Teacher Process
Anticipatory Set: The students will familiarize themselves with global warming by watching a brief National Geographic Video Clip which lasts 3 minutes and 4 seconds.
Parent/Guardian Interview: The students will need to ask their parents or guardians the following questions before attempting to calculate their Ecological Footprints. These questions include:
1. How often does our family eat animal based products? Can you rate our consumption on a scale ranging from daily to never?
2. Do we eat processed food more often than locally-produced fresh food?
3. How much waste do you think we create as compared to the average American?
4. Is our home a single family free-standing unit, a duplex, or an apartment building? Do we have electricity?
5. How big is our home, as measured in square feet?
6. About how many miles do I travel each week in a car?
7. What is the Miles Per Gallon rating of our vehicle?
8. How many miles per week do I travel using public transportation?
9. About how many hours do I spend on an airplane each year, if any?
Model: Although this webquest is designed to be completed independently, the teacher may want to model a completed Ecological Footprint by accessing a previously created profile and using guided practice to demonstrate how to determine your own Ecological Footprint. This would also be a good time to introduce the definition and components of an Ecological Footprint.
Calculate Footprints: Once the students have completed this interview, they
are ready to determine their Ecological Footprints. They can access the site by clicking Ecological Footprint. They will start the process by clicking on North America on the map, then
creating an avatar. If this is an at-home assignment, you may want to encourage students to complete it with their parent or guardian so that they can enter detailed
information. Otherwise, they can enter the basic information found in the top
half of the window.
Remember to encourage students to save their Footprints!
The results will help students to understand that an Ecological Footprint shows them what they are doing in their daily life to impact the health of the planet.
Differentiated Journal Activity: To demonstrate their newfound knowledge, the students will complete a (online?) journal entry about their ecological footprint. This will be an independent practice activity. The entry must include the number of planets it would take to support a lifestyle like theirs worldwide. It must also communicate at least three behaviors that the students could change in order to lessen their environmental impact. Students may choose to depict this information in a series of labeled pictures, a poem, or a traditional written format. (15-20 Minutes)
The teacher may also wish to model the activities on the Natural Resources Defense Council website.
For example, the teacher will click on the exhaust billowing out of the diesel school bus to discover information about the negative effects of diesel engine exhaust on the school’s air quality. The teacher will then click on the “quick tip” link to discover one thing students can do to make the diesel exhaust have less of an impact. The teacher will then click on the “go to factsheet” link at the bottom of the window to teach the students how to access the scientific information about how the exhaust is affecting the school. The teacher will also point out that this link also contains suggestions about things students can do to make the air quality better around the school. The teacher will explain that this is the information the students will want to access in order to complete their final project.