Have an idea for a Learning Link?
If your Link is accepted for publication on the Web site you will be credited with your name, school, and city.These Learning Links provide ten quick-and-easy, five-minute mini-lessons to promote student thought and dialogue about service and civic engagement. You may use as many of them as you wish, and in whatever order best meets your needs and the interest of your students. The purpose of these mini-lessons is to provide a deeper understanding of philanthropy (the giving of time, talent, and treasure for the common good) and to reinforce the lesson focus. These Learning Links also promote the development of character traits, civic engagement, and student leadership. As appropriate to your grade level, it is recommended that students play an active leadership role in presenting these mini-lessons to their classmates.
1. READ: Most plants and animals have natural predators. A natural predator is someone or something that eats another living plant or animal as a part of its natural diet. In fact, natural predators are important. They help keep the balance needed for life to exist on this planet. We can look at a snake eating a whole mouse and exclaim, “That’s gross!” but that is the natural thing for a snake to do. There is one predator who constantly likes to upset the balance of nature. We are that predator. As we build our buildings, we often don’t think about the consequences of destroying natural habitats. We are careless with our fires which destroy acres and acres of forest land each year. We tend to eat far more than we need to live. We waste and pollute our water. We throw out more trash than our landfills can hold. We tend to use more natural resources than we need to. We often are not “natural predators” helping to keep the balance in nature. We are very “unnatural predators”!
DISCUSS: Why is it not okay to be an “unnatural predator”? Why is balance in nature so important? In what ways is our Earth Day event helping bring balance into nature? What are some ways we can be more like “natural predators”?
2. READ: We all know that water is important to life on Earth. It helps us grow our food. It keeps us clean, provides us with power, and controls our fires. All living things need water to stay alive! But we have a problem! It is true that water can naturally clean itself. In science class we learned that this process is part of the “water cycle”. But, we are using our planet’s fresh water faster than it can naturally be recycled. Even though we build waste and water treatment plants to help the water cycle, these facilities are falling behind. They can’t keep up with human demands for fresh water. What is one answer to this problem? We must conserve our water. We need to use our water wisely. We need to stop wasting our fresh water.
DISCUSS: How will conserving our fresh water help the environment and the people, plants and animals that live in it?How will conserving our fresh water help save energy?
How will conserving our fresh water help save money? What are some of the ways we can use water wisely in our own homes, in our schools and in our community? In what ways is our Earth Day event helping the environment? Why is helping our environment in this way a wise use of our time?
www.jea.com/community/education/efficiency/wisely/save.html
3. READ: Former President of the United States, Bill Clinton wrote a book. The title of his book is Giving: How Each of Us Can Change the World. In the book he shares stories about "private citizens doing public good." One of the people he writes about is McKenzie Steiner of Delmar, California. McKenzie turned her recent birthday party into a beach cleanup. She admits she enjoyed collecting garbage during a field trip with her parents. She decided a “pick-up-trash party” was what she wanted for her birthday. When asked why she would do such a thing, she said she was concern that the animals might be killed by litter. She also said that picking up trash makes her feel happy.
DISCUSS: What did McKenzie “give up” (opportunity cost) in choosing to pick up trash for her birthday party? What do you think motivated her to do this? Our Earth Day event will be a time when we try to do something good for our environment. How will we be like “private citizens doing public good? In what ways might being involved in our Earth Day event make us feel happy?
4. READ: Have you ever looked at a light through the end of a kaleidoscope? A kaleidoscope looks like a tube. At one there is a small hole to look through. At the other end is a piece of glass or see-through plastic. Inside the tube contains loose bits of colored glass or plastic. Light entering one end of the tube reflects through these colored materials. Two mirrors help create beautiful color patterns. Looking through the small hole at one end and moving the tube even the slightest little bit rearranges the colored materials. Doing so makes many more beautiful new and different patterns. The variety of patterns is almost endless!
DISCUSS: Kaleidoscopes are fun to play with. They create so many beautiful colors and shapes. Our environment is like a kaleidoscope. It too contains many beautiful colors and shapes. With just a little effort on our part we can keep it beautiful. We can also make it even more beautiful. As we participate in our Earth Day event, how are we helping make our world even more beautiful? Why might the job of keeping our world beautiful be an endless one?
5. READ: The hot air balloon is the oldest human-carrying flying machine. It was first invented in France over 200 years ago. At first hot air balloons had many purposes. Today they are used mostly for recreation. People who have ridden in a hot air balloon say that it's hard to describe the feeling. They say they feel weightless as they drift and float along in the air. On a clear day, a balloon rider gets a bird’s eyeview of the Earth. (seeing objects from above the Earth, like a bird looking down) There is another view known as a worm's-eye view. It is a view of an object from below, like a worm looking up.
DISCUSS: As we plan our Earth Day event, how would taking a bird’s eye view of our school and community be helpful? How would taking a worm’s eye view of our school and community be helpful? How can a “person’s eye view” also be helpful?
6. READ: Dayton and his family visited his grandpa and grandma every summer. They lived by the ocean. Dayton loved to play by the beautiful, crystal-clear ocean. One day Dayton noticed that the ocean looked dark and dirty. He ran back to the house to ask his grandfather how this happened. His grandfather told him to look up at the sky. Dayton saw that the sky looked dark and dirty too. His grandfather then told him that the ocean was still beautiful and clean, but that the sky’s reflection had only made it look different. Dayton felt much better knowing that as soon as the sun came out, the ocean would look clean and beautiful again.
DISCUSS: During our Earth Day event why is important to remember that things are still beautiful even if they don’t look that way now? What are we doing during our Event to help “the sun come out” again? What could we say to kids who think that whatever we do for our Earth Day event won’t be enough?
7. READ: Did you know that across the globe lightning strikes the ground an average of 6,000 times every minute? Did you know that it causes at least half of all forest fires? Any idea what else causes many forest fires?
DISCUSS: Some destruction on our Earth is natural—lightning strikes, volcanoes, flooding, etc. What are some other ways our Earth might be subject to destruction? What can we do during our Earth Day Event to help reduce human-made destruction? What are some things we are planning to do that will help “clean up” some already evident destruction? How will doing this help make our world a better place to live?
8. READ: Amanda saw a flock of seagulls flying around the restaurant’s dumpster. The lid had been left open so the birds were feasting on leftover human food. Seeing this, Amanda thought about what her teacher had told the class. Mrs. Bright had said that birds often got sick from eating human food, and some even died. Amanda decided to see if she could close the lid. It wasn’t easy, but when she was finally able to close it, she felt really good. She felt that she had done something for one flock of birds. Even though she didn’t think it was much, she helped to make the world a safer and better place for a few living things.
DISCUSS: In what ways will our Earth Day event help to make the world a safer and better place for living things? Is it okay to feel good about doing something small for our environment? Why or why not? Why is it important to be involved in our event even though we might think that we’re not doing much?
9. READ: James Robert Ford took three years to cover his Ford Capri car with 4,500 toy cars. The newspaper called the creation “a work of art made out of toys.” Lewis Meyer made a sea monster out of bottle caps. He attached the sea monster to the hood of his truck. He then entered his truck in the 2006 Kentucky Art Car Contest. While it is not recorded if he won anything, one thing we do know is that there were fewer bottle caps lying around on the ground in his community. “It’s a work of art made out of trash … not much else you could do with those caps,” one of the judges commented.
DISCUSS: In what ways were these two projects alike? How where they different? As our Earth Day event approaches, how might our Event be considered a “work of art”? In what way are we trying to “clean up” the environment? How could we make a display of what we do so others can see and appreciate what we have done?
10. READ: The block where Samantha lived decided to have a garage sale. To announce it, they put up posters and signs all around the neighborhood. They were placed on trees and utility poles signs. They were placed at bus stops and newspaper stands. They seemed to be everywhere! After the sale was over, Samantha noticed that no one came to remove the posters and signs. After about three weeks, some of the posters had been blown away by the wind and rain. Samantha decided to do something about it. She rode her bike around to collect the posters and signs. She placed them in the trash and recycle bin. Samantha thought things looked much better in the neighborhood.
DISCUSS: Why do you think Samantha decided to remove the old posters and signs and put them in the trash? What in our school or neighborhood would look so much better if someone took some time to take care of it? What could we do during our Earth Day event that will make things look much better?
