Lesson
Overview: After considering what our culture perceives
as waste, students generate a word list as an introduction to vocabulary
relating to trash and then turn to a consideration of how cultures
can live sustainably within a natural environment. Art and Music strands
tailor the lessons to the specific disciplines.
Standards:
New
York State
Visual
Arts: 1,2,3,4
Music:
1,2,3,4
Education
for Sustainability Core Content and Performance Indicators:
Cultural
Preservation and Transformation
A3
Articulate why it is important that cultures do not fade away,
and research examples of efforts to move toward sustainability
by saving endangered cultures and languages.
A4
Develop an understanding of cultural influences on the ability
of people to live well in their places over time. Particular attention
will be paid to what should be preserved and what has to change
in order to thrive over time.
A7
Recognize the value of stories and the arts as links between the
past and present.
A8
Use stories and the arts to document and make visible what we
want to preserve and what needs to change in order to contribute
to the sustainability of our communities over time.
Sense
of Place
I31
Describe the changes in consumption practices from an historical
perspective, compare and contrast them with today’s, and
design the characteristics of sustainable consumption practices
in the future.
Overarching
Question:
How
are we all going to live well within the means of nature?
Essential
Question(s) for Unit:
If
“there is no such place as away,” how do we sustain “here?”
Guiding
Questions:
How
have cultures lived harmoniously in nature?
What
did they do with things that were no longer useful?
What
did cultures consider waste?
How
did these cultures manage their resources?
Resources/materials
for this lesson:
SMART
Board (if you have access, but not necessary)
“Wordle.”
Jonathan Feinberg. www.wordle.net
22 July 2009 A site to create word splashes.
“Garbology,
Understanding Our Garbage” and “America: Land of High
Consumption.” Enviro-Tacklebox: Module 02: Decisions Based on
Science: Tackle Trash.” Discovery Education. Video. http://player.discoveryeducation.com/index.cfm?guidAssetId=0A34E78A-5830-4589-8C04-6EF5C276CE29&blnFromSearch=1&productcode=US
1 July 2009) Follow student reporters as they examine environmental
issues brought about by the growing amounts of waste our society generates.
Viewers are introduced to noted garbologist Dr. William Rathje and
the renowned Banana Slug Band. In "Tackle Trash," the students
look closely at their personal buying habits and explore the benefits
and decisions associated with societal waste.
Jeffers,
Susan. Brother Eagle, Sister Sky: a Message from Chief Seattle.
New York, New York: Dial Books, 1991. The read aloud is also available
online at www.vidyaonline.net/arvindgupta/chiefseattle.pdf
1. Ask
students: “What do you think happens to your trash when you
throw it in the garbage?” Make a class chart on chart paper
or on the interactive whiteboard.
3.
As a class, brainstorm a list of “Garbage
Synonyms.” (included) Students can use an online thesaurus
to generate more words.
4.
Make a word web or use www.wordle.net
with the list students have compiled. (SMART Board example included)
Hang this word or word web in your classroom as a reference during
this unit.
Brainstorm
garbage words. Then discuss, What is waste? What waste do we have
in the art room? What can we cut out or reuse? (Assessment)
Day
2
1. Display
the quotation from Antoine de Saint Exupery, “We do not inherit
from our parents, we borrow from our children.”
2.
Read aloud the book Brother Eagle, Sister Sky by Susan Jeffers
to gain an understanding of how a culture lived harmoniously in nature.
You can access this book online at www.vidyaonline.net/arvindgupta/chiefseattle.pdf
(As another option, listen to a version of Colors of the Wind
on Disney’s Pocahontas sound track.)
3.
Have the students respond to the quotation, “We do not inherit
from our parents, we borrow from our children.” (Writing Assignment
included) either in writing or by discussion focusing on how native
groups view the earth. They are to use examples from the book, music,
or PowerPoint, and include guidelines sustainable consumption practices
in the future.
Use
the “Indigenous
Cultures Chart" (include) to compare the indigenous people
of Australia (Aborigines) and the resources they use to create art
in relation to the way we make art in our country. Introduce the
idea of sustainable cultures and the artwork created using natural
pigments and materials.
Ask,
“What waste did the indigenous cultures have? “
Music
Extension:
Students
will learn about both the acoustic properties of instruments and
how to create them out of recycled materials by making percussion
instruments made of cardboard tubes as the resonators and substituting
balloons for animal skins as the membranes.
This
lesson will culminate in a performance by “Bash the Trash,”
http://www.bashthetrash.com/
a group that creates instruments out of recycled materials to raise
awareness of sustainability.
If
time allows, students may, with teacher’s help, make a Quena,
a bamboo flute played by the Inca. This would illustrate how the
Inca used native woods to make a functional art.
Day
3
1. Examine
different cultures that have lived harmoniously in nature with a focus
on how they used natural resources. Four examples are Inuit, Inca,
Aztec, and the Aboriginal cultures.
•
atmosphere - collection of different gases that surround the earth
• biodegradable - capable of being broken down by the action
of living things
• chemicals - substances we use for all kinds of things, including
cleaning, cooking, and killing pests.
• compost - a mixture that consists largely of decayed organic
matter and is used for fertilizing and conditioning land
• conservation: protection of the environment and natural resources
of the earth, including its plant and animal life
• culture - a group of people sharing a set of values, conventions,
and social practices
• disposable - designed to be used once and then thrown away
• dump - an accumulation of refuse and discarded materials
• environmental - having to do with the natural world of the
land, sea, and air
• garbage - discarded material
• harmoniously - having the parts agreeably related
• gyre - a giant, circular oceanic surface current
• landfill - huge hole in the ground lined with plastic where
trash is dumped, crushed, and finally buried under the soil
• natural environment - occurring in conformity with the ordinary
course of nature; not artificial
• natural resources - something (as a mineral, waterpower source,
forest, or kind of animal) that is found in nature and is valuable
to humans (as in providing a source of energy, recreation, or scenic
beauty)
• non-biodegradable - materials that cannot break down naturally
and do not become part of the soil, water, or air
• nonrenewable resources - resources that cannot be replaced
once they have been used. Oil and coal are examples of nonrenewable
resources
• organic - describes things that were once alive and can break
down naturally over time
• photodegradable plastic - a type of plastic that is better
for the environment because it breaks down in sunlight and can be
recycled
• plastic - any of numerous synthetic or processed materials
that can be formed into objects, films, or fibers
• pollution - substances in the environment that are harmful
or poisonous
• raw materials - resources such as oil, wood, or stone that
are used to make other materials or products
• recover - the retrieval and reuse of materials that have been
saved and taken out of things that have been thrown away
• recycling - recovery or reuse of waste materials to make new
products
• reduce - to break down or diminish in density
• renewable resources - resources such as water or wind that
are not used up over time
• reuse - to use again especially in a different way, or after
reclaiming or reprocessing sustainable - able to keep up in a healthy
way over time
• toxic - poisonous
• waste - damaged, defective, or superfluous material produced
by a manufacturing process
