Teach the Change you want to see in the world

In a few short weeks, I will begin my 7^th year as a classroom science teacher. This journey has taken me from East Oakland, to the Bayview, to the rapidly changing Excelsior District of SF where I now live and work. When I look around at the gargantuan challenges facing our global civilization, it is easy to feel small and hopelessly outgunned. The technological, political, and economic changes our world has experience in the last century are profound.
There have been technological changes. In the past two centuries, we've seen communication technology go from this: 

 to this

"Nice little gizmo you got there, but I bet it's not faster than ma horse." 

Billy bob lost this bet. He also lost a career. And the world eventually gained emoticons. Plenty of other changes; we saw transportation go from this:

 to....

this:

and cutting edge technology development go from this: 

 To this

Unless you teach inner city public school science, in which case your supply closet may still include Hygrometers. 

In short, the changes in human civilization have been breath-taking. And they have been mirrored by tremendous changes to the planet. 

At the heart of it, there is this change:

Which is really the big one. When combined with some of the technological and consumption changes it has created oddly similar graphs such as: 

And...

In case, that last graph is unclear, it shows the rise of extinctions in the past centuries, to the point where we are right now, with thousands of species going extinct each year, at a rate much, much, much higher than what it usually is. We are in the sixth mass extinction are planet has seen since there were animals on it, and generally, large creatures (like us) don't do well when the planet changes and this many different types of things start dying. 

As Thurgood says in Half Baked: "We're in a whole lot of trouble guys." 

And while most people get that abstract idea, feeling it at the level of continued urgency it warrants is difficult. Feeling it and doing something productive (not just panicking) is even harder. 

The Following Course I am teaching this year is my most recent attempt to follow the "Better to Light a Single Candle than Curse the Darkness" philosophy:

Environmental Problems, Politics and Solutions:

Coming of Age in a Time of Peril

            This course is envisioned as an advanced upper level course. Think of it as a future-looking, interdisciplinary course that will be a bridge between the two AP courses that all our students take. It will be open to juniors and seniors.

            This course will be a solid addition for college going students because a) it will have a high level of daily reading that is expected, assessed and required, b) it is a precursor to many college courses that span disciplines, and c) ecological system knowledge is likely to be an ever more important piece of economies of the future.

           

            Four Over Arching Units: Each unit will last about 2 months; together they will provide a comprehensive approach to solving some very complex problems.

            Scale of the Problem:

            This unit will cover both scientific and political limitations on current action. It will begin with some of the large scale issues that are endangering our world today: drought, food shortages, rising oil prices and increasing scarcity, increased desertification, ocean acidification and global warming. This unit is heavy on both science (of the above issues) and history (looking at how many past civilizations rose or fell based on environmental factors). This unit is daunting.

            Environmental Heroes:

            This unit is an answer to the previous one. It highlights the efforts of individuals and communities around the globe to protect the health of their communities and the strength of natural systems. Recently, Luis and I attended a ceremony honoring this year’s winners of the Goldman prize. This struck me as a powerful way to simultaneously teach global awareness, community organizing and environmental activism. Each individual’s story will last a week, and will give students a chance to look at: a) a particular global region, b) a localized problem that harms that region, and c) how individuals organized themselves to successfully address that problem. Luis’s mother and I spoke about the possibility of partnering with that organization (http://www.goldmanprize.org/ ) which would be a huge win for the school. Even if we don’t, their awardees present a wonderful way to organize a unit.  This unit is inspiring.

            Legal and Political Systems:

            This unit focuses on the national and international law making systems, how they were created and what they respond to. It is great for students considering law or politics as a career.  This unit will involve numerous classroom debates, in which students will take sides of a particular issue and look at how the side they are representing could work to use the legal and political systems to advance their goals.

            Avenues of Action:

            This unit is cumulative. It gives students much more freedom to use the knowledge they have gained to create their own project that will put into action what they have learned.

The course will also be heavily focused on partnerships, with considerable emphasis put on bringing outside experts into the classroom, encouraging students applying to scholarships, study abroad programs extracurricular opportunities, etc.

Should be an interesting year.