Download Final Term Paper

Final Term Paper
Sustainability Education
Jason King | Class ‘14
1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12
1. Describe the controversy that has erupted around leaked documents showing The Heartland
Institute's plans to develop k-12 curriculum. See Leaked Docs Reveal How Top Think Tank Turns
Oil Money Into Climate Denial.
Climate change is highly controversial issue not only in this country, but around the world. There are
multiple theories about what is causing our planet to heat up at such an alarming rate. The most
common theory which is backed but scientific evidence is we are causing global warming by burning
fossil fuels and polluting the environment. The other theory that contradicts the scientific evidence is
global warming is a natural cycle of heating and cooling the earth goes through. This lack of consensus
has in many ways paralyzed progress toward creating a sustainable society. So why are we not doing
anything about this; because there is more money to be made from the types of wasteful and
unsustainable industries such as the oil industry. Some industries have helped, through large donations
of money, slow, stop, and create falsified information to paralyze efforts to slow global warming.
These corporations make donations to a company called Heartland. Heartland manages the campaign to
undermine the scientific data that proves that we are causing climate change. They fund professionals to
publicly disavow the veracity of climate science, and work in targeted arenas to "cultivate" sympathy for
anti-climate ideas. In other words, they have a fully developed strategy to foist a particular brand of
climate denial upon the public. It seems corporations will do anything to hang on to their record
breaking profits although they are over charging the American consumer, while contributing greatly to
polluting the environment. These carbon dioxide emissions are a main factor in global warming. Oil
companies especially have a certain power over the American consumer; dictating gas prices, but more
importantly controlling or energy infrastructure, what we use to heat our home and power our cars.
There latest tactic to combat the climate change efforts is to influence what America’s youth is being
taught. Leaked documents from Heartland shows plans for development of a k-12 curriculum which
plans to teach students both sides of climate change; the side supported by evidence and the side which
has been created to paralyze efforts to reduce global warming. Heartland had planned to manipulate
the youth of this country into believing falsified information for the benefit of revenue streams of large
corporations. This is an outrageous prospect to think that an entire generation’s views could be
negatively influenced for reasons no other than greedy capitalism. The leaking of these documents has
given climate change ammunition to stop and Heartland from doing things like this and supports their
scientific findings.
2. Imagine that you are a member of the Board of Education in a school district in which
teaching climate change has become controversial. Write a letter to the community describing
the district's plan for teaching climate change that you endorse, and the rationale for this plan
(anticipating the kinds of concerns some parents may have). See School Standards Wade into
Climate Debate, Wall Street Journal, March 11, 2012.
Dear Parents and Guardians,
I am writing to you because it has come to my attention that there is growing controversy
surrounding the nature of sustainability education in our great school district. Until now, we've been
mostly absent from the movement to educate our children to be stewards of our environment and
prepare them to participate in a sustainable economy. That work is taking hold in corporations, in other
agencies of the federal government, as well as colleges, universities, and schools across the country.
But this Education Department is just getting started in this important work. It's been clear for a decade
or more that education plays a vital role in the sustainability movement. The goal of this school district is
to prepare students to be responsible citizens and agents for change, in their community and beyond.
We maintain the highest expectations for academic and personal growth for all of our students and
embrace the rich economic and cultural diversity of our community. We plan to teach sustainability
through a holistic approach integrating it into several of the current curriculums which make up the
interdisciplinary topic of sustainability. In addition we are adding a course called, adapting to the
changing environment, the course will prepare students for the future and discuss their roles in
sustainability as well as lay out several career options in sustainability fields. The views of sustainability
education are in cooperation with the Board of Education. I assure everyone in the community we have
and will continue to address any concerns which arise regarding the quality or content of your children’s
education. The material covered by our comprehensive sustainability education program reflects the
views of the United States Department of Education and has strict guidelines in order to avoid
discriminating or alienating student’s cultural and religious views. We, as a generation, have created
environmental issues which our children are going to be left to fix. It is our moral responsibility to
provide them with an educational foundation to deal with these issues and correct what we have so
failed to. The first step to achieving a sustainable society is integrating sustainability into our k-12
education system. We will continue to support our students in their intellectual, moral, and personal
growth through the cultivation of responsible citizenship and guide them toward creating a better
future for all.
Regards,
Jason M. King
President | Board of Education
Rensselaer School District
3.Describe the findings and arguments presented in this recent article about attention to
sustainability in children's picture books: "The Human-Environment Dialog in Award-winning
Children’s Picture Books," Sociological Inquiry, Vol. 82, No. 1, February 2012, 145–159. Conclude
with a brief description of how authors and publishers could be encouraged to produce
sustainability-oriented children's books.
Today children grow in an environment very different from the one many of us grew up in. The
environment, technology, social priorities, and media have all changed and have been replaced with the
modern equivalent. One such change observed is the content which fills children’s books. Children’s
books are a crucial part of a child’s socialization. The article titled, “The Human-Environment Dialog in
Award-winning Children’s Picture Books," examines the change in content as it relates to sustainability
education.
The study concluded to find that there is a dramatic decrease in the number of children’s books that
take place in a natural environment, i.e. a place untouched by human modernization, and wild animals
are far less common characters in children’s books, they have be have been replaced by domesticated
animals. The article goes on to correlate these changes to two main reasons; the first being a rise in
modern environmentalism. Today’s environmentalism movement focuses less on the preservation of
nature and has shifted to topics of air pollution, resource management, and creating sustainable
technologies. The modern environmentalism movement is radically different than previous movements
and the new focus affects the situations and environments depicted in children’s books. The second
reason is isolation from the natural environment. There are fewer and fewer areas that remain
unharmed by the reach of mankind, especially that are available for our youth to visit on a regular basis.
In addition to the loss of natural areas, America’s urban population has increased to 82 percent (2012).
Furthermore, the number of visitors to national parks and participation in other nature-based activities
has been declining since the 1980’s. Today children are hardly ever exposed to natural environments,
this disconnect leads to a decrease in natural environments featured in children’s books.
I believe these trends are all the more reason for children’s book authors to write about sustainability.
Recent trends have been pushing children’s books to relate to children’s everyday lives. The increasing
urbanization and isolation from nature creates a disconnect in our youth of what nature is truly like. This
creates and opportunity to inspire creativity and spark the imaginations of children through books. Now
more than ever with global warming on the rise we need creative and imaginative children thinking
about sustainability. By writing children’s books pertaining to sustainability authors can spark curiosity
that will drive children to want to spend time in nature and interact with the simple bliss of the great
outdoors.
4.David Wong, writing in cracked.com, argues that the "monkeysphere" determines the limits of
human empathy. While Wong doesn't address sustainability directly, it is easy to imagine the
implications. David Orr's call to recognize how our actions implicate the life chances of future
generations isn't very practical in the monkeysphere, for example. How can educators respond?
What specific strategies could be used to educate beyond the monkeysphere?
Today there are over 6 million people on this planet; all of which have names, personalities, and
feelings. However we as humans have a limited ability to know people and care about them. David
Wong’s article, “What Is the Monkeysphere,” talks about the human capacity for empathy. He describes
the monkeysphere as those people who are important in your lives and you care about. He estimates
that human monkeysphere capacity is only around 150 people. For example which would hit you harder,
your Mom dying, or seeing on the news that 15,000 people died in an earthquake in Iran? They're all
humans and they are all equally dead. But the closer to our Monkeysphere they are, the more it means
to us. Just as your death won't mean anything to the Chinese or, for that matter, hardly anyone else
more than 100 feet or so from where you're sitting right now. The monkeysphere is real and you have
one if you like it or not. This phenomenon has serious implications in a variety of situations including
education and sustainability.
The idea of the monkey sphere is troubling when applied to topics such as global warming. Global
warming is an issue that cannot be solved by any one person; it must be a collaborative effort from
everyone. The idea that people must work together with and for the humans outside their
monkeysphere makes motivation hard. As educators, this dilemma must be recognized and worked
around to develop teaching methods which counteract the monkeysphere. Teaching sustainability at a
personal and community level is one way to get around teaching through the monkey sphere. Educators
can still teach sustainability in a holistic manner but concluding with the effects on individuals in
students monkeysphere’s will invoke the empathy needed to motivate future sustainable thinking.
Furthermore by educating students on people from other culture from around the world educators can
bring strangers closer to student’s monkeysphere’s. Think of Osama Bin Laden. Did you just picture a
camouflaged man hiding in a cave, drawing up suicide missions? Or are you thinking of a man who gets
hungry and has a favorite food and who had a childhood crush on a girl and who has athlete's foot and
chronic headaches and wakes up in the morning with a boner and loves volleyball? Something in you,
just now, probably was offended by that. You think there's an effort to build sympathy for the murderous
fuck. Isn't it strange how simply knowing random human facts about him immediately tugs at your
sympathy strings? He comes closer to your Monkeysphere, he takes on dimension. This type of activity
can be an effective measure to educate beyond the monkeysphere of students and create a more
responsible society.
6. Describe and critically evaluate the arguments made in "The Heart of Sustainability: Big Ideas
from the field of Environmental Education and their Relationship to Sustainability Education or
'What's love got to do with it?”
Sustainability is one of those terms which is thrown around a lot but is rarely defined. Sustainability
technical means to sustain long-term maintenance of responsibility, which has environmental,
economic, and social dimensions, and encompasses the concept of stewardship, the responsible
management of resource use. However in the present we more commonly sustainability has sustaining
our way of life through whatever means necessary. This type of “sustainability” cannot continue and the
change starts in education. In the reading The Heart of Sustainability: Big Ideas from the field of
Environmental Education and their Relationship to Sustainability Education or 'What's love got to do with
it? the authors discuss the current problems with sustainability and proposes 5 big ideas to help create a
solution.
The first big idea is titled Biophilia and conservation of natural resources. This first big idea suggests that
sustainability education needs to instill an emotional connection to nature in children. The article
suggests that future generations are losing their connection to the environment because the majority of
the youth grow in an urban environment. It goes on to suggest this will lead to depletion of resources
due to a lack of knowledge of resource management and complex causation. I believe that this big idea
is correct in it assumptions; however it is merely an idea which is a challenge to apply to education.
Instilling emotional connects through education is not an easy lesson to give and I’m afraid its ambition
outweighs its likelihood. The second big idea, titled Making connections between ecosystems,
economies, people and place, suggests teaching children about the interconnections between the
environment, people, and the economy through a multidisciplinary approach. This idea is a literacy in
which I believe in and we are trying to through sustainability education. This approach helps children to
gain a larger understanding of the importance of sustainability and the complexities which pose as
barriers to change. The third big idea, titled Constancy and changes, suggests we need to teach our
children the ability to spot change and adapt to it. This idea is important to teach kids however I feel a
far greater skill is to see past change to the unintended consequences of changes. Seeing and adapting
to change is a good skill but being able to see the possible outcomes of a change before it happens is a
skill which is needed in the decision making process which will become more and more important as
climate change and resource depletion continues. The fourth big idea, titled Sustainability education is
not possible without social cohesion (race, gender, ethnic, religious, political and wealth), suggests
creating shared experiences with other cultures, races, genders, etc. to create social cohesion. Teaching
children about others will help create a greater understanding that people live in different ways and
environment has different meaning to different people. Furthermore this will help teach students to put
themselves in other shoes when making a decision and put problems in other perspectives. The last big
idea, titled Sustainability is not a destination (but rather an aspiration) based on precedent (we create
it), suggests to think big. We need to teach students how to jump off the band wagon and imagine a
better future. Creative problem solving is an undervalued skill in our education system, but I see it as a
gateway to innovation and step in the right direction to steer our society toward real sustainability.
These 5 big ideas all embody the type of thinking we need to change the direction of our planet, but
they are only ideas, ideas without a plan for implementation.
8. (from Matai at midterm) What form of media do you believe conveys environmental
education materials best: filmed media (animated or reality but state which and why),
educational video games (http://planet-connect.org/gamestation) or online interactive lessons?
You must choose one. Use at two sources to support your reasoning.
The digital age has brought with it a vast array programs, tools, and media. This has created
opportunities in nearly every field and industry on the planet. These opportunities have not gone to
waste and we now live in a world where media has seeped into every facet of our day if we know it or
not. Between email, social media sites, and advertisement we are surrounded by different forms of
media. One area where media is often overlooked is in our education system. We can use media to help
convey critical information and enrich to classroom experience. Media engages students bringing the
world of media into the classroom connects learning with "real life" and validates their media culture as
a rich environment for learning.
One form of media which in recent years is becoming more popular is the use of education video games.
These games are a form of interactive media where kids learn through the gameplay of the game. In an
article by Vivian Aguilar, titled Game Based Online Learning to Improve Comprehension and Information
Retention Rate, she writes “For kids, it is nothing short of a fun activity to learn an otherwise boring and
abstruse course content by playing games. Kids learn in a more permanent way through game based
learning techniques. Learning becomes a fun activity and it helps a lot to increase the attention span of a
learner. Since a learner is personally involved in such games, ratio of information retained against
information delivered is actually very high.” Making education fun motivates kids to continue learning;
you could even say the game offsets the usual dullness of information so students forget they are
learning. Interactive games let student take their education into their own hands. Furthermore
interactive games can provide instant feedback to students; letting them know if they are right or wrong
and providing supporting information to backup answers. A research study performed by Feng S. Din, a
professor from the University of St. Francis, and Josephine Calao, of the Newark School District, tested
the effects of educational video games of test score and learning retention. They found “With
descriptive analysis, the results indicated: Both classes increased their scores on the posttests in spelling
and reading, the experimental group made larger gains. For both classes, only a slight improvement was
found on the posttest in math.” It is clear there is a benefit to educational games. The trick is design and
developing games in manner that captures the spirit of the information that is trying to be conveyed. I
believe educational games can provide a powerful tool to help teach students about environmental
education and can serve as a manner of bringing to life the information they need to create a greener
tomorrow.
1. http://www.articlesbase.com/human-resources-articles/game-based-online-learning-toimprove-comprehension-and-information-retention-rate-4294695.html
2. http://clem.mscd.edu/~sandersc/3310%20ed%20video%20article.pdf
9. (from Dorothy Underwood at midterm) What in your education has been highly influential on
you, and how could you use that technique/experience to teach children about sustainability
problems?
Education is commonly regarded as an important factor in keeping America at the forefront of the
world. However delivering education is a difficult task to understand and perform. There have been
many different methods tried to get students to retain the information thrown at them, but the hard
part is motivating students to invest in their education and subject matter. There are two types of
motivation, intrinsic and extrinsic, each type has its advantages and disadvantages but they are equally
difficult to structure into an educational curriculum.
Our education system is built on extrinsic motivation structure. Grades are designed to motivate rank
and compare students. The idea is grades will motivate students to focus and do well in school by
learning the materials. This system has worked in the past and to some extent still works today.
However it is starting to fail students. The grade system pushes students to do what it takes to answer
questions correctly which used to mean students would learn the material to answer questions.
However today with the influx of modern technologies, especially the internet, the abundance of
information and information sharing makes it easy for students to simply look up answers or copy pre
solved problems without being immersed in subject matter.
What the modern day student needs is an intrinsic motivation or a self-propelling will to learn the
subject matter. Intrinsic motivations are better for an education system but are very difficult to foster in
someone who is just not interested in subject matter. Furthermore studies show that intrinsic
motivation drops off in grades 3-9. One technique I remember being particularly effective on me when I
was a high school student was combining the two types of motivation through a friendly competition. It
is human nature to compete, everyone like to win and no one like to lose. Educational competitions
tend to be slightly more open ended leaving students room to adjust coarse material to be more
relevant to their interests. Educational competitions are great to get students motivated; the
competition creates a challenge of students to be the best to reach an elite status, competitions usually
have a prize (extrinsic motivation) which is just icing on the cake, and students will lead their own
education in order to win which makes them immerse themselves in the subject matter. Competitions
are a great way to motivate students to take charge of what they are learning instead of teacher’s spoon
feeding information to students which creates bad, lazy habits in our younger generations. I think this
teaching style can be used to teach most subjects including sustainability education.
10. (from Dorothy Underwood at midterm) What is a common sustainability problem that is
pertinent to a group of 10/11 year olds? What choices do they make in their daily lives that they
are unaware have environmental repercussions? How can you help them understand and focus
on these choices?
There are many challenges facing our environment today which spawn from a myriad of social, political,
economic, and technical issues. These issues have slowed progress toward making a sustainable society
to a near paralysis; many work to solve the issues facing sustainability but it is an ever growing uphill
battle which will not be solved overnight. One stepping stone to help create a better future lies in the
education of our youth. Our current education system does a poor job at encompassing issues dealing
with the environment. Our society has created a waste management system which completely removes
the transparency of the waste cycle which is an ever growing problem especially in this country.
Sustainability education is covered in a very limited way in the curriculum in this country. However many
believe that it should be structured throughout the k-12 curriculums. One critical age for getting
students involved in sustainable practices is 10- 11 years or 4th or 5th grade. A common problem which is
in the grasp of this age range is the effects of pollution on the eco-system.. This topic can be taught in a
comprehensive module that shows real world examples of pollution and its effects. This teaching will
provide a foundation for sustainability thinking. This foundation will be beneficial in understanding the
complexities that surround sustainability. This cause and effect understanding can then be wrapped in
their lives through an analysis of the waste produced by their daily lunch contents. This can then be used
to take about the importance of recycling and responsible shopping. 10 -11 year olds are just at the
beings of their consumer responsibility; they are buying drinks, snacks, and toys. Each of these choices
has consequences which trickle down to the environment. Teaching kids at this age students will learn
good, sustainable habits which will give them a responsible consumer power now and into the future. To
create this responsibility I believe students need to see the quantity of waste they produce without even
knowing. One common activity I suggest to help focus students to realize the effect of their actions is to
have students carry all of the waste they produce in a week around with them wherever they go. This
activity makes the waste topics taught in class become real and tangible in a way I have not seen
recreated. In summary this module will help give students an understanding of cause and effect as it
relates to sustainability and create a responsible future consumer force which in turn will affect the
products and services offered.
11. (from Jason King at midterm) What role does technology play in sustainability education
today, what is being taught through the use of these technologies, and what are the unintended
consequences?
Technology has created a vast array of opportunities in nearly every field and industry in the world. This
technology has enabled society to collect, share, and communicate information with and ease anywhere
in the world. As a result our nation is at a turning point. We know that the world in which our education
system was created - the industrial world of the 19th and early 20th centuries - no longer exists. Today
we live in a technology-driven global marketplace where ideas and innovation outperform muscle and
machine. In an age of digital content and global communications, we must build an education system
that meets the new demands of our time. Technology can help us create schools where every child has
the opportunity to succeed, while we work to close the achievement gap and address the economic and
workforce needs of the future.
But moving beyond the first flush of victory when schools adopt technology will require innovative use
of new technologies and understanding how technology will shape the future of education.
When the U.S. Department of Education released their findings after examining more than twelve years’
worth of research equaling more than a thousand empirical studies of online learning, the results were
interesting: “On average, students in online learning conditions performed modestly better than those
receiving face-to-face instruction.” So online learning environments don’t result in less than desirable
learning outcomes. The opposite is actually true. Technology has given teachers an abundance of
resources to help reach a wide variety of students. Furthermore technology has allowed new forms of
interactive media to be created which gets kids involved in what they are learning. Through the use of
interactive learning games, smart boards, Elmo’s, computer research, technology has increased the
amount and quality of information available to both students and educators. This technology can be
used to teach anything in the school’s curriculum as well as any other subject you can possibly think of.
Technology has enabled so much in the education field, but it is not the holy grail of learning it comes
with its own set of challenges. Technology needs to be filtered focused and used in the correct way to
be effective. Educator’s roles important now more than ever to provide a quality experience teachers
still must be the centerpiece of the learning environment although they can wield an arsenal of
technology based resources to get to even the most stubborn of students.
Technology is clearly an incredible leap forward in educational practice however it comes with its own
unintended consequences. In the same manner that technology provided resources to teachers
technology has also created resources to help students get around doing their own work. Websites such
as cramster and koofers are online resource that has answers to all of the questions in textbooks.
Writing papers has become a common problem too where students can simply copy and paste
information from the internet into their paper. Information sharing is also an issue, technology easily
allows student to share work and copy from others. Technology is only tool which people can apply in
different ways; its applications are endless and will continue to evolve. However technology needs to be
monitored and used responsibly to ensure we do not depend on it to function as a society.
12. Write two exam questions that creatively test (undergraduate) students'/educators’ analytic
sophistication about sustainability education. Answer one of these questions.
In an already crowded curricular environment, how do you propose to make space/time for educators
to add a sustainability education course. Furthermore what restructuring if any to our education system
need to take place in order to better accommodate the educational demands of students in the future?
In your opinion what social, economic, or political barriers prevent sustainability education from being
more pervasive throughout the k-12 curriculum?
Climate change has become an ever increasing important and controversial topic. Our planet is
changing, global warming is heating out planet at record rates which has led and will lead to a slew of
global environmental changes. One important action that needs to be taken to slow the effects of global
warming is education. However, integrating sustainability education into our k-12 curriculum has
become a controversy of its own. They say there are two sides to every story and that is no different for
climate change.
There is no doubt that climate change is occurring. The empirical evidence is overwhelming, from
measured temperature increases, shocking declines in the Arctic ice pack, melting of long-stable
permafrost, retreat of glaciers all over the world, etc. There is overwhelming empirical evidence that
human activity is the major contributor to climate change, with measurable, unprecedented rapid
atmospheric increases in greenhouse gases. Climate change is not going to slow or stop on its own and
the first step is teaching our youth about climate change and what they can do to correct it. However
the hard truth is there are a lot of corporations making big money off of our polluting habits. Oil
companies and others with a financial stake in keeping the status quo in terms of energy use and our
treatment of the environment have been funding a massive misinformation campaign on climate
change. Given that the Republican Party is the party where the almighty dollar trumps everything else
(including the future welfare of the planet for our children), the GOP has picked up on climate change as
a core issue they think can resonate with their masses. These efforts to provide misinformation have
been relatively successful leading people to believe there are two “sides” of the climate change
issue. And just as with those backing evolution, there have been efforts to introduce the “other side” of
climate change in our children’s classrooms. This type of corrupt economic, political, and social power
creates barriers which prevent sustainability education to be integrated into our school’s curriculum.
Another barrier to integrating sustainability into our education system is the implementation.
Sustainability education is a complex and evolving concept. Many scholars and practitioners have
invested years in trying to define sustainable development and envisioning how to achieve it on national
and local levels. Because sustainable development is hard to define and implement, it is also difficult to
teach. Even more challenging is the task of totally reorienting an entire education system to achieve
sustainability. When we examine other national education curriculums, we find they often have simple
messages. For example, math and history are simple, one dimension concepts compared to the complex
range of environmental, economic, and social issues that sustainable education encompasses. Success in
sustainability education will take much longer and be more costly than single message education
curriculum. The interdisciplinary challenges, deep rooted sociopolitical characteristics of sustainability,
and the economic entanglements make curriculum development challenging to create as well as difficult
to convey to the student body.