an opposite task again and again eliminates it" (2009 18). The formation of a new habit is initially difficult. However, with repeated performance, it takes roots and becomes a part of one's nature.
The first strategy I will use is that of student empowerment. Students become empowered when they feel some ownership of the material in which they are learning. Empowerment is the development of knowledge, skills and abilities in the learner to enable them to control and develop their own learning. Patricia Panitz and Theodore Panitz state that, "Empowerment produces an environment that fosters maturity and responsibility in students for their learning. The teacher becomes a facilitator instead of a director and the student becomes a willing participant instead of a passive follower" (2004 19).
Students are also empowered by, "developing their critical thinking, or meta-cognition" (Burrows and Harvey1992 20). This requires an approach to teaching and learning that goes beyond requiring students to learn a body of knowledge and be able to apply it analytically. Critical thinking is about encouraging students to challenge preconceptions of their own, their peers and their teachers. Burrows and Harvey also state that, "they should be encouraged to question the established orthodoxy rather than swallow it unthinkingly, and to develop their own opinions and be able to justify them." Empowering students through critical thinking encourages them to think about knowledge as a process they are engaged in. It requires students to self assess, to be able to decide what is good quality work and to be confident when they have achieved it. In short, an approach that encourages critical thinking treats students as intellectual performers rather than as a compliant audience. It transforms teaching and learning into an active process of understanding. It enables students to easily go beyond the narrow confines of the 'safe' knowledge base they've acquired, to applying themselves to whatever they encounter in the future!
In order to accomplish this, I will create activities that translate student knowledge into action because truly empowered students are active. The first activity that will incorporate student empowerment is the viewing of Howard University student, Illai Kenney's video, 1000 Voices. My students will be exposed to the Alliance for Climate Protection, the Environmental Justice and Climate Change Initiative and the Creative Counsel and their 1000 Voices Campaign, which creates video projects highlighting young African American leaders in the climate justice movement. Seeing students who are being active in their community and who are just like them will be a powerful influence. It is my intention to introduce the ideas of environmental justice first so that they will feel more connected to the facts and information that will follow. See Introductory Activities for more specific classroom empowerment ideas.
A second strategy I will employ throughout this unit is a 'hands-on' or constructivist approach to learning. Constructivism is a philosophy of learning founded on the premise that, by reflecting on our experiences, we construct our own understanding of the world we live in. Each of us, "Generates our own 'rules' and 'mental models', which we use to make sense of our experiences. Learning, therefore, is simply the process of adjusting our mental models to accommodate new experiences" (Teaching Effectiveness Program 21). A Chinese proverb states, "I hear and I forget, I see and I understand, I do and I understand." Although these words may not be the exact translation, they seem to underscore the need for a hands-on approach to science teaching. Without this approach, students must rely on memory and abstract thought, two methods that restrict learning in most students. By actually doing and experiencing science, students develop their critical thinking skills as well as discover scientific concepts. This self-discovery stays with students throughout their lifetimes while memory fades. In my opinion, if students are not doing hands-on science, they are not doing science. Science is a process and if students are not actively engaged in the process, they are not learning. Study after study has shown the value of hands-on learning. Students are motivated and they learn more.
In this unit, students will be exploring water and plastics through small-group laboratories such as a water taste-test lab and a recyclable plastics identification lab. Students will also be researching the history and future of plastic. They will be constructing several chemical formulations of some of the most common plastics with molecule kits and discussing the characteristics of the bonds between the elements. Students will participate in a scavenger hunt for renewable and non-renewable resources, and even determine their own carbon footprint. When students are actively involved in an inquiry activity (discovery on your own or in a group) the teacher will need to talk less and facilitate more. See Hands-On/Minds-On Activities for more specific classroom demonstrations.
The final strategy I will apply to this unit is that of leading effective discussions. In my 7 years of teaching, I have noticed that classes will form a collective personality. This year, for example, I noticed my 4 th block was very quiet and intellectual, while my 2 nd block was quite a humorous and animated bunch. For this reason, it's a good idea to try different techniques and strategies to keep lively discussions going. The Feedback Discussion technique emphasizes the importance of group roles and processes in a discussion and gives students more responsibility for participating in and sharing facilitation responsibilities in a dialogue with their peers (Teaching Effectiveness Program). One way to facilitate this strategy is with points. Students receive positive or negative points each time they participate in a discussion. Award positive points for such things as: taking a stand on an issue, presenting factual or research-based information, or making a relevant comment. Negative points should be given for interrupting, monopolizing, personal attacks or making irrelevant comments. I would use points as a bonus system not as a grade. (This system is totally optional.)
The discussion should be set up as follows: Divide the class into two groups. One group will be part of an inside circle having a discussion and the other half will be taking notes on group dynamics and the quality of the discussion. The inside group will be given a designated question(s) to discuss on a particular topic. (At the midpoint in the class, the groups will switch roles.) The instructor takes his/her place in the outside circle and should not interfere unless absolutely necessary.
The questions for the discussion may come from the instructor or the students, but the quality of the discussion will depend largely on well-constructed, relevant questions that invite discussion. Fact-based questions requiring primarily recall tend to kill discussions quickly because they are not, what I call, "fat questions". That is they do not elicit any more than a "yes" or "no" answer. One of the first things I teach my students in the beginning of each semester is the difference between a good/fat question and a poor/skinny question. Some questions I may ask might include:
- "Is using stainless steel water bottles better than lets say, a Nalgene® bottle when considering renewable vs. non-renewable resources?"
- "How has overpopulation affected the quality of the atmosphere with regards to global warming?"
- After viewing the movie, The Day After Tomorrow, I would pose the question, "Do you think this type of film could scare people into at least thinking about the environment or the issue of global warming and then actually doing something?" about it?"
Let students write their thoughts down first before you ask them to speak up in class. This gets their mind turned on and gives them the security of having something written down to refer to in case the act of public speaking gets them flustered. It is better to ask a few questions and allow time for the discussion to develop. Sometimes one good question is enough for a 12-15 minute discussion. Plan time for introducing the activity, two rounds of discussion, debriefing with the outside circle and closure (summation or review of what the students learned or became interested in).
The debriefing session should address two things. First, the quality of the discussion: did the question(s) asked get answered well? Secondly, how well did the group work together throughout the discussion? Did they distribute "air time" equitably? Did they encourage shy people to speak? Did they introduce new questions or insights? Did they challenge each other appropriately? Did they help each other clarify their contributions? Did they make relevant contributions? See Discussion Activities for more specific classroom discourse.
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