Teach for the Future - Sustainability Week
By:
Sustainability Week and the Teach for the Future workshops were a success.
Thanks to Poonam Dass and Fawzia Rahman who co-directed the Teach for the Future Workshops. All presenters worked hard and Fawzia and Poonam made sure that the workshops were well-prepared and everything ran smoothly. Special thanks to Kevin Kamal for his invaluable technological help.
Fracking: The Pros and Cons - Andrew Hoyos and Abby Ramdeo
Population 7 Billion - Pomeroy, Amires, Judge
Vanishing of the Bees - Victoria, Brandonlee, Chandanie, Melanie, Calvin
Composting – Fawzia, Poonam
Bullying – Stephanie, Alandra, Brielle, Leah
Somalia: A Humanitarian Crisis – Wardah Javid
The Sudan and Genocide: A Country in Turmoil – Ali, Jaskirat, Raphael, Kumar
Natural & Friendship: A Photography Exhibit – Mayisha and Alexander
Commercials and Brainwashing – Crystal, Sebastian, Shakilur
Watering System - Ms. Singhal and Students
Thanks to all the teachers who came up to the library and attended the students' workshops.
Sustainability Week
Students and teachers in all subject participated in Green Magnet Standards-based lessons. These standards are:
Inquiry
• Students explore and make meaning by
- · closely observing
- · formulating questions
- · analyzing systems
- · drawing conclusions
Sense of Place
Students develop connections to their every day environments by participating in authentic projects in their natural, cultural and social worlds.
• Literacy: Students explore how authors use landscape, how a landscape can shape the imagination, and how imaginations can shape a landscape.
• Social Studies: Students explore how geography shapes cultures and societies.
• Math: Students explore how place determines value.
• Science: Students investigate how natural laws and processes shape ecosystems and biomes.
• Art: Students create and share culture: music, dance, visual arts, theater, and literature, understanding that culture transmits meaning, and preserves and transforms societies.
Sustainability
Environment – Society – Economics – Personal Development
• Students explore how nature sustains life on earth.
- · Students use mathematics to describe nature’s and society’s systems.
- · Students in Social Studies connect the social, political, economic systems they study with their lives.
• Students explore ways to balance our personal development and human needs with nature's laws.
• Students investigate how to create comfortable lifestyles, so we sustain resources and culture for
future generations.
Activism
"Think Globally, Act Locally"
•Students research issues and determine actions that can make a difference.
•Students take actions that affect their local and global communities.
Careers
• Students connect classroom studies with future careers.
• Students investigate new, evolving careers.
Technology
• Students use technology to achieve academic, green living and career goals.
• Students use digital media to communicate individually and work collaboratively.
• Students investigate technology and what we trade-off when we use technology.
Sample ELA Unit:
Song of the Trees. Students read Mildred Taylor's book which is set during the Great Depression in Mississippi. In addition to exploring the characters' interdependence with nature, they studied the social/economic conditions of the time. The students did research re: the effects of deforestation upon our environment (science related theme..earth/ecosystem/sustainability/preservation of natural resources). The students were very engaged in this project and learned a great deal.