Saturday, April 18, 2015

#NAEA15 Environmental Issues

I have been thinking long and hard about a presentation I saw from Nick Wozniak.  He is an Elementary teacher who showed us how he got his students to think about environmental issues. I was excited to see his presentation because this is something I hold near and dear to my heart. Take a look at the following images and videos that Nick showed to his classroom to start the discussion.

Image found on Nick Brandt's website, Image series, Across the Ravage Land
Stunning work by Nick Brandt speaking to the killing of elephants. Seen above

Image from http://www.chrisjordan.com/





The shocking work of Chris Jordan.

And the even more beautiful and shocking video of the island where he got this picture. Click Here




The Majestic Plastic Bag by HealtheBay





Image from http://www.edwardburtynsky.com/





Images from Edward Burtynsky

His Urban Mines Series











Nick's students created a comic strip revolving around these hot topics.  He shows all of these images and more to his 5th grade students.  What are your thoughts?  Are these image and videos that can be shown in the Elementary Room?  I love the idea... but are these appropriate?  I still haven't made up my mind on the subject, maybe I can hear your thoughts. 

2 comments:

  1. Teaching our students to care about environmental issues is important, but I think a couple of the images/videos would be a little bit too much for my elementary students. I'm sure that there are a lot of other images/videos available that would be more younger crowd friendly but still get the point across. It might work well for Nick and his students but I have reservations about using/showing the bird image and the "Man" video to my kiddos. The first image(elephant tusks) and the piles of compacted garbage I would show without any reservations. You have decide what you think is best suited to your students. I think if you are questioning the appropriateness of a picture/video then you need to go with your gut instinct. :)

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