April 22, 2010 is the 40th annual Earth Day celebration. Whether you teach about global warming and climate change or are just looking for a way to commemorate this anniversary with your students or children, here are 10 starting points, which we’ll update as more Times resources become available.
How will you celebrate it in your home or classroom? Tell us here.
Reflect on the Past – What do you know about Earth Day? Test your knowledge with our Student Crossword, or quiz others by using the events in a new New York Times interactive timeline that details 70 years of environmental milestones, from protecting the Bald Eagle through the Clean Air Act, Chernobyl, Exxon Valdez, the Kyoto Protocol and the Copenhagen Climate Talks. Teachers, you might list the events on the board and have your students try to put them in chronological order first, then show them the graphic.
You might also reflect on the evolution of Earth Day over the past 40 years. Start with the inaugural event in 1970, when the “commitment to make life better” was its driving force. How had public attitudes and environmental concerns changed by the time Earth Day hit 20 and “shed its humble roots”? How has going global shifted its focus? How has it changed since students’ birth year? And how has “green” turned into big business 40 years later? Do you think this is a positive or negative thing? Why?
Hold a Debate – Read an in-depth Times Magazine or other Times article on a “green” issue, such as Nobel Prize-winning economist and Times columnist Paul Krugman’s piece “Building a Green Economy” or Jon Gertner’s “Why Isn’t the Brain Green?”. Then hold a classroom debate on the issues in the article. For example, readers of Krugman’s piece might debate whether addressing climate change is good or bad for the economy. To prepare, use one of our graphic organizers to promote understanding and analysis.
Go Paperless – Check out the Teach Paperless blog’s challenge to teachers to “go paperless” for Earth Day and find out how debate teams around the country are trying to reduce their use of paper. Did you sign the pledge? Why or why not? Have the class track and tally its use of paper over the course of one week, and then find ways to reduce paper use or even “go paperless” in the classroom.
Answer our Student Opinion question What Are You Doing for Earth Day?. How do your attitudes and beliefs about the environment compare with those of Earth Day celebrants of years past? Looking ahead, what’s your mission for future Earth Days?
Plant a Tree – Sometimes a simple idea is best. Reflect on the beauty, classification and value of trees with Olivia Judson’s Opinionator blog post “Tree-mendous” and our related lesson plan. Then plant a tree to commemorate Earth Day and/or Arbor Day.
Update | April, 2011: A reader wrote to us with an Arbor-Day-themed lesson idea about “Trees and Transcendentalists,” that incorporates a fun Times video as well as poetry and writing from Robert Frost, Edna St. Vincent Millay and Ray Bradbury to support student understanding of nature.
Design an Invention – From literally reinventing the wheel to finding quick solutions for recharging electric cars to developing EcoTVs and “water batteries” for trees, people have been finding new technologies and gadgets to increase energy efficiency and decrease our carbon footprint. What green invention ideas do you have? Students might focus on realistic creations, such as green roofs (from Thinkfinity’s Earth Day resources), or they might let their imaginations run wild. Hold a “Green Convention” to share and present ideas.
Look to Literature – Watch the documentary “Walden: The Ballad of Thoreau,” aired on public television on Earth Day 2009 in cooperation with the Earth Day Network. Then use our lesson plan on the role of place in writers’ lives to further explore how living at Walden Pond affected Thoreau’s ideas and writing. You might also assign other related nonfiction works, such as Rachel Carson’s “Silent Spring” or Elizabeth Kolbert’s “Field Notes From a Catastrophe,” and/or poems about experience in the nature. As an alternative, students might consider how they interact with the environment and with nature in their daily lives and think about how an experience like Thoreau’s might affect them.
Reduce Your Carbon Footprint – How and why can you live a “greener” life? What is your carbon footprint? Calculate it and then use one of our lesson plans to find out what you can do to reduce your personal carbon footprint, like this one on changing wasteful habits. Or examine carbon footprints on a larger scale with these lesson plans on energy conservation in your school and in your town. To consider how “green” your home is, see this lesson plan and check out the Room for Debate blog post “How Green is My House?” and the Home Green Home series. Students might talk to parents about ways to make their homes more energy efficient. Or, you might also focus on food, such as the merits of (and hype about) organic food and locally grown food, or the energy costs of producing a common food item, such as a half-gallon carton of orange juice or beef products.
Update | April, 2011: Consider the question How Green Is My School? by conducting an energy audit and developing proposals for making schools more energy efficient.
Consider the Politics – Our lesson Let’s Talk About It: Discussing the Science and Politics of Global Warming is a guide to raising the political issues surrounding global warming. Other related resources include Leslie Kaufman’s article “Darwin Foes Add Warming to Targets” and Elisabeth Rosenthal’s “Skeptics Find Fault With U.N. Climate Panel.” You might also take a look at Andrew C. Revkin’s Dot Earth blog post “The Classroom as Science Hot Zone.” Why is climate change hotly debated? Where do you stand? Why?
Examine Energy and Pollution – The Energy & Environment page of the Business section collects Times coverage on various types of energy and related environmental issues, and more coverage is provided by the Green Inc. blog. For example, the award-winning series Toxic Waters examines the role some businesses and utilities have played in contributing to pollution. And there’s a wealth of coverage on such topics as oil, coal and biofuels. Choose one topic and drill down; student groups might do research on various topics and then hold a class symposium on energy issues and the environment. For example, you might find out which countries consume and produce the most oil around the world and draw comparisons between producers and consumers.
Update: The April 22, 2010 “Business of Green” special section explores nuclear power, asking “Is this the long-awaited renaissance of the nuclear construction business, after years of being moribund?”
Track Government Policy – What are the Obama administration’s policies on global warming? Where do other governments stand? What was the outcome of the December 2009 global climate talks in Copenhagen? Watch and discuss President Obama’s speech at the 2009 G8 meeting, in which he announced concrete goals for reducing carbon emissions by 2050. Then visit the White House’s Web site on Energy and the Environment or the National Renewable Energy Laboratory site to find out what America is doing to meet those goals. Students can look at the Living Story page on The Politics of Global Warming, discontinued in February 2010, and update it themselves with the latest information or create their own wiki page on the government’s environmental policies.
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