Exam+2_Philip+Yeh

 Ridley and Low make the argument that by applying a selfish frame, one that uses cooperation that emerges naturally, “The collective interest can be served by the pursuit of selfish interests.” The argument provided by Ridley and Scott blend the theories of economists and biologists that man is looking for himself, not his species, and usually will only display traits of altruism if there is a foreseeable return. They hold that the settings most conducive to this frame is one in which there is a, “…small, stable community that interacts repeatedly can find a way to pursue the collective interest—by altering the individual calculation,” or “Any action that raises the cost of being a free-rider, or raises the reward of being a cooperator, will work.” Under these circumstances, is likely to find better instances of sustainable practices, such as a farming community in Valencia which equally share water. Thus the environmental issue becomes a self-regulated problem at the local level, and raises the cost of being a free rider. Comparatively, Orr and Lakoff are broader in their approach, in which they leave the strategy for dealing with environmental issues open ended, so long as it addresses an interesting and capturing frame or story.  Both strategies I think would work under different situations, some probably more effective than others. I find Lakoff and Orr’s argument more compelling because of the number of examples provided, and would seem this is often the case necessary to bring about steady change, instead of completely revising the economic structure. I do think, however, an overall frame or vision is important to start taking the first steps towards a sustainable future. In terms of a K-12 activity, it would be interesting to complete an activity to show students quite literally how frames matter. An activity that would be interesting would be to have a film reel cut into many different pictures of the gradual cleanup of the earth, however, each student must work together as a collective to create a story of either e.g. the planet getting cleaner, or the planet getting dirtier, the order would be determined by the collective decision, however, if nobody cares about the order, the students will just make a dirty planet. || > ||  ||  In terms of how effective this methodology was, based off of end of session discussions, and the discussions held at a reunion held with Jane Elliot’s fifth graders, it seems the lesson had a deep impact and they were able to recall the lesson even 15 years later. I think the lesson has value as an equalizer among children or diverse groups, however, I think an element of bullying by the teacher could potentially be damaging to children, as Jane Elliot had mentioned at the end of the documentary. It is worth noting, however, that after such a lesson, the children did seem to have a greater sense of empathy, and places children in a situation in which they are underprivileged, a feeling which often some people will never experience in their life (such as some political front runners for a certain political party) and this discomfort is very important to being able to understand the importance of policies that affect everyone. I would consider the benefits of this lesson to outweigh the costs, and especially because this lesson does not only apply to race, but to other types of discrimination as well, such as gender identity and LGBT communities. It was also mentioned that at the end of the lesson, the children developed a sense not to bully anyone, because they all had been the subject of it, and that the lesson had actually improved their families, because they had dealt with prejudice first hand. || Issue: Contaminants The first session is built primarily to research the contaminant that has entered the water supply. This will have children explore what exactly is in their water supply as a first step, and understanding the different chemical properties of the chemical such as what does the ingestion of the PFOA’s do to you in the short term and long term? The session will be spent having students research and answering the following questions on their own followed by a group discussion to conclude. __Session 2: __ Understanding the Infrastructure Issue: Local Infrastructure  Session 2 primarily focuses on how the chemical actually got to the children’s homes and understanding the infrastructure around the transportation and conveyance. The following research questions will be asked of students, and it is their job to find the answers. The session will conclude with a discussion of what the students found. __Session 3: __ Understanding the Point Source and Why they Dumped it? Issue: Identifying Point Sources  Session 3 focuses on understanding the location of the point source of the contaminant. The next logical step from water in the home, to conveyance, and back to the point source. This following questions are researched by the students, and then this is concluded with a discussion of what the students found. __Session 4: __ Understanding Why Dumping Occurs/Occurred Issue: Dumping <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> Session 4 focuses on the mentality behind why chemical are dumping chemicals. This is intended to make students aware of the thought processes a company goes through when they choose to dump chemicals. __<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Session 5: __<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> Understanding Leverage Points <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Issue: Leverage Points and Communication <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> Session 5 Is intended to begin a session towards using leverage points to create change. This emphasizes communication. This session features the students once again researching the following questions on their own and then meeting up to discuss the leverage points. __<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Session 6: __<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> Understanding and Proposing Permanent Solutions <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Issue: Solutions <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> This final session looks at solutions, and encourages cynicism on the part of the student towards the company and reflects an attitude that those who commit crimes e.g. pollution, should not be easily let go as it has affected many people. Students conduct their own research and then come back together for a final solution.
 * * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">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. || <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> The argument maintained by Lakoff and Orr suggests that even when the public is presented with scientific facts, the public will fail to act on environmental issues. The argument maintains that presentation of scientific facts offer merely a snapshot, or a //frame//, which is insufficient to have citizens move on to action because the public cannot see the larger ramifications or a way of acting on it. Much like how a single frame from a movie reel does not offer the viewer much insight as to what the whole movie is about, and what the overlying story is, it would seem without a proper narrative or story, the public simply fails to follow along. As mentioned in the article, “Citizens actually use unconscious, emotional, and frame-driven forms of reasoning when considering a particular issue.” This means that an issue really needs to be sold to the public if they are to act on it, and without a riveting story they are likely to neglect the issue because it does not involve the emotional, //multi-framed// form the public mind if used to reasoning with. In particular, the public mind lacks often lacks the scientific frame to understand often very scientific issues, and they fail to understand the implications of a global change which can drastically affect both present and future lives. Similarly, the argument made by Ridley and Low features selecting the //right frame//.
 * * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">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. || Bill Moyer’s Kids and Chemicals was a very eye opening documentary to the practices and seemingly laissez faire approach many protection agencies and industries take to the health and wellbeing of both consumers and citizens. This was most notable to me in how vulnerable fetuses are to mice and roach droppings, two seemingly common place facts of life in urban environments. Additionally, the very pesticides used to control these pests are equally if not more damaging to fetuses. It was also very interesting to learn that despite what common logic might suggest, urban settings such as Manhattan and Brooklyn account for major instances of pesticide intake, not agricultural settings. Another interesting point brought about by the documentary were the findings that exposure to these pesticides in pregnant women had led to learning disabilities. It was also interesting to learn how metrics and standards had to adapt to tracking pesticide exposure, and most notably, was done in recently with the chemical analysis of collected baby teeth. A final interesting point which was interesting was how much the lead industry has seeped into fighting scientific work that challenged leads effects on children. Most notably how much the lead industry was willing to discredit scientists and how interwoven the lead industry was with the gas and oil industry because of leaded gasoline. It was also interesting to learn of lead’s presence in rugs, and similarly the presence of arsenic in treated woods.||  ||
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Stakeholders in United States Education || <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">What Should United States K-12 Education Accomplish || <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Forces Shaping K-12 Education in the United States ||
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Government || * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">How to be good citizens
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">How to be responsible consumers
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">How to become involved in your community
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">How to vote
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">How to practice environmental stewardship
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">How to work as a team or in a collective
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Responsibility, Respect
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Ethics
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">How to read, write, listen, speak, do math, science
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Media attention of certain events
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Technological innovations, e.g. phones, tablets, laptops
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Environmental Research
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Textbooks
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Research
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Teachers
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Social Media ||  ||
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Taxpayers || * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">How to do your taxes
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">How to be responsible consumers
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">How to live a long and healthy life style
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Parents, siblings, family
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Home environment
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Community
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Local pollution
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Industry || * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">How to conduct unbiased scientific research
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">How to defend objective science
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">How to identify false or misleading science
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">How to be ethical and responsible in a workplace setting
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Consumer products
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Texbooks
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Research ||  || ||
 * * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Describe and evaluate the teaching experiment portrayed in Frontline: A Class Divided (45 minute video about race-awareness educator Jane Elliot). || <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> In the documentary, A Class Divided, an interesting experiment was conducted by teacher Jane Elliott. In a chance to demonstrate the harmful and unfounded practices of racism, Jane Elliot took her children and split them into two groups. Those with naturally have blue eyes, and those who naturally have brown eyes. In an allegory for skin color, the experiment has the children with brown eyes be labeled as those with diminished intelligence and inferiority and is pronounced by having them wear easily visible collars around their neck. What resulted were increasing instances of behavior change in both the blue eyed and brown eyed children. The first day of the experiment, brown eyed children felt like second class citizens, and were constantly bullied in arbitrary ways as to show their inferiority. This became a self-fulfilling prophecy as was seen with their test results. Likewise, the blue eyed children received higher scores. In the second day of the experiment the two roles were switched, with the blue eyed children receiving the collars instead of the brown eyed children, and it was revealed that actually brown eyed children were better than their blue eyed counterparts. After similar treatment, test results were consistent with poor results with collars, and improved results without collars. On the last day both groups were allowed to discuss how neither blue eyed or brown eyed traits made them different and this applies to skin color as well. It should also be noted that an interesting result of this experiment was the fact that after this activity both blue eyed and brown eyed students had improved test scores, suggesting some psychological barrier to achieving more was removed when they could see their they were not different from the other students. This was also conducted with staff at a correctional facility in New York.
 * * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Given the issues the Hoosick Falls community will be facing in coming months and years with their crisis, propose a program of 6 60-minute sessions for students at any grade level. At the outset, characterize the issues, then propose specific educational interventions that would prepare students to deal with these issues || __<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Session 1: __<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> Understanding the Contaminant
 * 1) <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">1. What is PFOA?
 * 2) <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">2. What does PFOA stand for?
 * 3) <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">3. What are the short term side effects of PFOA?
 * 4) <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">4. What are the long term side effects of PFOA?
 * 5) <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">5. How long does PFOA stay in the body?
 * 6) <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">6. What does PFOA look like?
 * 7) <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">7. What is PFOA used for?
 * 8) <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">8. What phase is PFOA in at normal room temperature?
 * 9) <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">9. Is PFOA soluble in water or is it volatile?
 * 1) <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">1. How does PFOA get into homes?
 * 2) <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">2. What conveyance system transports drinking water into regular homes?
 * 3) <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">3. Where does drinking water come from?
 * 4) <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">4. Where is drinking water treated? Is it local?
 * 5) <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">5. How old is the local water infrastructure?
 * 6) <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">6. When was the local water infrastructure last upgraded?
 * 7) <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">7. What are good aspects of the local water infrastructure?
 * 8) <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">8. What are some bad aspects of the local water infrastructure?
 * 9) <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">9. What is the primary source of water for drinking water come from? (e.g. aquifer?)
 * 1) <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">1. What local companies use PFOA?
 * 2) <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">2. How long have these local companies been operating with this chemical?
 * 3) <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">3. Were there any companies in this location prior to the ones operating there now?
 * 4) <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">4. Are these companies near major water ways?
 * 5) <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">5. What other potentially dangerous chemicals have been shown to be in the water supply?
 * 6) <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">6. Have there been any effects on local plants and animals near these plants?
 * 7) <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">7. Have there been any reported illnesses near these production plants?
 * 1) <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">1. Can a company dump chemicals any time they want to into the environment?
 * 2) <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">2. Are there any economic consequences of dumping chemicals?
 * 3) <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">3. How does a company obtain the right to dump a chemical?
 * 4) <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">4. Is there a local agency that must approve of a company dumping a chemical?
 * 5) <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">5. Is there a state agency that must approve of a company dumping a chemical?
 * 6) <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">6. Is there a federal agency that must approve of a company dumping a chemical?
 * 7) <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">7. What are the regulations on a local, state, and federal level that apply to PFOA?
 * 1) <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">1. How is PFOA monitored?
 * 2) <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">2. Who actively monitors PFOA?
 * 3) <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">3. Who are your local representatives on a local level?
 * 4) <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">4. Who are your state representatives?
 * 5) <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">5. Who can you write a letter to if you have questions about your local government? State? Federal?
 * 6) <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">6. Who could you contact if you wanted to alert someone if you see unethical behavior?
 * 7) <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">7. What can be done to prevent a company from building more factories?
 * 8) <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">8. Is there a way to make the company move away?
 * 1) <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">1. What does the company who is polluting PFOA propose as a solution?
 * 2) <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">2. Based on the past behavior of this company, do you trust them?
 * 3) <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">3. What are some benefits and consequences of using the companies proposed solution?
 * 4) <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">4. Is the proposed drinking water still contaminated?
 * 5) <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">5. What is GAC? How does it help?
 * 6) <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">6. Are there other source of water in the area?
 * 7) <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">7. What ways can you monitor the local levels of PFOA?
 * 8) <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">8. Who could also help monitor PFOA? ||
 * * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">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 || <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> Tyrone Hayes career which has been most notably been rocked with turmoil from industry challenging his science to preserve its own economic interests demonstrates the way in which industry has perverted the objectivity of science. In the article Tyrone Hayes had conducted experiments which showed that atrazine, a common pesticide used widely throughout the US was capable of causing abnormality in reproductive organs, and gender identification of frogs in general. It is difficult to even consider where to start to prepare students for this types of industrial infiltration into academia, as it is prominent everywhere, however, a major leverage point to start with would be in education. In particular because education helps shape future policy. Policies such as those that would have independent institutions to conduct and verify research that do not get their funding from industry. In the education system, it would also be prudent to emphasize a mentality of erring on the side of the caution such as the European Union which did not have enough information on the chemical atrazine, so instead of going ahead with its wide scale implementation, decided to ban it. Erring on the side of caution would be an important mind set to teach children especially early on. This could be done through scientific lessons specifically geared towards collective decisions to not use certain products once presented with scientific results. Another way in which students could be prepared to deal with this kind of industrial bullying would to have students practice defending scientific work or research papers in a school setting, and have other students or teachers practice trying to take apart or challenge their work. This would most likely work in a fashion similar to that of defending a thesis or masters project in which a group or panel of fellow professors or scientists sift through a students work and look for flaws or sources of error in their publication. It would be desirable to teach this as early on as possible. High school science projects could come under this scrutiny, but scientific projects at the elementary and middle school level would also be important to developing a sense of the need to defend and communicating your work even when there might be a prevailing force against it. It would be important to instill in students a sense of ethical commitment to present their science not only when it is convenient, but because it is the right thing to do. This in tandem with science lessons aimed at changing the mindset of overzealous technological momentum to erring on the side of caution would help bring about both the discussions needed for future policy change when it comes to implementing new chemicals. ||