Students will understand that . . .
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Lesson One - Introduction to Consumer Habits |
Lesson 1:
Human behavior can be changed to promote responsible consumption and reduce potential negative consequences to the environment. |
Lesson one introduces students to consumerism. Students are invited to enhance their personal awareness of potential consequences to consumer habits. McDonald's© Happy Meals© are used as a vehicle for the students to analyze opportunity cost of food and packaging. Authentic materials are used throughout the lesson - McDonald's© commercial, images, and actual Happy Meals© are examined by students. Students explore personal changes that can be made in order to reduce potential negative consequences.
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Lesson 2:
Producing food for our society requires a large amount of manpower and time. The production and distribution of food consumes and degrades renewable and non-renewable natural resources. |
Lesson two gets students to think broader about where their school lunch comes. Students are challenged to examine their school lunch choices and what motivates them to eat or not each a school lunch item. Through a class investigation of a school hamburger students discover the many resources that are used for one item to go from farm to their spork. Students also learn the lengthy process it takes to make that one lunch item edible. Through this lesson students can explain why consumption and production are interdependent. Students explore potential lunchroom changes to that could be implemented to reduce the amount of food lunch in their cafeteria.
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Lesson Three - The True Cost of Packaging |
Lesson 3:
The true cost of producing packaging materials lies not only in finances, but in the deterioration of the environment, and of human and animal health. |
Lesson three challenges students to look at the “true cost” of packaging. The “true cost” is determined by looking at the benefits and shortcomings of producing each material in regards to natural resource extraction, monetary costs, environmental costs, and human and animal health. The materials introduced in this lesson (plastic, aluminum, and paper) are typically used for packaging. Students will be continuously be challenged to develop a deeper understanding of the “true cost”. Students will made educated determinations of the least detrimental material to be used in
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Lesson Four - Let's Talk Trash |
Lesson 4:
Waste disposal effects the environment, and human and animal wellbeing in order to identify the interrelationship between the three. |
Lessons four through six build on the previous lessons using learned knowledge about consumerism, production, and natural resource use. Throughout lesson three students are invited to explore the world of trash and answer the question: What really happens to the stuff you throw away? Students follow the journey of refuse - to landfill, recycling center, and waterways. Common disposal practiced are examined and innovative solutions are introduced. Students learn about the environmentally harmful byproducts of both man-made materials and food waste. The impact of these byproducts are explored, illuminating the grave effects they have on the environment, and on animal and human health and wellbeing.
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Lesson Five - The Four Rs |
Lesson 5:
Personal sustainable choices can be made in order to reduce the amount of waste that enters landfills. |
Students continue to learn about the impacts of waste and begin to explore how to make personal, sustainably sound decisions when in regards to their own waste. Students are invited to learn how to employ the for R's (refuse, reduce, reuse, and recycle) in their every day lives. During this lesson recycling is put into action when students sort their own lunch waste into landfill and recycling.
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Lesson Six - What About the Food? |
Lesson 6:
All citizens have a civic responsibility to ensure sustainable waste disposal in order to protect and conserve natural resources. |
Lesson six wraps up the instruction on waste disposal. This lesson specifically focuses on food waste. Students will learn about the implication of food waste in the detriment of our environment. The roles of producers, distributors, and consumers will be linked in order to understand where food loss occurs. Local resources for food waste prevention will be researched. Students will again sort their lunch tray, this time taking it step further by also sorting scraps to be composted.
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Lesson Seven - Refixin' Our Fixin's |
Lesson 7:
In order to create essential societal contributions, citizens must unify with community resources to raise awareness and put change into action. |
In the final lesson of this unit, students will become solutionaries for their school cafeteria. Four solutionary groups will be set up to create solutions: How to reduce food waste, what to do with food waste, why and how to care about packaging and one-time-use items, and what to do with non-cosumable waste. Students will complete their group plan of action: Identify the problem, research, reach out, raise awareness and put their plan into action.
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