This resource contains multiple lesson plans for students in upper elementary school, middle school, and high school. Using a bicycle as a metaphor to help students think about systems, the lessons cover an introduction to systems to deeper analysis.
Recommended grades: Adjustable for grades 3+
Time: Varies
Participants learn and use the C.R.I.T.I.C. technique to enable them to bring critical thinking skills to any information they receive, whether from industry, non-profits, government or media.
Recommended grades: Recommended for grades 6 and up.
Time: 30-45 minutes
A lesson on the true cost of goods The true price activity helps students explore the positive and negative impacts of our product choices on themselves, other people, animals, and the earth.
Grades: Recommended for grades 4 and up
Time:(2) 45-minute class sessions
Students assess examples of media (catalogs, magazines, books, etc.) to consider who is (and isn’t) represented, explore the impact of lack of diversity in media, and realize their own rich experiences with diversity.
Recommended for grades: 4 and up
Time: 45-60 minutes
In this icebreaker, participants learn just how important words and actions are when they explore their impact on two apples.
Grades: PreK – 8
Time: 5-10 minutes
Winner of the 2008 Moonbeam Award
A strange substitute teacher with interesting ideas sparks Medea and Claude to think about the world and the choices they make, which leads them on a mysterious hunt to rescue kidnapped dogs.
Participants “become” a being or part of nature and share the lives, concerns, hopes, and wisdom of their being in a Council.
Grades: Recommended for grades 4 and up
Time: 1-2 hours
This activity encourages participants to explore how sample ingredients in our food might affect the environment, people, and animals, and what alternatives might exist that could do more good and less harm.
Recommended grades: 6 and up
Time: 45 minutes to several days
Students learn to be ad-savvy by exploring the pervasiveness of ads in their lives and by analyzing what ads are trying to sell…and trying to hide.
Recommended grades: 4 and up
Time: 45-60 minutes
Participants receive a visit from a traveling alien on a fact-finding mission to learn how beings treat other beings on Earth.
Recommended grades: 4 and up
Time: 20-45 minutes
