Role Models #2: Wangari Maathai

Lesson Overview:

In this lesson, students learn about Wangari Maathai, an environmental scientist, activist, and Nobel Prize Laureate.  Wangari Maathai began the Green Belt Movement that has, over time, led to the reforestation of large parts of Africa, especially her native Kenya.  Be inspired by Wangari Maathai and then plant your own trees, either inside or outside, depending on the season and your school’s own resources.

Lesson Plan:

Suggested Grades:

2-4 

Objective:

To understand the life and work of Wangari Maathai, the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize.  To plant a tree or trees in honor of Dr. Wangari’s work.  Finally, as a class, to generate a list of questions about Wangari Maathai that could be used to guide further research.  (AASL 1.1.3, “Develop and refine a range of questions to frame the search for new understanding.”)

Suggested Time:

35-45 minutes

Success Criteria:

Each child will listen to one biography of Wangari Maathai’s life and work.  Then, children will either create an indoor tree in Dr. Maathai’s honor or will help plant a tree in the community.

Lesson Outline:

1. Introduction:

Remind children that in this Unit of Inquiry they are learning about role models.  Ask what they have learned about role models so far.  What is a role model?   Who can be a role model?  What kinds of things does a role model do?  (Answers might include:  Work hard, persist, use creativity, innovate, take calculated risks, challenge conventions, take action, etc.)

Explain that today you would like to introduce the children to a woman who did something remarkable for the earth.  She was born in Kenya, an African country, but she also studied and worked in North America and in Europe before returning to Africa and becoming a great scientific and political leader.  Listen carefully and decide whether you believe she is a role model.

2. Main:

Teach one of the picture book biographies about Wangari Maathai.  Jeanette Winter’s book is relatively short.  That works well because the text and pictures will generate a lot of questions and discussion.

When the children have a question about Wangari or her work, have them write it down on a slip of paper to create a “Wonder Wall.”  They can then use the texts and, through personal inquiry, find answers to their questions.

Once you have covered as many of the texts and generated as many questions as you can, show the children this short video clip.  In it, Wangari Maathai describes herself as a “child of the soil.”

Wangari Maathai Video – Planting Trees is Planting Hope: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNkDhNRKYic

Next, have the kids take some action.  In my lessons, I have students do a Skype interview with a tree farmer.  However, the tree farmer was a personal contact.  I’ve just checked “Skype in the Classroom” and at the time of this lesson plan, there were no tree farmers registered.  If you can find a tree farmer, it would be excellent if he or she could come and participate with this lesson.

Another possible action is to “grow” an indoor tree.  We grow a tree in our library or in one of the elementary corridors every year, and the children love it!  A bit of paper, creativity, and a few well-placed staples go a long way towards beautifying your indoor spaces.  (See attached photo.)

The best idea, of course, is to coordinate with the school gardener, a local nursery, or a local environmental group to have children plant real trees.  This would require another lesson and some more advanced planning, but it is the most natural extension to today’s lesson.  In Dubai, there is no chance to plant trees because the climate is too extreme.  However, other locations should have better opportunities.

3. Conclusion:

Ask the children to revisit the lesson’s main question: Is Wangari Maathai a role model?  Why or why not?  Ask them to explain their thinking and tie to ideas that the homeroom teacher is using in the classroom.

Send the prepared picture of Wangari Maathai to the classroom with the children as a reminder of what they have learned today.

Resources:
  1. Video of Wangari Maathai talking about the Green Belt Movement, found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNkDhNRKYic
  2. National Forest Service’s website for children, found here: https://www.discovertheforest.org/
  3. Planting the Trees of Kenya: The Story of Wangari Maathai by Claire A Nivola.
  4. Wangari’s Trees of Peace: A True Story from Africa by Jeanette Winter.
  5. Mama Miti: Wangari Maathai and the Trees of Kenya by Donna Jo Napoli, illustrated by Kadir Nelson.
  6. Environmental Activist Wangari Maathai by Jennifer Swanson.
  7. Photograph of Wangari Maathai, mounted on backing paper, to send to class with the children after the lesson.

For Building the Indoor Tree:  (See attached photo.)

  1. Twisted brown paper, or twisted newspaper, painted brown, and sculpted into a tree.
  2. Leaves made of paper. Make a few for the children to use as a template.  Photocopy the template, then the children can cut out and decorate the leaves.
  3. Tape, staples, or twine for securing the crafted tree in place.

For Planting Trees Outdoors:  Coordinate locally with a nursery, school gardener, or environmental organization.

Notes:

This is a lesson that can change children’s lives.  I’ve used Wangari Maathai’s story in the Role Model Unit of Inquiry, but of course you can also use it in any lesson on the environment, habitats and ecosystems, and living vs nonliving things.  One year, we taught the concept of the Green Man and had children make Green Men masks.  There really are an endless number of ways to adapt the material, so be sure to weave the story of Wangari Maathai into one of your Units of Inquiry.

Recommended books for this lesson: 
  1. Planting the Trees of Kenya: The Story of Wangari Maathai by Claire A Nivola.
  2. Wangari’s Trees of Peace: A True Story from Africa by Jeanette Winter.
  3. Mama Miti: Wangari Maathai and the Trees of Kenya by Donna Jo Napoli, illustrated by Kadir Nelson.
  4. Environmental Activist Wangari Maathai by Jennifer Swanson.
Key Terms:

Wangari Maathai, Tree planters (persons), Kenya, Green Belt Movement, Ecology, Environment, Women politicians, Women conservationists, Biography

 

Paper Tree

Role Models #1: Jacques Cousteau

Lesson Overview:

In this lesson, students find out who built the first underwater laboratory and who invented the Aqualung.  He was French, wore a signature red beanie, and introduced the world to life underneath the waves.  It was Jacques Cousteau, of course!  Sit back and watch the children delight in discovering one of the 20th Century’s greatest scientists and explorers.

Lesson Plan:

Suggested Grades:

2-5  

Objective:

To understand the life and work of Jacques Cousteau and to be introduced to the biography collection.  (AASL 1.1.6, “Read view, and listen for information presented in any format . . . in order to make inferences and gather meaning.”)

Suggested Time:

50-55 minutes

Success Criteria:

Each student will understand Jacques Cousteau’s life work.  Each student will also understand that a biography is the story of a person’s life and that the library’s biography collection, especially the picture book biography collection, contains many hidden treasures!

Lesson Outline:

1. Introduction:

Ask the students to tell you what their new Unit of Inquiry is about.  (Answer:  Role Models.)  Ask them to tell you what a role model is.  Ask what might make a person a role model.

Ask if any of the students have ever seen a picture or a video filmed underwater.  Ask if they have ever heard of the earth’s oceans being in trouble.  Ask if they have heard that steps are being taken to save the oceans.  If they have heard of any of these efforts, they have this person to thank!

Explain that today they will inquire into the life of a man from France who accomplished many things and gave the world some new inventions as well as new understandings.   Ask the children if they know the word we use to describe the story of a person’s life.  (Answer:  Biography.)  Quickly teach the concept of biography and tell the children that today we’ll be learning from one of the picture book biographies in the school library collection.

Show the cover of The Fantastic Undersea Life of Jacques Cousteau by Dan Yaccarino.  Show the front papers and the title page.  Based on the illustrations, ask the children if they have some idea of the Jacques Cousteau’s work.  (Answer:  Ocean Exploration or something similar.)

2. Main:

Share The Fantastic Undersea Life of Jacques Cousteau by Dan Yaccarino.   As you work, have one of the children scribe a few notes about Cousteau’s discoveries, inventions, or work.  This will provide some basic notes on the text.  I would do this on a flipchart, whiteboard, or smartboard for the class so that the children can focus on the illustrations.  Be sure to point out the red beanie hats on the illustration of Calypso!

After the story, play the first few minutes of Cousteau’s groundbreaking film, The Silent World.  Just a few minutes will give the kids an idea of what Cousteau looked like and how he worked.

Give the children time to complete the student assignment (attached).  They can use the notes that have been scribed for them at the front.  To some degree, this is just a reflection page so that they can record their thinking.

If there is time, tell them that Captain Cousteau was honored by a famous singer/songwriter in the 1970s.  John Denver wrote and performed the song Calypso about Captain Cousteau, his work, ship, and crew.  Play the video clip of Mr. Denver singing Calypso – it has the lyrics on the screen so the children can sing along.

3. Conclusion:

Challenge the children to find out more about Captain Cousteau.  Also, challenge the children to investigate more of the biography collection in the school library.

Resources:
  1. The Fantastic Undersea Life of Jacques Cousteau by Dan Yaccarino.
  2. Short video clip from The Silent World, Cousteau’s Award Winning documentary and the first, full-length, feature film made underwater: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8KkNC2bCBk  (optional)
  3. Cousteau Society Kids’ Page: http://kids.cousteau.org/  (optional)
  4. Calpyso, written and performed by John Denver, a musical tribute to Captain Cousteau and his work.  (I think the kids will LOVE learning the song if you have time for it):  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ck4azHTeLfI
Notes:

I have taught this lesson many times and for most students, the story of Jacques Cousteau is new information.  The kids love seeing pictures of Captain Cousteau in his red beanie!  They love the clip of his little dog on board Calypso in the first few minutes of The Silent World footage. Fill them with images of Captain Cousteau, his ship, his discoveries, and his passionate efforts to save the oceans.

Note also that I have not focused too much on whether Cousteau was a role model.  Because this is the first lesson in the unit, the children may not yet know too much about what makes a person a role model.  Next week follow up by asking whether they think that Cousteau is a role model.  But, for the “tuning-in” lesson, just stick to the basic history.  You can revisit the role model idea in future lessons once they have learned a bit more in the Unit of Inquiry.

Recommended books for this lesson:

The Fantastic Undersea Life of Jacques Cousteau by Dan Yaccarino

Key Terms:

Jacques Cousteau, Oceanographers, Oceans, Calypso (Song), Scuba, Underwater Exploration, Biographies

Student Handout, Jacques Cousteau

Opportunity and Social Mobility #4: A Virtual Field to Dollar Street from Gapminder

Lesson Overview:

Using the brilliant work of Anna Rosling Rönnlund at Gapminder, take your students on a virtual field trip.  Let them visit homes around the world arranged on an income scale.  From left to right, homes on Dollar Street go from poor to rich.  The students will be able to observe living conditions and thus be able to see what access to resources looks like in practical terms.  Opportunity and access to resources is made plain for the children in the real-life photos and family descriptions.

Lesson Plan:

Suggested Grades:

3-5 

Objective:

To read for information, take notes, and use the information to draw conclusions about access to resources in two different areas of the world.  (AASL 1.1.8, “Demonstrate mastery of technology tools for accessing information and pursuing inquiry.”)

Suggested Time:

45-50 minutes

Success Criteria:

Each student will investigate the lives of two families in two different parts of the world.   Families will be compared on five different scales relating to opportunity and general well-being.

Lesson Outline:

1. Introduction:

Remind the students that in the last lesson they looked at the world as if it were a village.  With 100 villagers representing everyone on planet Earth, they gathered statistics to evaluate access to sufficient food/nutrition, clean air, clean water, sanitation facilities, and energy (electricity).

Explain that in today’s lesson, the students will look at two families in different parts of the world in more detail.  Pass out the student assignment sheet (attached) and go over the instructions with the students.

Show the students how to find and use Dollar Street on the Gapminder web site, found here:  Gapminder’s Dollar Street

2. Main:

Explain to the students that they need to choose two countries from two different continents on Dollar Street.  For example, they could choose one country from Africa and one country from Asia, but not two countries from Asia.  Ask the students to look carefully at the information provided about the families.  They should read the descriptions as well as look at the pictures.

Ask the students to write key words on their assignment sheets so that they capture some of the relevant information about the families.  Give students 25 minutes to complete this task.

Once they have finished, ask them to work with a partner who chose different countries.  Talk to their partner about their own findings.  What did the families have in common?  What was different?  This is a version of the “Think, Pair, Share” thinking routine.

3. Conclusion:

Ask the students to think about their findings from last week.  Did most people in the Global Village have enough to eat?  Did most people in the Global Village have access to clean water or sanitation?  Are today’s findings consistent with the statistics studied last week?  Ask the students what they can conclude about access to resources and opportunities to live healthy, happy, and productive lives in the countries they examined today.

Resources:
  1. Dollar Street segment of the Gapminder website, found here: Gapminder’s Dollar Street
  2. Copies of the Student Handout (attached)
Notes:

None.

Recommended books for this lesson:

None

Key Terms:

Statistics, Population, Social Sciences, Graphs, Charts

Student Assignment, Dollar Street

Opportunity and Social Mobility #3: If the World Were a Village, by David J. Smith

Lesson Overview:

Using David J. Smith’s acclaimed If The World Were a Village, students will extract statistics and then use them to create graphs and charts.  The graphs and charts will help the students better understand inequalities in our world in terms of access to food, clean air, clean water, sanitation facilities, and power (electricity).  Working in teams, the students will be able to describe opportunity and access to key resources based on data.

Lesson Plan:

Suggested Grades:

3-5 

Objective:

To read for information, extract statistics, and then use them to create a graph to show data in key indicators of human well-being.  (AASL 1.1.8, “Demonstrate mastery of technology tools for accessing information and pursuing inquiry.”)

Suggested Time:

45-50 minutes

Success Criteria:

Each student will use statistics and simple software to create a graph showing key economic indicators of well-being in access to food, clean air, clean water, sanitation facilities, and power (electricity).

Lesson Outline:

1. Introduction:

Remind the students that they have looked at access to education (Toni Morrison’s Remember: The Journey to School Integration) and information (Ukrainian village and Internet access, Andrew Carnegie, information wants to be free).  Explain that today they will be examining how “fair” or “equal” the world is on five different scales.  Those are:

  • Access to sufficient food/nutrition
  • Clean air
  • Clean water
  • Sanitation facilities
  • Energy/Power (electricity)

Explain that in today’s lesson, students must pretend that the entire world is a village of 100 people.  Read the introduction from Smith’s text on page 7.  Make sure that the children understand that each person in the village represents 67.5 million people.

2. Main: 

Part 1:  Have the students number off from 1 to 5.  You should have four or five groups.  Five is the ideal number for a group, but in groups of four, the students can work together to complete the 5th assigned graph.

Ask each student to pick up the appropriate handouts.  The handouts should be prepared for the children according to their assigned categories.  Everyone will need the statistics page (attached).

Number 1 – Food/Nutrition: Statistics Handout plus p. 17 from text

Number 2 – Clean Air: Statistics Handout plus p. 18 from text

Number 3 – Clean Water: Statistics Handout plus p. 18 from text

Number 4 – Sanitation Facilities: Statistics Handout plus p. 18 from text

Number 5 – Energy/Power: Statistics Handout plus p. 25 from text.

Students should read to obtain the statistics in their assigned area, then talk to others in their group to fill in the remainder of the statistics.  Each student should have statistics for all five categories before moving on to making charts.

Part 2:  Creating Charts/Graphs:

With their completed student assignment sheet and gathered statistics, have each student go to the National Center for Education Statistics “Create a Graph” site, found here:  https://nces.ed.gov/nceskids/createagraph/.  A picture of the first screen on the site is attached.

Once the students are on the site, demonstrate how to use the software to create a graph.  Complete the required steps on each tab.  There are five tabs to complete:   Design, Data, Labels, Preview, and Print/Save.  Keep the graphs/charts simple.  Be sure that the graph name includes the student’s name.  For example, “Clean Air in the Global Village by Saadhana.”  Also, be sure that the students list the book as their source!  All source information needs to be directly credited in the graph!

Once a chart is complete, ask the students to email it to themselves.  They should open the mail, change the subject line to include their name, and then forward it to their teacher so that the graphs can be printed and added to the portfolio as evidence of learning.  If the students know how to upload the file directly to their digital portfolio, great.  If not, have the teacher print the students’ graphs to be added either to the Maths or Unit of Inquiry notebooks as a completed work sample from this lesson.

3. Conclusion:

Encourage the students to look at more statistics from the source text and to use the graphing software for other projects that have data sets.  Thank them for their work and tell them that next week they will get to take a virtual field trip to Dollar Street to see how kids around the world live and how their family’s income and physical environment may affect their opportunities as they grow up.

Resources: 
  1. If the World Were a Village by David J. Smith, illustrated by Shelagh Armstrong.
  2. Copies of pages from the text, which give statistics about food, air, water, sanitation and power. These should be pages 17, 18, and 25.
  3. Picture of the first screen of the “Create a Graph” tool (attached)
  4. Copies of the Student Handout (attached).
  5. Access to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) website “Create a Graph” tool, found here: https://nces.ed.gov/nceskids/createagraph/
Notes:

I usually keep black print, a white background, and 2D in my demonstration.  Once the kids see how easy it is to use this software, they will immediately start playing with colors, fonts, etc., but make sure that they get a couple of charts with solid data before they start to experiment.

Recommended books for this lesson: 

If the World Were a Village by David J. Smith, illustrated by Shelagh Armstrong

Key Terms:

Statistics, Population, Social Sciences, Graphs, Charts

Create a Graph

Student Handout, If The World Were a Village

Opportunity and Social Mobility #2: Information Wants to be Free

Lesson Overview:

In this lesson, students explore the concept of equal access to information.  The key concept is causation: Why do some people have access to more and better information than others?  What difference does access to information have in the lives of people today?  If you have access to information, how will you be better off?  Using tales from a Ukrainian village, the history of one of the richest men in the world, and recent footage of information experts, we can safely conclude that “information wants to be free.”

Lesson Plan:

Suggested Grades:

3-5 

Objective:

For students to understand that access to information is important for economic and personal well-being.   Also, to identify a common theme from multiple information sources.  (AASL 1.1.6, “Read, view, and listen for information presented in any format . . . in order to make inferences and gather meaning.”)

Suggested Time:

45-50 minutes

Success Criteria:

Each student will capture the main idea from three different information sources, then use that main idea as the foundation of a personal statement about the importance of access to information.

Lesson Outline:

1. Introduction:

Remind the students that last week they considered equal access to schools and education.  Ask them to tell you a few things that they learned or remember.

Explain that this week, they’ll be working with the idea of equal access to information.  Ask the students to imagine a small village, cut off from the rest of the world.  Information can only go in and out of the village on paper or with a telephone. The village has no Internet.  Consider asking these thinking questions:

  • How would the lives of the villagers be different from people who have access to the Internet?
  • What difference does access of information have in the lives of people living today?
  • What can people with better information do that people without information can’t do?

Show this video clip, which highlights what happened when the Internet was brought to a small, Ukrainian village:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0tmJL_GIhQ

Hint:  The video is in Ukrainian but it does have English subtitles.  I’ve used this video many times and it never fails to amaze the students.  They especially love the lady in the market yelling about pushing the buttons and having all the information appear!  The Ukrainians are very enthusiastic, and your students will be, too!  The dialogue proceeds quickly, so you may need to pause a few times for the students to catch-up reading the subtitles.

2. Main:

While the students are still discussing the tomato-growing success of the Ukrainians (thanks to the Internet and access to information), pass out the student assignment sheets.  Go over the instructions, which are simply to record the main ideas from three information sources.  Information source #1 is the video clip about the Ukrainian villagers.  Have the students complete that section of the assignment with a partner.

Next, choose information from either the American Heroes Channel, the Public Broadcast Service, or World Book, on the life of Andrew Carnegie.  The source you choose will depend on the amount of time you have and the subscriptions your school has.  Because this lesson already uses two video/audio sources, I prefer to use a written source for the Carnegie segment.  If you can access it, print copies of the World Book article on Andrew Carnegie.  Teach the children that a massive part of the Carnegie fortune was spent in establishing public libraries so that common people would have access to information.  Ask students to record their second answer on the assignment sheet.

Finally, show the video clip from Getty images.  Ask students what they think the phrase, “Information wants to be free”, means.  Discuss this with the class and have students record their third response.

3. Conclusion:

Point out that approximately half of the information online is not free, it is available only behind a paywall, most often in the form of a subscription.  For example, World Book charges fees to access their information.  The same is true of BrainPop.  Use your school’s subscriptions to make this point.  Children whose schools do not have these subscriptions cannot access the information!  In today’s world, information is not always free!  Ask the students to record a response to the last question on their assignment sheet.

If they are interested and if you have time, challenge the students to find out what information resources a friend living far away, perhaps in another state or country, has.  Compare the number of books, magazine titles, or digital subscriptions.  Does everyone have access to the same amounts of information?

Resources:
  1. Student Handout, “Information Wants to be Free” (attached)
  2. “Effects of Introducing Internet at a Village Public Library in Ukraine.” Available on YouTube at:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0tmJL_GIhQ
  3. “Information Wants to be Free,” original quote as found in Getty Images archives: http://www.gettyimages.in/detail/video/at-the-first-hackers-conference-in-1984-steve-wozniak-and-news-footage/146496695
  4. “Andrew Carnegie and His Early Rise from Poverty” by the American Heroes Channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5ayVoY2qcY  (less than four-minute clip)
  5. PBS’ Andrew Carnegie, The Richest Man in the World (multiple articles and video segments): http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/carnegie/ – part01
  6. World Book Online’s article, “Carnegie, Andrew.” (By subscription only.)
Notes:

Today’s students live in an information-rich world.  Every time I work with these concepts, students are shocked to discover that not all information is free and that not all people have access to the same information.

I have not delved into the concept of censorship in this lesson, but will touch briefly on that idea in a subsequent lesson.

Recommended books for this lesson:

None.  The juvenile biographies I found for Andrew Carnegie were at least ten years old.  That is too old for a new book purchase, so I would stay with digital resources for this lesson.

Key Terms:

Information, Equal Access to Information

Student Handout, Information Wants to be Free