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Thomas Sgueglia Sustainability Midterm Essays

Children develop most of their morals and critical thinking at a young age from their parents. Kids know that their parents are supposed to be a role model and teach them how they are supposed to act for the rest of their lives. The parent or guardian figure will be the most influential person in a child’s life. If a child sees his or her parent littering, he or she will assume that it is ok to litter. If the parents take an active role to reduce energy use in their home, their child will grow up thinking that not only is this the norm for the rest of society, but that this is the way it should be. Children are also influenced by their teachers, family, and friends. These other groups of people are where children spend most of their time if not with their parents. If their teacher does not bring up the environment in class, children will form the idea that the environment is far away in the distance and not related to them. If their teacher provides literature and videos about the environment, such as //The Story of Stuff//, children will feel a connection to the environment and possibly want to make changes. Additionally, the level at which the students are able to learn for themselves will have an influence on their views on the environment. Typically, coursework does not cover the environment or sustainability education but if the student manages to incooperate it into a project-based learning activity like those seen in //Fast Times at West Philly High//, students may be able to draw their own conclusions about the environment. A perfect example for project-based learning about the environment is the RPI EcoED Secondary School Research Program. Middle School students have taken on research projects to learn more about different countries around the world and their roles in national as well as global environmental problems. The news is also a great source of information for impressionable kids. While kids do not typically watch the news themselves, they might overhear or see what their parents are watching. Different networks and stations feel differently about the environment and humans’ effects on it and therefore children that are watching different stations will formulate different opinions based off that station’s bias. Films such as //Toxic Sludge Is Good For// You and //Poor// Kid give kids a brutal understand of the world that they live in. Again, it is not normal for children to see films like these or newscasts on their own so their parents would be the overarching influential factor. Children’s surroundings will have a huge influence on their lives that normally isn’t given much thought. Children being raised in an urban slum will have much less disregard for the environment when they are older compared to children raised in suburban America. Kids that have front lawns and nature trails around their homes will feel a greater connection to the environment. Additionally, the hobbies that kids take interest in at a young age will shape their feelings toward the environment as well. Indoor kids that stay in and play video games will care much less about the environment that a kid in the Boy Scouts. The Boy Scouts teach many environmentally friendly policies and are a very outdoorsy organization.

2. Almost everybody in today’s society agrees that the United States’ education system is in need of some restructuring. Many parents are against the slashing of funding for public schools for the sole reason that their children will be attending those schools. Yet in today’s economy, the government argues that cuts must be made. Out of all of the critiques on the precollege education system, this is by far the most vocal. If schools in the United States aren’t receiving the proper monetary funding, they will be forced to cut teachers and programs such as the music and arts departments that society has deemed less valuable than the science and math departments. It is setting an example for the children that music and arts are dead or a thing of the past. Another critique of public school education which stems off from the budget cuts is that the education system appears to be moving toward a “one solution fits all students” system. By treating each child the same, the education system is curbing some students learning potential. It was easy to see in Tamarac elementary school that some children are visual learners while others need more hands on teaching. Some students need to a one-on-one environment while others do well in a group. By acting as if all students should receive the same treatment, the public school education system is only cultivating a specific type of student. This is easily dealt with a mixture of traditional learning with project-based learning like in //Fast Times at Philly High//. All parents want to see their kids succeed. They want their kids to grow up to be doctors, or lawyers, or other professions that society has deemed important. Yet college is the time to really focus on the specific application that students are looking to study. Elementary, middle school, and high school class should have a broad range of subjects. The current system has a huge focus on math and the sciences with English and social studies taking more of a back seat. Music, the arts, economics, foreign language and especially sustainability classes rarely get any of the focus. It shouldn’t be like that for the young children in elementary and middle school because they should be getting a taste for as much information as they can. High school is a time where students are beginning to pick a specific focus to show colleges and higher education universities that they are serious about furthering their education. Videos such as //Education for a Sustainable Future// should be made available to students when they are trying to decide what college major to choose so that they can make an educated decision on what they would like to study and what sort of job they want for the rest of their lives. It is difficult for teachers to add new material that they want to teach into existing curriculum. Schools are tested nationally and therefore the teachers must teach according to what will be on the test. However, Mrs. Elliott, an elementary teacher, created the famous blue-eyed minority exercise and added it into her curriculum. //A Class Divided// is a perfect example of how to add new, meaningful curriculum into secondary education that will teach valuable lessons for the rest of students’ lives. That exercise occurred over 40 years ago and times are different today. There is no way a first grade teacher would have gotten away with the exercise like Mrs. Elliott did.

3. As an already developed, western country, it is difficult in the United States to build in the cities because they have already been built. Many buildings in the city were built without taking a green initiative. It is difficult to bring a green focus to mind while expanding large cities in the United States because most cities have surrounding low-income neighborhoods. A green school building would have the best future in a suburban town, a little farther away from the city. Towns like these have the resources needed as well as the influence that low-income neighborhoods lack. The suburbs of Westchester County, located outside New York City have enough undeveloped land where a school building could be placed. The building’s foundation would also have to come from a “green” process as to not undermine the whole operation. Cutting down a nice forested area for the sake of a “green” building would belittle the whole project’s intentions. The engineers would have to find a clear meadow or flat, unused ground that could be built upon. The next step would be finding the materials needed for the infrastructure. Again, if materials were shipped in all over the world and many were mined for or obtained in an unsustainable way; the project would have less of a mental impact on our society. This will be the hardest part of building the green school as the building must remain compliant with national, state, and local building codes. If it is not possible to use local materials or sustainable options, it will be reasonable for the green school building to use the normal building materials. A prime example of a building using resources straight from nature is the Druk White Lotus School in India. They used timber frames to reinforce the walls and roofs of the buildings which came from their local forests. It is noted in PBS’s documentary on the Druk White Lotus School that “tree plantations flourish in the valleys of Ladakh and tress grow very quickly, making them a sustainable and locally-sourced material.” The next step in the building of the green school is the design. In order to maximize the sun’s natural heating abilities, classrooms should face the sun in the morning. This will also maximize lighting in the school. By setting an example for other school’s this green school building will make news headlines and soon will become an example of how to construct new buildings.

4. Project-based learning is an innovative way to get students to come to conclusions regarding a subject rather than them being told what the correct answer is. This method of learning is successful and effective as studies have shown that students that used project-based learning outperformed students who went to traditional schools in mathematics, problem solving, and planning tests. Project-based learning is when students are given real world problems to work on instead of the traditional note taking method of teaching. Students brainstorm solutions and ideas that could potentially solve or mitigate these problems. Simple questions such as “How can we utilize older computer equipment in economical, business-connected ways?” are an example of project-based learning questions. Schools in Ohio have used this has a 30-minute question to measure a student’s critical thinking abilities. Additionally, this question can be used as a research question. There is so much for young students to learn about regarding computer technologies as well as electronic waste. By having students take this problem home to research solutions, they will be able to come back together in a group and share what they have learned. Another project-based learning module that cultivates critical thinking in students is the “Worth Your Salt” module. Students’ goal is to produce a chemical salt through a “green” method. A replacement for a chemistry lecture, “Worth Your Salt” not only forces students to learn vocabulary regarding the subject but they must become experts in chemical reactions and equations. There is a wealth of information that is important to make this module a success and instead of taking notes about it; students will learn all the different objectives while writing a lab report about how they would form their salt. The “Watts in //Your// House?” module is designed to teach students about electricity and how to save energy. Firstly, students must be familiar with the vocabulary and be able to answer basic electricity and energy questions. After the initial traditionally learning, students monitor their house’s electricity meters and measure the amount of electricity used for six of their major home appliances. After a month, the data is shared with the other students in the class and discussed. Like the “Worth Your Salt” module, the “Watts in //Your// House?” module has students learn the necessary, basic information about a subject and then do their own experiments. A fourth module of project-based learning is the “Wind Power?” module. Students investigate the construction, function, and feasibility of wind turbines as well as the best location for them. In order for this module to work, students must already know or be taught how turbines work, what electricity is and how turbines produce them, how to measure voltage, amperage, and power, and how to read a topographic map. This provides teachers with a long list of subjects to teach before the project can be carried out. The students then design, build, and test turbine blades, interpret topographic maps, and make a presentation on where they think the wind farm should be. All four project-based learning modules show the pros and cons of the project-based learning method. It gives instructors a clear set of initial, before-the-project guidelines that teach a wide variety of subjects. Students are allowed to work freely within the constraints of the problem, thereby expanding their critical thinking process. Traditional note taking classes do not all for free thinking and therefore miss out on this. Additionally, students feel accomplished at the end of the module because they have something to show for all their work. Their solution is not just a grade, it is an idea that they have come up with. The cons that are associated with the project-based learning method is that the one instructor may find it difficult to check in on students. If the students get side tracked during the brainstorming part, it will not be as productive of a technique as studies show.

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5. In today’s world, spreading the word about environmental problems is difficult because people must be extremely careful about what they say in fear of a lawsuit. Typically, the ones with the deepest pockets are the corporations who are the ones usually responsible for the environmental problems. These corporations also have an incredible amount of lawyers that are all very experienced and knowledgeable. Another challenge that must be faced is the severe opposition to the existence of such problems. There are many important political figures that have publicly announced that they do not believe much of the scientific data that supports sustainability just because it would mean a compromise or defeat with their political opponents. These two main challenges pose a real threat to education about sustainability and current environmental problems. It is because of lawsuits and fierce opposition that public schools, especially high schools, have trouble creating classes that are designed to teach information like this. It is up to media students to develop interesting new ways to get sustainability and environmental concern into the limelight. There is an incredible amount of documentaries that have been made with sustainability education as the primary focus. However, these films do no good if they go unwatched. This is another challenge in the world of media literacy. There are plenty of different approaches to teaching sustainability yet no one seems to know about it. Media students can show the world these teaching methods by using creative literacy concepts such as those in the //Media Literacy Project//’s “Introduction to Media Literacy. There are over 20 different concepts for students to learn and master such as “the human brain processes images differently than words.” Students could benefit from this concept by depicting the scientific data like in the film “The Age of Stupid.” The film does not read off what the data means but portrays what the data shows the future will look like. Project Look Sharp’s “Media Literacy Concept Handout” also teaches students that media messages are produced for particular purposes. The purpose of the “The Age of Stupid,” as well as many sustainability education films, is to inspire change. By using the concepts that they are taught in school, students lessen the complexity that surrounds sustainability education.