Needs+and+Wants+Activity+(Review)+ (Mark+Rovereto)

Needs and Wants Activity []

This curriculum module, geared toward grade levels 4-8, was developed by the Center for Ecoliteracy, an ecoliteracy group based out of Berkeley, California.
 * What organization developed the curriculum module you are evaluating?**

The goal of this group is to support and advance education for sustainable living.
 * What is the mission of the organization?**

It is the belief of the Center for Ecoliteracy that schools play a pivotal role in moving us beyond growing environmental crises and toward a sustainable society. Talking about their educational methods, they state, “…the best hope for learning to live sustainably lies in schooling that returns to the real basics: engaging with the natural world; understanding how nature sustains life; nurturing healthy communities; exploring the consequences of how we feed and provision ourselves; caring about the places where we live and the people and creatures in them (Center For Ecoliteracy, []).”
 * What is the educational mission and philosophy of the organization?**

For the Needs and Wants activity, the goal is to help participants distinguish between personal needs and wants, and consider how things are used or wasted.
 * What does the curriculum module aim to teach? In other words: what are the learning outcomes supposed to be?**

The way in which the module is designed makes it a very simple message to get across. Cards with images are used, along with discussion, to understand what things are necessary for healthy living and what things are not really necessary. The cards have images on them: things like fruit, bread, and soil for necessary things, and things like a cell phone, cars, and electricity for things that are not really necessary. The discussion is meant to be tailored to the specific age group or group composition as needed, and so is very adaptable. I think the activity is simple but well planned, consisting only of printable cards, scissors, envelopes, and possibly pencils. I like the format of the activity, but think the actual message is too muted to get the message of consumption across. It sends a weaker message along the same lines that there are some things every person needs, and there are other things that we simply want. This, however, is the intended goal of the activity, and so is successful in that respect.
 * Do you think the curriculum is appropriately designed to produce the intended learning outcomes?**

As it is, the activity falls short of the kind of literacy the research group advocates. The message of the base activity only goes as far as the stated goal of showing that there are certain things we need and certain things we don’t. With additions to the discussion portion of the activity, it can be made to work with the message of overconsumption, which could then lead into a discussion of some complex effects of this consumptive behavior. This could be focused on specific unnecessary things on some of the cards, for example.
 * Does this curriculum teach the kind of literacies the EcoEd Research Group advocates?**

Looking at the cards, there are a roughly equal number of things that can be considered necessary as there are unnecessary things. To have a stronger message the number of “unnecessary” cards should outnumber the “necessary” cards. These extra “unnecessary” cards could be made quite simply. The discussion would discuss what is necessary and what isn’t, but also why that is the case. Then, a few of these unnecessary things would be selected and investigated further. This would take the form of a discussion about what it takes to make these things available to us as consumers and the negative effects these products or services have on the environment, other people, and ourselves.
 * What could be layered into this curriculum so that it addresses more of the learning outcomes that the EcoEd Group advocates?**