National+Geographic+OIl+Spill+Module

National Geographic developed this activity: http://education.nationalgeographic.com/education/activity/marine-food-chains-and-biodiversity/?ar_a=1
 * What organization developed the curriculum module you are evaluating? **

National Geographic’s overarching mission is to “increase and diffuse geographic knowledge,” ([]). The organization is one of the largest scientific/educational non-profits, and has funded over 10,000 projects.
 * What is the overall mission of the organization? **

The goal of the National Geographic Society, as stated on its website is, “the increase and diffusion of geographic knowledge.” The organization focuses on two main themes: geo-literacy and educational outreach.
 * What is the educational mission and philosophy of the organization? **

The module focuses on teaching students about the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, and its impact on the local bird population. It identifies three main objectives: students will learn where the Gulf of Mexico is located on a map, how oil (both natural and from spills) affects bird feathers, and how oil is removed from feathers. They will also learn the ways that this process affects the bird’s ability to fly. The activity is guided by the following questions, which students should be able to answer upon completing the exercise:
 * What does the curriculum module aim to teach? In other words: what are the learning outcomes supposed to be? **
 * //Can birds fly with oil coating their feathers? //
 * //How can humans help birds that have oil on them? //
 * //Can birds fly once oil has been washed off? //
 * //Can birds fly when they have had oil removed from their feathers and they are wet? //

This activity certainly seems to encourage the production of the intended outcomes. It asks to students to observe the feathers when exposed to water and oil, allowing them to draw their own conclusions regarding the effects of oil of bird feathers. The module provides a hands-on experience for students, while still asking them to think critically about the effects of what they are seeing in the lab.
 * Do you think the curriculum is appropriately designed to produce the intended learning outcomes? **

EcoEd’s Literacy Goals are designed to cultivate students’: This goal is not addressed in this module, but it could be layered in by asking students to think about where their seafood comes from, and how an oil spill could affect the food they eat.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Does this curriculum teach the kind of literacies advocated by EcoEd? And what could be layered into this curriculum so that it addresses more of the learning outcomes advocated by EcoEd? **
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Understanding of their own health and well-being as shaped by an array of both proximate and far-off causes. Diet and cigarette smoke need to be considered, for example, as well as the health effects of transboundary air pollution and climate change.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">This literacy is not addressed, though it could potentially be tied into the curriculum, by asking students to think about their own oil use.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Understanding of how their own actions have an array of proximate and far off effects. In choosing when and what to drive, one has an effect on air quality for example. In choosing consumer products (made of vinyl, for instance), one becomes involved in an occupational health hazard.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">This is addressed to an extent; students are asked to think about the work that scientists do in trying to remove the oil from birds’ feathers. However, the activity could explore this literacy goal further, by asking students to think about the different forms of expertise (i.e. ornithologists, biologists, chemists, etc.) that go into the development of environmental remediation techniques.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Understanding of different scientific disciplines and medical specializations, aware that they rely on diverse methods, produce many types of knowledge, and are ever evolving. Science needs to be understood as a crucial but far from straightforward social resource.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">This literacy goal is not addressed by this module. However, it may be possible to layer in a discussion of government by asking students what they have heard about the response to the spill, and who is responsible for cleanup. Teachers may wish to ask students who they feel should be responsible for cleaning up, and then discuss with them how the government has tried to help, explaining how the government consists of many different groups with many different ideas.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">understanding of government at various scales, from the local to transnational, made up of diverse agencies and types of experts, which rely on diverse decision-making processes.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">This literacy goal is not addressed. However, it may be possible to integrate some history, especially the history of oil spills and remediation, into the module. Additionally, teachers might be able to layer in a discussion of vulnerability by further discussing the wildlife in the area, and the local population’s dependence on the Gulf as a source of food and income.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Understanding of the history of disaster and decision-making failures, the vulnerability of some populations and regions, and varied approaches to risk management, reduction and communication.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">This particular goal is not specifically mentioned in the module, but it is indirectly addressed by showing students the harmful effects of an oil spill on local wildlife. The activity encourages students to start thinking about oil as an energy source, and its impacts on the environment. This opens the door for kids to start thinking about alternatives to oil.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Understanding of potential for change, and of alternative ways of doing things and organizing society (though familiarity with historical and cross-cultural examples, for instance).

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">To an extent, this module pushes students toward conceptualizing complex causation. With a little more prompting from teachers, participating kids may be able to draw connections between energy use and ecosystem devastation.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Capacity to conceptualize complex causation, without being paralyzed.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">This module does address this literacy goal, asking students to use their own observations to understand the problem at hand and to identify the possibilities and issues that arise when trying to correct the problem.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Capacity to use empirical understanding of complex causation to identify specific points of intervention.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">This is not directly addressed by this activity. However, by pointing out that simply washing the birds’ feathers does not necessarily restore the birds to their previous state, the module opens the door to thinking about how and why they receive some information (i.e. that washing birds with dish soap will remove oil from a spill), and not others (i.e. that washing birds with dish soap also removes the bird feathers’ natural oils, impairing the bird’s ability to fly). This module does indirectly introduce the ideas bias and blindness, as well as the limits of knowledge (as of right now, there is no better alternative to washing the feathers with dish soap).
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Capacity to recognize the multitude of factors influencing what they are told about environmental problems (such as asthma), including vested interests, disciplinary bias and blindness, and the sheer limits of knowledge.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">This module is not addressed specifically by this module, but the curriculum does encourage students to think beyond simple, one-step solutions, by pointing out the flaws with these solutions.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Capacity to recognize and productively deal with diverse perspectives, avoiding the paralysis often produced by insistence on “balance” and “consensus,” leveraging heterogeneous collectivity and epistemological pluralism.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">The module does address this goal, through asking students to make observations in the lab/classroom, and to apply their observations to real-world situations. They are asked to draw their own conclusions regarding the impacts of oil on bird feathers, as well as the effects of removing the oil. The module encourages students to think beyond simple solutions to complex problems, and to realize that current methods of dealing with environmental disaster are not perfect.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Having creative info-seeking practices, animated analytic capabilities, and a capacity to narrate complex chains of events.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">The module does not address this goal, but it could, by layering in a discussion and analysis of the response to the spill, the activity. Students could look at the different groups and organizations that aided in the cleanup of the spill, highlighting where efforts were successful, and where they fell short.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Understanding of the challenges and value of deliberation and cooperative action.