Guest Post #3: Learning, Teaching, and Working to Help the Environment: EA/UNCW Think-Care-Act Project Partnership.

Introduction:

Dr. Elizabeth O. Crawford and I met at the 2014 National Conference for Social Studies.  I presented a session, Change the World: Local and Global Think-Care-Act Projects, and Dr. Crawford, an education professor at University of North Carolina Wilmington, attended my session.  From our meeting arose our EA/UNCW Think-Care-Act Project Partnership. 

Through the 2014-15 school year, my current and former sixth and seventh grade students at The Episcopal Academy “taught” Dr. Crawford’s senior pre-service education majors how to think about personal qualities and talents, identify passions for social change, and act to change the world for the better.  Through Skype and shared project plans, my students and those of Dr. Crawford have inspired and encouraged each other to make a difference.  We are delighted and proud to share the TCAP work of our students, and we will present jointly at NCSS in November 2015.

For Dr. Crawford’s students, the culminating piece of the Think-Care-Act Projects was to write a guest blog post about their projects.  Below, and for the next few blog postings, you will read guest blogs from future teachers, with links for further research and teaching suggestions.  This one by Kassidy, Melissa, and Atina gives facts and strategies for helping the environment.  Happy reading and thinking, caring, and acting!—Sue Cannon

GUEST POST #3: Learning, Teaching, and Working
to Help the Environment

By Kassidy Wait, Melissa Cook, and Atina Guidetti

University of North Carolina Wilmington

We are Elementary Education majors at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. For our social studies methods course, we took part in Think-Care-Act Projects in which we chose to help the environment in some way. First, we gathered information, much as a classroom teacher and students might do when preparing to tackle environmental concerns.

Solid Waste Facts:
Did you know that every second, 12.5 pounds of waste is created in New Hanover County, North Carolina? The New Hanover County Department of Environmental Management oversees one of the State’s most advanced integrated solid waste disposal systems. The Department operates a variety of services which include a recycling drop-off collection system, a Household Hazardous Waste and electronic waste collection system, a RCRA Subtitle D landfill, Construction and Demolition Debris (C&D) diversion, and yard waste passive composting operations.  The resulting system minimizes the use of land resources consumed for burying the waste we generate, and minimizes the potential risks for contaminating the area’s delicate environment (Environmental Management, 2015).

Recycling Facts

Some facts to ponder...For every ton (2,000 pounds) of paper recycled, 17 trees are saved. It takes 90% less energy to recycle aluminum cans than making them from raw material. Everyday, U.S. papermakers recycle enough paper to fill a line of train boxcars 15 miles long.  If every individual repurposed their copy of a single edition of The New York Times, we could save 75,000 trees. The energy saved from recycling one glass bottle could operate a 100-watt light bulb for four hours. The mission of the recycling division is to reduce reliability on landfills and keep our coastal environment clean and safe for our future generations (Environmental Management, 2015). Recycling has numerous benefits, including protecting our water quality, reducing air pollution, saving needed landfill space, conserving natural resources, creating jobs, and providing industry with raw materials for new products. There are various drop-off sites located around New Hanover County. Visit the links below to learn more.

Pesticides, Plastics, and Pollution

The effect on our climate from pesticides, landfills and pollution is alarming. There are endangered animals like the honeybee. These insects pollinate much of our green life, including food-producing plants. If we keep altering our climate and continue to kill animal and plant species, the whole food chain will be altered. It is important we respect our environment and everything within it to maintain the balance on Earth.

Likewise, proper trash and waste disposal on beaches around the world has been an ongoing problem for many years. If this problem continues, marine life as well as plant life can be harmed and eventually depleted. According to recent research, approximately 8 million tons of plastic drifts into oceans around the world each year (Woodring, 2015). This waste does not include other garbage products such as paper, tin, aluminum, or metal. These waste products enter the ocean through drifting off of beaches, dropped from individuals on boats, carried by animals, or through other means such as factory pollution and runoff. Although trash enters the oceans from different sources, 80% of trash found in marine areas is from a land-based source (Woodring, 2015). When these products pollute the beach and ocean, animals and plants may be harmed. Animals may eat shiny objects and become entangled in items such as plastic rings. If the disposal of plastic and other debris continues, beach life may eventually deplete.

Plastics do not biodegrade, thus they only split into smaller fragments and drift into sandy areas (Vartan, 2014). Beaches could turn into piles of microplastics rather than miles of white sand. An organization known as the Plastic Bank strives to make plastic economically desirable so that individuals will be less likely to discard this product on locations such as beaches (Vartan, 2014). If all individuals work together to stop the disposal of plastics and other debris on beaches, many animals and plants could be saved.

Teaching for Environmental Action

Teachers can take action to encourage their students about this topic (and many others) to help them change the world. The first step of encouraging students to take action is educating them about the topic. If students do not understand the seriousness of the effects that we all have on the environment, it will be difficult for them to develop a personal interest in the matter, thus they will have no intrinsic motivation to help the earth. If the teacher introduces his or her students to a plethora of different topics, it is likely that the student(s) will find at least one area in which he or she is motivated to make a difference. From reusing and recycling to organizing community clean-ups, there are plenty of ways opportunities for students to get involved in helping the environment. Teachers can also encourage their students to take action by connecting them to a wide array of sources related to their topic, organizations at which they can volunteer or with whom they can connect, and providing them with further research videos or articles.

If each individual was educated about the damage humans have on the Earth, they may take action to protect the living things within our world. We can begin by using less. By recycling, gardening and composting, people can reduce the amount of waste in which they are contributing to the landfills. On earthsfriends.com, there are many ideas on how people can change the way they live their everyday lives to enrich their lives and all the lives around them: human and non-human.

Our Action Plans

We each took a slightly different route with our Think-Care-Act projects, but we all chose to engage in activities that benefitted our local environment; Kassidy chose to reduce her waste, Melissa chose to organize a beach sweep, and Atina chose to compost and reuse many materials. We took the pictures in this blog post while completing our projects.  Overall, we had an amazing time completing these projects, and we look forward to using this idea in our future classroom.

-- by Kassidy Wait, Melissa Cook, and Atina Guidetti, 2015

RESOURCES and REFERENCES: 

• http://www.earthsfriends.com/
• Environmental Management | New Hanover County | North Carolina. (n.d.). Retrieved May 1, 2015, from: http://recycling.nhcgov.com/ 
• and http://recycling.nhcgov.com/services/recycling
• United States Environmental Protection Agency (2012). More information on marine debris. Water: Marine Debris. Retrieved from http://water.epa.gov/type/oceb/marinedebris/moreinfo.cfm 
• Vartan, S. (2014). How to solve the plastic pollution problem and poverty at the same time. Huff Post Green. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/26/plastic-pollution-plastic-bank_n_5213132.html. 

For more about how to do Think-Care-Act Projects with students: Read Sue Cannon's blog: http://thinkcareact.blogspot.com/2014/11/change-world-local-global-think-care.html

Guest Post #2: Project(ing) Kindness ~ A Think-Care-Act Experience, part of the EA/UNCW Think-Care-Act Project Partnership

Introduction:

Dr. Elizabeth O. Crawford and I met at the 2014 National Conference for Social Studies.  I presented a session, Change the World: Local and Global Think-Care-Act Projects, and Dr. Crawford, an education professor at University of North Carolina Wilmington, attended my session.  From our meeting arose our EA/UNCW Think-Care-Act Project Partnership. 

Through the 2014-15 school year, my current and former sixth and seventh grade students at The Episcopal Academy “taught” Dr. Crawford’s senior pre-service education majors how to think about personal qualities and talents, identify passions for social change, and act to change the world for the better.  Through Skype and shared project plans, my students and those of Dr. Crawford have inspired and encouraged each other to make a difference.  We are delighted and proud to share the TCAP work of our students, and we will present jointly at NCSS in November 2015.

For Dr. Crawford’s students, the culminating piece of the Think-Care-Act Projects was to write a guest blog post about their projects.  Below, and for the next few blog postings, you will read guest blogs from future teachers, with links for further research.  This one, by Chelsey Scott, involves project(ing) kindness.  Happy reading and thinking, caring, and acting!
—Sue Cannon

Guest Post by Chelsey Scott
University of North Carolina Wilmington

Project(ing) Kindness

A Think, Care, Act Experience

Does size matter? Everyone is familiar with the age-old argument, and everyone has an opinion about it. What determines the validity of those opinions (and the appropriateness of this introduction) is simple: context. Size matters when I’m deciding what iPhone to buy next. Size matters when I’m ordering a coffee at Starbucks, especially if I only have $3.00 to spend. However, size doesn’t always matter. When I see a spider on the wall, I don’t adjust my screams based on how large it is.  Jerry is just a little mouse, but he still got past most of Tom’s antics and came out victorious. What about when someone offers a passing smile or leaves flowers on your desk? When it comes to kindness, does size matter ?

While studying peace and conflict as a Social Studies concept, I wondered why something so inherently simple was made complicated. I decided to focus my Think-Care-Act Project on peace-building.  I spent a few months researching kindness: what constitutes it, what are the causes and effects, how does it impact those involved? I found that there were endless studies corroborating the Greek proverb that kindness begets kindness. One particular study showed how people change or adapt their behavior based on what they observe others doing. The researchers observed that people gave more when they saw others doing so and showed more kindness when someone was kind to them (Fowler and Christakis, 2010).

There are and always have been civil unrest, war, violence, and hate to some degree. Peace is often thought of in a hopeful, but unrealistic manner. On the other hand, conflict is widely accepted as a part of life. While conflict may never be eradicated, peace should not be part of a dream; it should be a reality for all of humanity because people have an inherent right to feel content—at peace. I believe that this begins on an individual level. In the words of Martin Kornfeld, “If we all do one random act of kindness daily, we just might set the world in the right direction” (Kornfeld, n.d.).

Random Acts of Kindness Foundation & RAKtivism

Though not attributed to one person, the term ‘random act of kindness’ was popularized in recent years and has led to the establishment of various organizations. The Random Acts of Kindness Foundation is a nonprofit with the mission of inspiring people in all walks of life to practice kindness and pass it along. The organization coined the term RAKtivism as part of their movement and recruits individuals, called RAKtivists, to submit a short application and become part of the change ("About the Random Acts of Kindness Foundation," 2015). They describe RAKtivists as, “the Foundation’s activists. RAKtivists believe that kindness can change the world and exemplify that in their day-to-day lives. The RAKtivist program recognizes these individuals and creates a community for kindness to flourish” (“What are RAKtivists - Frequently Asked Questions,” 2015). I just could not surpass the opportunity to call myself a RAKtivist (that’s basically a superhero name), so I applied.

Less than a week after submitting my application, I was congratulated by the RAK team and had my name added to the list of over 2000 others who want to spread happiness. I also had my picture and quote from my application added to their website, which I wish I had known before submitting a selfie from two years ago. Regardless, my mission had officially begun. So began my journey to live up to my new title - RAKtivists unite!

Being Aware of Opportunities to Commit RAKs

I should also mention that my goal to commit random acts of kindness had a few challenges. First, I had a budget of $0.00, so none of my kindnesses could involve buying or paying for anything. It is not that I didn’t want to spend any money. It’s that the $0.00 budget actually meant a $0.00 checking account balance because I’m a college student. The other challenge - I had no social media accounts (yes, really). My opportunity to commit RAKs counted on being aware of my surroundings at all times. I had to take advantage of any opportunity to be kind that I came across in my daily activities. It turned out, these opportunities were everywhere.

Fast forward a month or so, I now had a list of various kind acts that I had done. Though small, I hoped that they had a meaningful impact on others. Some examples of what I did (and what you can do, too!):

·      take out a neighbor’s recycling or trash

·      help an elderly person carry bags

·      hold the door for someone

·      give a word of encouragement or a random compliment

·      share with someone (food, pens, things you don’t need, etc.)

This is just the beginning of an infinite list of ways to be kind to someone. Most of these require so little effort, yet make such an impact on those we are kind to. Speaking to an audience of educators, we all know the value of a little kindness. Establishing a peaceful environment gives everyone in the room a sense of security and encourages positive behavior.

Research Proves that Kindness begets Kindness

The RAK foundation teamed up with Spark Policy Institute to implement a school-based two-year pilot program. The evaluation showed that establishing a school-wide kindness initiative made noticeable changes in all areas of the school day. The pilot’s published research report includes multiple evidences to show this. On student impact: “Students and teachers identified improvements in classroom culture and more inclusive behavior” (Lawson, Moore, Portman-Marsh, & Lynn, 2013, p. 3). On academics: “Teachers linked RAK lessons with students’ increased confidence and positivity, which led to better academic performance” (Lawson, Moore, Portman-Marsh, & Lynn, 2013, p. 3). On school climate, a teacher noticed that: “Students have an awareness of kindness being global, not just in the classroom, but at home too” (Lawson, Moore, Portman-Marsh, & Lynn, 2013, p. 3).

So, let’s recap:

•  Size might matter sometimes, but not when it comes to kindness. Even the smallest RAK makes a difference.

•  Research proves that kindness begets kindness, so one person’s RAK can elicit hundreds more.

•  Opportunities to be kind are always around us and RAK’s do not necessarily require money or resources.

•  While everyone has a chance to make a difference, educators can make kindness an everyday part of students’ lives. Peace building can (and should) be integrated into all facets of the classroom; the best way for students to learn is through experience.

Imagine the global impact this could make if everyone got on board. As educators, future generations of citizens come through our classroom doors every day. We have the potential to impact students’ understanding of peace and show them what it means to be a part of change.  Coming soon: world peace!
--by Chelsey Scott, 2015

Teaching Resources

• RAK Lesson Plans: Contains a variety of lessons to teach and incorporate kindness into any K-12 classroom. There are also project ideas and other materials, all free of charge. Check out the rest of the website to read studies and research on kindness, get updates on their pilot program, and more! https://www.randomactsofkindness.org/lesson-plans-pilot-program
• National Peace Academy Lesson Plans: The National Peace Academy published a series of lessons for elementary teachers on understanding and promoting peace. There are eight complete, downloadable lesson plans, all based around the NPA's "5 Spheres of Peace" Framework. Each of the lessons contains objectives, leading questions, and a step-by-step activity guide. http://nationalpeaceacademy.us/edresources/study-guide/childrens-curriculum/
• Become a RAKtivist: Read about how to become a part of the RAKtivism movement, see who else is joining, and submit your own application! Students can apply as well. Joining will give you access to monthly newsletters with recommended RAKs based on holidays and events that other RAKtivists will be doing as well. The team encourages people to document their kindnesses to be shared on their blog.   https://www.randomactsofkindness.org/raktivists
• The Kind Campaign: This non-profit organization includes an international movement, documentary, and school-based program, all with a purpose of replacing bullying with kindness among students. Specifically geared towards girls, the organization offers various resources for teaching students what it means to be a kind peer, friend, and person. https://www.kindcampaign.com
• For more about how to do Think-Care-Act Projects with students, read Sue Cannon's blog: http://thinkcareact.blogspot.com/2014/11/change-world-local-global-think-care.html

References

About the Random Acts of Kindness Foundation. (2015). Retrieved from https://www.randomactsofkindness.org/about-us

Fowler, J. H., & Christakis, N. A. (2010). Cooperative behavior cascades in human social networks. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 107(10).

Lawson, A., Moore, R., Portman-Marsh, N., & Lynn, J. (2013). RAK School Based Pilot Implementation: Year Two Evaluation Report Executive Summary. Retrieved from Spark Policy Institue website: http://rak-materials.s3.amazonaws.com/reports/RAK_Final_EOY_Executive_Summary.docx

What are RAKtivists - Frequently Asked Questions. (2015). Retrieved from https://www.randomactsofkindness.org/frequently-asked-questions