spring+2016+essay+questions

For your midterm exam (due noon, 3-7-2016), please respond to five of the questions below. Each response should be about 500 words long. The exam should be written independently, but you are free to discuss possible responses with your peers.


 * Describe the arguments made in the articles by Orr, Lakoff, and Ridley/Low about ways environmental sustainability should be framed (and justified)? Explain which arguments you find compelling, and why, then describe one activity for k-12 students would effectively frame environmental sustainability in a way suggested by one of these authors.


 * Watch (Michigan State University's) [|Principles of Place-Based Education](20 minutes) list three key points then explain how place-based education is said to differ from environmental education, and how it realizes John Dewey's arguments about what education should accomplish.


 * Watch [|Dropout Nation](75 minutes) then describe why kids drop out, and how the teachers portrayed in the film try to help. Note that a school featured in the film (Sharpstown) is in Houston... a different part of of the city than the part hemmed in by chemical plants (see the work of [|TEJAS]), but rough in a different way. Also describe four interventions that you can imagine, at least two involving environmental education.


 * Watch (Bill Moyer's) [|Kids and Chemicals] (50 minutes), list five points in the film that sparked your attention, then use the film to complete this long view chart on sustainability education.


 * Describe the design and purpose behind the design of the // [|The Druk White Lotus School] // (Ladakh, India) (25 minute film) then describe what the built features and daily life within a "culturally inflected" green school building in the United States would be like (drawing inspiration from the Druk White Lotus School).


 * Watch the film Toxic Sludge is Good for You (45 minutes), read through the study guide for the film, and explore resources on “greenwashing,” all available here. Address these questions:
 * 1) What is the argument of Toxic Sludge is Good for You, and what examples are given to support it?
 * 2) Describe how commercial public relations has likely shaped the thinking of k-12 students we are working with.
 * 3) What is “greenwashing,” and what examples do you find particularly provocative?
 * 4) How could we teach middle school students about greenwashing, and propaganda more generally? Suggest a specific exercise.
 * 5) Consider how we should – and maybe should not – use public relations strategies in planning for a community Earth Day event at RPI. Suggest specific ways that we could follow the suggestions listed below (from Wilcox, Dennis L, et al. Public Relations Strategies and Tactics, 4th ed. (New York: HarperCollins), 1995, p. 300, referenced in the study guide for Toxic Sludge is Good for You). Also discuss public relation strategies that are not appropriate for use by educators, researchers and/or civic activists.


 * Explain how [|Annie Leonard argues that we "aren't broke,"] (8 minutes) and should have plenty of money for public education in the United States, then list four ways you would increase funding for public education in the United States (if you were in charge of everything).


 * Describe the approach to math education applauded in [|this article], then explain how your own math education compare


 * Describe and evaluate the teaching experiment portrayed in // [|Frontline: A Class Divided] // (45 minute video about race-awareness educator Jane Elliot).

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 * Critically review four of the following "games for change". First describe how the game works, and what assumptions it builds in, then describe how it could (or could not) contribute to sustainability education (noting the audience it would best address). Don't re-review games you analyzed for a curriculum review.
 * 1)  [|SimCityEDU: Pollution Challenge!]
 * 2)  [|Enercities]
 * 3)  [|Stop Disasters!](UNISDR)
 * 4) [| 10 more environmental games]
 * 5) [|National Library of Medicine archive of environmental health games](air pollution games look really good):
 * Describe the [|2013 prize-winning TedTalk by Sugata Mitra,]and the child-centered "SOLE" methods he advocates. The propose a SOLE (self-organizing learning environment) for sustainability education.


 * Describing how we can prepare students for careers possibly riveted by the kind of conflict that has riveted the career of Tyrone Hayes. See Aviv, Rachel. 2014. [|"A Valuable Reputation: After Tyrone Hayes said that a chemical was harmful, its maker pursed him,"] The New Yorker. February.

+ Describe the controversy that erupted around leaked documents showing The Heartland Institute's plans to develop k-12 curriculum. See [|Leaked Docs Reveal How Top Think Tank Turns Oil Money Into Climate Denial].

+ What arguments are made in the articles by Orr, Lakoff, and Ridley/Low about ways environmental sustainability should be framed? Explain which arguments you find compelling, and why. Briefly describe one activity for k-12 students would effectively frame environmental sustainability in a way suggested by one of these authors.

+ [|David Wong, writing in cracked.com] argues that the "monkeysphere" determines the limits of human empathy. While Wong doesn't address sustainability directly, it is easy to imagine the implications. David Orr's call to recognize how our actions implicate the life chances of future generations isn't very practical in the monkeysphere, for example. How can educators respond? What specific strategies could be used to educate beyond the monkeysphere? Note (and avoid if needed) that Wong is a bit profane...

+ Describe and critically evaluate the arguments made in "[|The Heart of Sustainability: Big Ideas from the field of Environmental Education and their Relationship to Sustainability Education. or 'What's love got to do with it?]' "

+ Briefly describe the findings of the article titled "Cool Dudes" The Denial of Climate Change Among Conservative White Males in the United States (in //Global Environmental Change,// 2011), then describe experiences and cultural forces that likely contribute to the formation of "cool dudes." Conclude with a proposal for eco-education that would interrupt and reorient the formation of white males in the United States.
 * [|Details]
 * [[file:ecoed/CoolDudes.pdf|Download]]
 * 497 KB

+ Describe the built features and daily life within a culturally inflected green school building in the United States, drawing inspiration from the Druk White Lotus School.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">+

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Write an approximately 500 word essay describing how we can prepare students for careers possibly riveted by the kind of conflict that has riveted the career of Tyrone Hayes. See Aviv, Rachel. 2014. [|"A Valuable Reputation: After Tyrone Hayes said that a chemical was harmful, its maker pursed him,"] The New Yorker. February.

Watch and comment on [|Sociological Cinema: Addressing 'Problem Behaviour' in Early Years]
 * Film/Fieldnote Entry 17 **

Watch and comment on [|Sociological Cinema: The Wire and Educational Inequality]
 * Film/Fieldnote Entry 16 **

Watch (Bill Moyer's) [|Kids and Chemicals] (50 minutes), list five points in the film that sparked your attention, then use the film to complete the long view chart on sustainability education. Paste the chart into your journal entry (last one!) -- filling it in by drawing from __all__ your journal entries.
 * Film/Fieldnote Entry 15 **

Watch (Michigan State University's) [|Principles of Place-Based Education](20 minutes) list three key points then explain how place-based education is said to differ from environmental education, and how it realizes John Dewey's arguments about what education should accomplish.
 * Film/Fieldnote Entry 14 **

Watch Dirt!, write a brief description and evaluation of the film, then propose an exercise for any age group that would help them reconnect with "dirt." Finally, provide a few sentence response to the question: Why connect to dirt? (imagining a teacher as your addressee).
 * Film/Fieldnote Entry 13 **

Watch [|180 Days: Hartsville] (about a struggling elementary school in South Carolina) (2 hours, in 2 segments) then do the interactive exercise[|180 Days: A Challenge] designed (or at least released) by the black media project " "to help more people accurately understand the state of public education today and the challenges and opportunities that come with trying to support the holistic development of children." Write both about the film, and about the interactive exercise, describing what new insight you gained from them, and also what you think about them as media tools (to educate people about education).
 * Film/Fieldnote Entry 12 **

View //[|Pipe Dreams]//(40 minutes) about the proposed extension of the Keystone XL Pipeline. Describe the film, then briefly describe two ideas for curriculum that could be delivered to high school kids living in areas near existing or proposed pipeline to prepare them for dealing with related issues throughout their lives. Also describe how you think students throughout the United States should be taught about issues of this type. Is it only important to teach such issues in regions directly impacted?
 * Film/Fieldnote Entry 11 **

View [|Chemical Valley] (50 minutes, in class, Thursday, Oct 15, a dvd will be delivered), and see this update, "[|A Century of Controversy, Accident's in the United State's Chemical Valley".]Describe the film and article, then briefly describe four ideas for curriculum that could be delivered to kids that live in the kind of "fenceline" communities described -- at any age, k-college.
 * Film/Fieldnote Entry 10 **

Watch [|Dropout Nation](75 minutes) then describe why kids drop out, and how the teachers portrayed in the film try to help. Note that a school featured in the film (Sharpstown) is in Houston... a different part of of the city than the part hemmed in by chemical plants (see the work of [|TEJAS]), but rough in a different way. Also describe four interventions that you can imagine, at least two involving environmental education.
 * Film/Fieldnote Entry 9 **

Alternatively, watch this film about a high school in the DC area -- with a sad ending.

[|180 Days: A Year Inside An American Public School] (DC Met) (2 hours)

[|Tweets about 180 Days]

Explain how [|Annie Leonard argues that we "aren't broke,"] and should have plenty of money for public education in the United States.
 * Film/Fieldnote Entry 8 **

=Film/Fieldnote Entry 7= Watch [|Kids, Kentucky Fried Chicken and Societal Change]then describe a one hour program that teaches 5th graders about different ways to "change the world."

=Film/Fieldnote Entry 6= Watch these films -- about the lives of kids today: Frontline -- Poor Kids (53 minutes) and Frontline -- Middleschool Moment (15 minutes) then briefly describe five programs that would "meet these kids where they are at" (potentially but not necessarily involving sustainability education).

=Film/Fieldnote Entry 5= Watch these films about interesting teaching interventions, commenting on what you think they would accomplish, what they would //not// accomplish, and what they would require to be feasible. Free to Learn: A Radical Experiment in Education (67 minutes) (read the comments, too) Fast Times at Phllly High (35 minutes) (and read this on project-based learning) = = =Film/Fieldnote Entry 4= Shelter in Place!

=Film/Fieldnote Entry 3= Allergy Planet!


 * Film/Fieldnote Entry 2 (due Thursday, Sept 10) **

Watch the film //Toxic Sludge is Good for You// (45 minutes), read through the study guide for the film, and explore resources on “greenwashing,” all available here.
 * Observation **

In your FilmFieldnote entry, address these questions and prompts:
 * Notes **
 * 1) What is the argument of //Toxic Sludge is Good for You//, and what examples are given to support it?
 * 2) Describe how commercial public relations has likely shaped the thinking of k-12 students we will work with. What are many k-12 students in the US today likely to take as given and “natural”? ( **this is a hard question that we will return to throughout the semester** )
 * 3) What is “greenwashing,” and what examples do you find particularly provocative?
 * 4) How could we teach middle school students about greenwashing, and propaganda more generally? Suggest a specific exercise.
 * 5) Consider how we should – and maybe should not – use public relations strategies in planning for a community Earth Day event at RPI. Suggest specific ways that we could follow the suggestions listed below (from Wilcox, Dennis L, et al. Public Relations Strategies and Tactics, 4th ed. (New York: HarperCollins), 1995, p. 300, referenced in the study guide for //Toxic Sludge is Good for You//). Also discuss public relation strategies that are //not// appropriate for use by educators, researchers and/or civic activists.

a. Tie in with news events of the day. b. Cooperate with another organization on a joint project. c. Conduct a poll or survey. d. Issue a report or a summary of events. e. Arrange an interview with a celebrity. f. Take part in a controversy. g. Arrange for a speech or testimonial. ROOTS IN CONFLICT h. Make an analysis or prediction. i. Form and announce names for committees, advisory boards, blue ribbon commissions, etc. j. Hold an election. k. Celebrate an anniversary or tie in with a holiday. l. Make a trip or organize a tour. m. Create an award or hold a contest. n. Adapt national reports and surveys for local use. o. Stage a debate. P. Include kids or puppies.
 * Public relations strategies for building interest and news coverage of an event: **


 * Film/Fieldnote Entry 1 (due Thursday, Sept 3) **

Watch the films listed below as though you were doing fieldwork among people working toward energy alternatives.
 * Observation: **
 * [|//Powering the Planet//] (53 minutes)
 * film, [|//The Future of Energy//]// (65 minutes) //
 * [|film website]
 * somewhat [|critical review]
 * [|//Powering the Top of the World//]// (40 minutes) //
 * [|report on its sustainability film award]
 * Notes: **


 * 1) What is the overarching argument of each film, how is it supported, and what audience does it best address?
 * 2) What additions or edits would have increased the educational value of these films?
 * 3) What ideas does each film give you for educating upper elementary and middle schools about energy, pollution and climate change? (Keeping in mind the literacy goals we are after).
 * 4) What extensions or additions to EcoEd’s literacy goals come to mind?