dinner party

How’d That Get on My Plate?

A lesson on the impact of food choices Everybody eats, but how often do we stop to think about how the food on our plates got there and about the impacts of that food on people, animals, and the planet? This activity encourages participants to explore how sample ingredients in our food might affect the…

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Reclaiming Billboards

Analyzing Advertising

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 upTime: 45-60 minutesRelated IHE Resources: We Have You Surrounded

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plastic trash washed up from the ocean

An Ocean of Plastic

Using the five gyres of plastic pollution as a springboard, this activity encourages participants to explore the issues surrounding trash in our oceans and to develop solutions.

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Resources: Making Connections

Making Connections, Creating Solutions

A lesson on making connections This activity helps students think about how we are all connected and how our actions impact others and the environment. Use this lesson to inspire students to learn more about issues that interest them and to create solutions to address local and global challenges. Recommended grades: 6 and upTime: Three…

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Resources: Natural Value

Natural Value

A lesson on nature appreciation Students reflect on an image that captures the natural beauty and the intrinsic value that nature has in order to consider their own roles in protecting nature and to help nurture their sense of wonder. Note: As an alternative, students can do this activity focusing on an individual animal. Grades:…

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Resources: Mouse vs. Zucchini

Mouse vs. Zucchini

A Lesson on Perspective This activity encourages students to discover and think about the perspectives of other people and of nonhuman animals using a brief video featuring a mouse and a zucchini on a kitchen counter. Recommended grades: K-5Time: 30 minutes Related IHE Resources: Council of All Beings

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Resources: What Will you Say?

What Will You Say?

At the end of your very long life, a child asks you what you did to help make the world so much better. Guide students through this visualization to help them get in touch with their power to make positive change. Recommended grades: 6 and upTime: 10-20 minutes

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Resources: True Price

True Price

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. What is true price? The price that would cover all costs in the production process, including hidden costs, with a small profit margin…

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Resources: Power Chat

Power Chat

This activity can serve as a good icebreaker to allow fellow advocates to know each other better and to focus on important issues, or it can serve as an introduction for exploring what each (and all) of us can do for positive social change.

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Urgency and Opportunity: Preparing a Generation of Solutionaries 

(A Call to Action by Steve Cochrane, Executive Director of the Institute for Humane Education) Over the past two years, life as we know it has changed. We have seen the entire world impacted by disease. We are watching the atrocities of war through our daily news feeds. We are facing a climate crisis, a crisis…

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