Students explore what it means to be responsible citizens and identify ways they are (or can be) responsible at home, in school, and in the community. They create a survey related to people's perceptions of community health and poll members of the community to identify needs.
Students define community and recognize that a class or after-school group is a community because the members share interests and goals and work together. Focus Questions: What is a community and what is my role? What is health and why is it important?
The participants will distinguish the difference between wants and needs and learn that many times refugees are without basic needs. They respond to a story about a refugee camp, “Four Feet, Two Sandals” and come to a consensus on a service project to benefit refugees or others in need, and plan and implement a youth-driven service project.
This lesson focuses on the language of human rights. Learners examine the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and analyze the rights from a personal perspective. They discuss how well they perceive that the rights are enforced.
The youth reflect on basic needs that may be difficult to meet when one doesn’t have a home. They take action by creating personal hygiene kits or asking a local nonprofit how they can help support their efforts to assist people who are homeless.
Learners discuss the word homeless and how it is used in a sentence (as adjective and noun). After reading an article about homelessness by Anna Quindlen, they discuss a respectful way to use the language that describes a group of people who are vulnerable.
The learners define philanthropy and relate it to environmental stewardship. They compare mission statements from environmental organizations and write their own personal mission statement. They self-select a group to work with to plan and implement an environmental service project.
The learners define environmental stewardship and determine what they care about related to the environment.
This lesson raises awareness of water quality and responsible management of water resources around the world. We explore the issue of safe water and the responsibilities of a global citizen to assure all people have safe drinking water.
The youth take action by determining ways to reduce their own use of plastic bags and by advocating for ways to reduce the use of plastic bags in their own households, the community, state and nation. To take further action, they may propose ways to influence government officials to change laws so plastic bags are banned, taxed, or not given out for free.