Thanks to everyone who came out! And kudos to Science World and GenomeBC for their roles in this as well. Looked like things went pretty well overall. The website should be fleshed out by weeks end, with the talk videos going up, and pdfs of teaching activities ready for display. Would love to hear some feedback, which you can always leave as a comment (see “leave a comment” text above).

In case, you’re a totally new reader to this website and someone who didn’t participate in the conference, here is the first post reprinted so that you can get a feel of what this website is all about.

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Stuck in here for a day or two (link)

Click to see more photos…

Natural Resources Canada

David Suzuki website

for teachers: realclimate.org

“At the heart of this assessment is a stark warning. Human activity is putting such a strain on the natural functions of the Earth that the ability of the planet’s ecosystems to sustain future generations can no longer be taken for granted.”
(MEA, Living Beyond Our Means 2005)

Your Industry:

General Info about your industry/issue

Pro/Con of your industry (from an environmental perspective)

Proposal for Change (POSITION PAPER)
-    What is it? How would you implement? Who would be affected? How long would the changes take to make a difference?
-    Include how much changes would cost, both for implementation and effect on industry (approximate)
-    Optional:  How will you explain this proposal to your community?

How will you present it to the class?

Note: the proposal will be evaluated to the class and then you can use the feedback to reshape your proposal

Final Proposal for your industry
Note: activity could end here.  Students hand in their individual final proposal.

Priority of each project
As a class or individually, students figure out what projects to implement with the financial constraints (e.g. $1 million).
Students must explain why they made their choices.

Option 1 (proposal only) Marking:
Students show an understanding of the issue, showing more than one side. Can they see counterpoints?
Are the changes plausible?
Is the proposal well-written? (sentence, form, grammar, etc.)
Are the reasons based on researched science? Are the social and economic factors considered?

Option 2 with Marking
Present the proposal to fight for chunk of money – each group provides a written summary of their proposal.
Students individually act as a panel of judges for all industries and allocate funds to projects.
Students must explain their decisions and support their position with valid evidence.

The province can’t continue to use resources at the current rates. If we don’t change practices, the following industries will no longer exist in the province:

• forestry
• fisheries
• mining
• fossil fuels
• water management (energy and drinking)
• tourism
• agriculture (both plants and animals)

Note: the areas with two subsets could be split depending on size and interest of class.

There should be 3 to 4 students per group.

Students will have to research the following for their industry: (note: they could be encouraged to talk to someone working in their assigned industry)

• general info = what is X, why is it important
• pros/cons = benefits to province (including $) and negative impacts of the current practices
• Students will write a ‘Proposal for Change’.  This could include researching environment-friendly practices.
• This proposal will be presented to the class
• Class will critique each proposal.  This critique should be constructive and offer ways to improve the proposal for change.
• Students can redesign their proposal based on feedback and submit to the teacher for grading.

Note:  All of the industries have pros and cons so the students should find sources that represent both sides.

An additional step would be to have the students rank what steps in what industry are most important and need to be done vs. those steps that could wait.

Things still needed:

• website sources with credible information for teachers
• criteria for assessment
• graphic organizers

And the start of our graphical interface:

Graphic Interface for the Sustainability resource

Your Industry:

Problem facing your group:

General Info about your industry/issue

Pro/Con of your industry (from an environmental perspective)

Proposal for Change

How will you present it to the class?

Note: the proposal will be evaluated to the class and then you can use the feedback to reshape your proposal

Final Proposal

How will you explain this proposal to your community?

We need graphic organizers…

• Problem
• General Research
• Pro/Con
• Analysis
• Proposal for change – be able to answer questions about short term and long term effects
• Present proposal

Can we marry cool activities with the above format? Do we want activities or just have it be about discussion/debate?

Class can evaluate each proposal.  Maybe go back to the drawing board after critique.

Do examples for each industry – plus add someone worried about healthy water (hits bioaccumulation area).

Looking at a simulation.

Could put students answers on website.

This is chunk of unit so could start under the umbrella or biodiversity.

How much can we push to change and how much can people handle?

Use case studies, have the students research certain topics (probably from first talk).

Sustainability of Ecosystems from grade 10

Textbook goes over sustainability and biodiversity but skims – would be nice to have kids research

Bring in things like biodiversity, oh deer activity, case studies, create a model system

The B3 under Sustainability of Ecosystems looks best = explain various ways in which natural populations are altered or kept in equilibrium

Format: non-competitive math fairs = students get a problem, parameters to help solve and then communicate results so that others can solve it

groups of 3 who become experts then explain it to others = carousel and jigsaw

two approaches (related): groups of students become ‘experts’ and then do one of two things:

1. give two questions to teacher; teacher makes worksheet with all questions; students have to answer all the questions
2. students come up with activity to teach classmates

OR we could create a resource-based town (like PG) where every student is given a different role – forestry manager, forester, fisheries, mining, fuels, tourism, etc. – they need to research their roles and then come up  with a consensus document on a sustainable plan for their town OR how would an environmental plan affect their position OR become an example of poor practices – what can they do

What about starting with clip from Rees to say that the resources will only last X number of years – what will the town do?