Objective: Students will create a portrait of themselves or landscape sculpture out of the trash collected for the previous several days to symbolize a revised environmental philosophy.
Teaching Plan: After Lesson 4, have students collect their trash, including materials used in food preparation, but not food waste. Instruct them to clean containers, and to not include waste from personal hygiene.
Students will first revise their environmental philosophy. They may use words such as contract, ethic, philosophy, manifesto, values, promise, guide interchangeably to describe it in a way that authentically reflects their ardency.
Questions to consider when revising:
- What were the most meaningful ideas we discussed and why? Who or what might you want to reference in your environmental philosophy?
- How do you want to approach the objects you use? What will you consider? What will be your guiding principles around whether or not you use something?
- Do you believe the environment to be valuable? Why or why not?
- What factors into your decision-making when you choose to buy or use stuff?
- What values do you think we as a community should have when using the objects and the environment for our needs? What makes you say that?
- Summarize your view by completing the following– “I am a ….ist” (feel free to refer to the Environmental Ideologies Map, or create your own term!)
Then, students will create a portrait of themselves or a sculpture representing their environmentalist ethic. They will write and share a short description of the symbolism when presenting.
