Global and civic education is not just the responsibility of social studies teachers! The Global education workshop was where my idea to start this blog was hatched, so I figured what better place to start? I have chosen to focus on culturally responsive teaching for my Professional Growth Plan this year, so I have been looking for PD opportunities to help me explore best practices in that area. This workshop seemed like a good fit to get me started in the right direction. The Global Education workshop was two days and was run by two teachers from my district who have been through a global and civic education program at a local university. Through this program, they had the opportunity to travel all over the world and work with teachers and students from Poland, South Africa, and Morocco.
First we spent some time exploring why global education is important, not just for social studies classes, but for all classes. This part was important to me because it is one of those things that you feel like you need justification for doing as a science teacher. Of course, we reviewed the district mission and vision which has the idea of teaching global and civic awareness and responsibility all over it. We also looked in our curriculum for places it would fit. This was a little tricky for me. It is relatively easy to see where the idea of global education can be brought into biology--environmental awareness and energy consumption, our effect on the environment, endangered species, etc. I do happen to be teaching a section of biology next year, but what about freshman physical science and anatomy and physiology?
I talked through some ideas with one of the workshop leaders (luckily a fellow science teacher!) and we came up with some ideas. Thinking out loud really helps me organize my thoughts! Here are some areas where I thought I may be able to fit in some type of lesson:
1. Waste disposal regulations. This has civic awareness applications, could be extended to global applications. I came across this website on Hazardous Waste Regulations, which lists some properties of the waste. I thought I could maybe bring this in during the unit on physical and chemical properties in freshman science. To bring in another layer of civic awareness and apply it at the local level, we could look at implications of the Bridgeton landfill situation. There is some concern over nuclear waste, and that could be a way to sneak back in some of the nuclear energy material that had been removed from the freshman science curriculum! To extend this globally, we could compare regulations in the US to those in other countries and talk about why their regulations are more/less restrictive than ours.
2. Scientists from other countries, both historical and modern. There is a great website called NOVA: Secret Life of Scientists (follow them on Facebook here) that I have been meaning to start using with my students. I'm not exactly sure how yet, but I know that this could be a place to incorporate a little bit of global education as well.
3. US energy consumption compared to global and other countries. This is something I already do in biology. We were introduced to the database "Global Issues in Context" (check if your school collection of databases includes this one) and a colleague was exploring this database when she found something useful that she brought to my attention. If you "search by country" within this database, on the country's info page there is information about their energy consumption. This would be a great place to start comparing and talking about why the differences exist.
4. Sanitation issues around the world. This one came to me because I have discussed the "Build a Better Toilet" competition with my physics students in the past. We look at it through the lens of "is creating a competition a good way to spur innovation?" but it is definitely always a big eye opener to my students that there are people in other countries that simply don't have toilets. I could definitely do more with this topic!
In finding this video for you, I also stumbled across a version that is presumably presented to an Indian audience. Analyzing these two videos can hit on global awareness and media literacy too!
5. New tanning bed regulations. In anatomy and physiology, I already do a unit on the integumentary system (skin) and we already do a research project on skin issues that are of high interest to the students; tanning beds, sunscreen, self-tanners, skin cancer, aging, etc. I thought this could be a great place to incorporate some civic awareness. In Missouri, a law was recently passed that restricts the age for use of tanning beds. This would be a perfect place to bring in civic awareness and discuss whether these laws will affect change in skin cancer statistics. We could also look at skin cancer rates in other states and countries and look at their laws surrounding tanning beds.
Of the ideas I listed here, the one I am most confident that I can implement this year is the one on tanning bed regulations. This fits really well with something I am already doing--the others will have to go on the back burner for now. After this workshop, I will definitely be looking for civic and global extensions in all of my classes.
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