final,+cumulative+essay

= For your final, cumulative essay, please respond to five of the questions below. Each response should be about 800 words long. The exam should be written independently, but you are free to discuss possible responses. I should not see duplication in the responses. The midterm essay is due in class Tuesday, April 30. These essays contribute 15% to your overall grade. =

=== 1) What arguments are made in the articles by about ways sustainability should be framed? Explain which arguments you find compelling, and why. Describe one activity for k-12 students that would effectively frame environmental sustainability in a way suggested by one of these authors. ===

2) Outline a set of exercises that would enhance combined media and environmental literacy in middle school students. You can make use of these resources (or others you've found):

 * A website that that refers to H2O as “dihydrogen monoxide. ” @http://web.archive.org/web/19961031232918/http://media.circus.com/~no_dhmo/ R ead more about the hoax and see additional links at @http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dihydrogen_monoxide_hoax Recommended as "an interesting way of teaching kids how to conduct research online."


 * V ideo presentation by Yoni Freedhoff on the food industry that outlines advertising that ‘tricks’ the modern consumer. @https://www.youtube.com/watch?&v=-BdFkK-HufU


 * On the new Lorax as greenwashing . @http://gracelinks.org/blog/1387/greenwashing-the-lorax-a-movie-review


 * London 2012: The Great Olympic Greenwash (25 minutes) @http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/peopleandpower/2012/06/201262075757520106.html @http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_analysis/1304084/bp_dow_and_rio_tinto_targeted_by_olympic_greenwash_award.html


 * Set of short films from competition run by Greenpeace "to expose the Volkswagon behind the billboards." @http://films.vwdarkside.com/en/films/114


 * Media guide for Toxic Sludge is Good for You -- pointing to greenwashing , and also to the way campaigns by environmentalists depend on a lot of the same strategies. @http://www.mediaed.org/cgi-bin/commerce.cgi?preadd=action&key=119

===3) Describe a sustainability exercise for middle school students that prepares them to anticipate and respond to the the coupled natural-industrial disasters that are increasingly frequent, and an important sustainability challenge. Reference at least two published sources that describe disaster (including videos, such as those here), and remarks made during the [|Updates on Disaster Research] panel at RPI on Friday, April 19th.===

===4) Describe a three month to full academic year project that could be used as part of a project-based-learning approach to sustainability education with either upper elementary students (third through fifth grades) or middle school students (sixth through ninth grades). Note the rationale for this approach in this [|recent PBS newscast]. Also see this [|example in Vermont], and the [|extended PBS discussion] that you worked through for your midterm.===

===**5) Describe the [|2013 prize-winning TedTalk by Sugata Mitra,] and the child-centered "SOLE" method he advocates. Then propose a SOLE (self-organizing learning environment) for sustainability education. Also see the "criticism" section of this [|wikipedia entry on Sugata Mitra]. Acknowledge this criticism in your proposal. **===
 * These guidelines for the SOLE Challenge competition will also be helpful. **