Grade Level: High School
Guiding Question: What's environmental about food?
"We can't deny that suffering is part of eating, for all of us. Even if we don't consume flesh, we can't look away from the implications our actions have in the pursuit of this death. Vegetarians who purchase meat substitute products are simply eating a different product made by multinational corporations that also raise and kill livestock. Even produce sold at alternative grocery stores is often picked by underpaid workers in near-slave-labor conditions. Even a small-scale, organic, family-owned vegetable farm, using natural pest control methods kills insects and worms. If we acknowledge we are part of the web of life, we must also acknowledge that any action we take to feed ourselves is inherently disruptive of that web. To look away is, I think, to abdicate responsibility. Ignoring the death of the buffalo is to ignore our own death, to forget that we are still animals, caught in the intricate web of survival, a complex dance about the quality of an animal's life, the conditions and dignity of a death."-Marissa Landrigan, "Elk Country" from Orion Magazine
Today, I asked students to come up with discussion questions, and we talked all class period about the structure and content of Landrigan's essay. We discussed her use of research an non-linear structure and pondered the different ways food writing can be environmental.
Learning in Place
Friday, December 13, 2013
Thursday, December 12, 2013
Environmental Literature: Unit 2-American Eaters (Farmers, Hunters, and Thinkers)
“Eating is an agricultural act”-Wendall Berry, "The Pleasures of Eating"
Readings:
Week 1: December 9-13th
Thursday
-“Elk Country”
by Marissa Landrigan, from Orion Magazine
Week 2: December 16th-20th
Tuesday
- from “A Sand County Almanac”
by Aldo Leopold (to be followed with the film Green Fire about Leopold’s life)
Thursday
-Taylor’s choice!
Week 3: December 30th-January 3rd
Thursday
-Food poetry part
I: to be passed out in class
Week 4: January 6th-10th
Tuesday
-"Consider the lobster" by David Foster Wallace
Thursday
-Food poetry part II: to be passed out in class
Environmental Literature--our last day of wandering
Grade Level: High School
Objective: To finish our unit on American "wanderers" with a podcast and a discussion of the different places and people we've "wandered" with so far this semester.
"The last night I spent on the road, I was camped out in the forest 20 miles from the ocean. I set up the tent for the last time. And I ate my last dinner from the food bag. There were cars passing me on the road. And I had this thought, if I were in one of those cars right now looking into this dark forest, I'd probably think it was a scary place. But I'm in the forest. And I know it's not a scary place." -Andrew Forsthoefel, This American Life
Today we:
-Discussed the scope of our first unit, and the similarities and differences between the writers we've encountered
-Listened to the first segment of This American Life 494: "Hit the Road" about Andrew Forsthoefel and his walk across America
-Talked about Andrew's walk in the context of environmental writers we've read so far this semester, addressed the questions: What does it mean to wander in an urban environment? What does it mean to wander with other people?
-Began reading Marissa Landrigan's essay "Elk Country" for our upcoming unit on "Eaters"
Objective: To finish our unit on American "wanderers" with a podcast and a discussion of the different places and people we've "wandered" with so far this semester.
"The last night I spent on the road, I was camped out in the forest 20 miles from the ocean. I set up the tent for the last time. And I ate my last dinner from the food bag. There were cars passing me on the road. And I had this thought, if I were in one of those cars right now looking into this dark forest, I'd probably think it was a scary place. But I'm in the forest. And I know it's not a scary place." -Andrew Forsthoefel, This American Life
Today we:
-Discussed the scope of our first unit, and the similarities and differences between the writers we've encountered
-Listened to the first segment of This American Life 494: "Hit the Road" about Andrew Forsthoefel and his walk across America
-Talked about Andrew's walk in the context of environmental writers we've read so far this semester, addressed the questions: What does it mean to wander in an urban environment? What does it mean to wander with other people?
-Began reading Marissa Landrigan's essay "Elk Country" for our upcoming unit on "Eaters"
Ornothology
Grade: Elementary
Objective: To learn what distinguishes birds from the rest of the animal kingdom and to practice grouping and observing like scientists.
Objective: To learn what distinguishes birds from the rest of the animal kingdom and to practice grouping and observing like scientists.
Wednesday, December 11, 2013
Tuesday, December 10, 2013
Practicing the scientific method
Grade: Elementary
Objective: To practice using the scientific method, using Bill Nye's "Do-it-Yourself" science and a number of experiments.
Experiment #1: Does air have pressure?
1-Fill a glass of water
2-Cut out a piece of paper or cardboard slightly bigger than the base of the cup
3-Flip the cup of water onto the cardboard, then flip it back over and release the cardboard
What happens? The water doesn't spill
Why? The air pressure in the room pushes the cardboard up against the glass
Objective: To practice using the scientific method, using Bill Nye's "Do-it-Yourself" science and a number of experiments.
Scientific
Method:
1-Ask a question
2-Do
background research
3-Construct a
hypothesis
4-Test your
hypothesis by doing an experiment
5-Analyze
your data and draw a conclusion
6-Communicate
your results
Experiment #1: Does air have pressure?
1-Fill a glass of water
2-Cut out a piece of paper or cardboard slightly bigger than the base of the cup
3-Flip the cup of water onto the cardboard, then flip it back over and release the cardboard
What happens? The water doesn't spill
Why? The air pressure in the room pushes the cardboard up against the glass
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