Final+Exam_white

__**Toxic Sludge is Good for You**__
 * 1) 1. What is the argument of Toxic Sludge is Good for You, and what examples are given to support it?
 * 2) a. //Toxic Sludge is Good for You// argues that the media and companies largely influence the public on what to think about certain products. The most compelling argument I found for this is the influence the branding of local news as “The people you can count on.” Since people will trust their local news, and local new channels are often pressed for content, PR companies will often give them premade content that they just have to air. These “stories” will just show one side of the facts and are made on behalf of the client that hired the PR company. It also teaches us how to spot these fake news stories.
 * 3) 2. Describe how commercial public relations has likely shaped the thinking of k-12 students we are working with.
 * 4) a. Commercial public relations may be targeted towards those that can be easily influenced. Since K-12 students are just starting to form their own opinions, they are still fairly impressionable. As a result, they are likely to accept things they hear from the media or advertising without questioning the reliability of the information or sources of possible bias.
 * 5) 3. What is “greenwashing,” and what examples do you find particularly provocative?
 * 6) a. Greenwashing is marketing products that may not necessarily be good for the environment appear as if they are. The biotech industry has put forth a huge effort to say that genetically modified are the most tested new technology. However, they fail to mention that this testing is efficacy testing on whether or not the inserted gene is able to have the desired effect on the plant, not whether or not it is good for the environment or safe for human consumption.
 * 7) 4. How could we teach middle school students about greenwashing, and propaganda more generally? Suggest a specific exercise.
 * 8) a. A possible activity to teach students about greenwashing products would be to give them a product such as soap, or another popular brand that they may all be familiar with and find advertisements that show the product being environmentally friendly or sustainable. This exercise could also be inverted where students would have to greenwash a product themselves. This activity would work best if the product was known to be detrimental to the environment.

__**Hoosick Falls Water Crisis Program Ages**__

Session One: The first 60 minute session will consist of a simple introduction to water pollution. How, like air pollution, water may seem to contain no pollutants, but can still be dangerous to consume will be explained at length. This is going to be mainly a visual demonstration and a large event discussion. Begin by pooling the room for the normal water pollutants. Create a visible list of the pollutants. Explain how water filtering can sometimes not catch all the containments. Do an example with muddy water, salt water, and food color dyed water. Show that the mud will not go through, but still may be cloudy, the color is more of a diverse water change, and will stay in the water and will show. The saltwater will appear clear, and you will not see the contaminant. Session Two: The next session will be discussing natural or man-made disasters and their effects on the water quality. The instructor can talk about the effects of a tsunamis and hurricanes on water drains or the destructions of water treatment plants. According to the National Academy of Engineering, flooding from Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans Louisiana caused oil refineries to spill oil into the water therefore polluting local neighbors’ water systems. New York Times stated that the Hurricane Sandy caused many waterways to become contaminated by raw sewage from flooded water treatment plants. Man made options are like fertilizer and plastic chemicals pollution (Hoosick Falls).

Session Three: Now you can begin talking more in depth about the Hoosick Falls, NY problem. In 2015, a resident of Hoosick Valley contacted the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) with concerns and questions about whether they should drink, bathe in, or cook with their water, which has been found to contain perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA). This was after there was a cancer cluster in the town, including the father of the original requestor. PFOA is a manmade chemical that is toxic and persistent in the environment. It is used in products such as fire-fighting foams, coating additives and cleaning products. PFOA was sourced back to Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics, which has been using it for many years. This was the plant that Hickey's father worked at for 32 years, and they themselves notified the EPA about possibly high levels PFOA present at their facilities.

Session Four: The next session would be based around designing ways to combat man made polluted systems like what happened in Hoosick Falls. This would include drafting letters to congressmen or even the EPA. It would be creating disaster relief plans, and ways to maximize efficiency in disaster times.

__**NOW with Bill Moyers: Kids and Chemicals**__ - Cancer clusters and CDC investigations can be the toughest part of the job. Typically, or at least in the past researcher have only had a large access to testing on the areas in which they believe the source of a toxin could be coming from. This video is taking a flip to the normal. They are testing the bodily fluid s of individuals already affected by the unknown source and having it tested for carcinogens. The CDC does this in their lab in Atlanta, Georgia, and therefore can take up to a week to get results. These problems are becoming more prevalent with new and expanding technology.

- Dr. Landrigan of Mt. Sinani is a pioneer of children’s environmental health. He tells of the shift in of prevalence from infectious to chronic diseases such as asthma, developmental disabilities, and cancer. He relates them to chemicals in the environment and the suspicion that pesticides commonly used for food production. He highlights the very limited testing that has been done on chemicals and the repercussions of such limited testing. Many scientists worry about the food consumption being the largest source of chemical ingestion, especially with the increase of hand to mouth contact in children.

- In NYC there was, and possibly still is, a study that measured the effects of the culmination of air born toxins, and how they can affect the prevalence of chronic diseases found in children and adults. The video tells of one family who has multiple generations of asthma, and that it is not purely genetic and it is thought that the Harlem environment is mostly to blame. By gaining this information, they hope to show that a real effort needs to be made towards cleaning up the air. They stress that their study of Harlem air is not unique, but will represent what a majority of Americans and their daily encounters. There are more than just the know cigarette carcinogen worries, that can be smaller chemicals that can attach to dust, and be inhaled.

- Infants and developing fetus’ have a higher chance of being effected by the things in the environment because at these stages the immune system is not developed to the point of being able to combat the toxins. Just exposure is not as much of a concern as the intensity of the exposure and when during development the exposure occurs. For the study focused on in Kids and Chemicals babies DNA is tested for chemicals that will attach during development.

- This is a similar case as the scientist studied in a midterm essay the fight back from the lead industry is abominable. The fact that large money had such a large hold over scientific advancement is disgusting.

__** Frontline: A Class Divided **__

The curriculum used by Jane Elliott is one that is far from what one would call a normal approach to conveying a lesson to a group of individuals, whether their age is 7 or 34. Her curriculum provides an immersive technique which shows one how it feels to be discriminated against for something as simple as one’s eye color. A Class Divided showed that by having a person of power, in this case the teacher or an employer, point out small flaws in an individual stereotypes can quickly developed that can quickly be skewed to apply to all individuals with similar characteristics.

Jane Elliott began by creating a characteristic that would divide her classroom into two: blue and brown eyes. Day one was spent promoting the blue-eyes individuals as if they were superiors to the brown-eyed individuals: smarter, nicer, and more peaceful. She then made the brown-eyed students wear a band so that they can be identified from farther away. This was to resemble the branding faced during WWII. She then put them through a series of simple tests timing and judging how they perform under such stereotypes. The reaction from the students was astounding. Students that were friends suddenly became enemies and childish name-calling was widely prevalent.

The next day Jane returned with a flip. She stated that she had misspoken the day before and that the blue-eyed individuals were actually inferior as they were lazy and forgetful. She had the brown-eyed students place their identifiers on the blue-eyed students and the results are astounding. Testing results show that the students who were deemed lesser because of their eye color had a testing time average of almost two times their average speed when they were not being discriminated against. One student stated that they preformed slower the previous day because all they could think about was the fact they had to wear their collars and their peers who were seemingly equal didn’t have to.

The students came together to have a discussion about the events that had transpired over the two days, this conversation is the reason this curriculum is so effective. Students come together to discuss how they felt: “like a dog on a leash” or “like you're chained up in a prison and they throw the key away.” They sit and have the realization that it does not matter how someone looks or how they act; they deserve the same amount of respect. Jane Elliott’s teachings not only show and teach that people can be discriminated against, but it shows you how it feels, because for many it is never truly felt and therefore never truly understood.

This curriculum is an interesting way to convey the importance of non-discrimination in society. The individuals that originally were involved in the school came back and discussed how Mrs. Elliott’s teachings did influence how they act in society today and proved her methods to be successful.

__**Stop Disasters!**__

“Stop Disasters!” is a simulation game published by the United Nations and International Strategy for Disaster Reduction. The game presents five potential environmental disaster scenarios as typical simulation game maps. At the start of each round, which typically involves building shelter, defending resources like water towers, and developing land into infrastructure that yields added safety or contributes to the area’s economy. Each challenge has a limited budget, and players take on an omniscient role that feels part governmental policy maker and part chief engineer.

Maps are pre-populated and already have some infrastructure in place. Each map square reveals clickable options for defense, development, or more information, and players make choices about what to do with the land in order to achieve their challenge of sheltering citizens and using science and engineering to prepare the landscape for the worst-case scenario against wildfire, floods, earthquake, hurricane, or tsunami. Gameplay relies on close reading to glean facts and tips along the way that significantly improve chances for success.

While playing the game I chose to do a scenario in which my city was going to be hit with a tsunami. I had to plan the placement of necessary resources such as high shelter, hospitals, and schools while staying on a low budget. It considers interesting factors such as deforestation, and natural barrier removal while calculating how far the tsunami will travel back. You can choose different housing developments to represent the varying social levels present in a society. Something that I would improve on for this game would be the ability to try to rebuild after one tsunami, and go again, rather than being required to completely start over again.

Teachers can integrate this into their curriculums by making the game homework after a classroom discussion in whichever subject -- science, economics, global issues, and engineering – they are using it to explore. For science and engineering, ask students to make notes after playing about a device or method they discovered through gameplay that helps guard against natural disasters. Choose a device that they can use for a longer investigation of how it works, pulling out real-life examples of where scientists and engineers used, for example a seismic sensor, that resulted in saving lives.

Teachers could also consider pairing students and have them take turns while one plays and the other takes notes about changes in data or key choices that influenced the overall outcome. Where time allows, simulations also offer a great opportunity to re-create the game offline -- think about presenting teams of students with a budget and a challenge when they arrive to class, and use similar game mechanics to have them compete to protect their school or community in the face of one of the game's scenarios.