Question Background:

This unit has three main focuses: the first is teaching the students about the negative affects of non-sustainable practices that resulted in the devastating Dust Bowl of the 1930's. This aspect is targeted at learning from our historic mistakes which is what Thad Box talked about in his article, Listening to the Land: Learning From the Dust Bowl. The goal of this aspect is to teach students about the deep and long lasting connections we humans have with our planet and the ramifications of not sustaining a constant awareness of this relationship. Box, a child of the Great Depression said, "we never dreamed that human-caused changes of the American Great Plains would be instrumental in creating the land care profession..." This profession was the roots for the American Society of Range Management, which is primarily concerned with sustaining the  ecology of the Great Plains to prevent disasters like the Dust Bowl from recurring. 

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The second focus of this unit is teaching the students about recycling and how their sustained efforts can have a long lasting and positive impact on their environment. The authors of Creating the Habit of Recycling in Early Childhood: A Sustainable Practice in Spain understand that we elementary educators struggle to fit even the smallest things into our curriculum. However,  they have identified a strong positive impact for teaching about sustainable practices like recycling in elementary school. They express how very relevant and critical this issue is in our contemporary societies. Teaching children to understand the problems the prior generations have left them is in many ways the path to a freezable solution. The study the authors conducted focused on the level of knowledge and awareness of sustainability issues in both educators and their students and found that both lack complete meaningful understanding. Therefore, I will do my part to collaboratively include my teacher peers to spread this wealth of knowledge as far as possible. This study resulted in a very comprehensive solution to the lack of understanding of sustainability and implements this learning through recycling lessons. A common consensus that education is a driving force for the change needed (Buchanan, 2012) is completely true we educators have access through our students and what we teach them to change the world for the better. As far as teaching sustainability, the role of education in supporting sustainable development is central and indispensable (Buchanan, 2012). There is an abundance of support for this movement toward sustainability education and its need for inclusion in the curriculum from scholars at Cambridge University and globally at the University of Barcelona, Spain.

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The third and final primary focus of this unit it meant to teach the students about how they can make a positive difference and the rewards for implementing a sustainable plan of recycling based action in their school, community, and homes.  Author of the article, Waste not, want not: A recycling round-up, Lance Turner has identified how even the seemingly "non-recyclable"  technology waste that is produced by schools is indeed recyclable. In consideration of the negative environmental impacts throwing away things like light bulbs and old batteries  have, Turner says we need to teach our students how to recycle, reuse, and re-purpose. In my new favorite article, Schools Going Green, the belief that, education has always been about preparing students to live in the world (Futcher, 2014) is completely applicable to teaching our students about the importance of recycling and going green. Not only does going green positively influence the environment we live in it also has many positive financial implications for a school. Though not always an option here in rural New Mexico due to a lack of technology, reducing paper use or rather ensuring a sustainable recycling program would make a long lasting impact on our schools environmental footprint. In conjunction with this paper recycling, making recycling a habit (Futcher, 2014) is a constant way of sustaining the school environment. There are many different programs that the school can enroll in that earn the school financial reward for competing to recycle the most. For example, the Olney Adventist Preparatory School in Maryland recycled 200,00 items earning them 5th place in the Dream Machine Recycle Rally earning them $8,000 that they then used toward green improvements to their school (Futcher, 2014).  This third focus will mainly target making a long lasting difference through sustainable practices like recycling.