Love Canal and What We Can Do
Topic: Environmental Justice
Lesson Plan #1
Grade Level: 3/4
Essential Question: how do environmental issues affect humans?
Guiding Question: how can we fix it?
Materials
Standards MMSD
3. (grade 3) Give examples of how government does or does not provide for the needs and wants of people, establish order and security, and manage conflicts.
Standards NCSS
Goals
Students will:
Lesson Context
This lesson is to be taught in a 2/3 classroom. This lesson is meant to be early in the unit as it gives a general overview of some environmental issues and how humans are affected by them.
Introduction
Ask the students to draw a picture of a park or outdoor area where they like to spend their time. Have them label their picture with one describing word. Examples of words could be: relaxing, quiet, fun, playing…etc. Gather the students on the carpet and have them share their words and pictures with the class.
Procedure
Closing
Assessment
Students will be formally assessed by looking at the production of their artwork and description of their outdoor place. Informally the students will be assessed by having the teacher record their questions and statements in whole group discussion. Use the letters to assess their understanding of the topic. As a class the group will be assessed based on the ideas produced on the board during the discussion of what it means to be environmentally friendly.
Lesson Plan #1
Grade Level: 3/4
Essential Question: how do environmental issues affect humans?
Guiding Question: how can we fix it?
Materials
- Just a Dream by Chris Van Allsburg
- Paper
- Coloring materials/pencils
- 50 Simple Things You Can Do to Save the Earth
- Images of Love Canal
- Access to googlemaps
Standards MMSD
- Political Science and Citizenship.
3. (grade 3) Give examples of how government does or does not provide for the needs and wants of people, establish order and security, and manage conflicts.
- Geography
Standards NCSS
- Time, Continuity, Change
- a. demonstrate an understanding that different people may describe the same event or situation in diverse ways, citing reasons for the differences in views;
- b. demonstrate an ability to use correctly vocabulary associated with time such as past, present, future, and long ago; read and construct simple timelines; identify examples of change; and recognize examples of cause and effect relationships;
- c. compare and contrast different stories or accounts about past events, people, places, or situations, identifying how they contribute to our understanding of the past;
Goals
Students will:
- Identify and discuss an outdoor space that has significance.
- Contribute to class discussions bring their own opinions.
- Understand the basic facts of the Love Canal story.
- Identify ideas to become more environmentally friendly citizens of the world.
Lesson Context
This lesson is to be taught in a 2/3 classroom. This lesson is meant to be early in the unit as it gives a general overview of some environmental issues and how humans are affected by them.
Introduction
Ask the students to draw a picture of a park or outdoor area where they like to spend their time. Have them label their picture with one describing word. Examples of words could be: relaxing, quiet, fun, playing…etc. Gather the students on the carpet and have them share their words and pictures with the class.
Procedure
- Discussion: Ask the students what similarities they saw in their drawings. Ask them why they chose to draw what they drew. Invite the students to share what they do at the park/outdoor place and where it is located.
- Activity: Using the students knowledge of maps use googlemaps to place marks on the general area of the students outdoor space. At this time it would be a good time to review map functions and basic facts.
- Explain to the students that we are very lucky in Wisconsin to have many parks and outdoor areas available for enjoyment and recreation. Tell them that in some places and cities people may not have this privilege and there have been instances of the places where people live making them sick.
- Love Canal: Introduce love canal by asking students how they would feel if they found out their park/outdoor place was making them sick. Give students a background of Love Canal and Hooker chemical company. The main points are as follows. Reference http://www.epa.gov/history/topics/lovecanal/01.html for the complete story. A power point or media presentation may supplement the teaching of this topic.
- In the 1920s the seeds of a genuine nightmare were planted. The canal was turned into a municipal and industrial chemical dumpsite.
- Landfills can of course be an environmentally acceptable method of hazardous waste disposal, assuming they are properly sited, managed, and regulated. Love Canal will always remain a perfect historical example of how not to run such an operation.
- In 1953, the Hooker Chemical Company, then the owners and operators of the property, covered the canal with earth and sold it to the city for one dollar.
- In the late 50’s 100 homes and schools were built on the site.
- New York Times in 1978: “Twenty five years after the Hooker Chemical Company stopped using the Love Canal here as an industrial dump, 82 different compounds, 11 of them suspected carcinogens, have been percolating upward through the soil, their drum containers rotting and leaching their contents into the backyards and basements of 100 homes and a public school built on the banks of the canal.”
- Explain that there were many children born with birth defects and the area was evacuated.
- Make sure to allow time for questions.
- We have learned from this tragedy. Teach the following points: (from epa.gov)
- Under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, EPA is making grants available to States to help them establish programs to assure the safe handling and disposal of hazardous wastes. As guidance for such programs, we are working to make sure that State inventories of industrial waste disposal sites include full assessments of any potential dangers created by these sites.
- Also, EPA recently proposed a system to ensure that the more than 35 million tons of hazardous wastes produced in the U.S. each year, including most chemical wastes, are disposed of safely. Hazardous wastes will be controlled from point of generation to their ultimate disposal, and dangerous practices now resulting in serious threats to health and environment will not be allowed.
- Discuss in the full group how the students feel about this, answer any questions to the best of your ability.
- Activity: Have the students write a letter to hooker chemical company, a victim of the chemicals, the government or any other person they feel had a part in the issue. Prompt their writing by having them recite a fact, and state how they feel in their letters. Collect the letters for assessment.
- Fixing it: Explain to the students that throughout our unit on environmental issues we will be discussing ways that we can make a difference and positive change or action. Ask students if they know what it means to be environmentally friendly. Have students turn and talk to their partner about what they do to be “environmentally friendly.” Have the students write their ideas on the board. Discuss the different ideas with the group, and have the students define what they mean if unsure. Show the class the book: 50 Simple Things You Can Do to Save the Earth by Earthworks. Read a few pages and discuss the examples. Pick something to do as a class today.
Closing
- Read the book “Just a Dream” by Chris Van Allsburg to the students. Discuss the main character and different components of the book. Focus on WHO has created the pollution and WHO is destroying the earth. This will act as a transition to future lessons.
Assessment
Students will be formally assessed by looking at the production of their artwork and description of their outdoor place. Informally the students will be assessed by having the teacher record their questions and statements in whole group discussion. Use the letters to assess their understanding of the topic. As a class the group will be assessed based on the ideas produced on the board during the discussion of what it means to be environmentally friendly.