Which sustainability component will your lesson focus on?
My focus will be on biodiversity, essentially, the effects of pollution on the environment.
What related problem/issue will you present?
The issue that I will be presenting is the harmful effects that normal cotton production has on the environment through the usage of intense chemical processes and pesticides.
What supporting facts characterize the problem?
The production of cotton in modern times is known to have the highest amount of pesticide and insectide usage than in any other plant or crop. According to the Pesticide Action Network, farmers around the world use about $2.6 billion worth of pesticides on the production of cotton a year. Also, cotton farmers use some of the world's worst pesticides such as aldicarb and phorate.
What solution will you offer?
The solution that we will offer is that there are other alternative clothing options that can be purchased. Options such as organically grown cotton and bamboo cotton, which have no relative effect on the environment.
What action or actions do you want people to take as a result of your lesson?
I want people to realize how harmful that cloth production really is and would like them to begin purchasing organic clothing rather than industrial clothing.
Please attach any supporting audio, video, images, files, blogs, links, graphs or other related to the problem or your solution?
Describe (in detail) what you presented on EARTH Day. Be sure to describe your "hook," your activity, and your "wrap up" in enough detail that next year's groups will be able to use it and improve upon it.
When the students arrived, we picked up 2 ordinary looking shirts and asked the kids if they can tell us what the difference is between the 2. One of the shirts was organic, and the other was a regular shirt. The kids could not tell what the difference was by sight, but some kids felt the difference because the organic shirt was softer. Then, we told them the difference was that one was organic and the other was normal. We asked the kids if they knew what organic meant and then we said "Organic cotton is made without the use of harmful pesticides and chemical that are very bad for our health". After that, we began our actual activity. We put out 10 shirts on the table and each shirt had a paper folded into it stating a fact about the shirt. Five of the shirts were organic and the other 5 were normal. The organic shirts said "THIS SHIRT IS ORGANIC! IT WAS MADE WITHOUT THE USE OF PESTICIDES AND OTHER HARMFUL CHEMICALS". The regular shirts said things like "THIS SHIRT WAS MADE WITH HARMFUL CHEMICALS AND PESTICIDES THAT ARE BAD FOR US! BAD CHOICE!!". After the shirts were set up, we gave the kids $40 of monoply money each. Then, we told the kids to purchase and choose a shirt. After the kids chose the shirt they wanted. We told them to look inside and they pulled out they're papers that were in the shirts. One by one, we had the kids read off what was on the paper. Most of the kids asked us questions on the price of the clothes and we told them that it's only slightly more expensive. Finally, our wrap up was a visual of different fashionable shirt designs that we presented to the kids via a poster board. Then we gave the kids candy before they left.
Please describe in detail suggestions you have for improving your presentation if it were to be done in the future.
For future presentations, I would suggest that the number of students that come to the tents be known before hand that way the presentors are prepared. Also, I suggest that the kids be a little older that way they can actually understand what was being told to them.