A Step in the Right Direction: OTF "How Big is your Ecological Footprint?" Lesson Plan Review

So once we've all recovered from the collective groan and eyeroll caused by my punny title, let's start thinking about some of the goals we have for Ontario Social Studies lessons right now. Educators should strive for lessons that utilize inquiry or research (important 21st century skills that put the power of learning into the students' hands), field study when applicable (let's get up out of our seat and into the community please!), and innovative. 

The Ontario curriculum has a specific meaning in mind for "innovative"lessons. Lessons that use innovation allow students not only to make up their own ideas, inventions, or products, but use them in some way in the "real world". For example, if students make a design for a memorial for Hamilton Aboriginal war veterans, then they would actually submit that proposal design to the government rather than putting it up in the classroom and letting it collect dust. 

I found a lesson through the Ontario Teachers Federation that I deem to be innovative. You can access that lesson, and similar ones for other grades here. Below is a pretty chart, an overview of the lesson, and then my two cents on the matter. 

Name/Class section	Laura McClelland/003
Grade level/Strand	Grade 7/Natural Resources Around the World: Use and Sustainability
Topic	How Big is your Footprint?
Overall Expectation	Analyze aspects of extraction/harvesting and use of natural resources in different regions and assess ways of preserving them
Related concept of Social Studies, Historical or Geographic Thinking	Spatial Significance, Interrelationships
Big Idea	There is a relationship between Earth’s physical features and the distribution of natural resources and how people use them. The ways in which people extract and harvest natural resources can have social, political, and environmental consequences.
Framing Question to Foster Inquiry	Why might it be easier for some countries to extract and use natural resources in a sustainable way? Is the extractions and use of fossil fuels sustainable? What are some of the ways in which different countries are practising environmental stewardship?
Knowledge and Skills Categories Addressed	Knowledge, Thinking, Communication, and Application
Assessment Strategies	Minds On Assessment for Learning: student responses during discussions -are they able to articulate ideas around finite resources? -can students make links between finite land and the need to ensure we share equally and/or need to make sure there are limits to consumption -can students make connections back to the story of stuff, the cycle of consumption Activity Assessment for Learning: observation/notes during discussions -are students able to provide clear and realistic connections between consuming products that come from large distances and the size of their own ecological footprint? Consolidation Assessment for Learning: student-teacher conference regarding My Ecological Footprint -consider students’ ability to identify examples which create their ecological footprint -students’ ability to determine solutions/actions which reduce their ecological footprint
Materials and Resources	Apple and knife, use of available technologies e.g. computer, projector/screen, access to park/large field, chart paper, sheets “Ecological Footprint,” “My Ecological Footprint,” and “Ecological Footprint Resource.”

Concepts Addressed

What concepts of Disciplinary Thinking are addressed in this lesson?	Spatial Significance, Interrelationships
Where does this activity fit within the Citizenship Framework?	This activity fits well with the Active Participation section of the Framework, with a focus on influence and stewardship.
How does this lesson connect to current events and issues?	Reducing one’s eco-footprint is always a timely issue, but with the relatively recent Liberal win in the Federal Election, there is going to be an increased focus on the environment and climate change in Canada. Why not bring this issue up with your students, who may have seen interviews or commercials on TV regarding the renewed Canadian focus on the environment, and preserving our vast, but finite, natural resources?
Note whether this lesson provides an opportunity for field study?	This lesson allows for some field study, as it requires students to go outside and measure what a hectare is, but it is not an extensive part of the lesson.
What are the opportunities for cross-curricular and integrated learning	This lesson integrates expectations from Language (Media Literacy and Oral and Visual Communication), Math (Data Management, and Science and Technology
Note whether this lesson provides an opportunity to integrate environmental education?	Yes, to a large extent. This lesson is all about gaining spatial perspective when considering the Ecological Footprint and what can be done as alternatives to reduce that footprint and thus reduce our environmental impact.
Note whether this lesson provides an opportunity to address healthy relationships?	There is quite a bit of discussion in large and small groups, as well as with partners, which gives educators an opportunity to model and encourage appropriate behaviours for sharing ideas in the classroom respectfully.
Note whether this lesson provides an opportunity to address equity and inclusive classroom?	This lesson does not necessarily include much material from other cultures, religions, etc., but instead focuses on the individual student’s ecological footprint. But it is inclusive in that the students are reflected in the curriculum, their local community is considered and the broader environment is connected to both their community and themselves.
Note whether this lesson provides an opportunity to integrate financial literacy?	It would be possible to integrate information about how being green can save you money e.g. save money on hydro bill by turning off lights when not using the room
Note whether this lesson provides an opportunity to address 21st century skills?	This lesson addresses the skills problem solving, collaboration, and communication.

Lesson Review

            According to 21CLD Learning Activity Rubric’s criteria for innovation, this Ecological Footprint lesson is innovative. The last part of the lesson involves students being presented with a problem (their own Ecological Footprint) and then asks them to think up solutions to this problem that they could realistically enact in their lives. The problem is of course a real-world problem as it is directly based on the students’ lives, and they are required to innovate because beyond thinking up solutions or strategies to reducing their ecological footprint, students must actually utilize those strategies at home.

Although the innovation element of the lesson is small and deeply personal, I still think these types of innovative lessons are important and necessary. Many students (and adults too) often feel a sense of apathy or despair when faced with social problems because of how atomized Western societies are. Everything seems so large, that many people think, “I’m just one person, I can’t do anything so why bother?” without realizing that every movement, every change starts with one person and it is through the actions of many individuals that positive changes can occur. This lesson emphasizes the notion that what a student does individually matters. They can help create a greener community today, not through having a lot of resources, or a lot of education, but through making small changes right in their own lifestyles. Small daily changes can make a huge impact, maybe even more of an impact than some sort of grander gesture, like writing a letter to the Environment Minister (although it couldn’t hurt to do that too).  

This lesson is useful because it shows students in very visual ways the impact that humans have on the environment, first through the apple and then through the hectare measurement. It also has a good mixture of large group discussion, small group problem-solving, and individual reflection. The variety will help students stay interested and engaged. If I were to incorporate this lesson into part of a mini-unit or unit, I would probably have a follow-up, or some reflections ready for the students to do so they can think about the efforts they’re making to reduce their ecological footprint at home (and to remind them to actually do it!). I would also probably compare and contrast Western consumption with consumption and environmental impact of other cultures so students can see that the way we live is not only quite different from many areas around the globe, but also comes at a terrible cost for certain countries. We are able to live like kings because other regions struggle. This would be a sobering but incredibly important realization for students to make.

There are changes that I would make to this lesson if I were to use it in my own classroom to suit my style and personality, but overall, it is innovative and does address (or can address) the vision and many elements of the Geography curriculum. It gives educators quite a bit to work with and provides students with variety in their activities, assessment, and social interaction in the classroom.   

Connecting the UN Sustainable Development Goals to the Ontario Social Studies Curriculum: A First Attempt

Even if you don't read or watch the news on a regular basis, you must have a vague notion in your head that "something's gotta give." We eat too much, or in most places not enough, or not enough of the right stuff. It's possible to buy that cute t-shirt with the cat driving a car for $5 because the woman who made it works for pennies an hour. A man's chance for financial freedom and social mobility are ruined because of a mistake he made in early life and a prison-industrial complex that has no interest in rehabilitation or providing post-incarceration job opportunities.

What I'm trying to say is there is a lot that needs to be changed.

The UN happens to agree. Their 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda has 17 goals they wish to implement to help eradicate poverty, protect the planet, and promote human dignity (to name a few). The goals fall under five main headings: People, Planet, Prosperity, Peace, and Partnership. For a full description, check out the UN site here.

These are relevant issues that should be discussed and researched in the Social Studies classroom. Wouldn't it be great if there was a way to link these goals to the Ontario Social Studies curriculum? At Brock University, we've started to do just that.

My Social Studies class, helmed by Dr. Branigan-Pipe have mapped the Ontario curriculum to match with the five UN categories mentioned above. Not every strand or every grade relates to all the categories; we've found that certain grades seems to correspond very strongly to one set of goals in particular e.g. Planet. This is by no means exhaustive, there may be more curriculum expectations that relate to each of the topics, but this gives a starting point to open up discussion and inquiry in the classroom on UN Sustainable Development.

Let me know what you think of the curriculum map or if you find any creative ways to interweave Sustainable Development and Social Studies in your classroom!

Teaching Social Studies: The Start of my Journey

An iconic image of Romanticism, but for our purposes, he is also a student of
Social Studies, about to embark on his journey.
Friedrich, Caspar David. "Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog." 1818
Oil on canvas. Kunsthalle Hamberg, Germany.

“That men do not learn very much from the lessons of history is the most important of all the lessons that history has to teach.”
--Aldous Huxley, Collected Essays

"Context is all."
--Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid's Tale

An incalculable number of decisions, chemical reactions, and chance occurrences has  lead you and I to where we are today. To think that we are somehow divorced from all the tendrils and strings that make the world the way it is, that we are somehow individual, atomized, unique, is to have a narrow and honestly less full life experience. As a teacher candidate and future Social Studies teacher, I hope to help my students see the way they are connected to the past, present, and future, not only of Canada, but of the entire world. Sounds ambitious, but I think a healthy dose of idealism keeps my standards high and my mind active. 

As a student, teacher, and lover of literature, I understand perhaps better than some how essential it is to gain proper context. We are all products of our histories and in order to conduct a rigorous analysis of a text, one must have a proper understanding of the time and place in which it was crafted. Let's use Jonathan Swift's A Modest Proposal as an example. To properly understand what is at work in this text, it is important to have a basic idea of satire, if you knew it was Juvenalian satire, even better. It would also be useful to know a bit about English discrimination and attitudes towards both the Irish and the poor in general in the 18th century. Finally, understanding that the moral philosophy of utilitarianism was popular at the time Swift was writing would make his arguments that much more entertaining, as he uses much of the same reasoning as our good friend Jeremy Bentham, but uses that logic to argue that eating children is a viable solution to poverty. Without that background, a reader might think that Swift was a baby-eating villain, but with that knowledge, it is clear he's quite clever and rather funny. Beyond pure enjoyment, a reader can now also make connections to modern day, looking at the use of current satire, or the politics and policies surrounding poverty, the list goes on. 

I look forward to sharing my thoughts and what I'm going to learn in the coming weeks about teaching Social Studies. The idea of Inquiry-based Learning that the Ontario curriculum focuses on is of particular interest to me. Much better than just reading a textbook and answering questions like I did when I was in school.